Bay Area Sports Guy – Coming to terms with the Brandon Belt

The lunatic fringe got its wish, Brandon Belt is the Giants’ Opening Day first baseman.

The news that made some people a little less excited was that Belt would be splitting time at first base with Brett Pill in a left/right platoon.

This is causing some to freak out, but there are a few reasons that I think that this may not be too bad of an idea — at least to start off the season.

First, lefties represent roughly 25 percent of MLB Pitchers. So if this is a strict L/R platoon Belt would still get the majority of plate appearances at first base. With this arrangement Belt would get approximately 500 plate appearances with the other 200 split between Pill and Posey. If this is what we have to put up with to get Belt in the MLB lineup on a regular basis, I can live with it.

Second, Belt has had a bit of a strikeout problem in the upper minors and especially in the majors. This could be one way to get him experienced with Major League pitching without giving him too much to try to adjust to at one time. If you look at his splits in both the Majors and the minors, he has struck out at a much higher rate when facing left-handed pitchers. Last year he struck out in 29.4 percent of his plate appearances against lefties in the Majors and in 31.1 percent of his minor league plate appearances against lefties. Against righties his strike out numbers are much better: 26.6 percent and 17.2 percent, respectively.

Third, both Belt and Pill have shown some platoon splits in their careers, so this could help to maximize what the Giants get out of the first base position this season. While there are some hints that Belt might excel more against righties, this by no means suggests that it will always be the case (in fact ZiPS projects that Belt will outhit Pill vs. lefties, even with Pill’s right-handed advantage, with a .780 OPS for Belt vs. a .726 OPS for Pill). I still believe that Belt will be just fine as an everyday hitter who can handle facing lefties on a regular basis. That being said, if the reason for platooning him is something like what I laid out above I don’t think that it is a problem at all, and might allow him to gain confidence while focusing on one part of his adjustment to Major League pitching at a time.

The decision to platoon the players may at first glance be unpopular but it could serve a number of purposes, such as allow Belt to gain confidence and make adjustments to the majors leagues without being too overwhelmed. Ultimately this probably gives the Giants the best team and that’s really the bottom line.

Stan

Actually this is a decison FORCED on the Giants by Buster Posey. Because Posey insists he wants to catch and not play first base Bochy has to risk a main cog on the offense getting hurt- as Poseys been many times,not just the big one-instead of Buster playing a sedate first base. I would guess Buster isnt in love with catching as much as proving he's tough. But he misses many games each year with concussions,banged up hands...all before the ultimate season ender injury. And even if healthy,Buster will miss many more games then if he stood on first. The Giants should have answered Busters act to show how tough he is,with some Giant tuff love-"Your on first like it or not"

Scott Willis

Buster Posey is immensely more valuable as a catcher even if he is a little bit banged up from time to time. The drop off offensively (not to mention he is very good defender too) is huge when Buster isn't catching. That's not easy to replace. The Giants would be smart to get as many games with him behind the plate as they can unless Hector Sanchrz shows he can be nearly as good offensively as to not effect the offense to move him to another position.

Stan

You miss the point of my argument-he's MUCH more likely to miss games as a regular catcher ( and from injuries) then as a first basemen I'm not sure why the media exaggerates Busters catching skills..his arm is average at best,and Sanchee the third will pick up handling the pitchers with everyday play. Only natural. And lets not leave out that Buster is a "Go home free" card for any runner..and I find that insulting to the spirit of catching.

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hilarie

Belt: .934 OPS vs LHP in the majors. Yes, small sample size, but the only way to see if a Pill platoon would really boost the offense is to let the sample size grow see if the OPS drops significantly. I wish Belt struck out less, but lots of good hitters strike out, especially when young. Ks don't justify a platoon. If Belt took those 200 PAs vs LHP (moving to LF when Posey's at 1b), he'd strike out eight more times than he would vs. RHP. If his OPS stayed in the .900 neighborhood vs lefties, nobody would care.

themck

The Lunatic Fringe predates the youth movement cry. It was about bringing in bats to protect Bonds after losing Kent. It was about trading away the inning eaters of Ortiz and Livian for D. Moss etc. ... just to save money. It was about having the lame brain F. Alou as a manager, and his complete mishandling of the pitching staff. It was calling out the Giants Management for coasting on Bonds... thinking that handing out a rubber chicken was cute. The Lunatic Fringe were those of us that pointed the finger at Giant's Management instead of opposing teams when Bonds was pitched around. The argument for playing the young home grown guys, is a separate thing. It came when the "rebuilding" stage began... but the Giants didn't want to admit that they were rebuilding. Many of the Lunatic Fringe might back that notion.... but playing the young guys was a much broader base than the original "Lunatic Fringe".