Decision Making in Baseball: a Computer Programming Approach
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Sabermetrics: the Past, the Present, and the Future
Sabermetrics: The Past, the Present, and the Future Jim Albert February 12, 2010 Abstract This article provides an overview of sabermetrics, the science of learn- ing about baseball through objective evidence. Statistics and baseball have always had a strong kinship, as many famous players are known by their famous statistical accomplishments such as Joe Dimaggio’s 56-game hitting streak and Ted Williams’ .406 batting average in the 1941 baseball season. We give an overview of how one measures performance in batting, pitching, and fielding. In baseball, the traditional measures are batting av- erage, slugging percentage, and on-base percentage, but modern measures such as OPS (on-base percentage plus slugging percentage) are better in predicting the number of runs a team will score in a game. Pitching is a harder aspect of performance to measure, since traditional measures such as winning percentage and earned run average are confounded by the abilities of the pitcher teammates. Modern measures of pitching such as DIPS (defense independent pitching statistics) are helpful in isolating the contributions of a pitcher that do not involve his teammates. It is also challenging to measure the quality of a player’s fielding ability, since the standard measure of fielding, the fielding percentage, is not helpful in understanding the range of a player in moving towards a batted ball. New measures of fielding have been developed that are useful in measuring a player’s fielding range. Major League Baseball is measuring the game in new ways, and sabermetrics is using this new data to find better mea- sures of player performance. -
Name of the Game: Do Statistics Confirm the Labels of Professional Baseball Eras?
NAME OF THE GAME: DO STATISTICS CONFIRM THE LABELS OF PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL ERAS? by Mitchell T. Woltring A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Leisure and Sport Management Middle Tennessee State University May 2013 Thesis Committee: Dr. Colby Jubenville Dr. Steven Estes ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would not be where I am if not for support I have received from many important people. First and foremost, I would like thank my wife, Sarah Woltring, for believing in me and supporting me in an incalculable manner. I would like to thank my parents, Tom and Julie Woltring, for always supporting and encouraging me to make myself a better person. I would be remiss to not personally thank Dr. Colby Jubenville and the entire Department at Middle Tennessee State University. Without Dr. Jubenville convincing me that MTSU was the place where I needed to come in order to thrive, I would not be in the position I am now. Furthermore, thank you to Dr. Elroy Sullivan for helping me run and understand the statistical analyses. Without your help I would not have been able to undertake the study at hand. Last, but certainly not least, thank you to all my family and friends, which are far too many to name. You have all helped shape me into the person I am and have played an integral role in my life. ii ABSTRACT A game defined and measured by hitting and pitching performances, baseball exists as the most statistical of all sports (Albert, 2003, p. -
A Giant Whiff: Why the New CBA Fails Baseball's Smartest Small Market Franchises
DePaul Journal of Sports Law Volume 4 Issue 1 Summer 2007: Symposium - Regulation of Coaches' and Athletes' Behavior and Related Article 3 Contemporary Considerations A Giant Whiff: Why the New CBA Fails Baseball's Smartest Small Market Franchises Jon Berkon Follow this and additional works at: https://via.library.depaul.edu/jslcp Recommended Citation Jon Berkon, A Giant Whiff: Why the New CBA Fails Baseball's Smartest Small Market Franchises, 4 DePaul J. Sports L. & Contemp. Probs. 9 (2007) Available at: https://via.library.depaul.edu/jslcp/vol4/iss1/3 This Notes and Comments is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Law at Via Sapientiae. It has been accepted for inclusion in DePaul Journal of Sports Law by an authorized editor of Via Sapientiae. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A GIANT WHIFF: WHY THE NEW CBA FAILS BASEBALL'S SMARTEST SMALL MARKET FRANCHISES INTRODUCTION Just before Game 3 of the World Series, viewers saw something en- tirely unexpected. No, it wasn't the sight of the Cardinals and Tigers playing baseball in late October. Instead, it was Commissioner Bud Selig and Donald Fehr, the head of Major League Baseball Players' Association (MLBPA), gleefully announcing a new Collective Bar- gaining Agreement (CBA), thereby guaranteeing labor peace through 2011.1 The deal was struck a full two months before the 2002 CBA had expired, an occurrence once thought as likely as George Bush and Nancy Pelosi campaigning for each other in an election year.2 Baseball insiders attributed the deal to the sport's economic health. -
Openwar: an Open Source System for Overall Player Performance in MLB
