How To Use Statistics In Baseball

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In Figure 1 we can see a snapshot as of June 29th 2016 of the top major league starting pitchers by ERA. While this only shows basic statistics and is sort-able via any method listed in the columns, you can easily see how these numbers could be gathered, analyzed, and tabulated in a way that could quantify that the performance based on any number of different algorithms depending on what values you were looking for. For example, if someone were interested in who the most durable pitcher is that season, they may sort by innings pitched. If someone else thought the number of strikeouts was more valuable, that number could be the sort feature. Since there is no single set of statistics that every team uses, there’s no single algorithm that …show more content…
There are many other places where statistics can prove useful and in some cases vital to the success of the team.
Managers use statistics along with expert advice from his coaches, medical team, and scouts as well as his own experience and judgment in order to make both strategic decisions such as if a player needs a day off to help prolong their health for the full year, and tactical decisions such as if I substitute this player in the lineup for this other player based on his head-to-head statistics against this pitcher, that player will have a better chance to perform well.
The scouting department, broken into two main areas, advanced scouting which scouts other MLB teams in order to determine the best strategy to use when playing those teams, and player acquisition scouting which evaluates and recommends players that the team should consider acquiring. These two types of scouts will use different criteria in order to make their
…show more content…
Once these statistics are collected and evaluated, the scout will generally be required to observe the player for a specific period of time, sometimes an interview is given to the player, coach, and even team mates or opponents in order to better understand the player. If the statistics coupled with the observations are strong enough to recommend the player, the scout will send back a recommendation to sign the player to a minor league deal and based on numbers and observation, a price is given. Along with the recommendation will be a report which now uses a standard scout 20-80 report. A 20-80 report is an analysis based on 3 standard deviations where 50% is the league average for a player type and players are evaluated and given a number in many areas of play (the “five tools” of baseball – See the Scouting Today section for a description of “five tools”). This report is a combination of observation and statistical analysis and makes it much easier for front office staff to make acquisition

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