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The Platoon advantage is different for Righties and Lefties

• This has come out in just the last two years or so and was discussed by Rob Neyer on ESPN.com September 2004.

• The average platoon advantage for right-handed batters in 9%. Righties hit 9% better against lefties than righties. That is why Tony LaRussa uses LOOGY's so much.

• It has long been assumed that this number varies from player to player and some players are lefty-mashers.

• Looking at 1998-2003, a sabermetrician compared the numbers for lefty mashers and lefty strugglers in year N to their numbers in year N+1.

• So the question then becomes, does a lefty masher maintain the ability to mash lefties in the following year?

  Type	Batters	Platoon Adv in Year N	Platoon Adv in Year N + 1
  Mashers	375	1.230	1.087
  Strugglers	458	.899	1.087

• It appears that right-handers have a consistent platoon advantage against lefties.

• This is somewhat true for lefthanded batters, but not to the same degree. Righty mashing appears to be a real skill.

• Why? 90% of all people are right handed, so a righty who can't hit righties won't make it to the majors or likely out of high school ball.

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