OpenWAR: An Open Source System for Overall Player Performance in MLB Ben Baumer1 Shane Jensen2 Gregory Matthews3 1 Smith College 2 The Wharton School University of Pennsylvania 3 University of Massachusetts Joint Mathematical Meetings Baltimore, MD January 17th, 2014 Baumer (Smith) openWAR JMM 1 / 21 Introduction Motivation WAR - What is it good for? WinsAboveReplacement Question: How large is the contribution that each player makes towards winning? Four Components: 1 Batting 2 Baserunning 3 Fielding 4 Pitching Replacement Player: Hypothetical 4A journeyman I Much worse than an average player Baumer (Smith) openWAR JMM 2 / 21 Introduction Motivation Units and Scaling In terms of absolute runs: Me Replacement Average Miguel Cabrera 10 40 90 140 In terms of Runs Above Replacement( RAR): Me Replacement Average Miguel Cabrera −30 0 50 100 In terms of Wins Above Replacement( WAR): Me Replacement Average Miguel Cabrera −3 0 5 10 Baumer (Smith) openWAR JMM 3 / 21 Introduction Motivation Example: 2012 WAR leaders FanGraphs fWAR BB-Ref rWAR Mike Trout 10.0 Mike Trout 10.9 Robinson Cano 7.8 Robinson Cano 8.5 Buster Posey 7.7 Buster Posey 7.4 Ryan Braun 7.6 Miguel Cabrera 7.3 David Wright 7.4 Andrew McCutchen 7.2 Chase Headley 7.2 Adrian Beltre 7.0 Miguel Cabrera 6.8 Ryan Braun 7.0 Andrew McCutchen 6.8 Yadier Molina 6.9 Table : 2012 WAR Leaders Baseball Prospectus also publishes WARP There is no ONE formula for WAR! Baumer (Smith) openWAR JMM 4 / 21 Introduction Motivation WAR is the Answer Baumer (Smith) openWAR JMM 5 / 21 Introduction Related -
Baseball Prospectus, 1997, 1997, Gary Huckabay, Clay Davenport, Joe Sheehan, Chris Kahrl, 0965567400, 9780965567404, Ravenlock Media, 1997
Baseball Prospectus, 1997, 1997, Gary Huckabay, Clay Davenport, Joe Sheehan, Chris Kahrl, 0965567400, 9780965567404, Ravenlock Media, 1997 DOWNLOAD http://bit.ly/1oCjD77 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baseball_Prospectus_1997 DOWNLOAD http://fb.me/23h0t0pz6 http://avaxsearch.com/?q=Baseball+Prospectus%2C+1997 http://bit.ly/1oRwfu3 Hockey Prospectus 2010-11 The Essential Guide to the 2010-11 Hockey Season, Hockey Prospectus, Tom Awad, Will Carroll, Lain Fyffe, Philip Myrland, Richard Pollack, Sep 15, 2010, Sports & Recreation, 370 pages. In the winning tradition of the New York Times bestselling Baseball Prospectus comes the world's greatest guide to the NHL. The authors of Hockey Prospectus combine cutting. There's a God on the Mic The True 50 Greatest Mcs, Kool Moe Dee, Oct 4, 2008, Music, 224 pages. Rates fifty of the greatest rap emcees, scoring them in seventeen categories, including lyricism, originality, vocal presence, poetic value, body of work, social impact, and. The Hardball Times Baseball Annual , Dave Studenmund, Greg Tamer, Nov 1, 2004, Sports & Recreation, 298 pages. A complete review of the 2004 baseball season, as seen through the eyes of an online baseball magazine called The Hardball Times (www.hardballtimes.com). The Hardball Times. Baseball Prospectus 2005 Statistics, Analysis, and Insight for the Information Age, David Cameron, Baseball Prospectus Team of Experts, Feb 18, 2005, Sports & Recreation, 576 pages. Provides profiles of major league players with information on statistics for the past five seasons and projections for the 2005 baseball season.. Vibration spectrum analysis a practical approach, Steve Goldman, 1991, Science, 223 pages. Vibration Spectrum Analysis helps teach the maintenance mechanic or engineer how to identify problem areas before extensive damage occurs. -
Height, Weight, and Durability in Major League Baseball Joshua Yeager Claremont Mckenna College
Claremont Colleges Scholarship @ Claremont CMC Senior Theses CMC Student Scholarship 2017 Height, Weight, and Durability in Major League Baseball Joshua Yeager Claremont McKenna College Recommended Citation Yeager, Joshua, "Height, Weight, and Durability in Major League Baseball" (2017). CMC Senior Theses. 1684. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/1684 This Open Access Senior Thesis is brought to you by Scholarship@Claremont. It has been accepted for inclusion in this collection by an authorized administrator. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Claremont McKenna College HEIGHT, WEIGHT AND DURABILITY IN MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL SUBMITTED TO PROFESSOR HEATHER ANTECOL BY JOSHUA YEAGER FOR SENIOR THESIS SPRING 2017 APRIL 24th, 2017 Yeager 1 Table of Contents Abstract ...................................................................................................................................................... 2 Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................................ 3 I. Introduction.......................................................................................................................................... 4 II. Literature Review ............................................................................................................................ 6 III. Data .................................................................................................................................................. -
A STATISTICAL ANALYSIS of RETALIATION PITCHES in MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL Peter Jurewicz Clemson University, [email protected]
