Research Process Paper

Research Process Paper

Major League Baseball is one of many sports that are loved by many individuals. Major league baseball has many heroes of the game such as, Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, Joe DiMaggio, Jackie Robinson, Reggie Jackson, and many more. Major League Baseball was started in the early eighteen hundreds by a fellow by the name of Alex Cartwright. (MLB 2001) Major League Baseball is a spin off from an English game called rounder's. Rounders became popular in the United States in the early 19th century. Team A has worked together to recognize a problem to research while looking at the Major League Baseball data. The reason for the research paper includes the following: explain the purpose of the research by describing the selected research problem and explaining why the research problem is important. This paper will also provide a problem definition that explains what question will be answered by the research and provide a research hypothesis. The final section of this paper will include a brief discussion of the remaining steps in the research process the team will follow to complete two subsequent papers leading up to a conclusions memo and a final research project PowerPoint presentation that will illustrate the complete research project.

Purpose of the Research

According to Futrelle, D. (2003), "Baseball has long been surrounded by armies of statisticians; therefore, Major League Baseball keeps stats in many different categories." Baseball stats can range anywhere from batting averages to on base percentage to slugging percentage. The baseball field was created in 1845. During the creation of the field, one of the things that were discussed was the amount of feet between the bases. The developers decided to make 90 feet between each plate because they believed 100 feet was too much for the defender and 80 feet was too good for the offender. The 90 feet range was the appropriate meet for both sides. Another major decision they had to make in the 1870's was the distance between the pitcher box and the batters range. The pitchers were put inside a box 45 feet from the home point. The league decided to move the pitchers box 5 feet back and also take the pitcher out of a box in 1893 to increase the power of the pitchers throw. One area that is important for teams to track of is a pitcher's ERA (Cosgrove, E., 1999). According to Cosgrove, "ERA stands for earned run average and is a average amount of runs a pitcher gives up for every nine innings pitched" (Cosgrove, E., 1999). Earned runs are only the runs that the pitcher gives up and are different from unearned runs. Unearned runs are runs that the pitcher is not directly responsible for. Examples of unearned runs are runs given up by fielding errors or runs that scored that may have been left on base from the previous pitcher. The intention of the research will be to identify the mean ERA and assess that quantity to the number of wins that teams have that are above and below the mean ERA.

Problem Definition

Baseball field diagram and its measurements; and how the importance of mathematics helped develop the game that so many people love. Major league baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States. America people have always loved the game of baseball. Major league Baseball has always been considered the national pastime here in America's history. The games are very competitive; the players are very skilled, hard working and discipline. During the fall season is when baseball is most fun and exciting. This is when the top 8 teams in the league square off for a chance to go to the World Series, and play for the world championship. (MLB 2001) We call this the "fall classic." Baseball has a long great history, and it is well respected by fans, and by those who played the game. The problem that will be observed in this research project will be whether or not teams that have lower than average ERA' s (below the mean) will be able to win as many games as teams with above average ERA's (above the mean). The reason this is important is that team owners and managers need to be able to have an understanding of the relationship between ERA and team wins. Does the team truly need to worry about what its ERA is or are there other areas that the team needs to focus on in order to win more games? Problem Hypothesis

The definition of hypothesis is the logical conjecture relationship of two or more variables expressed in a testable statement. By testing and confirming the relationships, a solution is found to solve the problem (Sekaran, U. 2003). According to Cosgrove, "In baseball, the number of earned runs allowed by a pitcher every nine innings can be tested by hypothesis" (Cosgrove, E., 1999). The outcome for the hypothesis will measure pitcher's ERA's above and below the mean to determine if team truly needs to worry about what its ERA is or are there other areas that the team needs to focus on in