Baseball is a game of stats. Hitters are judged by batting average (AVG), on base percentage (OBP), and slugging percentage (SLG). Pitchers strive for a low earned run average (ERA), lots of strike outs (SO), and minimal bases on balls (BB). Every team wants to win as many games possible in order to raise their winning percentage and thus give them the best chance to advance to the playoffs.

But what if another stat were added to the equation? What if a team’s wins and losses were replaced by a measure of the number of people who visited that team’s website each month? We could call this stat People Visits (PV’s). If PV’s became the stat that decided who went to the post season and who went home for the winter, Compete, Inc. would replace the umpire as the official arbiter of Major League Baseball.

If PV’s were calculated right now and the results were used to choose four teams from each league to advance to the playoffs the standings would look like this:

Under our new playoff criteria, the four American League teams making it to the post season also happen to have the four best records in the league. Equally as important to note, the Chicago Cubs, with 38 wins and 60 losses, would storm into the post season as the number one seed in the National League! This brings up a good point; using PV’s as the deciding stat in baseball allows the fans to become part of the action. No matter how much the Cubs lose, their fans will still flood their website, turning the Cubbies into perennial winners.

Now, Compete throws a curveball in the playoffs. Rather than winners advancing based upon PV’s, the new important stat becomes Page Views Per Session (PVPS). Why? Two reasons of equal importance; First, while PV’s allows for people to simply view the homepage of their favorite team, Page Views Per Session shows that fans are spending some time at the site digging through articles and stats. Second, PVPS rigs it so that the Red Sox win. Enough said.

Here is what the rankings would look like based on PVPS:

So there you have it. Based upon my new statistical system, the Boston Red Sox will edge out the New York Mets in the 2006 World Series. Am I biased? Absolutely. Now I’m just gonna sit back and wait for Bud Selig, the commissioner of the MLB, to give me a call so we can instate my method.

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