A Statistical Analysis of Sports Performance Over Time
In this biostatistics project, my two partners and I applied methods of testing for statistically significant differences in data to sports performance over time. We assessed the truth of our claim that there is statistically significant difference in the speed of Clayton Kershaw’s fastball by performing a two-tailed t-test in order to estimate the probability that the relationship observed in the data occurred only by chance. Using averages of Kershaw’s fastball speed over 5 baseball seasons as data points to perform the test, we were able to reject our null hypothesis and suggest that his significant decrease in performance is likely due to age. This application of statistics to an unconventional field for this course was an interesting exercise in broadening our understanding of the relevance of statistical analysis.
November 20, 2019
