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How to choose a sample

A handy, dandy flow chart.

All-star? Or dud?
All-star? Or dud?
Jim Rogash

There is a series of conversations that get repeated on this site over and over.

Person A: Player X is horrible/great. Look at how he's performed in the following date range?

Person B: Why did you choose that date range? (looks for himself) Oh, I see. He hit for the cycle/a golden sombrero the day before.

-or-

Person A: Over the past Y weeks, player X has been on hot/cold streak.

Person B: THAT DOESN'T MEAN ANYTHING!

Person A: I'm not saying anything about it, I'm just noticing a streak. I'm not a bad person.

It's a lot of work to go through every single case and argue whether the person posting a stat is being responsible or not. I'm tired. So I've tried to make a general solution for all questions of sample size and propriety. Follow this handy, dandy flow chart, and you won't be in the wrong (click to enlarge).

Samplesizeflowchart_medium

There you go. Now let's all be champs.

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