Decision-making in Baseball
Baseball is a great game to analyze from game theory perspective because of the scale of strategic decisions that are continuously made on the fields and each play. In every play, there are various players (baseball players, coaches, team managers and owners) with different goals and payoffs, and thousands of pitch-by-pitch decisions are made in course of an at-bat, inning, game, and season. Major League Baseball, one of the four major professional sports leagues of North America, is the most suitable platform for analysis because statistical information is tracked for almost every single complexion of the game. In the following paper, we choose to inspect one at-bat decision of a single game in detail as a microcosm of the strategies occurring in daily baseball.
Background
Major League Baseball is the highest level of play in North American professional baseball. The regular season includes 162 games for each team and is concluded by advancing five teams from each league (American League and National League) to the "postseason", or play-off, where the winner is laurelled after the World Series. The Tigers/ Red Sox game (American League Champion Series Game 2) on October 13, 2013 is chosen to be analyzed in details by applying game theory.
The winner of ALCS (win 4 out of 7 games) will go to the World Series. Tigers have been into World Series for 12 times and Red Sox, 11 times since 1901. As attending World Series is one of the most honorable for players, managers, and even fans, every decision in every play in every game in play-off would be much more important than in regular season.
October 18, 2013: ALCS #2
Tigers' pitcher didn't allow a hit until the sixth and left after seven wi...
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...e are able to see the importance of minimizing predictability and employing mixed strategies, especially for pitcher. Batters and pitchers must utilize mixed strategies to keep their opponent from anticipating their moves and taking advantage of their tendencies.
Reference
i. Sports Reference LLC, Baseball Reference.com, http://www.baseball-reference.com/
ii. Jim Caple, 2013, ESPN.com, Retrieved from http://espn.go.com/mlb/playoffs/2013/story/_/id/9822450/jim-leyland-curious -decisions-opened-door-red-sox-comeback-mlb
iii. Prospectus Entertainment Ventures, LLC, Baseball Prospectus, http://www.baseballprospectus.com/glossary/index.php?search=RAA
iv. FanGraphs, http://www.fangraphs.com
v. Jerry Crasnick, 2013, ESPN.com, Retrieved from http://espn.go.com/mlb/playoffs/2013/story/_/id/9822513/detroit-tigers-figure -how-regroup-game-3-mlb
World Series Overview | MLB.com: History. (n.d.). Major League Baseball. Retrieved January 21, 2014, from http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/history/postseason/mlb_ws.jsp?feature=club_champs
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Nemee, David. “100 Years of Major League Baseball.” Lincolnwood, Illinois: Publications Infernational, Ltd, 200. Print.
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