Baseball Analytics Repo for my research paper on Batter Approach vs. Run Differential
I investigated three questions surrounding batters’ plate approaches in terms of the pitch count per at bat. I wanted to know if batters change their approach in different game situations, if batters change their approach in close games, and if batters “give up” when winning or losing by a large number of runs. I did a series of data transformations to form variables that would help me in my analysis and proceeded to use the 2017 MLB season to examine my questions. I used both all 2017 batters and a select group of elite batters to get a full picture of the trends I was exploring. I determined that some batters have different approaches in some game situations, batters generally don’t change their approach the later it gets in a close game, and batters do not give up in wide margin games. Continue reading for a detailed look at my hypotheses, methods, results and conclusions.