Putting on the shift
February 24th, 2009 | Published in Sabermetrics, baseball, fielding, links | 2 Comments
by Myron Logan
If you read the Tom Tango interview, you probably have a good idea where the future lies in baseball research: HIT and PITCHf/x.
Here’s an article* by Max looking at how a team’s fielders should play Chase Utley. He used gameday data to plot all of Utley’s hits last year, then employed a cluster analysis to attempt to find where the fielders should be positioned. Fascinating!
if you’re in a particularly mathy mood, here’s everything you’d want to know about cluster analysis (and probably much more).
Also, here’s some good discussion at The Book.
February 24th, 2009 at 1:25 pm (#)
I might be missing something, but isn’t it possible Utley could just adapt to the proposed defensive alignment, and start spraying balls down the third base line? I’d imagine a disciplined hitter with good bat control (sounds a lot like Utley) would be able to take advantage of huge holes in the defense. Of course, his slugging percentage would take a bit of a hit if he started slapping balls down the line.
February 24th, 2009 at 1:32 pm (#)
Nope, I don’t think you’re missing anything. I believe Tango, or someone else, mentioned it in the thread I linked to.
It’s almost like we’re looking at Utley’s hits, after they happen, and then trying to figure out where to place the defense for those hits. Well, yes, that is what’s being done. Utley’s hit direction is, I imagine, not only due to the way he hits the ball, but also the defensive alignment he faces each PA. So if that alignment changes, especially drastically, I’d imagine his spray chart would change.
Hmm … there is so much to explore. Still, I love this kind of research.