Correlation between Teams Rank and Wins

In 2012 and 2013, there were 10 teams in the MLB playoffs: the six teams that had the most wins in each baseball division, and four “wild card” teams. The playoffs start between the four wild card teams - the two teams that win proceed in the playoffs (8 teams remaining). Then, these teams are paired off and play a series of games. The four teams that win are then paired and play to determine who will play in the World Series.

#We can assign rankings to the teams as follows Rank 1: the team that won the World Series, Rank 2: the team that lost the World Series, Rank 3: the two teams that lost to the teams in the World Series, Rank 4: the four teams that made it past the wild card round, but lost to the above four teams, Rank 5: the two teams that lost the wild card round

#Create a team rank vector
teamRank <- c(1, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5)

#In 2012, the ranking of the teams and their regular season wins were as follows: Rank 1 San Francisco Giants (Wins = 94), Rank 2 Detroit Tigers (Wins = 88), Rank 3 New York Yankees (Wins = 95), and St. Louis Cardinals (Wins = 88), Rank 4 Baltimore Orioles (Wins = 93), Oakland A’s (Wins = 94), Washington Nationals (Wins = 98), Cincinnati Reds (Wins = 97), Rank 5 Texas Rangers (Wins = 93), and Atlanta Braves (Wins = 94)

#Enter the 2012 wins in order of the team rank
wins2012 <- c(94, 88, 95, 88, 93, 94, 98, 97, 93, 94)

correlation2012 <- cor(teamRank, wins2012)
cat("Correlation between team rank and 2012 wins:", correlation2012, "\n")

## Correlation between team rank and 2012 wins: 0.3477129

#In 2013, the ranking of the teams and their regular season wins were as follows: Rank 1: Boston Red Sox (Wins = 97), Rank 2: St. Louis Cardinals (Wins = 97), Rank 3: Los Angeles Dodgers (Wins = 92), and Detroit Tigers (Wins = 93), Rank 4: Tampa Bay Rays (Wins = 92), Oakland A’s (Wins = 96), Pittsburgh Pirates (Wins = 94), and Atlanta Braves (Wins = 96), Rank 5: Cleveland Indians (Wins = 92), and Cincinnati Reds (Wins = 90)

teamRank = c(1,2,3,3,4,4,4,4,5,5)

# Regular season wins in 2013, ordered by rank
wins2013 <- c(97, 97, 92, 93, 92, 96, 94, 96, 92, 90)

# Calculate correlation for 2013
correlation2013 <- cor(teamRank, wins2013)
cat("Correlation between team rank and 2013 wins:", correlation2013, "\n")

## Correlation between team rank and 2013 wins: -0.6556945