aln4t_assignment2
Amelia Norman
2/3/2022
Baseball and Data Science
Summary
In the article “State of Analytics: How the Movement Has Forever Changed Baseball - for Better or Worse”, Taylor Bechtold discusses how the use of data analytics has altered baseball and potential developments in further technology. Referencing the hit film “Moneyball”, Bechtold depicts how the calculation of player on-base percentages, hit percentages, and other such statistics could cause a team to best utilize their players abilities and avoid common misconceptions. For instance, bunting and stealing have become nearly eradicated by the use of data analytics because teams have found that these strategies do little to benefit the team. Instead, players hit high, which thereby resulted in the use of more fastballs, more outfielders, and new technology for umpires to make accurate calls (formerly, they had a 20% inaccuracy rate). To expand their statistical knowledge, teams are now researching biomechanics and already utilizing some versions of the technology to improve players’ batting form.
Author Information
photograph of Taylor Bechtold
Taylor Bechtold is the Senior US Editor of “The Analyst” subset of StatsPerform, a sports technology company across media and tech, betting, and team performance. In his own words (as per his biography), “He decided long ago that he would write about baseball after his big-league dreams were squashed in college, football once his NFL aspirations ended as a senior in high school and basketball when his NBA goal died with 4.8 points per game as a sophomore. Taylor manages all U.S. content for The Analyst, but he’s still more into creating content than content calendars.”
Applications
image of table of baseball statistics
The use of data science in such a field opens doors to the use of data science in others. Already, data science models are being used in most industries (e.g. business, finance, agriculture, healthcare, etc.). However, in each of these fields, these predictions and models can be expanded upon.
In more practical application, the use of biomechanics to aid pitchers and batters in baseball could be used in physical therapy or could be used to conduct medical research. For decades, the predominant sources of back pain have been considered extremely complex and confusing with contradictory solutions. In a society where these issues seem to be becoming more frequent, such an application could be extremely useful.
Discussion
Through his article, Bechtold demonstrates the usefulness of data science to baseball (and, by extension, most or all fields) as well as the excitement an accessible description could cause. Rather than being bored from the game, fans consider baseball a “smarter” game and make more of an effort to understand the statistics involved with the game and even engage with these models directly through Fantasy MLB or other such methods. The accessibility extends even to Hollywood, where the movie “Moneyball” was written about the Oakland Athletics’ use of statistics to improve despite their extremely low budget.
Data Visualization
