Table of Contents

1. Introduction..............................................................................................................................2

2. Offensive Performance Measures............................................................................................2

3. Method of Analysis..................................................................................................................3

4. Data Analysis...........................................................................................................................4

4.1 Offensive Performance Comparison......................................................................................4

4.2 League Leaders.................................................................................................................5

4.3 All-Star Teams..................................................................................................................6

4.4 Age & Offensive Performance..........................................................................................7

4.5 Team Batting Averages.....................................................................................................7

5. Information Systems.................................................................................................................8

Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................9

References......................................................................................................................................10

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 1. Introduction

The main aim of this report is to critically assess and analyze the offensive performance
of players in the American and National League in order to determine which set of players
perform best when it comes to getting hits and scoring runs. It is crucial to closely analyze the
measures of offensive performance as the authorities such as MLB Players’ Association and
Major League Baseball are concerned about the slow pace of the game since it “takes longer than
ever to produce fewer and fewer runs” in baseball games. As such, by pinpointing the players
with the best offensive performance in the leagues, the authorities can retain or extend the
contracts of such players to increase the number of hits and runs scored in a baseball match and
consequently speed up the pace of play.

By using spreadsheets and carrying out analysis on several performance measures,

comparisons were made between the offensive performance of players in the 2017 and 2018
season. On the basis of the answers drawn from the spreadsheet, a thorough analysis is detailed
in the following report along with recommendations for the authorities on how to improve the
speed of play for the upcoming seasons and which players are most likely to perform the best,
based on particular performance metrics.

2. Offensive Performance Measures

In order to understand the analysis of the data, it is first essential to understand the
measures and metrics upon which the data is based. Considering the fact that offensive
performance needs to be measured in case of batters, therefore the measures selected are based
upon the fundamentals of scoring hits and runs. As such the first and most fundamental concept
is Plate Appearances (PA) and it refers to the number of times a batter appears at the plate to
complete a round of batting regardless of how the batting round is complete [ CITATION
Bas14 \l 1033 ]. Plate appearance is not to be confused with At Bats (AB) which excludes certain
results, such as walks, hit by pitch or sacrifice hits from the appearance of the batter at the plate.

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 These two fundamental concepts are used to calculate the more critical measures of
offensive performance; batting averages, slugging percentage, on-base percentage and OPS.
Batting average is essentially the number of times a player was able to score a hit when at the
plate, as compared to the total number of times when they appeared at the plate to bat not
considering walks or sacrifice hits. Although batting average has traditionally been viewed as the
best measure for batting performance, it does not consider the type of hit (single, double, triple or
home run) and does not take into consideration walks and sacrifice hits [CITATION MLB19 \l
1033 ].

On base percentage is simple the number of times a batter has been able to reach base as
compared to the number of times they have come out to bat on the plate. As such, on base
percentage depicts how successful a batter was in avoiding an out and getting on base each time
he came out to bat [ CITATION MLB191 \l 1033 ].

The slugging percentage is a better estimation of a batter’s ability to get hits when they
are at bat. The slugging percentage, unlike batting average and on base percentage, takes into
consideration the number of bases as well as the type of hit. Therefore, slugging percentage not
only shows how frequently a batter was able to get a hit but also considers the number of bases
(single, double, triple or home run) they were able to achieve [ CITATION MLB192 \l 1033 ].

Finally OPS combines the previous two measures i.e. slugging and on base percentage.
This means OPS shows how well a batter can get on base and hit for power while doing so. Since
OPS combines the two factors that are a direct measure of how well a batter is performing
offensively, so it is thought to serve as the best indicator of offensive performance in the modern
day of the game.

3. Method of Analysis

In order to assess how fast the modern baseball game is played, the offensive
performance of batters is checked through spreadsheet on the basis of the factors introduced
above. In case of the increase in offensive performance across 2017 and 2018, the main
indicators of offensive performance were extracted and compared across the years in the
spreadsheet. Whereas, in case of calculating league leaders across different offensive

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performance metrics, a simple rank function allows us to find the top three performers for both
2017 and 2018. Moreover, the best all-star teams according to OPS and batting averages were
found by search and sort option in spreadsheet. This allowed each position on the team to be
filled by the player with the best OPS in case of OPS all-star team and the best batting average in
case of batting average all-star team.

In order to assess whether 27 years was the best age in terms of offensive performance or
not, pivot table was used to assess the performance across various age segments. Lastly, the
comparison of teams’ batting averages between 2017 and 2018 was also done using pivot table
and determination was made whether the batting average had improved or not.

4. Data Analysis

4.1 Offensive Performance Comparison

The offensive performance comparison between the years 2017 and 2018 is depicted in
Figure 1. The comparison shows that there has been an increase in the number of plate
appearances by approximately 3% which means that batters on average, have come out to bat at
the plate more number of times in 2018 as compared to 2017. However, this may not necessarily
be a good sign as a higher plate appearance rate may reflect lower offensive performance. This
drop in offensive performance is confirmed by the comparison of average total bases, average
batting average and average OPS, all of which have decreased by 1.4%, 3.1% and 3.5%
respectively. The average strikeout rate on the other hand, has increased by almost 4.4% which
means batters are getting out faster and more frequently in 2018 than they were in 2017.

Therefore, even though the increased plate appearance in 2018 may seem like an
indicator of improved offensive performance at first glance, it is the direct result of an increased
rate of striking out and lower batting averages as well as lower OPS which shows that the
offensive performance has actually declined among batters in 2018.

