Syracuse University SURFACE Syracuse University Honors Program Capstone Syracuse University Honors Program Capstone Projects Projects Spring 5-1-2013 Determinants of Major League Baseball Player Salaries Tyler Wasserman Syracuse University Follow this and additional works at: https://surface.syr.edu/honors_capstone Part of the Sports Management Commons Recommended Citation Wasserman, Tyler, "Determinants of Major League Baseball Player Salaries" (2013). Syracuse University Honors Program Capstone Projects. 99. https://surface.syr.edu/honors_capstone/99 This Honors Capstone Project is brought to you for free and open access by the Syracuse University Honors Program Capstone Projects at SURFACE. It has been accepted for inclusion in Syracuse University Honors Program Capstone Projects by an authorized administrator of SURFACE. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Determinants of Major League Baseball Player Salaries A Capstone Project Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Renée Crown University Honors Program at Syracuse University Tyler Wasserman Candidate for Bachelor of Science Degree and Renée Crown University Honors December 2013 Honors Capstone in Sport Management Capstone Project Advisor: ______________________________ Rodney Paul, Professor Capstone Project Reader: ______________________________ Michael Veley, Director & Chair Honors Director: ______________________________ Stephen Kuusisto, Director Date: March 6, 2014 © Tyler Wasserman, March 6, 2014 Abstract In 2003, Michael Lewis published Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game , which forever changed the finances and economics of baseball. It began a movement towards using advanced statistical analysis to determine the value of baseball players, in order to build a roster that will win the most games at the lowest cost. The Moneyball movement has resulted in a multitude of new statistics to try to drill a player’s value down to one number that represents his marginal revenue product, or his individual contribution to the team’s success.