Category: Analytics
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The Baseball Attendance Myth
“Statistics do not lie but liars use statistics” Major League Baseball has continued to promote that it is back and better than ever, mostly by stating that rules changes employed in 2022 have helped to increase attendance at ballparks. Those rule changes included the implementation of the pitch clock, extra inning ghost runner, and the limitation…
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Stolen Bases*
The number of stolen bases in baseball has fluctuated greatly over time. Some of those periods and the causes of those fluctuations include: The latest change in stolen base activity occurred with the introduction of analytics into the game in the early 2000’s. Prior to that, in the 1990’s there were regularly more than 3,000 successful…
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Did Boston’s Greatest Baseball Miracle Get a Little Help From Some Cambridge Nerds?
By Bill Coleman The MIT Conspiracy The following story is fictional. To date, no evidence exists that the Boston Red Sox hacked another team’s communication system, employed MIT graduates to steal pitch signs or did anything improper during their 2026 winning streak. There are hot streaks. There are unbelievable hot streaks. And then there is…
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No Game for Old Men
Leonard “Bones” McCoy: Admiral, wouldn’t it be easier to put an experienced crew back on the ship?James T. Kirk: Galloping around the cosmos is a game for the young, Doctor. From the movie: Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan Evidently, so is the game of baseball. We examined the current, top 100 position players in terms…
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Not so Fast Times on the Injured List: The Velocity Dilemma
Pitching injuries in MLB are up. Way up! We covered MLB pitching injuries from a couple of angles previously (here and here), but this article from a year ago shows the mounting evidence. Specifically, this chart from that same article clearly shows a steady increase of pitching injuries over the past twenty years. The article sums…
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Statistics you Likely Never Heard About nor Care to Hear About
PPTV, CPTV or DSV. Have you ever heard of any of these acronyms? Neither have we. No, they are not new variants of Covid nor are they government agencies. Do not feel bad, we didn’t know what these stood for before we started researching pitch clock related violations. The pitch clock has sprouted a number…
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Strikeout Considerations
The premise that MLB functions under is that baseball is on the decline because the games are too long and this has turned off the fan base. As we noted in prior posts the rule changes do little to change the actual action, and instead just shorten the game. If you want to buy into…