Introducing Discipline Score Based on League Overall Swinging Probability

TL;DR

This paper introduces new metrics, Discipline Score and Adjusted Discipline Score, to evaluate a batter's discipline in recognizing balls versus strikes, based on league-wide swinging probabilities.

Contribution

The paper presents novel metrics for measuring batting discipline, capturing a player's ability to take balls, which was not adequately addressed by existing metrics.

Findings

DS and ADS effectively quantify discipline in batting.

Metrics differentiate disciplined hitters from others.

Potential for improved player evaluation and training.

Abstract

Plate discipline is an important feature of a hitter's success. Hitter who are able to recognize good pitches to swing at and balls to take are generally recognized as disciplined hitters. Although there are some metrics that can provide insight into the patience of a hitter, most do not capture the ability of a batter to take balls. In this research, we introduce two new metrics, Discipline Score (DS) and Adjusted Discipline Score (ADS), which evaluate batters' discipline when the pitch is a ball compared with the predicted tendencies of all batters in the league.