[jrumbut]

It can still be difficult to tease out how much of any win is due to a single player, I think maybe the key difference is that the games are played in public and only one team can win a game.

So I, as a team owner, can watch Strasbourg pitch, see him nullify my lineup, then I have almost all the information I need to know he really is a lot better than average.

Additionally, by being willing to pay more and getting him on my team I'm depriving my opponents of his talent.

There is no direct analogue in programming, besides maybe open source projects.