Hot Stove Economics

From the reviews:

"J.C. Bradbury is the preeminent analyst of baseball economics in the world." Tyler Cowen, George Mason University and marginalrevolution.com

During the summer and fall baseball fans live and die with the success and failures of their favorite teams. But the source of all this emotion as J.C. Bradbury demonstrates in
Hot Stove Economics
are the decisions made in the winter. Such decisions depend upon the information available to teams and how this is evaluated. Bradbury provides a guide to decision-making that will not only help the fan understand what their favorite team is doing, but also probably help more than a few teams do more to please their fans. David Berri, Southern Utah University and author of
The Wages of Wins


There's no more complaining that you can't understand the economics of the game after this book. Bradbury's clear and entertaining style makes the hardcore economics that drive the game accessible to someone like me, who can't balance a checkbook!" Will Carroll, Senior Writer,
Baseball Prospectus

"In
Hot Stove Economics
J.C. Bradbury delves into important questions of how professional baseball franchises value the talent of players. The questions are of interest to baseball fans who can and do argue the merits of specific trades, established player for established player or established player for prospects. The questions and their answers may also be interesting to people who bemoan the large salaries paid to grown men playing a game, people who want to know on what basis a ball player can be worth millions of dollars a year. J.C. addresses all these questions and all these readers in an engaging and easy style that manages to inform barroom sports debates and teach some basic economics all at the same time." Dennis Coates, University of Maryland, Baltimore County and past President of the North American Association of Sports Economists

In HotStove Economics, a volume with a theme of assessing player performance and worth (versus compensation and/or contract worth), and how well ball clubs husband and allocate their resources in their quest to win games and generate revenues, most of those same plaudits and criticisms apply. He also tends to cherry-pick examples. Summing Up: Recommended. General readers, all levels of students, faculty and researchers. (A. R. Sanderson, Choice, Vol. 48 (7), March, 2011)

Just in time for the baseball season, check out J.C. Bradbury s Hot Stove Economics. It s a very nice application of economics to baseball and is written with great clarity and insight. The book opens with why it made sense for the Braves to trade Kevin Millwood, an apparent star, in exchange for Johnny Estrada, an apparent failed prospect. I found it quite illuminating particularly because it showed how the standard explanation for these kind of trades may often (always) be wrong. (Russ Roberts, Cafe Hayek, March, 2011)