Department of Statistical Science, Duke University, Durham, NC, 27708, USA.
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, 27710, NC, USA.
Sci Rep. 2018 Jan 8;8(1):116. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-18565-7.
Baseball players must be able to see and react in an instant, yet it is hotly debated whether superior performance is associated with superior sensorimotor abilities. In this study, we compare sensorimotor abilities, measured through 8 psychomotor tasks comprising the Nike Sensory Station assessment battery, and game statistics in a sample of 252 professional baseball players to evaluate the links between sensorimotor skills and on-field performance. For this purpose, we develop a series of Bayesian hierarchical latent variable models enabling us to compare statistics across professional baseball leagues. Within this framework, we find that sensorimotor abilities are significant predictors of on-base percentage, walk rate and strikeout rate, accounting for age, position, and league. We find no such relationship for either slugging percentage or fielder-independent pitching. The pattern of results suggests performance contributions from both visual-sensory and visual-motor abilities and indicates that sensorimotor screenings may be useful for player scouting.
棒球运动员必须能够瞬间看到并做出反应，但人们对于优秀表现是否与更高的感觉运动能力相关存在激烈的争论。在这项研究中，我们比较了 252 名职业棒球运动员的感觉运动能力，这些能力通过包含在 Nike 感觉站评估电池中的 8 项运动任务进行测量，并评估了感觉运动技能与场上表现之间的联系。为此，我们开发了一系列贝叶斯层次潜变量模型，使我们能够比较不同职业棒球联盟的统计数据。在这个框架内，我们发现感觉运动能力是上垒率、步行率和三振率的显著预测因子，这些因素考虑了年龄、位置和联盟。我们没有发现与打击率或投手无关的守备率之间存在这种关系。结果模式表明视觉感觉和视觉运动能力都对表现有贡献，并表明感觉运动筛查可能对球员选拔有用。
