Who Likes the Foreigners?

Thursday, November 20, 2008

The ratio of Americans to foreigners at the major league level has risen from 3% in 1903 to 26% in 2008. International scouting is more important than ever as there is a high probability that one out of every 5 players on your team will have learned the game somewhere other than in the US.

Some teams and general managers have shied away from foreigners but others have embraced them; to a point where 50% of their players were born outside of the States or Canada. Omar Minaya and Ned Colletti are stocking their teams with imports more than any other General Managers in recent years. Omar Minaya made his presence felt immediately after being hired to lead the Montreal Expos in 2002. Though they already had a large % of foreigners on their team (40.4% in 2001), Minaya quickly boosted it up to 44% and after taking over the New York Mets in 2005, he raised their ratio of foreigners from 23% in 2004 to 47% in 2006. Does this translate to winning? Well, it didn't necessarily result in a World Championship for the Mets but how about for other teams?
Consider the % of foreigners on the last 10 World Series winning teams:

2008 PHI  15%
2007 BOS  33%
2006 STL  24%
2005 CHW  32%
2004 BOS  22%
2003 FLA  28%
2002 ANA  20%
2001 ARI  19%
2000 NYY  30%
1999 NYY  31%


It would be very difficult to correlate championships to the ratio of foreigners on a given team but in general, the % does not deviate much from teh average.

Its also important to note that for the purpose of this study, a foreigner is classified as a player whose birthplace is anywhere other than the United States or Canada. The study does not take into consideration the location of upbringing for a specific player and so players such as Bruce Bochy (France), Jeff Bronkey (Afhganistan) and Keith McDonald (Japan) are deemed foreigners.

The top 15 teams with the highest % of foreigners

2004 Los Angeles Dodgers 51.2%
2006 New York Mets       51.0%
2005 Los Angeles Dodgers 47.7%
2005 New York Mets       47.6%
2007 New York Mets       46.9%
2008 New York Mets       46.0%
2002 Montreal Expos      44.2%
2003 Montreal Expos      44.2%
2006 Los Angeles Dodgers 44.0%
1997 Toronto Blue Jays   43.2%
2003 New York Yankees    42.9%
2005 Baltimore Orioles   41.3%
2008 New York Yankees    41.2%
2001 Montreal Expos      40.4%
2004 Baltimore Orioles   40.4%
2005 Seattle Mariners    39.6%


By Franchise (Data since 1980):

Arizona Diamondbacks   25.7%
Florida Marlins        24.9%
Los Angeles Dodgers    24.2%
Pittsburgh Pirates     21.4%
Colorado Rockies       21.4%
Tampa Bay Rays         20.8%
Washington Nationals   20.5%
Toronto Blue Jays      20.1%
Cleveland Indians      18.7%
New York Yankees       18.4%
Baltimore Orioles      18.0%
Seattle Mariners       17.4%
New York Mets          17.3%
Atlanta Braves         16.9%
Texas Rangers          16.3%
Cincinnati Reds        16.3%
St. Louis Cardinals    15.9%
Chicago Cubs           15.8%
Chicago White Sox      15.6%
Milwaukee Brewers      15.5%
Houston Astros         15.4%
Los Angeles Angels     14.6%
Kansas City Royals     14.3%
Boston Red Sox         14.2%
Detroit Tigers         14.2%
San Diego Padres       13.9%
Minnesota Twins        13.6%
Oakland Athletics      13.6%
Philadelphia Phillies  13.4%
San Francisco Giants   12.8%

By Year:

1903 3.3%
1904 4.2%
1905 4.2%
1906 4.3%
1907 3.6%
1908 4.0%
1909 2.8%
1910 2.4%
1911 1.8%
1912 2.7%
1913 2.6%
1914 3.7%
1915 2.3%
1916 3.4%
1917 2.9%
1918 3.4%
1919 2.1%
1920 2.1%
1921 1.9%
1922 1.4%
1923 0.8%
1924 0.7%
1925 1.3%
1926 1.1%
1927 0.7%
1928 0.8%
1929 0.9%
1930 0.6%
1931 1.2%
1932 1.1%
1933 0.8%
1934 0.6%
1935 1.0%
1936 0.8%
1937 1.0%
1938 0.9%
1939 0.9%
1940 1.1%
1941 0.9%
1942 1.5%
1943 2.2%
1944 2.8%
1945 3.1%
1946 1.3%
1947 1.4%
1948 1.4%
1949 2.6%
1950 3.1%
1951 3.4%
1952 3.0%
1953 3.8%
1954 4.2%
1955 5.0%
1956 5.5%
1957 5.7%
1958 6.1%
1959 6.8%
1960 9.0%
1961 7.5%
1962 7.4%
1963 7.9%
1964 8.8%
1965 8.7%
1966 9.3%
1967 10.1%
1968 10.4%
1969 11.5%
1970 11.2%
1971 10.2%
1972 10.7%
1973 11.2%
1974 11.1%
1975 9.7%
1976 11.4%
1977 10.4%
1978 10.3%
1979 10.4%
1980 11.2%
1981 10.5%
1982 10.6%
1983 11.9%
1984 11.2%
1985 11.1%
1986 11.0%
1987 11.9%
1988 13.5%
1989 12.5%
1990 13.1%
1991 14.4%
1992 14.2%
1993 14.5%
1994 15.0%
1995 16.6%
1996 17.9%
1997 21.1%
1998 19.9%
1999 21.3%
2000 22.4%
2001 24.1%
2002 25.4%
2003 25.0%
2004 26.7%
2005 27.1%
2006 27.2%
2007 26.2%
2008 26.2%

Posted by Gary at 4:56 PM 2 comments  

The South Coast League

Thursday, November 6, 2008

+ Not sure why I didn't notice but the South Coast League did not play in 2008. I grabbed the 2007 stats and so there are duplicate stats for all players participating in this league.

I'll have that updated on the site soon.

Posted by Gary at 9:43 AM 1 comments  

2008 Independent Statistics

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

+ I have added stats for the following Independent Leagues.


American Association
Atlantic League
CanAm League
Continental League
Frontier League
Golden League
Northern League
South Coast League
United League

Two interesting names pop out.

+ My next project will be to work 100% on the new site design which will hopefully be ready sooner than later. Once that is done, I can go back to my data projects.

Posted by Gary at 12:48 PM 1 comments