The Tradeoff Between Home Runs and Contact Rate

Abstract

This paper develops a new framework for understanding the at-bat, approaching the batter's outcomes of home runs and contact rate as revealed preferences derived from a utility optimization among mutually exclusive "long ball" and "small ball" attempts. The theory is then tested on a large sample of Major League Baseball veterans with two different panel data models. Both models find a significant and negative relationship between home runs per at-bat and contact rate.

Keywords: baseball, panel data, longitudinal, home runs

JEL Classification: C23, L83, D2