Baseball salaries 2015. Baseball is big business, and the top salaries have become quite large. The highest salaries

(in millions of dollars per season) for each season since 1980 are given in the following table:

Year Player Salary($M)
1980 Nolan Ryan (Hou NL) 1 1981 Dave Winfield (NY AL) 1.400 1982 Mike Schmidt (Ph NL) 1.500 1983 Mike Schmidt (Ph NL) 1.650 1984 Mike Schmidt (Ph NL) 1.990 1985 Mike Schmidt (Ph NL) 2.100 1986 Jim Rice (Bos AL) 1.960 1987 Jim Rice (Bos AL) 2.410 1988 Ozzie Smith (StL NL) 2.340 1989 Orel Hershiser (LA NL) 2.770 1990 Robin Yount (Mil AL) 3.200 1991 Darryl Strawberry (LA NL) 3.800 1992 Bobby Bonilla (NY NL) 6.100 1993 Bobby Bonilla (NY NL) 6.200 1994 Bobby Bonilla (NY NL) 6.300 1995 Cecil Fielder (Det AL) 9.240 1996 Cecil Fielder (Det AL) 9.240 1997 Albert Belle (Chi AL) 10 1998 Gary Sheffield (Fla/LA NL) 14.94 1999 Albert Belle (Bal AL) 11.95 2000 Kevin Brown (LA NL) 15.71 2001 Alex Rodriguez (Tex AL) 22 2002 Alex Rodriguez (Tex AL) 22 2003 Alex Rodriguez (Tex AL) 22 2004 Alex Rodriguez (NY AL) 21.73 2005 Alex Rodriguez (NY AL) 26 2006 Alex Rodriguez (NY AL) 21.68 2007 Jason Giambi (NY AL) 23.43 2008 Alex Rodriguez (NY AL) 28 2009 Alex Rodriguez (NY AL) 33 2010 Alex Rodriguez (NY AL) 33 2011 Alex Rodriguez (NY AL) 32 2012 Alex Rodriguez (NY AL) 30 2013 Alex Rodriguez (NY AL) 29 2014 Zack Greinke 26 2015 Clayton Kershaw 32.57

a) Kendall’s tau for these data is 0.90. What does that say about these data?

b) Based on that result, would you predict that salaries will continue to rise? Explain.