Andrew Friedman’s $72m Systematic Framework | NEIFI

“The relative values placed on Graveman, Butler, Samardzija, Russell, Nolin… some portion of these miscues were undoubtedly evaluative issues—the question of “should we expect Nolin to be a 4th starter or 6th starter this year?” But undoubtedly, a large (if not dominant) aspect of the misfires in these decisions came not from discrepancies in evaluation, but in valuation; within the entire spectrum of talent, what is the relative rarity of Nolin, and on that basis, what would be the appropriate costs? The Russell-Samardzija decision is a clear as a manifestation of this as there could be—find anyone who thought Russell was anything less than a top-10 prospect at the time; he was overwhelmingly considered to be within the top 5. This was a distinction in valuation, not evaluation.”