Statistics That Confuse

Well, maybe not confuse. As I told you a couple weeks ago, I am doing research on baseball statistics for my team. It always seems like you get to the 6th inning and you have the bottom of the order leading off. So, I wanted to know what our actual numbers were. Interestingly, when removing the 1st inning, position 6 leads off 18% of the time, position 1 leads off 16% of the time, position 7 leads off 14% of the time and positions 5 and 9 lead off 13% of the time.

So, that didn't help too much. Let's look further. Leading off the 5th inning 26% of the time is position 5 and position 9 18% of the time. The bottom third of the order leads off the 5th 41% of the time, the middle third leads off the 5th 31% of the time and the top third of the order leads off the 5th 28% of the time. The 6th inning? Well, position 6 is 30% and positions 1 and 8 are 20%. So, the bottom third leads off the 6th 35% of the time, the middle third leads off the 6th 40% of the time and the top third leads off the 6th 25% of the time.

The feeling that the bottom of the order leads off the 6th all the time isn't true. But, what do I do with these stats? Hmmmm. I'll let you know!