The game of baseball is sort of a mix—of stories, of situational data and of pure gut instinct, combined for an often-herculean task of trying to predict human behavior. Bottom of the ninth. Tying run at the plate. Left-handed pitcher and right-handed batter. What happens next? How are those decisions made?

A few of those decisions could be influenced by work currently being done through a partnership with Temple University engineering students and the Philadelphia Phillies.

As the game has evolved, so too have the layers of in-game decisions made by coaches. The Phillies Research and Development team has tasked students studying industrial and systems engineering with a specific in-game scenario (hint: it's classified), and asked them to develop some tactical research around it.

"We are analyzing the data and determining best practices and strategies based on a lot of factors," said Prof. Julie Drzymalski, a faculty member advising the students. "It's a tangible example of applying systems engineering principles that just happens to be for a game."

The project is reflective of the newest undergraduate program at Temple College of Engineering, which touches on analytical, computational and experimental practices for system integration in courses covering topics like operations management and research, production planning and control, quality assurance, simulation, logistics and supply chain management.

After a 15-year playing career and managerial stints in Florida and New York, new Phillies manager Joe Girardi is no stranger to making those decisions. Having studied industrial engineering at Northwestern, Girardi has also professed a keen grasp on using data.

"Numbers tell a story over time," Girardi said at a news conference after being named Phillies manager. "I'm an analytical guy that has an engineering degree that loves math. They can never give me too much information."

Patrick McFarlane, the Phillies Lead Quantitative Analyst for Player Evaluation, noted that the partnership is relatively new for the department, which already features a roster of more than a dozen analysts and engineers.

One of those recent projects McFarlane described was the team's defensive positioning work, a common application of analytics around Major League Baseball.

"The team would equip infielders and outfielders with cards detailing each opposing batter, with information on where to position each fielder, so as to maximize some value related to preventing runs," McFarlane said, adding that the R&D recommendations are layered-in with the coaching staff's expertise before being shared with the players.

The Temple students were tasked with a project based on the needs of the team, according to McFarlane.

"We tried to look at all of our projects and see what might be manageable for the students, and sort of meet them where they are," McFarlane said.

"Our goal is to evaluate a massive dataset of certain plays and statistics in order to develop a tactical 'rule-of-thumb' for the coaching staff," added Stephen DeLash, an ISE student working on the project.

The dataset includes game situations, win expectancies, player attributes, statistics and other quantifiable information that can help contribute to developing the solution.

"It's cool to be able to take what you're learning in class and apply it to something which is not only meaningful, but fun, like baseball," DeLash said.

McFarlane added that the team hopes to see the project through the current semester, and continue on with future classes of Temple engineering students in later semesters.

"Our goal is to evaluate a massive dataset of certain plays and statistics in order to develop a tactical 'rule-of-thumb' for the coaching staff," added Stephen DeLash, an ISE student working on the project.

The dataset includes game situations, win expectancies, player attributes, statistics and other quantifiable information that can help contribute to developing the solution.

"It's cool to be able to take what you're learning in class and apply it to something which is not only meaningful, but fun, like baseball," DeLash said.

McFarlane added that the team hopes to see the project through the current semester, and continue on with future classes of Temple engineering students in later semesters.