Abstract

Big Data is becoming a common part of everyday life, and this is no different in professional baseball. Sabermetrics, defined as the mathematical and statistical analysis of baseball, has developed into a game changing movement that only a few would have expected. Technology that deals with analytics and Big Data has evolved over the past several years, and Major League Baseball teams are relying on data from systems like PITCHf/x and Statcast to make their next move. The Houston Astros have adopted this new approach of sabermetrics which has allowed them to turn 100 loss seasons into 100 win seasons and ultimately win the 2017 World Series. This paper explores the impact that sabermetrics has had on baseball since Bill James’ Baseball Abstracts and the publication of Michael Lewis’ book Moneyball. The computer program R is used to analyze data from the past 18 seasons of the Houston Astros and create a multiple linear regression model to predict the number of games the team will win in a season given particular values for variables deemed significant in predicting the outcome of the game.

Semester/Year of Award

Spring 2019

Mentor

Michelle L. Smith

Mentor Professional Affiliation

Mathematics and Statistics

Access Options

Restricted Access Thesis

Document Type

Bachelor Thesis

Degree Name

Honors Scholars

Degree Level

Bachelor's

Department

Mathematics and Statistics

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