The MVP Machine: How Baseball's New Nonconformists Are Using Data to Build Better Players

by Ben Lindbergh

A 1994 study conducted by California Polytechnic State University tested random batting practice versus block batting practice.2 The study divided thirty junior college baseball players into three groups: control, blocked practice, and random practice. The hitters faced three types of pitches—curveballs (CB), fastballs (FB), and changeups (CU)—in fifteen-pitch sets. The random group’s hitters faced the three pitch types in unpredictable fashion: FB, CU, CU, CB, FB, CB, and so on. The blocked group’s list of pitches came in segmented groupings of fifteen consecutive pitches of identical type: FB, FB, FB; CU, CU, CU, CB, CB, CB, and so on. In the testing phase, the researchers found that “the random group performed significantly better than the blocked group” in quality of contact under game conditions.