Major League Baseball Data Set Research

Major League Baseball Data Set Research

Team B

Lorena Robles

Anthony Payan

Priscilla Espindola

Cynthia Moreno

University of Phoenix

Research and Evaluation 341

Raed Al Douri, PhD

May 12, 2010

Abstract

Major League Baseball teams have salaries that vary from $209 million per year to as low as $54.9 million per year. The research being questioned is if the teams with a higher payroll have an advantage against the smaller, lower end market teams. The research is important enough to determine if an advantage does exist. Three possible outcomes may result from the research from the different variables tested.

Major League Baseball Data Set Research

Research Problem

Major League Baseball is the classic American sport that spectators have come to love. Today baseball has become a multimillion dollar business industry. Many successful teams such as the Yankees and Red Sox have posted some of the highest salaries at $208.3 million and $123.5 million respectively, whereas other teams such as Tampa only spend $29.7 million. The amount of wins per dollar spent varies from team to team, and may be a good indicator of possible financial disadvantages. Given these statistics many often wonder “how much of a team's success can be explained by their payroll?” (Bernstein, 2010,  para. 3). Does the amount of money a team spends guarantee that they will win?

Purpose of Research

When conducting research it is important to look at statistical data, to see if baseball teams such as the Yankees have gained an unfair advantage over teams like the Tampa Bay, who have less capital to spend on player’s salaries. Often the best players are drafted by teams who can afford to pay the multimillion salaries, whereas teams with less financial means can only afford to draft rookie players that are just starting out. The Major League Baseball association is currently working with team managers to bring some parity to the draft and “one proposition is that each team...