Concentration of Playing Talent

Abstract

Several authors have recently suggested that an expanding labor pool has led to improvement in professional sports leagues’ competitive balance. The basic premise is that a rise in team player options leads to less variability in player performance and therefore increased competition. The present work examines the initial step (i.e., the relationship between the influx of foreign-born players and various measures of talent compression). The results suggest that the geographic diversity of today’s baseball players has reduced variability in individual player performance.