Baseball and Stats: Units of Analysis

A unit of analysis is the unit that's being studied. Looking at different units of analysis can give a different view of things.

As an example, let's compare attendance of MLB games in 2014 and 2015. If I use the team as my unit of analysis, things don't seem too good. 57% of teams had lower attendance in 2015 than they did in 2014. If I look at the Major League as a whole, it looks better. Attendance has increased (not by much, but a little).