Quote:
Originally Posted by BobC
Mark,
I think you bring up some great points, along the same lines I was alluding to, that there are going to be so many variables to factor into answering a question like this that it is virtually (and likely literally) impossible to effectively factor them all into any statistical equation or formula. You can attempt to do it, but at the of end of the day you'll only end up with what a statistician thinks is the right answer.
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You say that, yet this is precisely what the entire mathematical discipline of Statistics was developed for. It is absolutely possible to measure the impact that something like pitching mound heights or strike zone dimensions has on performance with remarkable precision. This is not "pin the tail on the donkey". It is pure mathematics. If something has an effect, it can be measured, given a sufficient amount of data. The more data you have, the more accurately it can be estimated. It's all about sample sizes. And in baseball, we have a TON of data.