3 papers
math.OC2026
Strategies under a pickoff limit in baseball: A zero-sum sequential game with multilevel models
Scott Powers, Sivaramakrishnan Ramani, Jacob Hahn +1
Recently, Major League Baseball (MLB) limited pitchers to three pickoff attempts, creating a cat-and-mouse game between pitcher and runner. Each failed attempt adds pressure on the…
stat.AP2025
Swinging, Fast and Slow: Interpreting variation in baseball swing tracking metrics
Scott Powers, Ronald Yurko
In 2024, Major League Baseball released new bat tracking data, reporting swing-by-swing bat speed and swing length measured at the point of contact. While exciting, the data presen…
physics.soc-ph2025
Ball path curvature and in-game free throw shooting proficiency in the National Basketball Association
Ruoqian Zhu, Dave Love, Scott Powers
Basketball shooting coaches agree that smoother shooting motions are better, but there is less agreement about what "smooth" means quantitatively or what part of the shooting motio…