Date of Award
8-2025
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Department
Economics
Committee Chair/Advisor
Tom Evans
Committee Member
Andrew Hanssen
Committee Member
Miren Ivankovic
Abstract
The pitch clock was instituted in baseball to speed up the pace of play and make the game more watchable. While it has achieved this effect, it may have affected other areas of the sport, like the balance between offense and defense and pitching injuries. This analysis explores the results of a difference-in-difference regression comparing MLB and AAA 2015-2024 seasons. Overall, it finds that pitching statistics were not significantly affected, including elbow injuries. This includes games, ERA, and times a batter is hit by a pitch. In fact, the number of home runs and walks both went down significantly by four home runs and eleven walks per season. However, batting statistics generally suffered. Batting average, OPS, and home runs all went down significantly, by .004, .046, and 1.648 per year, respectively. This shows that batters were negatively affected more than pitchers were.
Recommended Citation
Langton, David Jr, "An Empirical Analysis of the Pitch Clock on Major League Baseball" (2025). All Theses. 4584.
https://open.clemson.edu/all_theses/4584