This report focuses on an in-depth statistical analysis of the official player drafts from the National Basketball Association (NBA), The National Football League (NFL), and Major League Baseball (MLB) between the years 2000 and 2022, to analyze player performance and determine if there is a correlation between a higher round pick and player performance relative to their expected value. It aims to use the results from each sport’s analysis to determine whether there is commonality between the valuing of early round draft picks and their performance. For each sport, multiple player value statistics were collected for all drafted players who elected to accept their draft offers, which were then used for per-pick and per-round performance analyses. To complement these analyses, multiple plots were created for the statistics chosen for each sport, which were then used for inter-sport comparisons to find trends in player performance based on when they were drafted. The results of the analysis back the idea that the financial investment into early draft picks does not correlate with player performance, and that, on average, late draft picks can perform similarly, or in some cases, better than early draft picks. The results did not, however, provide a conclusive answer as to whether or not there is a correlation between player draft position and their draft value, but there were similarities between player performance across the three sports included in this report.

• This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

Creator

• Adamsky, Jacob
• Ou, Jinjia
• Ramadani, Engjell

Subject

• Project-Based Learning
• Computing

Publisher

• Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Identifier

• 121829
• E-project-042524-170951

Advisor

• Wills, Craig E.

Year

• 2024

Date created

• 2024-04-25

Resource type

• Major Qualifying Project

Major

• Computer Science

Source

• E-project-042524-170951

Rights statement

• In Copyright