Name: _________________

AP Statistics Handout: Lesson 1.3

Topics: dot plots, stemplots, histograms, CSOCS

Moneyball
“Moneyball” depicts the 2002 season of the Oakland Athletics (the A’s)
baseball team. When the movie was released, it was a hit – grossing $110
million. It was surprising that a movie about the Oakland A’s was successful.
After all, in that 2002 season, the New York Yankees (not the A’s) scored the
most runs. The Atlanta Braves (not the A’s) had the largest division lead. And
the Anaheim Angels (not the A’s) won the championship.

Today’s Key Analysis: Why would anyone make

(or watch) a movie about the Oakland A’s?

Payroll
Team
Dot Plots (millions)
New York Yankees $126
Boston Red Sox $108
“There are rich teams, and then there are poor teams, then
Texas Rangers $106
there’s 50 feet of crap, and then there’s us.” Arizona Diamondbacks $103
– Brad Pitt, playing the GM of the Oakland A’s in “Moneyball” Los Angeles Dodgers $95
New York Mets $95
Atlanta Braves $93
Seattle Mariners $80
Cleveland Indians $79
San Francisco Giants $78
Toronto Blue Jays $77
Chicago Cubs $76
St. Louis Cardinals $75
Houston Astros $63
Anaheim Angels $62
1. On the dotplot above, label the point the represents the New York Yankees. Baltimore Orioles $60
Then, label the Oakland A’s. Based on their player payrolls, which team would Philadelphia Phillies $58
you expect to win more games? Chicago White Sox $57
Colorado Rockies $57
Detroit Tigers $55
Milwaukee Brewers $50
Kansas City Royals $47
Cincinnati Reds $45
Pittsburgh Pirates $42
2. What are some advantages and disadvantages of using a dotplot to visualize
Florida Marlins $42
data? San Diego Padres $41
Minnesota Twins $40
Oakland A's $40
Montreal Expos $39
Tampa Bay Devil Rays $34

Material adapted from the Skew The Script curriculum (skewthescript.org)

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Stemplots

3. Below, create a stemplot of the payroll data. Remember: title, tick, tick, label, label, label.

4. What are some advantages and disadvantages of using a stemplot to visualize data?

Histograms
5. Using the payroll data, complete the frequency table. Payroll Relative
Frequency
Then, create a histogram of the data. Remember: title, tick, (millions) Frequency
tick, label, label, label. 20 - 39
40 - 59
60 - 79
80 - 99
100 - 119
120 - 139
Total 30 100%

6. What would change about your graph if you made a relative frequency histogram?

7. What are some advantages and disadvantages of using a histogram to visualize data?

Material adapted from the Skew The Script curriculum (skewthescript.org)

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CSOCS Shape

“Describe the distribution…”

Context – What ________________ is being measured?

Shape – ___________ skew, symmetric, modes Unimodal ___________

Outliers – _____________ points _
Center – Mean, median, _____________________

Spread – ____________, IQR, standard deviation

__________ Symmetric _________

8. Describe the distribution of payroll data, as depicted in your histogram.

“Using stats the way we read them, we’ll find value in players that nobody else can see…I believe that there is
a championship team of 25 people that we can afford because everyone else in baseball undervalues them. ”
– Jonah Hill, playing the Oakland A’s statistician in “Moneyball”

Number of Wins (per team)

9. The dotplot above shows the number of wins each team had in the 2002 season. Below is a table with
specific information for the Oakland A’s and New York Yankees. Fill in the final column in the table, then
label the teams on the dotplot above. Using the graph and the table, comment on why it makes sense to
make a movie about the Oakland A’s (even though they didn’t win the championship).

Team Payroll Wins $ spent per win

NY Yankees $125,928,583 103
Oakland A’s $40,004,167 103

Material adapted from the Skew The Script curriculum (skewthescript.org)

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Lesson 1.3 Discussion

Baseball’s Luxury Tax
 Rich teams pay a tax to the league. The revenue helps fund poor teams.
 Poor teams say the tax isn’t big enough to make much of a difference.

Discussion Question: Imagine the league enacted a harsher tax in the 2002 season. Any money spent
above $100 million is taxed at a 90% rate. Poor teams receive the tax funds.
a) How would the distribution of team payrolls change? Comment on shape, center, and spread.
b) In your opinion, would this new system be better for the sport? Why or why not?

Lesson 1.3 Practice

Points Scored Per Game Created using stapplet.com

1. The above dotplot displays the points scored per game by 35 NBA players during the 2017 basketball
season.

a) Describe the distribution of points scored per game.

b) Among these players, there were two selected to be “All-Stars” (a recognition that they are among
the best players in the league). These two players were LeBron James and Kyrie Irving. Circle the dots
that likely represent these players. Then, comment on how their removal from the dataset would
change your interpretation of the shape of the distribution.

Material adapted from the Skew The Script curriculum (skewthescript.org)

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2) A sample of 12 amateur weightlifters at a gym were surveyed on their “one-rep max” weight for a
deadlift, recorded in pounds. The data is shown below:

285 290 287 275 280 310

300 282 274 285 294 285

a) Create a stemplot for this data set. Don’t forget to include a key!

b) Describe the distribution of deadlift weights.

3) Describe the shape of each histogram.

Created using
stapplet.com

Material adapted from the Skew The Script curriculum (skewthescript.org)

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4) An Algebra II teacher organized her students’ midterm exam scores into a frequency distribution,
shown below.

a) Calculate the relative frequency distribution.

Exam Score (%) Frequency Relative Frequency

60-69 2

70-79 13

80-89 24

90-99 17

b) Create a relative frequency histogram for this data set.

c) Describe the distribution of midterm exam scores.

Material adapted from the Skew The Script curriculum (skewthescript.org)

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Further Practice
Teachers: If you’d like to give students additional practice problems…

 Check out our CED and Textbook Alignment Guide (skewthescript.org/ap-stats-alignment) to

find additional exercises in your AP Stats textbook or in AP Classroom that are aligned to the
content covered in this lesson.
 The following Free Response Questions (FRQs) from past AP Exams are also aligned to this
lesson: 2019 Q1 (part a), 2016 Q1 (part a), 2013 Q1 (part a)

Material adapted from the Skew The Script curriculum (skewthescript.org)