I won’t include all of the code, but I will show a portion of it here as an example. I began by using the baseballr package to collect the data for the time periods of interest. I wasn’t completely sure if the pitch locations were consistent between the different levels, so by taking Triple A data from earlier in the season, I can see if there is a change in the strike zone without worrying about if there are differences in how locations are tracked between levels. I decided to get pitch data for August 1 - August 15 for both Triple A and MLB games as well as data from April 15 - April 30 from Triple A games. The automated balls and strikes system (ABS) was implemented in Triple A in May 2022, which was convenient for me because it meant that there was a month of data where the ABS wasn’t used that I could use for comparison. The size of the automated zone, MLB said, is similar to the major-league zone.” 1 The top and bottom edges of the strike zone are based on specific percentages of the batter’s height. From an article published in The Athletic, “The strike zone extends 19 inches wide at the middle point of home plate, including an inch off either edge (home plate is 17 inches wide). Later, I began to search for the size of the automated strike zone. Now, I know that the strike zones aren’t necessary to scale for Gameday, but I was again suspicious about the size of the strike zone. I pulled up MiLB Gameday for the game we were at and when I looked at the strike zone, it honestly looked a decent amount different from the MLB strike zone that I pulled up on Gameday for a MLB game. Since I have been around baseball a lot, I felt that even though the strike zone was automated, it was different from the strike zone that is usually called. My friends and I felt a little dumb for complaining about the automated strike zone, but at the same time I couldn’t stop thinking about how I felt like the strike zone seemed small. As I discussed what I thought were questionable calls with my friends, someone in the row in front of us reminded us that the automated strike zone was being using in AAA ball. In the first few innings of the game, I felt like the umpire had a very tight strike zone and was especially not calling high strikes, which I feel had been more commonly called in the majors the last few years. Since I played baseball for many years and watch a lot of baseball, I feel like I have a pretty good understanding of the strike zone. In August 2022, I attended a Minor League baseball game in Salt Lake City.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |