A Comparison of the Quantity of MLB Players Produced by US Region: 1994-2019

• Activity Number: 243 - Statistics in Sports and Beyond
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Wednesday, August 11, 2021 : 10:00 AM to 11:50 AM
• Sponsor: Section on Statistics in Sports
• Author(s): Jonathan Bishop* and Austin Brown
• Companies: Kennesaw State University and Kennesaw State University
• Keywords: talent development; spatial analysis; negative binomial regression; baseball; sports analytics

Abstract

For scouts of professional sports teams, it is valuable to know where to look for top talent who may be able to aid their respective team. For Major League Baseball (MLB) teams, this is especially important as their league allows both high school and collegiate players to participate in their annual amateur draft. Many baseball fans are aware that a handful of states are “hotspots” for MLB player production, but it is unclear if this commonly held belief is statistically valid. Consequently, this study examines the relationship between MLB player production across the various geographic regions of the U.S. over the past 25 seasons controlling for the population of the regions as well as the year. Results have immediate implications in terms of an MLB team's focus on talent evaluation as well as longer term implications on expanding the game to underrepresented regions.