Amateur baseball players: what are the relative merits of attending college versus going directly to the minor leagues?

The effects of education and on-the-job training on the performance of professional baseball players was studied using a secondary dataset consisting of 112 players and five years of play at the Major League level, classified as hitters from the 1990 through 2000 seasons. The study revealed that higher education significantly shortened the time to reach the Major Leagues, while both education and on-the-job training did not significantly affect the offensive performance as measured by five commonly used measures: batting average (AVG) runs batted in (RBI), on base percentage (OBP), slugging (SLG), and on base + slugging (OPS). The results also demonstrated that a few offensive performance measures significantly affected career length in the major leagues, while other factors (age, education, team drafted, round drafted, performance statistics (AVG, OPS, and years in the minors) did not significantly affect the survival time in Major League Baseball. The findings suggested that the personnel in charge of player evaluation and MLB the general managers should fully explore a player's potential by multiple factors instead of using a generic strategy that is merely based on the generally accepted standard operating process rooted in the history of MLB.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Recreation, Sport, and Tourism

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2013

Author dc:creator

• Richardson, Tiffany

Contributors dc:contributor

• Humphreys, Brad R.
• Barnett Morris, Lynn
• Rascher, Daniel
• Payne, Laura L.
• Strauser, David R.
• Raycraft, Michael

• Major League Baseball (MLB)
• Human Capital Theory

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2012 Tiffany Richardson

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/42402

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/42402