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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Modeling The Performance-Based Compensation Of Mlb Catchers, William Deforest Jan 2023

Modeling The Performance-Based Compensation Of Mlb Catchers, William Deforest

CMC Senior Theses

How professional baseball players are compensated for their on-field performance and contribution to winning baseball games has been studied many times by baseball analysts, yet no real attempt has been made to focus solely on the catcher position. As one of the most demanding and specialized positions in the game, a talented catcher is vital to a team’s success. This paper attempts to utilize Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) and Offensive Runs Above Average (OFF), leading statistics that use Statcast data to measure defensive and offensive productivity, to determine which area of catcher defense is the greatest differentiator between elite defensive …


Height, Weight, And Durability In Major League Baseball, Joshua Yeager Jan 2017

Height, Weight, And Durability In Major League Baseball, Joshua Yeager

CMC Senior Theses

Using data from the 2000-2016 Major League Baseball seasons, this paper looks at the determinants of durability amongst baseball athletes, durability is measured in games played for batters and innings pitched for pitchers, with a particular focus on height and weight. This paper finds evidence that lighter, shorter batters play significantly more games than taller, heavier batters. Additionally, amongst pitchers, there is only circumstantial evidence that height and weight are important determining factors of player durability. Finally, I find that starting pitchers increase the likelihood of becoming injured in the regular season by 10.3% and 21.8% if their hits per …


Revenue Incentives And Referee Propensity To Make Foul Calls In The Nba Finals, Daniel Fallon-Cyr Jan 2017

Revenue Incentives And Referee Propensity To Make Foul Calls In The Nba Finals, Daniel Fallon-Cyr

CMC Senior Theses

In this study I examine foul calls by NBA referees alongside the difference in aggressiveness of twelve NBA basketball teams as they compete for the Championship Title. I aim to identify referee biases that increase the likelihood of the NBA Finals ending in a later game due to league revenue incentives. My data consists of 91 individual NBA Finals games played between the 2001 and 2016 NBA Finals. After controlling for changes in play as well as the difference in aggressiveness, I find that NBA referee’s foul calls are more dependent on a call on the opposing team in situations …


An Analysis Of The Contract Year Phenomenon In The Nba: Do Players Perform Better Or Worse, Tyler Gaffaney Jan 2013

An Analysis Of The Contract Year Phenomenon In The Nba: Do Players Perform Better Or Worse, Tyler Gaffaney

CMC Senior Theses

The present study uses a novel measure of over performance (percent deviation from career average) to analyze the contract year phenomenon in the NBA. Historically, the literature has pointed toward over performance across almost all statistical measures of performance. However, previous research has assumed that all players are universally affected by the presence of a contract year in the same manner. The present study finds significant results that contradict previous research by dividing the sample of players into subgroups by age, career PER and position. Furthermore, the results of this paper’s statistical analysis illustrate the first examples of systematic underperformance …