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Calculating The Expected Earnings Of A Major League Pitcher, Roger Abrams

Roger I. Abrams

Steve Bechler, a pitcher in the Major Leagues, died as a result of ingesting a defective weight-loss product in spring training. His wife and daughter filed suit against the pharmaceutical company. Bechler had only pitched a few games in the Major Leagues, but was slotted as a starting pitcher for the Baltimore Orioles for the 2003 campaign. How do you calculate what Bechler would have earned in his Major League career? In this article, Professor Roger Abrams uses the techniques of baseball salary arbitration and publicly available salary and performance data to calculate the loss. He first constructs a group …