Efficient Production of Wins in Major League Baseball

Brian Volz

No 2008-50, Working papers from University of Connecticut, Department of Economics

Abstract: Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is applied to Major League Baseball salary and performance data from 1985 to 2006 in order to identify those teams which produced wins most efficiently and the characteristics which lead to efficient production. It is shown that on average both National and American League teams over allocate the most resources to first basemen. Additionally, it is found that National League teams should allocate significantly more resources towards starting pitching while American League teams should allocate significantly more resources toward second base. It is also observed that efficient teams use younger less experienced players and employ rosters with a greater number of previous all star appearances.

Keywords: Baseball; DEA; Efficiency (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L83 D24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-spo
Date: 2008-12

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Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:uct:uconnp:2008-50

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