Major League Baseball
Statistically speaking… who were
the top 5 players last season?
Introduction
Statistics can say so many different things.
It all depends on how you represent the
numbers. Have you ever wondered how
they come up with the list of top players in
any major sport? If you were asked to
come up with a list of the top players in a
specific sport, would your list be the same
as your friends? Even if you used the
same data? Let’s see what happens!
Task
Your job will to be to work with your group to come up with a
list of who you believe the top 5 major league baseball
players are from last season (2007). To do this you will first
learn about the statistics that are kept. Once you understand
the statistics, and have found the formulas needed to
generate each, you will then set out to find the statistics about
the particular players. You can use players from the list
provided, or other players as you so choose. You must decide
which statistics make a player the “best” and be prepared to
defend your decision. As a group, you will need to present
your list to the class, complete with statistics, and your reason
for using these statistics. You will also present to the teacher
a paper which has the definitions and mathematical formulas
for the statistics, a list of your statistics with their sources, and
then your rationale for choosing these statistics to defend
your list.
Process
1. A list of different baseball statistics will be given to you. You must become familiar
with the list of statistics provided by the teacher by researching how the statistics are
calculated and writing down the “formulas” for each. You can add to the list if there
are different statistics that you wish to use in choosing your top players. This page of
statistics, complete with definitions will be turned in to the teacher with your final
paper. An easy way to find the methods behind calculating these stats is to do a
Google search with calculating baseball statistics as the search.
2. Within your group, come to a consensus which 5 statistics you will use to
determine which players are your top 5. This will get you started on your paper which
will be turned in once the project is completed.
3. Now that you have chosen your most important statistics, you will set out to find
the statistics on the players. There will be a list of top players given to you by the
teacher. Or you may use others if you choose. Using the statistics you have deemed
most important, you must then choose your number one player, number two player,
and on down to the fifth. You must turn in your statistical findings in your paper. You
must list each of the statistics you decided to focus on with your group (at least 5) for
each player. You need to give the source for your statistics. There are tons of web
pages you can use to get these statistics. Here are ones that I like:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/
http://www.dougstats.com/
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/statistics
http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb
http://mlb.mlb.com/index.jsp
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/baseball/mlb/
Process continued…
4. The last section of your paper will be a written explanation of
your process in making your decision. Be sure to talk about
how you decided which statistics to use and why they were the
most significant to you in determining the best players. Make
sure that you defend your decisions. Why was your particular
statistic most important in deciding which players were the
best?
5. You and your group will be given 2-5 minutes in class to
present your list, complete with your statistics and the
reasoning behind your choice of statistics. To do this, you will
create a PowerPoint, poster, newspaper article, mock ESPN
show, or other method as approved by the teacher. Your
presentation needs to be creative, organized, and most of all
convincing! Be prepared to take some heat from the others in
the class who made different decisions than you.
Evaluation
You will be given a copy of the rubric
which will be used to grade your project. If
you should lose it, or want to look at it
online, the link is:
http://www.uen.org/Rubric/rubric.cgi?rubric_id=17477
LET’S PLAY BALL!!