Mariner Talk Chat Forum

As is often the case, sample size is an important factor in interpreting these kinds of statistics. Fangraphs has a helpful page in their glossary explaining the intricacies of platoon splits, and it states that batter platoon splits don't stabilize until around 1,000 plate appearances against each hand,

Captain 97 wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 01, 2024 3:11 pm

I don't see either of them getting much playing time when everyone gets healthy.

The outfield is Robles Julio and Randy,
DH/1B will be Turner and Raley.
Hanniger might get a bit of time against lefties and Garver will pretty much be nothing but backup catcher.

Donn Beach wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 01, 2024 6:55 am

Sorry but those would be considered SSS

As is often the case, sample size is an important factor in interpreting these kinds of statistics. Fangraphs has a helpful page in their glossary explaining the intricacies of platoon splits, and it states that batter platoon splits don't stabilize until around 1,000 plate appearances against each hand,

Carty: This brings up something that bothers me quite a bit. People will often quote lefty/righty (i.e. platoon) splits for players, but they'll do it without any understanding of the statistical significance of these stats. It's firmly established that, on the league level, lefties hit righties better than they hit lefties (and vice-versa), but people extend this assumption onto the player level and cite individual player platoon splits -- which can be a big no-no. On the player level, platoon splits can be incredibly noisy, and this is true for no players more so than for right-handed hitters, which make up the biggest chunk of the player population.

That is to say, there is so much variance in individual player platoon splits that, unless we have a massive sample size to deal with (or at least utilize proper statistical techniques, like regressing the splits, and even that is tricky to do properly), that they simply can't be trusted on their face. Rather than using the actual platoon splits of a player who's been in the league for three or five or possibly more years, we would be more accurate simply assuming that the player has a league average platoon split -- that, say, right-handed batter X hits left-handed pitching as well as any random right-handed batter does rather than assuming he hits them to whatever crazy extent his career platoon splits say he does.