2025-03-23

Dataset Overview

The dataset contains seasonal statistics of Korean Baseball Pitchers from the Korean Baseball League (KBO).

Key Statistics:

  • Wins, losses, and win percentage
  • ERA (Earned Run Average)
  • Runs per game and home runs allowed
  • Strikeouts and walks
  • WHIP (Walks + Hits per Inning Pitched)
  • Various per 9-inning stats

Dataset Source: Kaggle

Data Summary

str(data)
## 'data.frame':    323 obs. of  34 variables:
##  $ id                 : int  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ...
##  $ year               : int  2021 2021 2021 2021 2021 2021 2021 2021 2021 2021 ...
##  $ team               : chr  "LG Twins" "KT Wiz" "Doosan Bears" "Samsung Lions" ...
##  $ average_age        : num  26.3 28.4 27.5 28.8 27.7 25.8 27.3 27 25.3 27.1 ...
##  $ runs_per_game      : num  3.9 4.06 4.57 4.57 4.8 4.89 5.13 5.13 5.22 5.64 ...
##  $ wins               : int  72 75 70 75 67 69 66 49 58 64 ...
##  $ losses             : int  57 59 65 59 67 67 63 82 75 71 ...
##  $ win_loss_percentage: num  0.558 0.56 0.519 0.56 0.5 0.507 0.512 0.374 0.436 0.474 ...
##  $ ERA                : num  3.57 3.67 4.28 4.29 4.5 4.33 4.8 4.67 4.89 5.39 ...
##  $ run_average_9      : num  3.96 4.17 4.66 4.7 4.95 5.02 5.2 5.29 5.33 5.75 ...
##  $ games              : int  143 143 143 143 143 143 143 143 143 143 ...
##  $ games_started      : int  143 143 143 143 143 143 143 143 143 143 ...
##  $ games_finished     : int  143 141 141 141 140 142 143 142 142 142 ...
##  $ complete_game      : int  0 2 2 2 3 1 0 1 1 1 ...
##  $ shutouts           : int  18 6 10 14 10 7 5 6 6 12 ...
##  $ saves              : int  32 33 27 46 33 30 25 21 36 36 ...
##  $ innings_pitched    : num  1264 1255 1260 1250 1247 ...
##  $ hits               : int  1117 1166 1288 1287 1256 1276 1283 1200 1274 1330 ...
##  $ runs               : int  557 581 653 653 686 699 733 734 746 806 ...
##  $ earned_runs        : int  501 512 599 596 624 604 676 648 684 756 ...
##  $ home_runs          : int  79 85 104 129 122 100 147 114 133 132 ...
##  $ walks              : int  542 486 586 526 585 566 623 669 616 653 ...
##  $ intentional_walks  : int  17 18 16 13 14 27 27 22 5 19 ...
##  $ strikeouts         : int  1062 1051 1037 1031 1046 893 1006 1006 946 1047 ...
##  $ hit_batter         : int  97 42 73 51 77 80 78 101 104 86 ...
##  $ balks              : int  5 1 7 3 8 4 9 11 9 5 ...
##  $ wild_pitches       : int  43 56 51 56 74 58 40 56 58 102 ...
##  $ batters_faced      : int  5416 5359 5596 5496 5575 5568 5661 5633 5658 5722 ...
##  $ WHIP               : num  1.31 1.32 1.49 1.45 1.48 ...
##  $ hits_9             : num  8 8.4 9.2 9.3 9.1 9.2 9.1 8.6 9.1 9.5 ...
##  $ homeruns_9         : num  0.6 0.6 0.7 0.9 0.9 0.7 1 0.8 1 0.9 ...
##  $ walks_9            : num  3.9 3.5 4.2 3.8 4.2 4.1 4.4 4.8 4.4 4.7 ...
##  $ strikeouts_9       : num  7.6 7.5 7.4 7.4 7.5 6.4 7.1 7.2 6.8 7.5 ...
##  $ strikeout_walk     : num  1.96 2.16 1.77 1.96 1.79 1.58 1.61 1.5 1.54 1.6 ...
summary(data)
##        id             year          team            average_age   
##  Min.   :  1.0   Min.   :1982   Length:323         Min.   :23.30  
##  1st Qu.: 81.5   1st Qu.:1993   Class :character   1st Qu.:25.70  
##  Median :162.0   Median :2003   Mode  :character   Median :26.90  
##  Mean   :162.0   Mean   :2003                      Mean   :26.89  
##  3rd Qu.:242.5   3rd Qu.:2013                      3rd Qu.:28.00  
##  Max.   :323.0   Max.   :2021                      Max.   :32.40  
##                                                                   
##  runs_per_game        wins           losses      win_loss_percentage
##  Min.   :2.980   Min.   :15.00   Min.   :24.00   Min.   :0.1880     
##  1st Qu.:4.040   1st Qu.:54.00   1st Qu.:53.00   1st Qu.:0.4445     
##  Median :4.620   Median :63.00   Median :62.00   Median :0.5040     
##  Mean   :4.622   Mean   :62.51   Mean   :62.48   Mean   :0.5000     
##  3rd Qu.:5.060   3rd Qu.:71.00   3rd Qu.:71.50   3rd Qu.:0.5615     
##  Max.   :7.180   Max.   :93.00   Max.   :97.00   Max.   :0.7060     
##                                                                     
##       ERA        run_average_9      games       games_started   games_finished 
##  Min.   :2.540   Min.   :3.03   Min.   : 80.0   Min.   :126.0   Min.   :115.0  
##  1st Qu.:3.630   1st Qu.:4.09   1st Qu.:126.0   1st Qu.:128.0   1st Qu.:126.0  
##  Median :4.220   Median :4.67   Median :128.0   Median :133.0   Median :130.5  
##  Mean   :4.208   Mean   :4.69   Mean   :128.1   Mean   :135.4   Mean   :132.6  
##  3rd Qu.:4.700   3rd Qu.:5.18   3rd Qu.:133.0   3rd Qu.:144.0   3rd Qu.:141.0  
##  Max.   :6.350   Max.   :7.47   Max.   :144.0   Max.   :144.0   Max.   :144.0  
##                                                 NA's   :139     NA's   :139    
##  complete_game      shutouts         saves      innings_pitched      hits     
##  Min.   : 0.00   Min.   : 0.00   Min.   : 3.0   Min.   : 692    Min.   : 618  
##  1st Qu.: 2.00   1st Qu.: 4.00   1st Qu.:24.0   1st Qu.:1108    1st Qu.:1036  
##  Median : 4.00   Median : 6.00   Median :30.0   Median :1135    Median :1139  
##  Mean   :10.82   Mean   : 6.31   Mean   :28.8   Mean   :1137    Mean   :1149  
##  3rd Qu.:20.00   3rd Qu.: 8.50   3rd Qu.:36.0   3rd Qu.:1193    3rd Qu.:1275  
##  Max.   :56.00   Max.   :19.00   Max.   :52.0   Max.   :1296    Max.   :1593  
##                                                                               
##       runs        earned_runs      home_runs         walks    
##  Min.   :257.0   Min.   :211.0   Min.   : 38.0   Min.   :187  
##  1st Qu.:506.0   1st Qu.:446.5   1st Qu.: 78.0   1st Qu.:395  
##  Median :582.0   Median :529.0   Median :101.0   Median :446  
##  Mean   :596.3   Mean   :536.3   Mean   :106.7   Mean   :449  
##  3rd Qu.:694.5   3rd Qu.:629.0   3rd Qu.:132.5   3rd Qu.:512  
##  Max.   :927.0   Max.   :838.0   Max.   :194.0   Max.   :670  
##                                                               
##  intentional_walks   strikeouts       hit_batter         balks       
##  Min.   : 0.00     Min.   : 175.0   Min.   : 29.00   Min.   : 0.000  
##  1st Qu.:11.75     1st Qu.: 639.0   1st Qu.: 51.50   1st Qu.: 2.000  
##  Median :17.00     Median : 793.0   Median : 66.00   Median : 4.000  
##  Mean   :17.79     Mean   : 762.6   Mean   : 66.29   Mean   : 3.902  
##  3rd Qu.:23.00     3rd Qu.: 911.5   3rd Qu.: 79.00   3rd Qu.: 5.000  
##  Max.   :44.00     Max.   :1194.0   Max.   :120.00   Max.   :11.000  
##  NA's   :139                                         NA's   :139     
##   wild_pitches    batters_faced       WHIP           hits_9      
##  Min.   : 21.00   Min.   :2830   Min.   :1.106   Min.   : 7.300  
##  1st Qu.: 46.00   1st Qu.:4698   1st Qu.:1.314   1st Qu.: 8.500  
##  Median : 55.00   Median :4969   Median :1.402   Median : 9.000  
##  Mean   : 56.98   Mean   :4935   Mean   :1.401   Mean   : 9.064  
##  3rd Qu.: 66.25   3rd Qu.:5264   3rd Qu.:1.478   3rd Qu.: 9.500  
##  Max.   :103.00   Max.   :5937   Max.   :1.761   Max.   :11.600  
##  NA's   :139                                                     
##    homeruns_9        walks_9       strikeouts_9   strikeout_walk 
##  Min.   :0.3000   Min.   :2.400   Min.   :2.300   Min.   :0.560  
##  1st Qu.:0.7000   1st Qu.:3.200   1st Qu.:5.100   1st Qu.:1.445  
##  Median :0.8000   Median :3.500   Median :6.200   Median :1.700  
##  Mean   :0.8362   Mean   :3.544   Mean   :5.944   Mean   :1.703  
##  3rd Qu.:1.0000   3rd Qu.:3.900   3rd Qu.:6.800   3rd Qu.:1.960  
##  Max.   :1.5000   Max.   :5.100   Max.   :8.400   Max.   :2.820  
## 