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 Figure 1: Offensive Performance Comparison

4.2 League Leaders

In the case of league leaders, Altuve, Votto and Martinez led the pack in 2017 in batting
average, on base percentage and OPS respectively. They were replaced by Betts, Trout and Voit
in 2018 yet the interesting thing to note is the change in the values of the performance measures.
Even though batting average has remained constant for both Altuve and Betts at 0.346 in both
2017 and 2018, on base percentage has increased slightly from 0.452 for Votto in 2017 to 0.454
for Trout in 2018. This shows that Trout was able to get on base in 2018 at a slightly higher rate
than what Votto was able to achieve in 2017.

However, OPS or the sum of on base percentage and slugging percentage has declined
from 1.109 for Martinez in 2017 to 1.091 for Voit in 2018. Not only does this mean that Voit
was getting hits and getting on bases at a lower rate in 2018 as compared to Martinez in 2017,
but this also means that the OPS of the entire league has dropped due to the decrease in the value
for the league leader. As such, teams in the American and the National League need to expend
more time and resources to allow players to enhance the performance in such a way that it can be
reflected in these performance metrics.

Figure 2: Comparison of League Leaders

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 4.3 All-Star Teams

Two all-star teams were created on the basis of two separate performance measures; OPS
and batting average. The all-star team created with the best OPS included Ramos, Voit, Trout,
Betts, Machado and Arenado whereas the all-star team created with the best batting averages
included Ramos, Voit, Pham, Betts, Mechado and Turner. The teams, along with their respective
OPS and batting averages are listed in Figure 3.

The important point to note here is that the only difference between the two all-star teams
comes at the position of the Outfielder and Third Base. Two important conclusions can be drawn
from this fact. Firstly, this shows that despite the difference in the two measures in terms of
accounting for total bases and hits, they produce an almost identical team. Secondly, as batting
average takes into account the ratio of hits to at bats, and OPS takes into account the ratio of total
bases to at bats, so it can be said that the probability of getting on base does not significantly
impact the ability to get hits for each plate appearance. Yet both measures, OPS and batting
average, are equally reliable in assessing the offensive performance of batters.

Figure 3: All-Star Teams Comparison

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 4.4 Age & Offensive Performance

Figure 4 shows the top eight age groups in terms of OPS in the league. In 2017, the 27
years age group was in sixth place with an average OPS of 0.748. This shows that offensive
performance is not dependent on age since five other age groups (most notably age group with
38 year olds and age group with 20 year olds) were able to outperform the players in the age
group of 27 years despite significant gap in the ages. Moreover, in the top eight age groups of
2018, the age group with 27 year olds is not even in the list as they did not have enough OPS to
begin with. As such, this is conclusive evidence that offensive performance is not at its peak at
27 years of age and is independent of the age of the player.

Figure 4: Comparison of Age and OPS

4.5 Team Batting Averages

According to Figure 5, there were only eight teams in the entire league that were able to
improve their batting averages from 2017 to 2018. These eight teams included the Athletics,
Blue Jays, Cubs, Padres, Pirates, Rays, Red Sox and Reds. Among these, the Rays recorded the
largest improvement of 7% and the Cubs recorded the smallest improvement of just 0.6% in the
National League.

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 Figure 5: Team Batting Average Comparison

5. Information Systems

In order to track rule changes in baseball, the authorities could turn towards SAP which is
an information integration system that combines information from several sources to make it
available to a diverse set of users simultaneously. Teams could access SAP to stay updated on all
the track rule changes and MLB could make changes in a timely and effective manner. However,
other software such as Team App can also be used for the purpose of coordination and
integration of information regarding track rule changes. Furthermore, MATLAB, SPSS,
XLSTAT and Statistix are all software that can carry out automated statistical analysis which

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would prove useful in the determination of offensive performance of batters in the American and
National League [ CITATION Cap171 \l 1033 ].

Conclusion

After carrying out analysis for the offensive performance measures for the batters in the
American and National League, it would be prudent to conclude that the rule changes
incorporated by the authorities previously have done little to address the main concern of modern
day baseball and increase the pace of play. Indeed, the only way to inject faster pace into the
game would be to retain players with the best offensive performance measures however, between
2017 and 2018 these performance indicators have shown a downward trend which requires some
policy changes from the authorities to favor the batters to increase scoring and hits. Perhaps
bigger bases and more distance between the pitcher’s mound and the batter’s plate may be some
of the steps the authorities can consider to increase the offensive performance of batters in the
league. It would however, take some time to see the effects of such policy changes due to
resistance to adoption by the teams in question.

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 References

Baseball Reference, 2014. Baseball Reference. [Online]

Available at: https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Plate_appearance
[Accessed 4 December 2019].

Capterra, 2017. Capterra.com. [Online]

Available at: https://www.capterra.com/statistical-analysis-software/
[Accessed 4 December 2019].

MLB.com, n.d. MLB.com. [Online]

Available at: http://m.mlb.com/glossary/standard-stats/batting-average
[Accessed 4 December 2019].

MLB.com, n.d. MLB.com. [Online]

Available at: http://m.mlb.com/glossary/standard-stats/on-base-percentage
[Accessed 4 December 2019].

MLB.com, n.d. MLB.com. [Online]

Available at: http://m.mlb.com/glossary/standard-stats/slugging-percentage
[Accessed 4 December 2019].

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