Using math model, NJIT professor names MVP and award contenders 15 October 2008

NJIT's Bruce Bukiet, a mathematician who has Bukiet's model places Milton Bradley of the Texas applied mathematical modeling techniques to Rangers, whose performance would have elucidate the dynamics of scoring in , contributed 4.3 extra wins to an otherwise average is now applying his methods to ascertain the team, as the top hitter in the AL, and runner-up for players most deserving of 's MVP honors. prestigious 2008 Most Valuable Player (MVP) and Cy Young awards. Bukiet, a popular NJIT math New York Yankee , professor, dives annually into such terrain in part Cleveland Indian and for his love of the game, but also for his love of Carlos Quentin of the round out teaching and math. the top five MVP candidates in the AL, contributing 4.1, 4 and 3.5 wins respectively to an otherwise "Baseball can be a terrific learning tool," said average team. After Halladay and Lee, Mariano Bukiet. "It demonstrates how math can be used in Rivera of the , of life." This year for the first time high school junior the of Anaheim and Jonathan Kevin Fritz, of Hillsborough helped formulate Papelbon of the round out the top Bukiet's picks. Bukiet met Fritz earlier this year five AL pitching performances. through one of NJIT's many pre-college programs. Thanks in part to Bukiet, Fritz took special honors In the (NL), of the Los in Intel's 2008 Science and Engineering Fair. Angeles Dodgers deserves the . "His performance would have garnered 3.4 extra This is the eighth year that Bukiet has used his wins," said Bukiet. "The ' Cole model to determine whether it is worthwhile to Hamels, ' , wager on games each day during the baseball ' Dan Haren and New York season. His picks (posted on Mets' also numbered among his NL www.egrandslam.com) have led to (slightly) top 5 with performances worthy of 3.3, 3.2, positive results for six of the past eight years. 2.9 and 2.8 extra wins, respectively. Regular updates on the chances of each team winning the Championship Series and the World (St. Louis Cardinals) is Bukiet's Most Series are posted at: Valuable Player in the Major Leagues. "His m.njit.edu/~bukiet/baseball/playoffs08.htm. performance would have led an otherwise average team to nearly 87 wins," said Bukiet. While Pujols For the (AL), Bukiet said, would have added 5.8 extra wins to the team, other Toronto Blue Jay pitcher deserves to remarkable players included win both the MVP and the Cy Young Award (), Hanley Ramirez (Florida Marlins), because his performance would have contributed Lance Berkman () and 4.5 extra wins to a team of otherwise all average (). All would have contributed 5.3, players. That is, "Halladay would have taken a 5.1, 5 and 3.9 extra wins, respectively. team that was 81-81 and -handedly made it an 85.5-76.5 team," Bukiet explained. "The key Bukiet's method studies each player's annual criterion of the model is that the player most season statistics. He then applies a Markov deserving of these awards should be the player process approach to modeling production of runs in who would have contributed the greatest number baseball games. Bukiet first presented this of extra wins to that of a team of average players mathematical model in 1997 in Operations at each position." Research. His method predicts how many games a

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team should win per season, the expected influence of trades and whether to wager on a game. Bukiet considered all players who placed in the top five in their league in at least one of the categories: hits, home runs, runs batted in, stolen bases, batting average and for hitters; wins, saves, , walks plus hits per inning pitched (WHIP) and batting average against (for pitchers).

Source: New Jersey Institute of Technology

APA citation: Using math model, NJIT professor names MVP and Cy Young award contenders (2008, October 15) retrieved 27 September 2021 from https://phys.org/news/2008-10-math-njit-professor-mvp- cy.html

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