Brandon Zink, Abiel Fattore, and Cameron Connor
In this project, we aimed to look at the effect that travel has on both offensive (batting) and defensive (pitching) performance in MLB baseball games. We did this by looking at every MLB series since 2000 and grouping the away teams travel distance by miles and time zones crossed. We then using hypothesis testing to compare the stats of the away team at each interval to the MLB average in order to find which statistics showed significant change.
We then used the Pythagorean Winning Percentage Forumla (also referred to as the Pythagorean Luck Formula) in order to determine the effect that travel had on each teams winning percentage.
Q: Does travel, either in miles or time zones crossed, have a significant impact on the batting of pitching performance of MLB players?
A: Yes. The most significant changes were found at 500-1,000 miles range, >2,000 miles range, 3 and 1 time zones traveled west and 1 time zone traveled east.
Q: How does this effect the winning percentage of teams?
A: The Pirates find the largest benefit from their lack of travel, while the Marlins and Expos (when they existed) had the greatest detriment. A full analysis can be found in the paper.
The most direct application is that in the 2017 MLB season, if it weren't for the travel benefit that the Twins gained by being located close to division rivals, the Brewers actually should've been the second wildcard team in the AL. However, a full and more detailed list of applications can be found in the paper, linked near the bottom of this readme.
React
Typescript
Django
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Facebook
Microsoft
Google
Alibaba
D3
Tencent