ABSTRACT

Baseball fans are familiar with splits, where player offensive or defensive statistics are broken down by different situations. For example, suppose one is interested in learning about the batting statistics of Bryce Harper who had a strong 2015 (MVP) season. Looking at the web site fangraphs.com and selecting the “Splits” tab for Harper, we see that

• Harper hits better against right-handed than left-handed pitchers. • He hits better during home games compared to away games. • He had a cool April, batting .286, but batted between .333 and .370 in the months

May, June, and July. • His batting average was .460 for fly ball hits, as opposed to .203 for grounders. • His batting average was much higher when he hit to left field, as compared with

center and right fields. • He hit over .400 for situations with medium leverage (medium-pressure situa-

tions). • His batting averagewas high for pitch counts that passed through “hitter’s counts”

such as 3-0 and 3-1 and low for “pitcher counts” such as 0-2 and 1-2. • If one looks further in Harper’s game log for the 2015 season, one notices that he

hit six home runs in a three-game period. It appears that Harper had a short period of “hot” power hitting during these games.