White Sox need to stop making this critical mistake with promising rookie Sam Antonacci

On August 6th, White Sox rookie Sam Antonacci wasn't in the lineup against Red Sox lefty Ranger Suarez. Unfortunately, this was not a surprise.

Antonacci was called up from Triple-A on April 15th, and since then he's become one of the White Sox core players. He bats leadoff, plays left field, and has a .273/.366/.402 slashline. But he's made 264 ABs against RHPs, compared to just 69 PAs against LHPs.

The White Sox are trying to giving themselves the platoon advantage, because Antonacci does have pretty substantial splits: a .293/.381/.449 line against righties, and a .203/.304/.232 line against lefties.

And I'll even admit, there's a short-term gain to benching him. He's not doing damage against left-handed pitchers so far, and the Sox are an offense-heavy team that needs to score a lot of runs. Lots of teams bench some of their lefty bats against a lefty starter, because it's the worst possible match-up for a hitter, but limiting a hitter to a platoon limits their overall upside.

If Sam Antonacci were a utility-man, or a fourth outfielder, there would be an argument for platooning him. Not my argument, but an argument. But he's having a great rookie year, and he's going to be part of the White Sox team going forward. He's not perfect--but he shouldn't be. He's trying to improve against lefties, according to Sox Machine. But it won't happen if he never gets to face them. It may be a move that hurts the lineup's production in the short term, but it benefits Antonacci in the long run to get him exposure.

Sam Antonacci's quickest path to improving vs. lefties is to face them

A lot of people wonder why lefty hitters struggle so much against lefty pitchers, even compared to a righty hitter facing a righty pitcher. It comes down to familiarity. It's hard to see the ball when you're facing a same-handed pitcher, but since about 70%-75% of pitchers are right-handed, righty batters get used to seeing their pitches. Lefty hitters are only facing lefty pitchers about 25%-30% of the time, so they never get as used to seeing their stuff. In Antonacci's case, he's gotten to see lefties in just 20% of his PAs--substantially less than if he wasn't getting benched. It seems like more exposure, not less, would be beneficial.

In a few years, it's going to be less forgivable when Antonacci is an easy out against lefties. Right now, the White Sox can say he's a promising young rookie removed against lefties as a "precaution", but eventually, he'll just be a platoon bat--one who really is a fourth outfielder or utility player. And it's the Sox who will miss out, because he's already shown that he's a lot more than that.

By benching Antonacci, the Sox are treating their players like replaceable commodities, rather than unique talents. This is a bad move for a small-market team. The Sox aren't going to a run a huge payroll with star-level free agents, so the smart move is developing talent in their farm system and retaining those players.

And for what it's worth, Antonacci's not even hopeless against LHPs. A .518 OPS against them isn't sustainable, but it's also not an automatic out. Especially for a tricky batter like he is; Antonacci has a high OBP and a knack for getting hit by pitches. He uses every method of getting on-base, which could help him beat a bad match-up. And if he does get on-base, there's a good chance he'll score.

So far this season, Antonacci has a 38.6% RS%. RS% is run scoring percentage, and it determines how often a play, as a baserunner, comes around to score.The MLB average is 30% this year, per Baseball Reference. Almost 10% worse than Antonacci's record. That's another reason why using him is a good trade-off, even with the disadvantage; if Antonacci can get a lefty to plunk him and than come around to score, it's the same overall impact that scoring on a single would have.

So, Will Venable: Let Antonacci prove he truly can't hit lefties, before you put him on the bench.

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