Pollis: Looking at three white-collar offseason personnel moves
From SABR member Lewie Pollis at Baseball Prospectus on December 16, 2014:
It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to write about baseball. I am thrilled to have the chance to post at BP again, and now that I’m back there are quite a few things I’m eager to bore you with my thoughts on. But the thing I’ve been most itching to write about might be a little surprising. It isn’t a new statistical model or a star player or my pride at having said before the playoffs started that the Royals would beat the Orioles in the ALCS.
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Well, if you’ve read just about anything I’ve written in the last year or so, you’ll know that I think the biggest potential for comparative advantage in baseball today is increased investment in front office employees. In short, I have argued that MLB teams should significantly expand their baseball operations departments, be more active in competing for the best prospective employees, and be willing not to adhere to low industry standards for salaries when offering above-market wages would help them hire better candidates.
There’s a lot of work to be done on that front, and we are still far from seeing (what I would consider to be) economically rational demand in the non-player labor market. …
At the risk of reading too much into a handful of data points, I think it’s worth taking a closer look at these white-collar offseason personnel moves and what they tell us about how teams are better understanding the value of their front office employees.
Read the full article here: http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=25209
Originally published: December 16, 2014. Last Updated: December 16, 2014.