Platooning Does More Damage Than Trades

The Oakland Athletics have long employed a strategy of position platooning, setting the lineup based on the best statistical match-up against left handed or right handed pitchers, to varying degrees of success. In the 2014 season the platooning system seemed to take on a near compulsive level with no two lineups being the same for, what, an entire season or so? While this has the potential to be a huge statistical advantage it also has the potential to do damage to your team over the course of a season.

The platooning system is clearly working to an extent as the Athletics have enjoyed a .572 win percentage over the past three seasons but their Pythagorean W/L, which factors in games that they “should” be winning based on a thousand different metrics, would have them at .590 over the past three years with a high of .609 in 2014. Is it possible that the constant tinkering with the lineup is the difference between their actual numbers and their projections? Yes. Yes, it’s possible.

Consider, if you will, that the Athletics have been platooning, to some extent or another,  first base, second base, left field, and catcher which means that on any given day four of your fielders may not have played the day before. Could an inconsistent schedule be the cause of 111 errors in 2014? It is often said that bullpen pitchers need to “know their role” in order to succeed which is why you rarely see a closer go in to a game in the fifth inning and pitch three innings but the same has to be true, at least a little bit, for fielders. Not playing your position every day or jumping from one position to another several times a week has to have some impact on the clarity, focus and practice for a fielder.

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Secondly, a hitter going through a slump needs to take more swings, not fewer, to get out of the slump. When Josh Donaldson, who was the only every day player on the team in 2014, goes through a slump it is easier for the team to ride out because it won’t last an extended amount of time. Is it possible that the slump we saw Brandon Moss endure towards the end of the season could have been expedited had he seen more pitches? If it takes a player seven games to work through a slump (which is just a random number I’m using for the sake of argument) than Donaldson will be out of his slump in a week whereas Moss may be a week and a half or two weeks. Psychologically, it’s much easier for Donaldson to approach the plate thinking he’s having a bad week than it is for Moss to approach the plate thinking he’s having a bad month.

The Athletics adherence to platooning sometimes stumps fans. In particular, Brandon Moss. Moss actually has favorable splits that go against the platooning system by hitting .264 against lefties and .228 against righties, albeit in a much smaller sample size against lefties, and maintaining a near identical HR/PA average. Had Moss been given an everyday role, we may have seen several more home runs and a higher batting average. With 115 fewer plate appearances than Donaldson, Moss could have, theoretically, earned 26 more hits and five more home runs and those numbers could have gone even higher if the every day play had kept his slump confined to fewer games.

We all understand that this team is built for the platooning system and that it is a large factor in how Billy Beane drafts, trades and acquires new players to the team and, in places, I think it works well but if we have a player that can hit well against any pitcher, he needs to be in everyday regardless of what the platooning text book says. Platooning should be the focus for pinch hitting or attempting to get a starter out of the game and a well balanced lineup can only get stronger if it has more everyday players in it.

We’ll see what Bob Melvin has in mind this year. I, honestly, think he has very little say in how platooning works in Oakland and has had to master the art of the lineup card under the directive that the “A’s do things a certain way.” I’d love to see him get a full month to do lineups without any input from Beane and see how much platooning takes place.

What are your thoughts on the platooning habits of Oakland? Leave me a comment and tell me how you’d do it differently.