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Works Cited

Albert, Jim. "A Batting Average: Does It Represent Ability or Luck?" Bowling Green State

University, 17 Apr. 2004, www-math.bgsu.edu/~albert/papers/paper_bavg.pdf. Accessed

11 Feb. 2020. This article focuses on the fact that batting average is a very poor statistic

for evaluating how good a hitter is due to the fact the average can be affected by hits. Hits

can happen in a variety of situations and a hit for one batter may not be a hit for a

different batter due to how the fielders are in position, the speed at which the ball is hit,

etc. Understanding that there are better statistics to evaluate hitters on such as strikeout

rate, walk rate, in-play home run rate, etc. allows us to better understand who is actually

the better player because these statistics have a much higher correlation to the hitter's

ability than the batting average.

This source is useful for my project as it allows me to prove that not all statistics are

created equal and that you can manipulate and hide data behind poorly created statistics.

Batting average has always been a poor indicator of hitter performance because there are

something that can happen to the ball once it is in play that is not affected by the hitter.

Understanding that there are better categories that can provide the information you are

looking for is the main focus of my project and this article helps back up that perfectly.

Barry, Daniel, and J. A. Hartigan. "Choice Models for Predicting Divisional Winners in Major

League Baseball." Journal of the American Statistical Association, vol. 88, no. 423,

1993, pp. 766-74. JSTOR, doi:10.2307/2290761. Accessed 11 Feb. 2020.

Baumer, Benjamin S., Shane T. Jensen and Gregory J. Matthews. "openWAR: An open source

system for evaluating overall player performance in major league baseball" Journal of
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Quantitative Analysis in Sports, 11.2 (2015): 69-84. Retrieved 11 Feb. 2020, from

doi:10.1515/jqas-2014-0098

Baumer, Ben, and Andrew Zimbalist. "Quantifying Market Inefficiencies in the Baseball Players'

Market." Eastern Economic Journal, vol. 40, no. 4, 2014, pp. 488-98,

www.jstor.org/stable/24693687. Accessed 11 Feb. 2020. This article talks about market

inefficiencies in baseball after Moneyball was first published in 2003. It investigates

which statistics were overvalued and undervalued and evaluates 3 skills (eye, bat, and

power) and sees how they translate into a team's winning percentage. The article also

creates definitions for those statistics that deviate from the standard baseball statistics.

With those statistics, it models labor valuation and shows how it varies by year what

statistics were overvalued and undervalued. The article comes to the conclusion that even

though some statistics may have initially overvalued after Moneyball, they have returned

to their normal rate at this point. There was also no evidence that more payroll spending

led to a higher winning percentage over time.

This article is important to my project as it allows me to understand how statisticians

approach baseball statistics and what they do with it. It also gives a glimpse into seeing

overvaluation and undervaluation allowing me to incorporate that into my research.

Finally, it shows how applying different statistics can affect data and why it is important

to find the best statistics for your data.

Bennett, Jay M., and John A. Flueck. "An Evaluation of Major League Baseball Offensive

Performance Models." The American Statistician, vol. 37, no. 1, 1983, pp. 76-82. JSTOR,

doi:10.2307/2685850. Accessed 11 Feb. 2020.

Demmink, Herman. "Value of Stealing Bases in Major League Baseball: 'Stealing' Runs and

Wins." Public Choice, vol. 142, no. 3/4, 2010, pp. 497-505. JSTOR,

www.jstor.org/stable/40541986. The article mostly focuses on finding the value of a

stolen base in baseball and seeing if it increases the chance of winning a baseball game.

Using statistical analysis and the fact that 66% of stolen base attempts between 1990 and

2004 were successful and it was concluded that attempting to steal bases was worth the

risk of potentially getting caught. The article also made a correlation with on-base

percentage. The article also commented on the fact as a team wins more, it is likely to get

more revenue as it gets higher attendance and possibly playoff games.

The article is extremely helpful with my research due to it applying baseball statistics but

also keeping it very simple. It stuck to the more basic principles of economics and

statistics and because of that, it was easier to follow the method and understand what the

author was trying to do. It gives me a better understanding of the value of certain

statistics over others.

Guthrie, Donald. "Statistics in Sports." Journal of the American Statistical Association, vol. 89,

no. 427, 1994, pp. 1064-65. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2290935. Accessed 11 Feb.

2020.

Mirsky, Steve. "Numbers Game." Scientific American, vol. 310, no. 4, 2014, pp. 88-89. JSTOR,

www.jstor.org/stable/26039864. Accessed 11 Feb. 2020. The article talks about advanced

statistics along with the fact that they can be deceiving. While we have statistics that can

compose almost everything in the sport of baseball, we still don't have perfect statistics.

One great example is UZR where Derek Jeter was in the top 10% one year and the
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bottom 10% the next year. Because there is very little correlation there is not much you

can take away from it and with that, you need to improve the statistics to provide more

relevant information.

This article is helpful for my project because it shows statistics can not always give the

best information and can sometimes allow you to make the wrong conclusions if you

don't have the proper statistical categories. It also incorporates sabermetrics into its

discussion and allows for me to get a better understanding of the general thinking that

people who are researching this topic are thinking.

Phillips, Christopher J. "Keeping Score." Cabinet, no. 56, Winter 2014-2015, pp. 73-79.

Christopher J Phillips,

www.christopherjphillips.com/application/files/6814/7774/5334/PhillipsCJ_KeepingScor

e_Cabinet_56_2015.pdf. Accessed 11 Feb. 2020. This article mostly talks about the

beginning of stat keeping in baseball and why it is relevant. Baseball in its infancy in the

mid-1800s did not have much official stat keeping and most times was played

recreationally. As time went on, stat keeping became much more important as Henry

Chadwick promoted it and encouraged official stat keeping for official professional

baseball games. He also encouraged teams to hire their own stat keeps so that they could

evaluate their players and understand how they were performing. Chadwick paved the

way for modern-day stat keeping and is a major hand is why there are historical baseball

statistics that can date all the way back to the 1890s and also why know how the game

works today,
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This source is helpful towards my project as it allows me to understand how baseball stat

keeping first started and with that how certain statistics first came into existence.

Chadwick is one of the people who came up with the concept of the error and probably

defined what it is and isn't and could explain why the definition for an error is so

complex. In my opinion, understanding the origins of something allows you to better

evaluate and modify it as you understand how people first intended for it to work and that

is what this article is helping to do.