Clemson University TigerPrints All Theses Theses 12-2013 CHIN MUSIC: A STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF RETALIATION PITCHES IN MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL Peter Jurewicz Clemson University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_theses Part of the Economics Commons Recommended Citation Jurewicz, Peter, "CHIN MUSIC: A STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF RETALIATION PITCHES IN MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL" (2013). All Theses. 1793. https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_theses/1793 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses at TigerPrints. It has been accepted for inclusion in All Theses by an authorized administrator of TigerPrints. For more information, please contact [email protected]. CHIN MUSIC: A STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF RETALIATION PITCHES IN MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL A Thesis Presented to the Graduate School of Clemson University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts Economics By Peter Jurewicz December 2013 Accepted by: Dr. Raymond Sauer, Committee Chair Dr. Scott Baier Dr. Robert Tollison ABSTRACT This paper is focused on hit batsmen in Major League Baseball from the 2008 season through August 20th of the 2013 season. More specifically, this paper examines the characteristics of retaliation pitches and attempts to determine the intent of the pitcher. The paper also takes into account moral hazard and cost-benefit analysis of hitting an opposing batsman. There has been a vast amount of literature in economics with regard to hit batsmen in Major League Baseball. However, very few of these papers have been able to evaluate economic theories in Major League Baseball using Pitchf/x data. -
Twar: Introducing a Method to Actually Calculate Wins Above Replacement
tWAR: introducing a method to actually calculate wins above replacement Daniel J. Eck March 21, 2019 1 Introduction Wins above replacement (WAR) is meant to be a one-number summary of the total contribution made by a player for his team in any particular season. As stated by Steve Slowinski of Fangraphs, WAR offers an estimate to answer the question, \If this player got injured and their team had to replace them with a freely available player of lower quality from their bench, how much value would the team be losing," where this value is expressed in number of wins [Slowinski, 2010]. That being said, nobody actually calculates WAR in a manner that properly answers the above question as posed. This is not by any explicit fault of the metric and those who calculate it. One problem is that it is impossible to simultaneously quantify the value of a player when the player is available and the value of a replacement to that player when the player is unavailable. The player in question is either available to play or unavailable to play, never both. Instead of confronting the problems raised in this factual-counterfactual world, people have attempted to calculate a hypothetical replacement player to implicitly compare every player with using the machinery of a proprietary black box [Baumer et al., 2015]. Three widely used versions of WAR that are calculated in this manner are Baseball Reference's bWAR [Reference, 2010], Fangraphs's fWAR [Slowinski, 2010], and Baseball Prospectus's bWARP [Prospectus, 2019]. Through the incorporation of ideas from causal inference, we propose methodolody to directly estimate wins above replacement. -
Leveraging Big Data in Baseball
An article by EMC Proven Professional Knowledge Sharing Elite Author A WHOLE NEW BALLGAME: LEVERAGING BIG DATA IN BASEBALL Bruce Yellin Advisory Systems Engineer EMC Corporation [email protected] Table of Contents Introduction – Baseball, Big Data, and Advanced Analytics ...................................... 9 Big Data and Baseball - Players, Coaches, Trainers, and Managers ....................... 13 Sportvision ................................................................................................................ 15 PITCHf/x ................................................................................................................ 16 HITf/x ..................................................................................................................... 25 FIELDf/x ................................................................................................................ 28 Big Data and the Business of Baseball ..................................................................... 33 Player Development .................................................................................................. 36 Revenue From Fans .................................................................................................. 38 Revenue From Media ................................................................................................ 42 Big Data Helps Create Algorithmic Baseball Journalism ......................................... 43 Listen To Your Data - Grady the Goat - The Curse of the Bambino ........................ -
Pine Tar and the Infield Fly Rule: an Umpire’S Perspective on the Hart-Dworkin Jurisprudential Debate
