Creating the Best Fantasy Baseball Team

Creating the Best Fantasy Baseball Team

Author: Beth Barsness

Students will need to know how to select the best team consisting of ten players (from a randomly generated list of 25) and be able to calculate specific statistical values according to the following criteria:

1. Most runs batted in per player (team mean)

2. Fewest strike outs per player (team mean)

3. Most home runs per player (team median)

4. Highest batting average per player (team median)

5. Least variation in stolen bases per player (team standard deviation)

6. Strongest linear relationship between number of runs and number of home runs

(team correlation coefficient)

7. Smallest probability that a randomly chosen player has less than ten stolen bases (team probability)

8. Most narrow 95%-confidence interval for the mean batting average in MLB (team CI width)

9. Smallest p-value for the hypothesis test: H0 :  highAVG = .5 vs. HA :  highAVG > .5 (team p-value)

Fantasy sports teams are becoming more and more popular among people of all ages.  Often times, teenagers will participate in several leagues with their friends, parents or just join a random league.  This lesson allows students to apply their statistical knowledge by creating the best fantasy baseball team using two different frames of mind.  The first is a single minded criteria where students select the best ten player team according to a single statistical concept.  The second, a universal or multi-criteria focuses on generating the best ten player team with respect to all characteristics.  

Length of time needed:  5 class periods (50 minutes each) 

This lesson was written by Aaron Willford.

Return to Ready Set Go MN website.

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Lesson Plan


Full Screen

Source: Aaron Willford

Handouts and Materials

The following files can be downloaded to your computer:

Lesson Plan (Word document)

Fantasy Baseball Project (Word document)

Sample Player Data (Word document)

Statistical Notation Explanation (PDF document) 

Source: Aaron Willford