Data and code for analyzing effects of NCAA baseball aluminum bat regulations. Also included are slides from a presentation delivered at JSM 2013.
Beginning in the 2011 season, the NCAA issued a mandatory ban on all non-wood baseball bats not conforming to a set of newly adopted performance standards. Prior to 2011, teams and individual players accumulated record offensive statistics, which subsequently resulted in a perceived uneven competitive balance between pitchers and hitters, as well as concerns about player safety. The purpose of the current study is to examine the effects of changes in offensive performance measures, which can potentially be used as an indication of alternative competitive strategies teams might have employed in order to compensate for the reduction in the new bats' recoil efficiency.
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