Research Papers

Melville, William; Grimsman, David; Archibald, Christopher

At numerous points throughout the course of a baseball game, a team's manager must choose an action from a set of multiple possible actions. For example, before every at-bat they must decide whether to stick with the current batter or replace them with a pinch hitter. They must also decide when to relieve their current pitcher and which reliever to use. These decisions can have a significant effect on the outcome of a game and are often heavily scrutinized and criticized when they seemingly backfire, like Kevin Cash's decision to relieve a hot-handed Blake Snell in Game Six of the 2020 World Series or Aaron Boone's decision to use Nestor Cortes against Freddie Freeman in Game One of the 2024 World Series.