A lot of factors go into a baseball team. Obviously, it begins with the players on the field – the ones who actually play the game. But above and below them is an interconnected web of factors which, eventually, leads to a win total for the season. Baseball, more than any other major game, is determined by luck – in the sense of factors so fine they defy control. A fraction of an inch on the bat separates a grand-slam from a fly out. Managers set the line-up. The front office determines the roster.
The owners provide a fixed payroll. Injuries then occur – up to you whether you consider them to be luck or not. But how does it all mesh together?
Assign percentages: owners, front office, coaches/manager, players, injuries, bad luck
Ideally, those figures will all add up to a hundred percent! But if that seems like too much math at this point in the year, then you can just order those factors, from the most significant to the least. This is definitely a question where there is no right or wrong answer: indeed, there may be no objective answer at all. But there has to be a reason, for example, the Dodgers have dominated the division over the past fifteen years. Is it all down to the bottomless resources of their owners? Or is there more at play?
