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Major League Baseball (MLB) Marketing

120 Sports and MVPIndex rank MLB’s most socially valued teams, players and posts

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By Kyle O'Brien, Creative Works Editor

March 27, 2017 | 5 min read

With Major League Baseball’s (MLB) opening day almost upon us (April 3), social measurement and valuation platform MVPindex and Chicago-based digital sports network 120 Sports have partnered to unveil a collection of data surrounding the social activity of Major League Baseball teams and players from the 2016 season and offseason.

MLB

120 Sports and MVPIndex rank MLB's most socially valued teams and players

Unsurprisingly, reigning World Series Champions, the Chicago Cubs and Cubs player, NL MVP Kris Bryant topped all the charts, securing the top spots as the most socially relevant team and the top social post of the season respectively, while the Seattle Mariners’ Robinson Cano stole the number one spot amongst all MLB players.

To determine the most-valued MLB athletes, teams and posts on social media this year, 120 Sports partnered with MVPindex to rank them using a proprietary algorithm that evaluates social activity throughout the past year. The ranking combines three separate scores: reach (fans, followers, impressions), engagement (likes, comments, shares, re-tweets, favorites) and conversation (positive/negative mentions).

Beginning with Opening Day 2016 through the end of the World Series this past November, the most socially relevant MLB Athletes were ranked:

1. Robinson Cano

2. David Ortiz

3. Mike Trout

4. Clayton Kershaw

5. Yu Darvish

6. Bryce Harper

7. Josh Donaldson

8. Jose Bautista

9. Anthony Rizzo

10. Miguel Cabrera

Over the past six months, however, the Orioles’ Adam Jones has worked his way into the number six spot, likely due to his outstanding performances during the World Baseball Classic this off-season. Bryce Harper has dropped out of the Top 10 during the off-season, while the other nine players all remain on the Top 10 list.

According to Kyle Nelson, co-founder of MVPindex, 2016 saw teams and players using Twitter for real-time updates, energizing fans that were following the conversations around the games. Instagram, on the other hand, was the winning platform during the post-season as fans engaged with fun and authentic photos posted by their heroes.

“MLB teams and players are realizing the incredible power of social media to build deeper relationships with their fans, as well as drive value for their sponsors,” Nelson said. “As we gear up for the 2017 season, I’m excited to see who steps up and takes their social media strategy to the next level with even more compelling and creative campaigns.”

From a team perspective, the top 10 are:

1. Chicago Cubs

2. Boston Red Sox

3. New York Yankees

4. Texas Rangers

5. Toronto Blue Jays

6. Kansas City Royals

7. Atlanta Braves

8. St. Louis Cardinals

9. Detroit Tigers

10. San Francisco Giants

Though the Cleveland Indians were in the 2016 World Series, they only ranked 16th in the 2016 Team Rankings and came in 22nd for the Top 100 Social Posts by Teams. The Boston Red Sox’s most influential posts that propelled them to the number two spot included the retirement of star David Ortiz and their AL East Championship victory.

Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo dominated every spot in the ranking of the Top 10 Social Posts from MLB players, specifically their Instagram posts after the World Series victory, as well as from the Cubs World Series parade and Bryant’s wedding.

Additional noteworthy highlights from the collaboration include:

• World Series Champions The Chicago Cubs hold the #1 spot in Team Rankings for 2016, the #1 and #2 spots in the Top 100 Posts by Teams, along with the #1, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 17 and 18 spots in the Top 100 Posts by MLB Players.

• The Boston Red Sox were #2 in the Team Rankings for 2016 and took the #3, 5, 9 and 16 spots in Top 100 Posts by Teams.

For more specifics and data regarding the top social posts by player and team, including full videos, 120 Sports will take a deeper look at all the social data on its nightly sports show, The Rally, tonight (March 27), a two-hour interactive prime-time highlights show exclusively on Twitter. 120 Sports uses up-to-the-moment insight from consumer trends to shape the way it produces its daily live and on-demand programming, providing real-time data on what is resonating most with sports fans.

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