17  Baseball Managers

There are many websites, podcasts, and even databases dedicated to tracking professional sports. In 2021, The Grueling Truth published an article listing the top 5 managers in major league baseball (MLB). We are going to use the Sean Lahman’s baseball database to explore patterns and double check the statistics in the article.

The Grueling Truth article states

“[Bobby] Cox…is one of only four managers to have won the award [Manager of the Year] in both the American and National League.”

  1. Find a table in library(Lahman) with data relevant to this statement. You also need to find a table that will tell you what Bobby Cox’s playerID is.

    Tip

    Using double question marks is a great way to learn about a package. For example, ??Lahman.

  2. Wrangle the data to create a new table that will directly allow us to assess the truth of this statement. Note: I believe this statement is referring only to the BBWAA award. The TSN award is mentioned separately in the article.

  3. Write a paragraph to describe what you have learned about managers winning this award and the truthfulness of the claim.

The article also states,

“[Joe] McCarthy has the numbers. His winning percentage is the best all-time for managers with more than 300 games.”

  1. Find a table in library(Lahman) with data relevant to this statement.

  2. Wrangle the data to create a visualization that will directly allow us to assess how Joe McCarthy’s winning percentage compares to other managers.

  3. Using your visualization, write a paragraph to describe the truthfulness of the statement and what you learned about who are the winningest managers.

  4. Create a new dataframe with the full name of each manager, the manager’s winning percentage, and the number of awards received by the manager. Then create a chart to show the relationship between winning percentage and number of awards received. Label any outliers in your plot with the full name of the manager.

    • Write a paragraph to describe what you learned

  5. Render the .qmd file. Push all the files created in the rendering process into your GitHub repository.

Submit

In I-learn submit a link to the .md file containing your chart(s) on GitHub.