Discovery: Good Names Are Best, Best Names Are Feh

Behold! My latest, most impressive findings!

Teams with dumb names (such as the Mets and Orioles) typically cannot hit as well as teams with average names (such as the Dodgers and Astros), while teams with superior names (such as the Pirates and Tigers) hit as poorly as their ill-named counterparts! These findings were not only significant at the 99% level, but they also had an R-squared near 0.224 — meaning a full 22% of a team’s offense come from the pride they take in their name!

It is a well known axiom that players hit precisely how they feel, so when you go out, day after day, wearing the emblem of a cute little bird, it is very difficult to muster the wherewithal to swing a club at a ball. Using Weighted On-Base Average (wOBA) and Name Awesomeness Plus (NA+, a completely arbitrary stat I invented for the purpose of this study), we can see how having a name that’s too awesome can be just as detrimental to performance!

We can only assume that if a team has an exceedingly awesome name, such as the Cubs, Pirates, or Braves, the players have less incentive to play hard. They already feel good about themselves, so they do not need to prove themselves any further.

For the full data set, see below.

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Statistical significance is bunk. Absolute bunk. People who live by 99%, 95%, and 90% have enclosed themselves In Schrodinger’s toxic box, slaves to R.A. Fisher’s Prism of Arbitrariness. That is all.

Data set:

Team	wOBA	wRC+	Fld	WAR	NA	NA+
Pirates	0.296	81	1	2.7	160	215
Cubs	0.327	97	-5.7	4.8	134	180
Tigers	0.322	102	-0.2	5.5	130	175
Braves	0.308	90	-13	3.1	130	175
Brewers	0.317	96	5	5.9	115	155
Diamondbacks	0.318	91	8.5	5.3	111	149
Rangers	0.34	112	-6.6	6.1	110	148
Giants	0.297	81	-6.1	2	110	148
Indians	0.334	113	2.7	7.3	100	134
Mariners	0.284	81	-14	0.1	98	132
Royals	0.335	110	6	7.5	90	121
Rays	0.322	106	16.3	7.5	86	116
Cardinals	0.352	120	8.4	11.3	85	114
Dodgers	0.308	91	-1.9	4.4	78	105
Astros	0.312	94	-19.1	2.9	76	102
Reds	0.339	107	5.7	8.2	60	81
Blue Jays	0.328	107	3.6	6.6	60	81
Marlins	0.321	96	8.8	6.3	60	81
Yankees	0.348	119	7.6	8.5	50	67
Phillies	0.32	95	-2.9	4.9	50	67
Rockies	0.313	84	7.1	3.8	48	65
Red Sox	0.328	104	3.1	5.9	45	61
Padres	0.295	88	8.4	4.9	45	61
White Sox	0.307	89	-8.8	2.1	45	61
Angels	0.325	106	12.9	7.7	43	58
Nationals	0.293	78	-8.3	1.2	35	47
Orioles	0.303	87	-5.9	1.9	30	40
Athletics	0.291	85	-11	1	25	34
Mets	0.32	99	-13.4	4.6	12	16
Twins	0.28	75	2.1	0.7	10	13