Major League Baseball Marketing Strategies and Industry Promotion Approaches.

The sport of baseball is one of the chief pillars of the American sports industry. Major League Baseball (MLB) is the oldest professional sports league in the United States. It has long since formulated comprehensive marketing strategies and global industry promotion approaches that have proved exceptionally successful. Accordingly, the study of MLB's marketing strategies and industry promotion approaches will be crucial for the development of baseball in China and the establishment of an industrial chain. This study employed the literature consultation method, the comparative analysis method, and the inductive method to analyze MLB's localized marketing strategies and development trends in China and obtained the following insights concerning MLB's promotion and industry development efforts in China: (1) MLB has used a "family sport" concept to promote baseball culture and employed a project culture approach to promoting the universal spread of the sport of baseball; (2) MLB has sought to join baseball with school sports as a means of developing baseball talent; (3) MLB has promoted its brand, established a baseball industry chain, and engaged in comprehensive market cultivation; and (4) MLB has strengthened baseball infrastructure and encouraged baseball's rapid development.

Combining Radar and Optical Sensor Data to Measure Player Value in Baseball.

Evaluating a player's talent level based on batted balls is one of the most important and difficult tasks facing baseball analysts. An array of sensors has been installed in Major League Baseball stadiums that capture seven terabytes of data during each game. These data increase interest among spectators, but also can be used to quantify the performances of players on the field. The weighted on base average cube model has been used to generate reliable estimates of batter performance using measured batted-ball parameters, but research has shown that running speed is also a determinant of batted-ball performance. In this work, we used machine learning methods to combine a three-dimensional batted-ball vector measured by Doppler radar with running speed measurements generated by stereoscopic optical sensors. We show that this process leads to an improved model for the batted-ball performances of players.