Abstract
A central decision-maker, the principal, employs performance evaluation criteria consistent with an organization’s overall goal(s) to measure the effectiveness of the agents who execute decisions and implement strategies within a specified period. The dataset of performance criteria spanning the performance space will change over time to reflect the principal’s strategic modifications. This paper applies a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) based approach to reveals the dynamics of the performance space of Major League Baseball (MLB) pitchers with minimum subjective judgment imposed on the data. The proposed approach is applied to data on MLB pitchers from 1871 to 2006. We conclude that many of the findings are consistent with the observations of baseball’s experts. The approach also suggests new directions for investigating a large dataset to identify revealed preferences or strategies by using historical and modern observations.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alexander, A. J., & Nelson, J. R. (1973). Measuring technological change: Aircraft turbine engines. Technology Forecasting and Social Change, 5, 189–203.
Anderson, R. T., & Sharp, G. P. (1997). A new measure of baseball batters using DEA. Annals of Operations Research, 73, 141–155.
Banker, R. D., Charnes, A., & Cooper, W. W. (1984). Some models for estimating technical and scale inefficiency in data envelopment analysis. Management Science, 30(9), 1078–1092.
Carminati, M. (2004). A graphical history of relief pitching. http://www.baseballgraphs.com/main/index.php/site/article/a_graphical_history_of_relief_pitching/. Accessed August 5, 2008.
Casu, B., Shaw, D., & Thanassoulis, E. (2005). Using a group support system to aid input-output identification in DEA. Journal of the Operational Research Society, 56(12), 1363–1372.
Charnes, A., Cooper, W. W., & Rhodes, E. (1978). Measuring the efficiency of decision making units. European Journal of Operational Research, 2, 429–444.
Cinca, C. S., & Molinero, C. M. (2004). Selecting DEA specifications and ranking units via PCA. Journal of the Operational Research Society, 55, 521–528.
Cook, W. D., & Zhu, J. (2007). Classifying inputs and outputs in data envelopment analysis. European Journal of Operational Research, 180(2), 692–699.
Dyson, R. G., Allen, R., Camanho, A. S., Podinovski, V. V., Sarrico, C. S., & Shale, E. A. (2001). Pitfalls and protocols in DEA. European Journal of Operational Research, 132, 245–259.
Golany, B., & Roll, Y. (1989). An application procedure for DEA. Omega, 17(3), 237–415.
Hadley, L., & Ruggiero, J. (2006). Final-offer arbitration in major league baseball: A nonparametric analysis. Annals of Operations Research, 145, 201–209.
James, B. (2003). The new Bill James historical baseball abstract. Glencoe: Free Press.
Kumar, S., & Russell, R. R. (2002). Technological change, technological catch-up, and capital deepening: Relative contributions to growth and convergence. American Economic Review, 92(3), 527–548.
Lewis, H. F., & Sexton, T. R. (2004). Data envelopment analysis with reverse inputs and outputs. Journal of Productivity Analysis, 21(2), 113–132.
Lovell, C. A. K., & Pastor, J. T. (1997). Target setting: An application to the branch network of a bank. European Journal of Operational Research, 98, 290–299.
Major League Baseball (2008). MLB Miscellany: Rules, regulations and statistics. http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/official_info/about_mlb/rules_regulations.jsp. Accessed August 11, 2008.
Pastor, J. T., Ruiz, J. L., & Sirvent, I. (2002). A statistical test for nested radial DEA models. Operations Research, 50(4), 728–735.
Pastor, J. T., Lovell, C. A. K., & Tulkens, H. (2006). Evaluating the financial performance of bank branches. Annals of Operations Research, 145, 321–337.
Rogers, E. M. (1962). Diffusion of innovations. Glencoe: Free Press.
Simar, L., & Wilson, P. W. (2008). Statistical inference in nonparametric frontier models: Recent developments and perspectives. In H. O. Fried, C. A. K. Lovell, & S. S. Schmidt (Eds.), The measurement of productive efficiency and productivity growth. London: Oxford University Press.
Timmer, M. P., & Los, B. (2005). Localized innovation and productivity growth in Asia: An intertemporal DEA approach. Journal of Productivity Analysis, 23(1), 47–64.
Wanger, J. M., & Shimshak, D. G. (2007). Stepwise selection of variables in data envelopment analysis: Procedures and managerial perspectives. European Journal of Operational Research, 180, 57–67.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Chen, WC., Johnson, A.L. The dynamics of performance space of Major League Baseball pitchers 1871–2006. Ann Oper Res 181, 287–302 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10479-010-0743-9
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10479-010-0743-9