Pitch Perfect

Overall Hypthesis: The catcher has a bigger influence on the pitching sequence and what a pitcher will throw next.

Installation

Pybaseball can be installed via pip:

pip install pybaseball or from the repo (which may at times be more up to date):

git clone https://github.com/jldbc/pybaseball cd pybaseball python setup.py install

**** Need to install Homebrew: brew install git-lfs for the large files to be able to push to Github

*** Must add *.csv to gitignore as you will not be able to commit these season files to github all files >50mb

Will use 2015-2017 seasons of the top 50 pitchers

Data Dictionary ab_idat-bat ID. First 4 digits are year. Matches with ab_id in pitches.csv batter_idplayer ID of the batter. Given by MLB, player names found in player_names.csv eventdescription of the result of the at-bat g_idgame ID. First 4 digits are year inninginning number onumber of outs after this at-bat p_scorescore for the pitcher's team p_throwswhich hand pitcher throws with. Single character, R or L pitcher_idplayer ID of the pitcher. Given by MLB, player names found in player_names.csv standwhich side batter hits on. Single character, R or L topTrue if it's the top of the inning, False if it's the bottom

At Bat Columns

ab_idat - bat ID. First 4 digits are year. Matches with ab_id in pitches.csv batter_id - player ID of the batter. Given by MLB, player names found in player_names.csv event - description of the result of the at-bat g_id - game ID. First 4 digits are year inning - inning number o - number of outs after this at-bat p_score - score for the pitcher's team p_throws - which hand pitcher throws with. Single character, R or L pitcher_idplayer ID of the pitcher. Given by MLB, player names found in player_names.csv stand - which side batter hits on. Single character, R or L topTrue - if it's the top of the inning, False if it's the bottom

1= Fastball 2= Offspeed 3= Breaking Ball Pitch Type Definitions

• FT - Two-seam Fastball- 1
• FC - Cutter- 1
• FF - Four-seam Fastball- 1
• SI - Sinker- 1
• FS - Splitter- 2
• CH - Changeup- 2
• SL - Slider- 3
• KC - Knuckle curve- 3
• CU - Curveball- 3

Acquire: Downloaded the data set via Kaggle: https://www.kaggle.com/pschale/mlb-pitch-data-20152018

plan of attack: (try a neural network) Predict pitches: 1=fastball 2= offspeed 3= Breaking pitch

1. run a prediction based on just the count- LR MVP .43

2. " ", runners on base- LR=.42

3. " ", score- LR=.42

4. " ", inning, pitch count

5. " ", handness of batter

6. " ", isolate catcher (Hypothesis)