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City University of New York - City College

MLB Rule IV Draft: Valuing Draft Pick Slots

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

<p>This study explored the Net Present Value (NPV) in dollar terms of draft pick slots in the Major League Rule IV Draft. In order to accomplish this, the cumulative performance of players selected in each slot within the draft was evaluated and brought to the Present Value of the time they were selected using a discount rate. The performance of the players was determined using the baseball-reference Wins Above Replacement (WAR) metric. It is intuitive that earlier draft picks are the most valuable; however, it is unclear how quickly the value of draft picks decline. This research demonstrates that the decline in NPV is rapid for the first 40 draft selections before the pace slows. Around the 116<sup>th</sup> selection, draft pick slots level off and experience little decline, as teams are less able to determine the value of the players’ talents. There is substantial difference between the top 5 picks in the draft and the draft picks following the 116<sup>th</sup> selection, as the top 5 picks are worth in excess of $28 million each, while the later selections level off around $2 million each.</p>

Degree

thesis:*
Level thesis:degree_level
Thesis
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Economics and Business
Year dc:date.available
2018

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • CACCHIONE, ANTHONY
Contributors dc:contributor
  • Robert Mellman
  • Kevin Foster

Subjects

dc:subject × 6

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Repository record dc:identifier
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cc_etds_theses/754
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:academicworks.cuny.edu:cc_etds_theses-1759

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
City University of New York - City College
Base URL
academicworks.cuny.edu/do/oai/
Last updated
2026-07-24
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

CACCHIONE, ANTHONY. MLB Rule IV Draft: Valuing Draft Pick Slots. Thesis thesis, 2018. https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cc_etds_theses/754