To Swing or Not to Swing … That is the Question

Rickey Henderson

The last two articles have hinted how Moneyball’s heavy emphasis on analytics may actually bring baseball back to an old school style. The pendulum has swung so far in one direction that the inefficiency in the market in the two previous cases has been on an old school approach that we thought may be long … Read more

Ball-Strike Outcomes: Gaining the Upper Hand

Tony Gwynn

How do ballplayers fare in different ball-strike counts? Is there a substantial variation in batting and slugging percentages as one goes deeper in the count? In which counts does the batter or pitcher gain a significant advantage? Revisiting the Retrosheet Event Files after extensively utilizing them throughout the “Taking the Extra Base” and “BABIP by … Read more