Average ERA by Year

3D Visualization: Wins, Losses, and ERA

Strikeouts, Walks, and ERA relationship

ggplot(data, aes(x = strikeouts, y = walks, color = ERA)) + 
  geom_point(alpha = 0.7) + scale_color_viridis_c())

Team averages

Pitching Metrics

Linear Regression: Predicting ERA

Estimate Std. Error t value p-value
(Intercept) -3.290 0.176 -18.687 0.000
strikeouts 0.000 0.000 2.887 0.004
walks -0.001 0.000 -6.092 0.000
home_runs 0.007 0.000 14.068 0.000
WHIP 5.125 0.169 30.327 0.000

Regression equation

ERA = -3.29
    + 0.00025 x Strikeouts
    - 0.00137 x Walks
    + 0.00701 x Home Runs
    + 5.12 x WHIP

Model Statistics:

  • R2: 0.935 (Explains 93.5% of ERA variation)
  • F-statistic: 1137.13 (p < 0.001)

Interpretation

  • This model explains 93.5% of the variation in ERA
  • WHIP has the strongest positive effect: each additional point increases ERA by approximately 5.13 runs
  • Home runs have a positive effect: each additional home run increases ERA by about 0.007 runs
  • Walks have a small negative effect, which is counterintuitive but may be explained by correlation with other variables
  • Strikeouts have a minimal effect on ERA in this model
  • All predictors are statistically significant (p < 0.01)