Comments on Yankeeist: Baseball's best bargains

I included the Yankees only because this is a Yank...

2009-12-16T09:57:05.561-05:00

I included the Yankees only because this is a Yankee blog. The main focus of the piece is the cheap talented players, who are giving their teams real bang for their buck. These players are good and underpaid, and therefore extremely valuable to their teams.

Most of the Yankees are overpaid, at least relative to the average cost of a marginal win. Bruney pops up early on the Yankees list not because he's valuable, but because relative to the other Yankees they paid him less for his marginal wins.

The 1 win SS you describe is not 10x more valuable than Jeter. He just gets paid 10x less per win. Neither player would crack the best value combinations at the top of the post.

None of these high-value low-cost players will stay that way for long. Baseball overpays for players who can produce consistently. All these guys will jump up to about $3 million per win. My point was only to identify them, and then to show where the Yankees fall for fun.

Due to the way the MLB pay structure works, the ch...

2009-12-16T09:54:06.597-05:00

Due to the way the MLB pay structure works, the cheapest per-win players are ALWAYS going to be pre-arbitration (or first year arb) guys if for no other reason than that their salaries increase manyfold after that. How many guys like that do the Yankees even have? Melky, Hughes and Joba, and the rest of the non-Mo bullpen. That's how Bruney wound up at 5th despite being generally lousy and that's why there are only two guys on the overall list above the age of 26.

It's worth noting that several of them were drafted at slots the Yankees haven't picked anywhere near in ages (Weaver was picked 12th overall, Tim lincecum 10th, Clayton Kershaw 7th, Longoria 3rd, Upton 1st)

I'm wary of any list that has Brian Bruney 5th bes...

2009-12-16T09:29:56.271-05:00

I'm wary of any list that has Brian Bruney 5th best. In fact, he's a perfect example of the one main flaw in this post: Brian Bruney is decidedly un-valuable because the Yankees have cheaper options that should produce more wins (D-Rob, for starters.) On the other hand, Jeter was paid almost $4 million per win, but he's still fairly valuable because shortstops who consistently hit .330 don't grow on trees.

There's no arguing with the list of cheap, talented players. But I'd rather have Jeter's 6 WAR at 20 million than a SS with a 1 WAR at $400,000, even though by your math that SS would be 10 times as valuable.

I think you said something to this effect at the bottom, so I'm not arguing, just reinforcing the point.