Baseball Probability game

[MrDaveyHavoc]

Hello all,

A little backround. I work part time in a restaurant which for better or for worse is not always very busy. I often kill time by watching baseball on gamecast or mlb.tv. Recently, I hired this kid who wants to gamble on everything, but has no real idea about the math of it. I devised a fun way to pass the time would be to wager on the outcome of an at bat for the game we are watching.

The game goes something like this. We each pick a team (for instance, tonights Yankee-Oriole matchup) I get all the Yankees and he gets all the Orioles. When they are at bat, we wager on the outcome. Hit or Walk vs. out. HBP, sacrifice, etc = push.

My question is this- Lately I have been wondering how to adapt the game so that it is even regardless of the side taken. What sort of odds would you have to give the batter? I am just looking for someone to help me spell it out mathematically. I know it is batter dependent, so a formula would help, and to quicken the process i guess we could plug in league average batters (or I can use league average and pick and choose which side based on who is up and over/under the line to take advantage of my dim friend, but that's neither here nor there [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Anyway thanks for all the feedback, I appreciate the time.

PS I rarely make first posts so if this is in some way violating a forum policy please move/delete as necessary.