In baseball performace can be measured in many different ways.
We chose to examine data from the 1998 Major League Baseball Season that was
obtained from the USA Today web site.
Presented is the information for the 31 American League shortstops who played in
10 or more games during the 1998 season:
Name Avg Slg OBA G AB R H Tot 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB CS E Age
DiSarcina .287 .385 .321 157 551 73 158 212 39 3 3 56 21 51 11 7 14 30
Bordick .260 .411 .328 151 465 59 121 191 29 1 13 51 39 65 6 7 7 32
Reboulet .246 .317 .351 79 126 20 31 40 6 0 1 8 19 34 0 1 6 34
Garciaparra .323 .584 .362 143 604 111 195 353 37 8 35 122 33 62 12 6 25 24
Benjamin .272 .372 .312 124 349 46 95 130 23 0 4 39 15 73 3 0 3 32
Snopek .204 .241 .290 61 137 19 28 33 2 0 1 6 16 29 3 0 6 27
Caruso .306 .390 .331 133 523 81 160 204 17 6 5 55 14 38 22 6 35 21
Wilson .322 .456 .354 32 90 13 29 41 6 0 2 12 4 8 2 4 2 22
Vizquel .288 .372 .358 151 576 86 166 214 30 6 2 50 62 64 37 12 5 31
Dunston .237 .404 .265 62 156 26 37 63 11 3 3 12 6 18 9 2 4 35
Cruz .260 .355 .284 135 454 52 118 161 22 3 5 45 13 55 3 4 11 22
Easley .271 .478 .332 153 594 84 161 284 38 2 27 100 39 112 15 5 12 28
Ripken .270 .311 .321 27 74 8 20 23 3 0 0 5 5 10 3 2 6 33
Rivera .247 .292 .302 42 89 14 22 26 4 0 0 7 7 17 1 1 5 .
Lopez .243 .325 .286 74 206 18 50 67 10 2 1 15 12 40 5 2 15 .
Halter .221 .309 .265 86 204 17 45 63 12 0 2 13 12 38 2 5 10 .
Martinez .129 .165 .187 34 85 7 11 14 1 1 0 5 5 21 3 1 6 .
Meares .260 .368 .296 149 543 56 141 200 26 3 9 70 24 86 7 4 24 30
Hocking .202 .288 .259 110 198 32 40 57 6 1 3 15 16 44 2 1 4 27
Jeter .324 .481 .384 149 626 127 203 301 25 8 19 84 57 119 30 6 9 23
Sojo .231 .265 .250 54 147 16 34 39 3 1 0 14 4 15 1 0 3 32
Tejada .233 .384 .298 105 365 53 85 140 20 1 11 45 28 86 5 6 26 21
Abbott .268 .390 .326 35 123 17 33 48 7 1 2 9 10 34 2 1 11 28
Bournigal .225 .292 .265 85 209 23 47 61 11 0 1 19 10 11 6 1 0 21
Rodriguez .310 .560 .360 161 686 123 213 384 35 5 42 124 45 121 46 13 18 22
Ledesma .324 .398 .344 95 299 30 97 119 16 3 0 29 9 51 9 7 12 26
Stocker .208 .313 .282 112 336 37 70 105 11 3 6 25 27 80 5 3 11 28
Clayton .285 .441 .330 52 186 30 53 82 12 1 5 24 13 32 5 5 7 28
Cedeno .262 .383 .309 61 141 19 37 54 9 1 2 21 10 32 2 1 6 20
Elster .232 .354 .311 84 297 33 69 105 10 1 8 37 33 66 0 2 9 33
Gonzalez .239 .361 .281 158 568 70 136 205 28 1 13 51 28 121 21 6 17 24
Of course the main objective is to determine if Vizquel deserved a raise. In statistical terms, this can be accomplished by examining how the shortstops cluster based on their statistics.
Wa can also chose to use these data to investigate multivariate Normality in data.