The spirit of competition is alive and well with Colin Friedman (Sr., Mechanical Engineering) and Carter Burns (Sr., Economics). The pair, both right-handed pitchers for the Hopkins baseball team, is looking to translate their innate knowledge of the game to a wider audience.
“I’ve been playing ball since I was six, and Carter’s been playing since he was 10,” says Friedman. “There are a lot of thoughts that cross your mind as you prepare for games over the course of your career.”
Last summer, they noticed the rise of one-day fantasy leagues and were curious as to how they could use the Major League Baseball stats and translate that information in a way that could be useful for fantasy baseball fans.
They turned to JHU Civil Engineering professor Sauleh Siddiqui and University of Maryland Business professor Sean Barnes to help them figure out what makes certain pitchers more successful against certain hitters and what are the statistical indicators that help determine a pitcher’s overall success rate.
The two are utilizing cluster analysis and linear regression models along with statistics and video from MLB in their independent research project.
“Baseball is such a big part of our lives that when we found a way to combine something we love with our studies, it was a no-brainer,” says Burns.
Colin Friedman (photo: JHU Baseball)
Carter Burns (photo: JHU Baseball)