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Term Project

Term Project

11/30

Name Redacted

Using statistical data from the 2020 Major League Baseball season, I look to answer three questions related to team performance.

Term Project

Name Redacted

Purpose

In sports, statistics can play a huge part in the decision-making process for coaches and players. As a baseball player myself with the Little Rock Trojans, I know how much it affects our playing time, and results on the field. Using data from the 2020 Major League Baseball season, I looked to answer three questions that could help the Trojans win more games:

1. Does having a higher exit velocity result to a higher batting average?

2. Does having a higher exit velocity and optimal launch angle result in more home runs?

3. Does a combination of a high exit velocity and optimal average launch angle result in more team wins?

Question #1

Our first question, does having a higher exit velocity result to a higher batting average, looks at two different statistics that are important in the game of baseball. The first, exit velocity, is a measurement of how hard, in miles per hour, a ball is batted. This average is comprised from gathering the speed of every batted ball for each team individually. Exit velocity is an important statistic in the game of baseball because it measures how hard a player hits the ball on average, and the harder you hit the ball, the better your chances are to getting a base hit. In this case, we are looking at the team exit velocity averages.

The second statistic we look at is batting average. Batting average is found by dividing the number of hits by the number of official at bats. Batting average measures that hitting ability of a player. The higher the batting average, the better a player is considered. In this case, we look at team batting averages, so the higher the average, the more successful the team should be.

We can assume that the teams with the highest exit velocity should have the best batting averages, however, that is not the case. Chart 1 shows the exit velocity and batting averages for all 30 teams. From this data, we can see that although some teams saw a positive outcome when it comes to a higher exit velocity resulting in a higher batting average, most teams saw a neutral or negative effect. Therefore, we can conclude that exit velocity alone does not result in a higher batting average.

Question #2

Our second question, does having a higher exit velocity and optimal launch angle result in more home runs, looks at another statistic that is vital to hitting in the game of baseball. Launch angle is the vertical angle at which the ball leaves the player's bat after contact. This average is comprised by gathering every launch angle reported for batted balls. The optimum launch angle for a home run is between 25 and 30 degrees, and an exit velocity of around 90 mph.

So usually, if a player hits the ball with an exit velocity of 90 mph or higher, and the ball left the bat at an angle between 25 and 30 degrees, it will more than likely result in the ball travelling far enough to be a home run. For this analysis we looked at team averages and totals for all three of these statistics. Chart 2 below, gives us a visual representation of the data.

From this data we can see that most teams with a combination of a high exit velocity and a launch angle closest to the optimum angle had more team home runs. We can also see that those teams that had low values for both measurements saw fewer home runs hit. We can conclude that a higher exit velocity combined with a higher launch angle, staying in the 25-30-degree range, results in more home runs hit.

Question #3

Our third question, does a combination of a high exit velocity and optimal average launch angle result in more team wins, looks at another combination of stats and their effect on overall team performance. In all levels of sports winning is the most important thing, so finding what results in more wins can be valuable knowledge for teams.

In our analysis, we looked at exit velocity and launch angle and their effects on team wins. If a high combination of both stats results in more home runs, and in the game of baseball the team that scores the most runs after 9 innings wins. Then the combination of this measurement set should play a large role in the outcome of games.

Chart 3 above shows us that teams that had a high combination of exit velocity and launch angle had more wins than those teams that had lower numbers of the measurement set. Although it seems that a high combination of the measurement set results in more wins, we have to take into accounts many different factors before we conclude that a high exit velocity plus an optimal launch angle, over a span of a season, results in more wins.

First and foremost, we must take into account the shortened season. Major League Baseball only played about one third of the games they would usually play. Meaning there were thousands of at bats and batted balls that were not accounted for. With more data, our results could have been more specific and significant in concluding our decision. Also, defense plays a large part in winning games. If you can stop teams from scoring than you are more likely to win. Which is why teams like the Rays, Twins, and Indians who have solid pitching, can wins so many games.

Conclusion

To wrap things up, the purpose of this project was to use data from Major League Baseball games to determine whether certain stats or a combination of stats play a role in the outcome of games, at bats and overall team performance.

From our findings, we can conclude that a certain set of measurements play a large role in determining performance, while others do not have as much significance. Further research can help determine what combination of stats affect what outcomes.

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