Communications of the ACM
Statistics Student Improves WV's Baseball Analytics
A TrackMan system runs on a radar panel installed behind home plate at Monongalia County Ballpark.
Credit: West Virginia University
A West Virginia University industrial mathematics and statistics student is helping WVU baseball coaches improve their understanding of the strike zone.
Joseph Cuomo, a senior from Harrisburg, Pa., is a student manager for the WVU baseball team. Using the TrackMan radar system, which runs on a large radar panel installed behind home plate in Monongalia County Ballpark, Cuomo and the baseball staff collect data about pitches. The data ranges from pitchers' extensions and release locations to pitch velocity and spin rate to the speed and location of where pitches cross home plate.
Cuomo uses the system's raw data to analyze the statistics and prepare reports for WVU's coaching staff.
"We do a lot day-to-day to track our players. We're using this data to understand our players and help them develop and improve," Cuomo says. "You can use the data to make small adjustments. You win games based on small adjustments. Those adjustments can make the difference in a pitch being left up and getting hit for a home run or a pitch being down in the zone for a strikeout. That's the type of impact I like to see from this data."
Throughout the spring 2019 semester, Cuomo used his senior capstone project to study the accuracy of umpires' called strikes and balls. Collecting data from more than 4,200 pitches dating back to the fall 2017 WVU baseball season, he found that the strike zone is more consistent than assumed. Using a predictive model, he learned that strikes are more likely to be called when pitches are outside the strike zone, away from the hitter, rather than inside, closer to the hitter.
"There are a lot of complaints about umpires in the college game. To be honest, sometimes they make really bad calls," Cuomo says. "What's great about this study is that we have the data that shows exactly what gets called and whether the calls are accurate."
This approach has the potential to inform the future of professional baseball. The Atlantic League, an independent baseball league, is using the TrackMan system to call balls and strikes instead of umpires as a pilot program for Major League Baseball.
"Joseph worked hard in his statistics courses, and he was able to leverage that foundational knowledge into a deep understanding of how to analyze complex TrackMan baseball data," says Ken Ryan, professor of statistics and Cuomo's capstone adviser. "As part of this capstone work, we spent several months reading the seminal works in baseball data science, and a true understanding was possible because of a combination of Joseph's applied and theoretical coursework in statistics."
As a student manager, Cuomo strives to do anything he can to help the Mountaineers win. This can range from setting up the field for practice to throwing batting practice before every game and meeting players late at night for extra practices. During the games, he runs the cameras mounted around the stadium and tags the film for post-game analysis. "Joey is a great kid who has committed countless hours to our baseball program. His dedication, energy, and positive attitude is an integral part of our student staff, and he is always working to help our team continue to get better," says WVU baseball coach Randy Mazey. "Joey has a great baseball mind, and we are proud of all that he's accomplished here at WVU."
After graduation, Cuomo plans to enroll in a graduate organizational leadership program to take the next step toward becoming a baseball coach.
"Math and statistics have prepared me on one front, but what I need now as a future coach is to develop my leadership and organizational skills—the soft skills," Cuomo says. "As far as the hard skills, like analytics and data analysis, I had a great experience at WVU. Continuing on in a graduate program, I want to focus on what I need now. What I want to do is coach players and use data to help them improve."
Cuomo believes his WVU education coupled with his experience as a student manager will set him apart in the cutthroat competition for coaching jobs.
"Coming to WVU, it was one of the few universities that offered a statistics program and an opportunity to get involved with a Division I, Power 5 baseball program," Cuomo says. "As a student manager, I have had this great experience and made connections with coaches who may ultimately help me get a job. I've also had a great professor in Professor Ryan. He's been fantastic in helping me use the software resources at WVU such as JMP and Project R to help me learn and prepare to do this at the next level."
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