Yankees Have A Winning Formula No Team Can Copy

The amazing thing was, and is, the simplicity of the plan: the Yankees needed to become less talented.

The best way to improve the club, he argued, is to remove the best players, even if that player is a baby Yankee. Only then will underperforming players be forced to fulfill their potential, kind of like activating their mutant powers. They did not have to permanently part with all of these players; a temporary separation would work. This might have been the most stunning suggestion since Bill Veeck penciled in Eddie Gaedel.

The funny thing was, no one objected.

For several moments, in fact, no one spoke at all. Then a quavering voice was heard; it agreed. Maybe it was the time of day (4:45 AM), perhaps it was desperation, maybe it was the shock of the new; either way, soon every person agreed to implement this plan. And the first thing was to come up with a mathematical formula; that’s where Hal’s super nerd powers came in.

A Technical Issue

I have seen the final recipe, and it breaks down like this. First, the team must take the total talent of a team and divide it by the number of players on that team. That number is then assigned to each player. Next, the most talented player must be identified and the percentage of total talent that player contributes to the team. Finally, a projection is made on how much additional talent will pour into the remaining players if the most talented player is removed.

It got pretty technical after that and I had to consult an expert. I spoke with Dr. Tom F. Oolery at the Clinic for Baseball Statistics and this is the best I can explain it. Let us say there are four players on a team, each with 25% of the talent. To make three of the players better, one of the players must be removed. That would mean the remaining players would receive an almost 32 percent increase in talent.

The results are obvious. Instead of having four good players, the team now has three great players, each man now having 33% of the total talent. And most teams are better off having a few great players instead of a lot of mediocre ones. When the formula was complete and the logic proved unassailable, the die was cast.