One factor in determining a player’s worth is his “marquee value.” On page 95 of his book Diamond Dollars: The Economics of Winning in Baseball
Gennaro identifies four components in determining a player’s marquee value:
- Personal qualities
- Positive image
- Recognizability
- Accessibility
- Articulateness
- Performance Factor
- Continuity Factor
- Team Brand Value
Each of these is quantifiable, although it appears to be somewhat subjective in places. Which current Padres have the greatest marquee value? Without getting into the heavy math, here’s my stab:
A case could be advanced for Brian Giles, too, but I suspect his skills have slipped to the point that they no longer offset his relative lack of visibility. Like I said, there appears to be a degree of subjectivity involved here; calculate at your own risk. I’ll note that the above meshes pretty well with my intuition, for whatever that may be worth.
Practical application? Well, marquee value could come into play when deciding whether to re-sign or pursue a free agent. Incidentally, if you find this sort of discussion interesting, you might also check out the Baseball Economics Roundtable from May 2007 over at Biz of Baseball…
Here’s what a guy at CBS says about upcoming pitchers …
Philadelphia’s Cole Hamels warms in the bullpen for the NL All-Stars. Josh Beckett is loosening in the AL pen, as he’ll spell Haren and work two innings when he comes on.
Rats … using Cabrera as a PH’er means only 1 AB … eh, he’s not at his best right now (or at least he sure didn’t look very good in his ABs vs Padres last week), so perhaps limiting him to 1 AB is OK … in general, however, this guy is the 2nd best hitter in the NL and so his ABs in this ASG should be maximized …
52 … ya, Miguel has a bum shoulder …
http://www.miamiherald.com/588/story/165617.html
… which means he prolly shouldn’t have even had that 1 AB … but at least it’s out of the way now …
Hmmm, just noticed that Loretta and Dye are both on the AL team …
Ichiro! Gwynn’s again!
Somehow David Wells is being quoted as saying he wants to play next year (if he’s healthy) …
http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/7004562
… whatever …
Cool … NL survives the inning with its weak link, Cole Hamels (I say that mainly because of his youth/inexperience, he’s a long-term-stud) … thanks to Griffey’s arm (I presume, can someone provide a description of the play?) …
44: Why use tiny URL? Cant you just click the link?
57 … here’s the CBS description of the play …
I-Rod sends a base hit to right field, as A-Rod tests the arm of Griffey Jr. That’s a bad idea, as Rodriguez is out by a mile. Russell Martin caught the strike from right field and waited for Rodriguez before lightly tagging him for the final out. Somewhere, Pete Rose is cringing, as he would have laid out Martin a la Cleveland’s Ray Fosse back in 1970.
A sharp hit to RF, Griffey got him and it wasn’t close – 5 steps…
58 … he could have just as easily done a cut&paste of the full/long URL … it seems more “ugly” than it really is … and so a tinyurl seems “prettier” than it really is …
If / when you are dealing with systems that don’t handle long URLs as well as this blog/comment engine does (such as some email programs), that’s when having a tinyurl is most handy …
59: Thats exactly what happened haha
61: Doesnt pretty much every system convert a URL into a link these days? Just wondering because I never understood the point of taking the extra step to go to tiny url.
Here comes Chris Young!
Good to see CY out there.
Young vs Ichiro! … seems like a *key* AB …
I wish it hadn’t been CY to give up that run.
This is why i didnt want CY in the All Star Game. Ichiro of all people almost hit an ouf of the park home run but ended up going around the bases anyway. I still dont understand how that 89 MPH fastball does not get hammered.
Leading MVP candidate shifts from Jr to Ichiro!
67 … ya, I was worried about CY in this game …
Here’s a description of the Ichiro! AB for anyone else that’s not watching …
Ichiro spanks one off of the right field wall and it turns around right fielder Ken Griffey Jr. It hits off of a banner on the wall and the carum goes the opposite way of where Griffey thought. Roberts easily scores and Ichiro motors all the way around for an inside-the-park home run in this 2007 All Star Game.
The CBS-guy noted the irony of CY and Derek Lee playing on the field together
Tinyurl: Any URL is a link, that’s what it means. Tinyurl just shortens them, because they can get huge. It makes it more manageable when you’re pasting a long link. Get a few layers deep on some servers and you’ve got a URL with 100 or more characters, which doesn’t always paste well.
Rose might have tried to flatten Martin, but Martin had plenty of time to get himself set. He almost had time to go put his mask back on.
Did Crawford’s HR splash?
I’d love me some Carl Crawford on the Padres.
No, just got over but it was deep, he hit the crap out of it
#71: LM, I’m watching the game on Fox, what are you doing with CBS?
I doubt Crawford’s available, but we might think about buying low on Baldelli. Have to have a backup plan for CF because he breaks things walking through humid air, but a good risk if you get him cheap.
76 … when I say “CBS”, I’m talking about the cbssportline.com web page … following along on its GameDay equivalent … and it’s got a guy “GLOG”ing … where “GLOG” stands for “Game Log”, I s’pose, which is like a one-man IGD …
78: Bradley and Baldelli in the OF? Better hope they never get in a collision hahaha
Looks like the NL is going down 10 years in a row.
At least Jake had a decent start. Good for him.
80: DOn’t speak so soon!
Wow. Tony LaRussa is a bum.
That was actually a fun game to watch.
OK, I’m back … had to step out there … I caught a few minutes on ESPN radio … enough to remember how *great* Dave Campbell is on the radio … man, he’s just my style … makes my distaste for Leitner even greater …
Then I caught the last inning on TV … ORLANDO HUDSON? … AARON ROWAND? I was just assuming that all the great NL hitters who started the game on the bench had already been used … but that didn’t seem possible … and now I look at the box score … ALBERT PUJOLS *DID NOT PLAY*!!!! I’m just *livid* … I assume that’s what comment #83 is all about. I’ve been a LaRussa apologist for many years, being a partial-A’s-fan left me with a good impression of LaRussa … and I’ve heard him speak and I like him … but no more being a fan … he sent Orlando Hudson to the plate and Aaron Rowand to the plate with Pujols & Berkman available on the bench … just a travesty … ‘nuf said … g’night folks.
#6, 14, 32: Thanks for the input, guys. The only knock on Adrian right now is that he hasn’t been in a Padres uniform long enough. Assuming he and Peavy are still here when Trevor finally retires, I’m pretty confident that those two will be the faces of the organization.