Aggression vs. selection : a statistical analysis of offensive approaches in major league baseball

Abstract

While the art of hitting a baseball is not a dichotomy, players are often categorized as aggressive or selective hitters, where aggressive hitters swing more often during trips to the plate and selective hitters swing less often. Analysts discuss the merits of each approach and whether one is superior to the other. The goal of this paper is to use various statistics to reach conclusions on the superiority of an aggressive or selective approach. Using tables of specific player data, mathematical tests can be used to identify and describe patterns, which may or may not advocate one of the two hitting approaches. After the final tests and results, there are notable patterns in the data for specific hitting statistics, as selective hitters slightly outperformed their aggressive counterparts, but no significant choice can be made either way.