Abstract

Baseball players and their managers make numerous decisions that can have a significant effect on the result of the game. The effectiveness of their decision-making strategies depend on the strategies played by their opponents. For example, throwing a first-pitch fastball down the middle is a good strategy against a hitter who always takes the first pitch, but it is a risky strategy against a hitter who likes to swing at the first pitch and who is good at hitting fastballs. Additionally, any payoff a player receives from playing a strategy comes at the expense of their opponent. A batter cannot get a hit unless the defense allows a hit. A manager cannot win unless the opposing manager loses. It follows from these two properties that zero-sum games are appropriate for modeling baseball decision making and identifying optimal strategies. Thus, the purpose of this work is to use zero-sum game theory to define game-theoretically optimal strategies for every decision made during a baseball game. In this document, I present optimal strategies for swing decisions, pitch sequencing, fielder positioning, stolen base attempts, pickoff attempts, hit and runs, pitchouts, relief pitching decisions, and pinch hitting decisions.

Degree

PhD

College and Department

Computer Science; Computational, Mathematical, and Physical Sciences

Rights

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