COVID-19 Affect on MLB

Players Performance
A Statistical Analysis
Rachel Conn
Morgan Toal
Cameron Schohn
Michael Pompei
Research Questions

● Were professional athletes, specifically MLB players, affected by the COVID-19 pandemic this
season?
● Did players overall perform worse this season as compared to last season due to the pandemic?
● Compare players’ stats from teams that were shut down due to a COVID outbreak this 2020
season to their stats from last season (2019)
● Were teams that played in cities with higher numbers of COVID cases affected more or less than
other teams?
● Compare a random sample of random teams and random players stats and also compare league
wide team averages between the 2019 season and 2020 season
Hypotheses

● Null Hypothesis: There is no difference in the performance of MLB players due to COVID from the 2019
season compared to the 2020 season.
● Alternative Hypothesis: COVID did have an affect on MLB players’ performance when comparing the
2019 and 2020 season.
● Ultimately, we would like to retain the null hypothesis and accept the alternative hypothesis.
 Statistical Test

● Chi-Squared Distribution
- compares observed values and expected values
- tests for independence; compares two variables to see if they are related
- intended to test how likely an observed distribution could be from chance

● Why Chi-Squared?
- The data is categorical, meaning we looked at certain categories and aspects that tell such as RBI, hits,
homeruns, batting averages, earned run averages, walks/hits per inning.
- Ultimately we are testing if the variables are independent or if they are related
How The Chi Squared Test Was Used

● First, we found the observed data values of their actual stats from 2019 and 2020.
● Then, we found the expected values by multiplying the row total by the column total divided by
the grid total. This got us the expected values for each year, 2019 and 2020.
● We then performed the chi test through excel. =CHITEST(observed,expected) to get the p-values.
● We also found our degrees of freedom to use for the chi squared distribution table.
Data

● Random sample of individual teams and players

- 3 random teams chosen, and ~5 players from each team, 2 Pitchers per team
- League-wide test: average RBI, HR, and batting average taken from each of the 30 teams in the
MLB
 Pittsburgh Pirates Batting Stats

The degree of freedom for both of these tables was 4, and our chi squared table value was 13.2767, which is greater than our p values.
 The degree
Pittsburgh Pirates Pitching Stats of freedom
for all of
these values
is 1 and our
chi squared
value is
6.6349,
which is
greater than
our p values.
 Boston Red Sox Batting Stats

The degree of freedom for both of these tables was 4, and our chi squared table value was 13.2767, which is greater than our p values.
 Boston Red Sox Pitching Stats

The degree of freedom for all of these values is 1 and our chi squared value is 6.6349, which is greater than our p values.
 Dodgers Hitting Stats

The degree of freedom for both of these tables was 4, and our chi squared table value was 13.2767, which is greater than our p values.
 Dodgers Pitching Stats

The degree of freedom for all of these values is 1 and our chi squared value is 6.6349, which is
greater than our p values.
League-wide Home Run Data
Degrees of
freedom =
29

(r-1)*(c-1)
League-Wide RBI Data
Degrees of freedom = 29

(r-1)*(c-1)
Chi Squared value = 49.5879
League-Wide Batting Averages Data

Degrees of freedom = 29

(r-1)*(c-1)

P-values are all greater

than .01
Analysis/Conclusion
● Our confidence interval was 0.99 and our significance
level was 0.01.
● We wanted our p-values to be greater than the
significant level, so we could accept our alternative
hypothesis.
● With using the chi squared distribution table we
found all of our p values to be less than the chi
squared value from the table.
○ This means we retain the null hypothesis.
■ There is not enough data to conclude whether
or not COVID 19 had an affect on baseballs
performance.