Thursday, February 12, 2009

Bang For Your Buck

This offseason's top free agent hitters had 1 complete hitter(Mark Teixiera) and the vast assortment of veteran hitters whose main money-maker is their bat and what they do at the plate. Manny aside, it took until January and February for said player-types to get signed and every single one of them signed for far below their perceived "market" values. Combined, Bobby Abreu, Pat Burrell, Adam Dunn and Milton Bradley make as much money as A-Rod's 2009. I realize that Raul Ibanez and Jason Giambi are both veteran bat-only players, but they're in the twilight of his career (ala Manny) and GMs or writers use intangibles as reasons why players get paid what they do.


What is interesting is that 3 out of 4 of the aforementioned undermarket hitters signed for playoff level teams who had glaring needs that these players filled. Yet these teams got bonus value with the fact that every single one of these hitters is a noted on-base threat and has obvious power?


So with the undermarket costs, why did only 1 non-2008 playoff team determine to disregard the ecomonic turmoil and pay what was needed to sign a guaranteed on-base and power threat? Every AL team could've plugged a Milton Bradley, Pat Burrell, Adam Dunn or Bobby Abreu as they're DHs and negated their perceived defensive inefficiencies.


Was it Milton's tumoltuous past and injury-plagued career, was it Dunn's glove or his questioned "love of the game", Burrell's slow-footedness and 2-month slumps or was it Abreu's sudden diminishing power?

Who knows, but when baseball makes as much as it does...

Does it really matter??

1 comment:

  1. Besides the top big market teams, teams are scared of the economy in 2009 and want to be prepared of any tumultous changes. I mean there's been talk of a scenario like a Detroit Tigers who would need to dump Mags' salary in the middle of 2009 probably regardless. However, I think that's rather drastic.

    How did Raul Ibanez get more money than Burrell or Abreu? He's older and his defense is nothing special. Are teams trying to stay away from these players who peaked during the steroids era such as Abreu? I'm not sure its Milton Bradley's temper that scared teams away, rather his injury prone career. Despite his blowups, Milton's really liked in the clubhouse. He's really not a Jose Guillen cancer type. The guy is a good player but you can't count on him to stay healthy.

    I think Adam Dunn's price was too high for his perceived market price. He's honestly a good fit for DH in the AL but are there any big market teams that want him? The Yankees and Red Sox could afford him but have a logjam. The Angels want to give Vlad some time at DH. The White Sox? They have Thome. The only other team I can probably think of in the AL to have a need at DH is probably Seattle.

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