Pine Tar and the Infield Fly Rule: An Umpire’s Perspective on the Hart-Dworkin Jurisprudential Debate William D. Blake, Ph.D.1 Assistant Professor Department of Political Science Indiana University, Indianapolis (IUPUI) [email protected] Abstract: What is law? Though on its face this question seems simple, it remains an incredibly controversial one to legal theorists. One prominent jurisprudential debate of late occurred between H.L.A. Hart, a positivist, and Ronald Dworkin, an interpretivist. While positivism, at its core, holds the law is a set of authoritative commands, Dworkin rejects this reflexive approach and instructs judges to incorporate and advance communal norms and morals in their decisions. In baseball, umpires utilize both legal theories, depending on the type of rule they are asked to interpret or enforce. I conclude that, like umpires, most citizens are not dogmatic about either legal theory. 1 I wish to thank Justice George Nicholson of the California Court of Appeal for encouraging my participation at this Symposium. I am eternally grateful to former Major Leaguer Jim Abbott for taking the time to respond to my questions. Finally, to the 13 year-old pitcher whom I discuss in this paper: your courage and enthusiasm are inspiring, but, for Pete's sake, please practice coming set. Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2403586 Bill Klem, one of the 2 first umpires inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, once wrongly called a runner out at home plate. A lucky newspaper photographer snapped a shot, which demonstrated Klem’s mistake. The next day, reporters demanded to know how the batter could be out in light of the incontrovertible photographic evidence. -
Investigating Major League Baseball Pitchers and Quality of Contact Through Cluster Analysis
Grand Valley State University ScholarWorks@GVSU Honors Projects Undergraduate Research and Creative Practice 4-2020 Investigating Major League Baseball Pitchers and Quality of Contact through Cluster Analysis Charlie Marcou Grand Valley State University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/honorsprojects Part of the Sports Sciences Commons, and the Statistics and Probability Commons ScholarWorks Citation Marcou, Charlie, "Investigating Major League Baseball Pitchers and Quality of Contact through Cluster Analysis" (2020). Honors Projects. 765. https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/honorsprojects/765 This Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Undergraduate Research and Creative Practice at ScholarWorks@GVSU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Projects by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@GVSU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Investigating Major League Baseball Pitchers and Quality of Contact through Cluster Analysis Charlie Marcou Introduction The rise of sabermetrics, the quantitative analysis of baseball, has changed how baseball front offices operate, how prospects are evaluated and developed, and how baseball is played on the field. Stolen bases are on the decline, while strikeouts, walks, and homeruns have steadily increased. Hitters care more and more about their launch angle and pitchers have started using high speed cameras to analyze their movement. Despite these changes, there are still many areas that need investigation. This paper seeks to investigate the quality of contact that a pitcher allows. Not much is currently known about quality of contact, but if factors determining quality of contact could be determined it could assist teams in identifying and developing pitching talent. -
1. Intro to Scorekeeping
1. Intro To Scorekeeping The following terms will be used on this site: Cell: The term cell refers to the square in which the player’s at-bat is recorded. In this illustration, the cell is the box where the diagram is drawn. Scorecard, Scorebook: Will be used interchangeably and refer to the sheet that records the player and scoring information during a baseball game. Scorekeeper: Refers to someone on a team that keeps the score for the purposes of the team. Official Scorer: The designated person whose scorekeeping is considered the official record of the game. The Official Scorer is not a member of either team. Baseball’s Defensive Positions To “keep score” of a baseball game it is essential to know the defensive positions and their shorthand representation. For example, the number “1” is used to refer to the pitcher (P). NOTE : In the younger levels of youth baseball leagues 10 defensive players are used. This 10 th position is know as the Short Center Fielder (SC) and is positioned between second base and the second baseman, on the beginning of the outfield grass. The Short Center Fielder bats and can be placed anywhere in the batting lineup. Defensive Positions, Numbers & Abbreviations Position Number Defensive Position Position Abbrev. 1 Pitcher P 2 Catcher C 3 First Baseman 1B 4 Second Baseman 2B 5 Third Baseman 3B 6 Short Stop SS 7 Left Fielder LF 8 Center Fielder CF 9 Right Fielder RF 10 Short Center Fielder SC The illustration below shows the defensive position for the defense. Notice the short center fielder is illustrated for those that are scoring youth league games.