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Around SBN: Are The Orioles Bad Or Unlucky With Their Young Pitching?

Impact of Travel on Offensive Performance

Last week, I looked at how the number of days of rest a player had affected his offensive performance. But not all back-to-back games are created equal - two home games in two days is not the same as two games in two days with extensive travel.

If we divide back-to-back games since the lockout by the miles traveled by a player's team, we can see the impact of travel distance:

1 day rest
GP P/82 +/-/82 TOI
>1000 359 38.1 -19.9 24.14
500-1000 5354 38.5 -7.4 24.11
100-500 11898 39.4 -4.1 24.14

There haven't been a lot of back-to-back games with long travel in between - just 20 in total over the last four seasons. But the impact of travel distance on offensive performance without a day of rest is very stark.

How does this compare to playing two days later?

2 days rest
GP P/82 +/-/82 TOI
>1000 8427 40.2 1.3 24.15
500-1000 9850 41.0 0.4 24.11
100-500 17845 40.8 0.2 24.21

This time we have a lot more games in the long-distance bucket. After 2 days, the length of travel no longer appears to have an obvious impact on performance. Our takeaway is unsurprising: clearly, if you're playing back-to-back away games, you want to minimize the amount of time spent traveling between the two road cities!

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I think a significant issue is cumulative travel. A western team travels a lot more miles (and hours) than does an eastern team. By the end of the season, its effects can be seen.

This gives eastern teams more time for rest, rehabbing injury, practice etc.

The problem is there is no obvious control group for a quick statistical study.

by PuckStopsHere on Dec 2, 2009 10:35 AM EST reply actions  

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