Justin Who?

If any of you are still watching the New York Mets play you might notice that their lineup isn't particularly full of household names. Injuries have been the Mets nemesis this season, sidelining their starting first baseman, third baseman, left fielder, center fielder and two of their starting pitchers for most of the season. However, all the injuries have created opportunities for young players to shine. In the month of May, former Baltimore Oriole, Justin Turner has been one to step-up with most of the starting infield missing.

The second baseman has not only played out of position, filling in for an injured David Wright, but he has excelled making just one error in one hundred and eight chances. Turner leads all NL Rookies in batting average this season at a .308 clip. In May alone, Turner hit .325/.378/.458 with 20 RBI. He set a Mets Rookie Record by having an RBI in seven straight games (May 14-21) and followed that up with a six game RBI streak (May 25-30). By driving in runs in 13 games during a 15-game stretch, he became the first rookie to do so since 1930, and the third in major league history.

Turner became the first ever Mets Rookie to win the National League Rookie of the Month Award. The Red Rocket currently leads NL Rookies in hitting and is third in RBIs and Steals. If you have an empty roster spot on your fantasy baseball team be sure to pick up Mr. Turner. He's 2B and 3B eligible, and with both Wright and Davis out until July he will continue to get regular playing time.

Jay in May

After he won the NL Player of the Month award the other day, it is time to reflect on Jay Bruce's unbelievable month of May. The statistics are well documented (.342/.402/.739), as he ranked first in homeruns (12, one more than Jose Bautista), RBIs (33), 3^rd in SLG (.739) and OPS (1.140) in the month. Jay Bruce, on the season, now leads the NL in homeruns and is fourth in RBIs.

Though Bruce is producing at a pace far greater than his average major league totals, his success should not be a big surprise to anyone. When Bruce came up in 2008 he was Baseball America's number one prospect, and coveted as a potential five-tool player. Fantasy owners could have also predicted a break-out year from Bruce, as he hit 15 homeruns in his last 35 games of 2010 (equivalent to a 69 homerun pace over 162 games). He has also done a decent job in the majors up until this point, hitting at least 20 homeruns in each of his first three seasons. After he inevitably hits 20 again this year (he is only three away) he will become one of the few major leaguers to do so in their first four seasons in the majors. While Jay Bruce may never be his MVP counterpart, Joey Votto, he is not too far off. I see Bruce matching Votto's power numbers (HR and RBIs), batting in the cleanup spot, but he will never be able to compete with Votto in AVG or OBP. If Bruce is on your fantasy team, do not trade him away because you think you would be trading him at his peak; the fact is that Bruce's production is legitimate, and could have him as an MVP candidate at the end of the year.

Highest Paid Players on Each Team 2010

1. New York Yankees- Alex Rodriguez $31M
2. New York Mets- Johan Santana $20.145M
3. Detroit Tigers- Miguel Cabrera $20M
4. Chicago Cubs- Alfonso Soriano $19M
5. Houston Astros- Carlos Lee $19M
6. Philadelphia Phillies- Ryan Howard $19M
7. Boston Red Sox- John Lackey $18.7M
8. LA Dodgers- Manny Ramirez $18.695M
9. LA Angels- Torii Hunter $18.5M
10. San Fransisco Giants- Barry Zito $18.5M
11. Seattle Mariners- Ichiro Suzuki $18M
12. Colorado Rockies- Todd Helton $17.775M
13. St. Louis Cardinals- Chris Carpenter $15.841M
14. Toronto Blue Jays- Vernon Wells $15.688M
15. Atlanta Braves- Derek Lowe $15M
16. Chicago White Sox- Jake Peavy $15M
17. Minnesota Twins- Justin Morneau $15M
18. Texas Rangers- Michael Young $13.175M
19. Milwaukee Brewers- Jeff Suppan $12.75M
20. Cincinatti Reds- Aaron Harang $12.5M
21. Oakland Athletics- Eric Chavez $12.5M
22. Kansas City Royals- Gil Meche $12.4M
23. Baltimore Orioles- Kevin Millwood $12M
24. Washington Nationals- Adam Dunn $12M
25. Cleveland Indians- Travis Hafner $11.5M
26. Tampa Bay Rays- Carlos Pena $10.125M
27. Arizona Diamondbacks- Dan Haren $8.25M
28. Florida Marlins- Dan Uggla $7.8M
29. San Diego Padres- Chris Young $6.375M
30. Pittsburgh Pirates- Paul Maholm $5M

Not suprisingly, Alex Rodriguez's contract with the Yankees was the greatest in 2010. What is surprising, however, is the number of teams that doled out their biggest annueal salaries to mediocre-to-awful players. It would be one thing if these players were underperforming franchise players or held some kind of intangible value to the team, but most of these guys are just absolute duds. There is Kevin Millwood on the Orioles, who pitched to a 5.10 ERA with 16 losses; or John Lackey, who is in no way the face or ace of the Red Sox. Many of these players were also intended to be the face of the franchise, signed long, expensive deals, and got injured or turned out to be flop (e.g. Eric Chavez, Gil Meche, or Manny Ramirez). Another interesting thing about this list is that a few were traded very recently to dump their monstrous salaries on other teams that can afford them; Dan Haren and Vernon Wells were traded to the Angels, Dan Uggla was traded to the Braves, and Jake Peavy was originally traded to the White Sox from the Padres. These contracts depict the difficulty of signing players, especially to long deals. No team knows how a player will perform in the later years of his contract, or whether he will get injured. Teams can only try to get lucky with their signings and hope for no Pavano's or Oliver Perez's.

