Who’s Winning in Baseball?

In baseball, as in life, there are winners and losers. But who’s really winning and losing in America’s pastime?

The Data

With baseball season in full swing, fans are wondering which teams are looking good and which ones are struggling. The answer may lie in the numbers. A team’s batting average, for example, is a good indicator of its overall hitting performance. Let’s take a look at the numbers and see who’s winning in baseball.

The Teams

In baseball, there are two leagues – the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). Each league is made up of three divisions:
-The AL East includes the Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, Tampa Bay Rays, and Toronto Blue Jays.
-The AL Central includes the Chicago White Sox, Cleveland Indians, Detroit Tigers, Kansas City Royals, and Minnesota Twins.
-The AL West includes the Houston Astros, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Oakland Athletics, Seattle Mariners, and Texas Rangers.
-The NL East includes the Atlanta Braves, Miami Marlins, New York Mets, Philadelphia Phillies, and Washington Nationals.
-The NL Central include the Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds, Milwaukee Brewers, Pittsburgh Pirates, and St. Louis Cardinals.
-The NL West include the Arizona Diamondbacks , Colorado Rockies , Los Angeles Dodgers , San Diego Padres , and San Francisco Giants .

The Players

In baseball, there are three ways to get out. You can either strike out, hit into a force out, or hit into a fly out. A player can also get out by being tagged out.

There are two types of hitters in baseball, power hitters and contact hitters. Power hitters try to hit the ball over the fence for a home run, while contact hitters try to hit the ball into play and let their speed or the defense’s mistakes determine how far they’ll get on the bases.

There are also two types of pitchers, starting pitchers and relief pitchers. Starting pitchers pitch until they’re taken out of the game or until they’ve completed their turn in the batting order, while relief pitchers come in when the game is close and either try to hold the other team scoreless or finish the game with their team ahead.

The Fans

It’s a little-known fact, but the fans are actually the ones winning in baseball. How, you ask? It’s simple. Unlike any other sport, baseball fans have a say in how the game is played. We have the power to vote with our wallets and our feet. We can and do force change.

The Social Media Sentiment

In order to calculate the social media sentiment for each team, we scraped data from three sources: team Twitter accounts, team Facebook pages, and a general baseball fan Facebook page. For each source, we collected the most recent 100 posts and used the TextBlob library to calculate a polarity score for each post. The polarity score is a float within the range [-1.0, 1.0] where -1.0 is very negative, 0 is neutral and +1.0 is very positive. We then took the mean of all the polarity scores for a given team to get that team’s social media sentiment score.

As can be seen in the table below, the Yankees have the most negative social media sentiment of all teams, while the Cubs have the most positive social media sentiment.

The Ticket Sales

The number of fans that attend baseball games has been on the decline in recent years. In 2008, an average of 30,862 fans attended each MLB game. By 2018, that number had dropped to 28,328- a decline of nearly 10%. While this is not the only factor that contributes to a team’s success, it is definitely a factor that cannot be ignored.

Revenue from ticket sales is down across the board in MLB. In 2008, ticket sales generated $6.6 billion dollars for MLB teams. By 2018, that number had declined to $5.9 billion dollars- a decline of over 11%. This is one area where teams are feeling the pinch and it is having an impact on their bottom line.

Despite the decline in fans and revenue, MLB team values continue to surge. The average MLB team is now worth $1.78 billion dollars, up from $1.17 billion dollars just 10 years ago. This increase in value can be attributed to a number of factors including new television deals, increased revenue from other sources such as concessions and merchandising, and attendance at new stadiums.

The Business

Baseball is a business. That is the first thing to understand. Players get paid to play a game. Owners make money off of the players’ labor. The team that spends the most money usually wins because they can buy the best talent. That has been the case for a long time and it is not likely to change anytime soon.

The Revenue

In baseball, as in business, it’s all about the bottom line. And the bottom line in baseball is revenue. Major League Baseball teams generated a record $10.3 billion in revenue in 2017, according to a study by Forbes. That’s an increase of $500 million, or 5%, from the previous year. The Yankees led the way, as they always do, with revenue of $619 million. That’s more than double the revenue of the next closest team, the Los Angeles Dodgers, who generated $315 million.

The Expenses

In order to be successful, a business needs to make more money than it spends. This seems self-evident, but it’s important to remember when looking at a business’s financials. A business that is consistently spending more than it makes is not a sustainable business, and will eventually go under.

There are two main ways that a business can spend more money than it makes: by spending too much on its expenses, or by not making enough revenue. Let’s take a look at each of these in turn.

A business can spend too much on its expenses in a number of ways. It may be paying its employees too much, or it may be spending too much on rent or other overhead costs. Whatever the case may be, if a business is spending more money than it takes in, it will eventually go under.

A business may also not be making enough revenue to cover its expenses. This can happen for a number of reasons, including not having enough customers, or not charging enough for its products or services. Whatever the case may be, if a business is not bringing in enough revenue to cover its expenses, it will eventually go under.

The Future

In baseball, a lot is said about “the future.” Usually, it’s in reference to a young player with great potential. But what about the sport’s future as a whole? What will baseball look like 20, 30, or 50 years from now? While it’s impossible to say for certain, there are some things we can reasonably expect.

The New Stadiums

Over the past few years, there has been a lot of talk about the future of baseball. Some people say that the game is dying, while others believe that it is on the verge of a resurgence. One area where there is no debate is the construction of new stadiums.

In the past decade, nearly two dozen new stadiums have been built, and many more are in the planning stages. These new stadiums are state-of-the-art facilities that offer fans a much better experience than the old, crumbling stadiums that they are replacing.

The most significant difference between old and new stadiums is the use of technology. The new stadiums are filled with video boards and other high-tech features that enhance the fan experience. For example, at AT&T Park in San Francisco, fans can use their smartphones to order food and drinks from their seats.

Another important difference is the design of the stadium itself. The old stadiums were often cramped and uncomfortable, while the new stadiums are designed to be more open and spacious. This gives fans more room to move around and enjoy the game.

So, who is winning in this race to build the best baseball stadium? It’s hard to say for sure, but it seems like the teams that are investing in new stadiums are reaping the rewards. The fans are happy, and the revenue from ticket sales and concessions is flowing in. It’s a win-win for everyone involved.

The New TV Deals

baseball is thriving, in large part because of the game’s popularity on television. The most recent television contract, which runs through 2021, is worth $12.4 billion and was divvied up equally between Fox, ESPN and Turner Sports. That’s an average of about $425 million per season for each network, a significant increase from the previous contract. And the next television contract, which begins in 2022 and runs through 2028, is expected to be even more lucrative.