Abstract
This study examines the pitcher’s deciding ball after pushing a batter with two strikes of an aged pitcher group (31 to 43 year-old) and a younger pitcher group (20 to 30 year-old) by using an actual tracking data of the Major League Baseball in 2015. The regression analyses are conducted for all pitchers and for each age group on different pitch types; i.e., two-seam, cutter, splitter, forkball, straight and so on. We also analyze relationships between pitchers’ knocking out batters and their pitching characteristics measured by pitch movements by using a framework and empirical analyses. The results of the research model using Structural Equation Modeling show what makes the pitcher advantageous over the batter.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Kindall, J.: Sports Illustrated Baseball: Play the Winning Way. Time, Inc., Lanham, MD (1993)
Lopez, A., Kirkgard, J.: Coaching Baseball Successfully. Human Kinetics, Champaign, IL (1996)
Yeh, C.S., Lee, M.S., Zhu, F.L.: Baseball Bible. Business Weekly Publication, Inc, Taipei (2003)
Chiu, S., Hsiao, C., Wu, H.: Measuring pitchers’ performance using data envelopment analysis with advanced statistics. Contemp. Manage. Res. 11(4), 351–384 (2015). doi:10.7903/cmr.14157
Shu, P.E.S.: Arsenal/zone rating: a PitchF/X based pitcher projection system. In: 2016 MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference Research Paper (2016)
Karakolis, T.: Measuring a Pitcher’s Ability, Performance, and Contribution, Fan Graphs Community Research. http://www.fangraphs.com/community/measuring-a-pitchers-ability-performance-and-contribution/ (2013). Accessed 16 Feb 2017
Keating, P.: Better, Faster, Younger: Why Baseball’s Young Stars are Its Best in 20 years, ESPN The Magazine. http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/14946288/better-faster-younger-mlb-best-stars-20-years (2016). Accessed 17 Feb 2017
Statistia: Major League Baseball Rosters by Average player age in 2016. https://www.statista.com/statistics/236223/major-league-baseball-clubs-by-average-age-of-players/ (2016). Accessed 17 Feb 2017
Gibbs, B.G., Jarvis, J.A., Dufur, M.J.: The rise of the underdog? The relative age effect reversal among Canadian-born NHL hockey players: a reply to Nolan and Howell. Int. Rev. Sociol. Sport. 47(5), 644–649. (2012)
Bradbury, J.: Peak athletic performance and ageing: evidence from baseball. J. Sports Sci. 27(6), 599–610 (2009)
Fair, R.C.: Estimated age effects in baseball. J. Quant. Anal. Sports 4(1), 1 (2008). Article 1
Sommers, P.: The changing hitting performance in major league baseball, 1966-2006. J. Sports Econ. 9(4), 435–440 (2008)
Scully, G.W.: The Business of Baseball. University of Chicago Press, Chicago (1989)
Gennaro, V.: Diamond Dollars: The Economics of Winning in Baseball. Maple Street Press, Hingham, MA (2007)
Forman, S.: Player Wins Above Replacement. http://www.baseball-reference.com/blog/archives/ 6063 (2010) Accessed 19 Feb 2017
Slowinski, S.: What is WAR? http://www.fangraphs.com/library/index.php/misc/war/ (2010). Accessed 17 Feb 2017
Bradbury, J.: Hot Stove Economics: Understanding Baseball’s Second Season. Copernicus Books, New York (2011)
Baumer, B.S., Jensen, T.: openWAR: an open source system for evaluating overall player performance in major league baseball. J. Quant. Anal. Sports 11(2), 69–84 (2015)
Furnald, N.A.: The Impact of Age on Baseball Players’ Performance, Unpublished manuscript. Colgate University (2012)
Whiteside, D., Martini, D.N., Zernicke, R.F., Goulet, G.C.: Changes in a starting pitcher’s performance characteristics. Across the duration of a major league baseball game. Int. J. Sports Physiol. Perform. 11(2), 247–254 (2016)
Fast, M.: Four plus pitches. The hardball times. http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/four-plus-pitches/ 23 June 2010. Accessed 21 Feb 2017
Kogan, D.: The anatomy of a pitch: doing Physics with PITCHf/x data. Phys. Teach. 47(7), 412–416 (2009)
Byrne, B.M.: Structural Equation Modeling Using AMOS. Basic Concepts, Applications, and Programming, 2nd edn. Taylor & Francis, New York (2010)
Cudeck, R., du Toit, S., Sörbom, D. (eds.): Structural Equation Modeling: Present and Future. Scientific Software International, Chicago (1992)
Jöreskog, K.G.: New developments in LISREL—analysis of ordinal variables using polychoric correlations and weighted least squares. Qual. Quant. 24, 387–404 (1990)
Mueller, R.: Structural equation modeling: back to basics. Struct. Equ. Model. 4, 353–369 (1997)
Yuan, K.H., Bentler, P.M.: Mean and covariance structure analysis: theoretical and practical improvements. J. Am. Stat. Assoc. 92, 767–777 (1997)
Ellis, S.: Pitching Grips- How to Grip and Throw Different Baseball Pitches. http://www.thecompletepitcher.com/pitching_grips.htm (2017). Accessed 23 Feb 2017
Tabachnick, B.G., Fidell, L.S.: Using Multivariate Statistics, 5th edn. Allyn and Bacon, New York (2007)
Bentler, P.M.: Comparative fit indexes in structural models. Psychol. Bull. 107, 238–246 (1990)
Browne, M.W., Cudeck, R.: Alternative ways of assessing model fit. Sociol. Methods Res. 21, 230–239 (1993)
Wheaton, B., Muthen, B., Alwin, D.F., Summers, G.: Assessing reliability and stability in panel models. Sociol. Methodol. 8(1), 84–136 (1977)
Akaike, H.: A New Look at the Statistical Model Identification. IEEE Trans. Autom. Control 19(6), 716–723 (1974)
Fast, M.: What the heck is PITCHf/x. In: Distelheim, J., Jacobs, B. (eds.) The Hardball Times Baseball Annual 2010, pp. 153–158. ACTA Sports, Chicago (2009)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Miyamoto, M., Ito, A. (2018). Analysis of Pitching Skills of Major League Baseball Players. In: Ahram, T. (eds) Advances in Human Factors in Sports, Injury Prevention and Outdoor Recreation. AHFE 2017. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 603. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60822-8_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60822-8_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-60821-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-60822-8
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)