Baseball Research Paper Topics?

[Sabermetrician]

For one of my classes we are looking into writing a third research paper. Already this semester I've done:

 

-Sabermetrics and how teams utilizing them have an advantage over teams that are not

-Baseball and salary cap - how a salary cap will not improve parity in baseball

 

Any suggestions for a third? I really want it to be baseball related... but I'm not able to think of any possible research topics right now.

[FergieJ31]

you might get some ideas here:

 

http://www.geocities.com/cyrilmorong@sbcglobal.net/index.html

 

The whole clutch hitting question has been beaten to death here, but it still seems to be a hotly contested issue for some.

[Sabermetrician]

Thanks for the link.

 

I think I might do baseball's CBA and the big changes from 1974 to 1994 to 2006, and whether or not they've been good for the game.

[Outshined_One]

How about cheating?

 

This book has been getting rave reviews. It's a fascinating way of seeing the utility of and attitudes toward various forms of cheating.

[HerbalK]

What about the effect of the influx of foreign-born, non-English speaking players and the effect on the marketability of baseball?

[UK1679666180]

Do one on the history of the baseball scout.

[biittner77]

How about the development of Batting average as a kept stat. When did it start and did people despise it as much as old timers currently hate Warp3 etc.

 

It might be hard to find info but I think it would be interesting

[tubbfan]

For one of my classes we are looking into writing a third research paper. Already this semester I've done:

 

-Sabermetrics and how teams utilizing them have an advantage over teams that are not

-Baseball and salary cap - how a salary cap will not improve parity in baseball

 

Any suggestions for a third? I really want it to be baseball related... but I'm not able to think of any possible research topics right now.

 

What would the impact on the Wrigleyville neighborhood be without Wrigley Field? Would economic development resulting from the demolition of the stadium help or hurt the surrounding neighborhood from an economic standpoint?

 

Alternatively, what would be the impact of siting a new baseball facility in the western suburbs?

[AFCubsFan]

How about on how expansion, contraction, and relocating teams has changed the league? You could go with more recent history like the Expos, Marlins, Devil Rays, and Rockies...and the annual threat to contract the Twins. Or you could go way back to the Dodgers, Giants, etc.

 

Another idea for a paper could be on free agency in baseball. I don't know if you've ever seen the Ken Burns series on baseball, but it's really interesting to see how much power the "reserve clause" gave owners over players until Curt Flood finally became the sports first free agent in the 70's.

[CubinNY]

I got one for you.

 

Look at the increases in HBP/season as a function of the DH and rule changes.

[erik316wttn]

Maybe you could do a paper comparing the great players of the past (Cobb, Ruth, Williams, Mays, etc) to the players of today and see which era comes out on top. There's tons of stuff you can do, and tons of factors you can compare against each other.

 

Do you still have that salary cap one saved on your computer? I'd really like to read it if you can post a link or something.

[The Q]

A fun one would be about how the media portrays and determines our views on players.

 

And if you did that, I would recommend buying Canseco's book. It really shows you how easy it is to f*ck with the media to get what you want out of it.

[texascub]

You should do one on Dusty's affects on baseball. You should be able to find plenty of info on that topic.

[BCVM22]

I've done research papers on uniforms, steroid use and on-field violence in sports.

 

Anything can be a good research paper topic with the right resources and some creativity.

[Sabermetrician]

I've done research papers on uniforms, steroid use and on-field violence in sports.

 

Anything can be a good research paper topic with the right resources and some creativity.

 

Do you still have the one on steroids saved? That's not something I'm interested in researching and writing on but I would be interested in reading this.

 

For the person that I asked if I had the salary cap paper still on my computer, sorry, I don't. I use the public computers here at school and save my work by emailing it to myself, but I clean out my inbox regularly so that's not in there anymore.

[Mephistopheles]

I did a paper on the how much the market values certain skillsets and changes over the last fifteen years. There's a lot of data and unsurprisingly enough there was a huge change around 2000. The OBP "revolution" happened before Moneyball from the data I got, although it was Cashman. There's a lot of information to use looking at that. Unfortunately all of my data is at home on my other laptop.

[Sabermetrician]

I did a paper on the how much the market values certain skillsets and changes over the last fifteen years. There's a lot of data and unsurprisingly enough there was a huge change around 2000. The OBP "revolution" happened before Moneyball from the data I got, although it was Cashman. There's a lot of information to use looking at that. Unfortunately all of my data is at home on my other laptop.

 

Sounds interesting. I've basically narrowed my choices down to the changes in the CBA from 1974 to 1994 to 2006 and how they've changed the game or what another poster said: "What about the effect of the influx of foreign-born, non-English speaking players and the effect on the marketability of baseball?" Either way, I'd be interesting in reading yours if you wouldn't mind sending it to me.

[Mephistopheles]

I didn't post it on my blog and I don't have it here :(

 

The foreign born one is a good one, but expand it. Don't look at the marketability of the game. Look at the on the field success. If you do that you'll have another wave of data to look at, the negro leagues joining. If I remember correctly, the teams that were at the forefront of opening up to new markets are usually the teams that win. There was a pretty damn high correlation between the number of african americans on your team to success in the 1950s. Theres an issue as most AAs at the time were the elite ones from their leagues. You saw a similar thing with the beginning of Latin America's arrival. It remains to be seen about Japan. This is a different case entirely though. There's a perfectly fine major league quality league to play at home.

[BCVM22]

Do you still have the one on steroids saved? That's not something I'm interested in researching and writing on but I would be interested in reading this.

 

http://home.comcast.net/~bcvm22/SteroidsPaper.doc

 

I love this paper. It's not the best paper I've ever written, but it had my love of baseball behind it, and I procrastinated terribly but typically in writing it. I stayed up all night gathering research and writing it, watched the sun rise as I printed it out, got 2 hours of sleep, had a Spider-Man moment the next morning when I had to run to catch the bus in order to get to class on time, sat in class watching my hand move due to the lack of sleep, and then went back to my dorm and slept the rest of the day.

:D

 

Enjoy.