Why Buck didn't pinch run for Hardy

[CheeryO]

L/R splits are about the only ones that are really meaningful, and that's just because they're built into every baseball player - they're just part of the game. That and multi-year park effects. Other splits are essentially useless, especially batter/pitcher matchups.

You may be right, but I'm not believing it just because you say so. Do you know of any fangraphs or any other articles that claim some splits are meaningful while others are not, based on some study? It would seem to me that if batter/pitcher matchup stats were meaningless, then they would be more uniform than they are. There are always those players that seem to have more success or failure against a given opponent than most of the rest of the league. If Hitter X has 8 hits and a couple homers against pitcher Z this season and hitter Y has no hits against him -- all other things mostly being equal -- guess which hitter I'm going to play that week. But like I said in an earlier post, it probably is the lesser data point against other kinds of splits.

I'm guessing there's a reason why DJ LeMahieu is getting benched today against Clayton Kershaw even though LeMahieu has been one of the best hitters in the league this year.

[DrungoHazewood]

You may be right, but I'm not believing it just because you say so. Do you know of any fangraphs or any other articles that claim some splits are meaningful while others are not, based on some study? It would seem to me that if batter/pitcher matchup stats were meaningless, then they would be more uniform than they are. There are always those players that seem to have more success or failure against a given opponent than most of the rest of the league. If Hitter X has 8 hits and a couple homers against pitcher Z this season and hitter Y has no hits against him -- all other things mostly being equal -- guess which hitter I'm going to play that week. But like I said in an earlier post, it probably is the lesser data point against other kinds of splits.

I'm guessing there's a reason why DJ LeMahieu is getting benched today against Clayton Kershaw even though LeMahieu has been one of the best hitters in the league this year.

Here's one. Relevant quote:

2. Batter/Pitcher match-up data has been shown to have no predictive value. In The Book, Tango/Lichtman/Dolphin devote an entire chapter — Ch 6, “Mano a Mano” — to looking for evidence that previous results of specific batter/pitcher match-ups would predict future results in those same match-ups. It wasn’t there. Despite looking at the 30 most extreme examples of matched-pairs where the batter had dominated the pitcher over a three-year period, the group was barely better than average in the fourth season against those same pitchers. When looking at the flip side, where pitchers had dominated the hitters, the results were the same. Most interesting is that there was little difference in actual future performance by the 30 hitters who had dominated their rivals versus those who had been dominated by opposing pitchers. Even at the extremes, specific batter/pitcher data showed no real usefulness in projecting future results.

Another.

And another.

A random messageboard thread saying the same thing.

[sportsfan8703]

Hardy's been consistently having the best AB's on the team for awhile now. I wonder what Buck is closer to doing, PR for Hardy in a close game, or batting him 2nd?