Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Success In Professional Baseball: The Value Of Above Average Position Players, Heath Detweiler

Senior Honors Theses

In professional baseball, efficient spending is the key to success. Because modern player contracts are so costly, front offices must seek out the most valuable players. In addition, to reach the playoffs, teams need offensively above average players at some positions. Together, these facts lead to an interesting question of whether or not defensive position impacts the value of offensively above average players. To answer this question, reliable metrics of offensive ability must be employed and appropriately analyzed.

Through an analysis involving on-base percentage, park-adjusted linear weights, and weighted on-base average over the course of the 2010 through 2013 Major …