Do Mike Scioscia’s teams perform better in the second half?

In an effort to tell whether Manager Mike Scioscia’s teams perform more favorably later on in the season, I’ve done all the leg work. For each of the years Scioscia has managed, included in the table below is the record in each half, taking the second half minus first half difference. A positive difference in winning percentage indicates the team performed better in the second half than the first half (which is good), while a negative difference means the opposite.

*I did not include 2017’s difference, since this would make the data misleading and incomplete. Seventeen years, the equivalent of 2,754 games, is quite a large sample size to judge by, so naturally the data presents an interesting finding.

The sum of these differences is positive at 0.006, meaning Scioscia’s winning percentage is 0.6% greater in the second half than in the first, in total. As you might imagine, this is not a meaningful difference, which means that Scioscia’s teams do not perform significantly better or worse in the second half than they do in the first half.

It looks like the biggest second - first half differences (min. 4%) came in 2006, 2016, 2009, 2004, 2008, and 2002.

The lowest (min. -4%) came in 2003, 2000, 2010, 2007, 2015, and 2001.

Could the data suggest the idea that a manager is more successful when the personnel plays to his strengths? It is certainly possible.