Evaluating the Relative Efficiency of Baseball Players

Countless hours are spent in debate on innumerable back porches#x2014;the topic being the relative merit of baseball players. Much of this debate is poorly focused, since the participants cannot even agree on the relevant dimensions (e.g., is a slick-fielding shortstop more valuable than a slugging leftfielder? than a dominating pitcher?). Moreover, even when the relevant dimensions of comparison can be agreed upon (for example, by limiting the discussion to batting prowess), a relative ranking consensus may not be achieved, since weighting individual items may be pro blematic (for instance, is a home run worth twice as much as a single? more than twice as much?). However, if agreement can be reached regarding the performance dimensions to be considered, use of data envelopment analysis (DEA) can lead to objective rankings of player performance.