Question about Choo/Votto career splits

[malcontent]

I was checking out Choo's career splits to see what we might expect from him against LHP, and comparing them to Votto's.

Of Choo's 907 career PA vs. LHP, 767 have been against LHP starters (and he's been fairly productive against the starters).

vs LHP as LHB 907 .249 .338 .358 .695

vs LH Starter 767 .273 .378 .403 .781

Votto's numbers against LHP are, of course, even better. What I can't understand is how few PA (46) he has had against LH relievers. This has to be an error, doesn't it?

vs LHP as LHB 957 .304 .394 .504 .898

vs LH Starter 911 .302 .396 .522 .918

http://www.baseball-reference.com/pl...ear=Career&t=b

http://www.baseball-reference.com/pl...ear=Career&t=b

[drowg14]

Hmmm... That does seem rather low. Even though he has good numbers against LHP, I would still expect him to have more ABs against LH RP. To me that sounds like an error. I would expect more managers would try to go L vs L vs him late in games.

[MoneyInTheBank]

This disclaimer is attached to those splits...

"vs Starter batting splits are for the entire game when the starter was LH or RH. These splits include any subsequent plate appearances against a reliever regardless of their throwing hand. These splits are a proxy for platoon splits for seasons we lack play-by-play data. from GL team pitching splits indicate how batters did against the team and use the batter's overall batting handedness for this split."

So the 911 PA in "LH Starter" are not just against the starter only, but for the whole game even after the starter was taken out.

[drowg14]

Originally Posted by MoneyInTheBank

This disclaimer is attached to those splits...

"vs Starter batting splits are for the entire game when the starter was LH or RH. These splits include any subsequent plate appearances against a reliever regardless of their throwing hand. These splits are a proxy for platoon splits for seasons we lack play-by-play data. from GL team pitching splits indicate how batters did against the team and use the batter's overall batting handedness for this split."

So the 911 PA in "LH Starter" are not just against the starter only, but for the whole game even after the starter was taken out.

That's interesting. I did not think about following the link to read that until you mentioned it. Everything makes sense again

[MoneyInTheBank]

Originally Posted by drowg14

That's interesting. I did not think about following the link to read that until you mentioned it. Everything makes sense again

It just makes me wonder why that would be a useful stat. You could go 0 for 2 against the Left Handed starter, you go 2 for 2 against right handed relievers and your average "against LH Starters" would be .500 according to that stat. Not being critical of you for posting it, just making general observation

[malcontent]

Originally Posted by MoneyInTheBank

This disclaimer is attached to those splits...

"vs Starter batting splits are for the entire game when the starter was LH or RH. These splits include any subsequent plate appearances against a reliever regardless of their throwing hand. These splits are a proxy for platoon splits for seasons we lack play-by-play data. from GL team pitching splits indicate how batters did against the team and use the batter's overall batting handedness for this split."

So the 911 PA in "LH Starter" are not just against the starter only, but for the whole game even after the starter was taken out.

Wow. Well then, that stat is actually worse than useless: it's misleading if you miss the disclaimer.

Thanks for the clarification!