Most Wins/$ (Million) 2006-10

1. Marlins - 2.640
   
2. Rays - 1.688
   
3. Pirates - 1.448
   
4. Padres - 1.430
   
5. Athletics - 1.289
   
6. Rockies - 1.282
   
7. Twins - 1.252
   
8. Rangers - 1.219
   
9. Nationals - 1.174
   
10. Diamondbacks - 1.172
    
11. Indians - 1.145
    
12. Reds - 1.117
    
13. Brewers - 1.066
    
14. Royals -1.062
    
15. Blue Jays - 1.012
    
16. Cardinals - .919
    
17. Giants - .916
    
18. Orioles - .900
    
19. Braves - .895
    
20. Phillies - .865
    
21. Astros - .841
    
22. Dodgers - .813
    
23. Angels - .812
    
24. Tigers - .751
    
25. Mariners - .743
    
26. Cubs - .686
    
27. Red Sox - .683
    
28. White Sox - .672
    
29. Mets - .671
    
30. Yankees - .474
    

    Over the past five years the Marlins and Rays led the Major Leagues in cost-efficiency rating, combining for 4.328 wins per million dollars spent. At the opposite end of the spectrum, the two New York franchises finished in last with a combined rating of 1.145, the equivalent of the 11th place Cleveland Indians. What we determined from this list was that it is not an accurate way to measure the success of a franchise's spending. The Yankees may have finished last, but they also led the MLB in wins and won a World Series in this five year span. The bottom five teams on this list were also the same five teams on the top of the payroll list. This rating is largely due to market size as all top five teams exist in small markets. We were impressed, however, by the ability of the Twins to place 7th on this list. Most of the top ten teams on the list were in the bottom half of the Majors when it came to winning, yet the Twins were the 5th best team.

Highest Payroll 2006-10

1. Yankees - $1,008.1 M
   
2. Red Sox - $675.3 M
   
3. Mets - $630.0 M
   
4. White Sox - $621.9 M
   
5. Cubs - $591.6 M
   
6. Angels - $566.8 M
   
7. Tigers - $564.6 M
   
8. Dodgers - $528.0 M
   
9. Phillies - $527.2 M
   
10. Mariners - $502.2 M
    
11. Astros - $464.9 M
    
12. Cardinals - $461.5 M
    
13. Braves - $460.5 M
    
14. Giants - $435.8 M
    
15. Blue Jays - $411.0 M
    
16. Brewers - $380.1 M
    
17. Orioles - $374.3 M
    
18. Twins - $354.7 M
    
19. Reds - $353.7 M
    
20. Indians - $339.8 M
    
21. Rangers - $337.2 M
    
22. Diamondbacks - $326.9 M
    
23. Rockies - $323.8 M
    
24. Royals - $318.2 M
    
25. Athletics - $310.2 M
    
26. Padres - $283.2 M
    
27. Nationals - $282.0 M
    
28. Rays - $239.3 M
    
29. Pirates - $221.7 M
    
30. Marlins - $151.5 M
    

    
     

        As expected, the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox place one-two on the highest payroll list for 2006-10. The average payroll a team gave out during this time was $434.9 M. The largest payroll ($1,008.1 M - NYY) was 232% of the average given out during this time and the smallest amount ( $151.5 M - FLA) was 35% of the average payroll. Opposed to the amount of wins in this time span where both the largest and smallest amounts were separated by about 40% of the average, the 297% gap in payroll is incredible. Obviously there is no salary cap in baseball but, when the Yankees paid out more than 6.5 times the amount the Marlins did over five years, it comes to question if one should be put in place.

Most Regular Season Wins 2006-2010

1. Yankees (478)
   
2. Red Sox (461)
   
3. Angels (460)
   
4. Phillies (456)
   
5. Twins (444)
   
6. Dodgers (429)
   
7. Tigers (424)
   
8. Cardinals (424)
   
9. Mets (423)
   
10. White Sox (418)
    
11. Blue Jays (416)
    
12. Rockies (415)
    
13. Braves (412)
    
14. Rangers (411)
    
15. Cubs (406)
    
16. Brewers (405)
    
17. Padres (405)
    
18. Rays (404)
    
19. Marlins (400)
    
20. Athletics (400)
    
21. Giants (399)
    
22. Reds (395)
    
23. Astros (391)
    
24. Indians (389)
    
25. Diamondbacks (383)
    
26. Mariners (373)
    
27. Royals (338)
    
28. Orioles (337)
    
29. Nationals (331)
    
30. Pirates (321)
    

    As expected, the New York Yankees won the most games over this five year span averaging 95.6 wins per season. The average amount of wins for a team was 405, as well as the median amount. In half a decade the Yankees won 49% more games than the MLB worst Pittsburgh Pirates, a whopping 157 game difference. It is worth noting that of the five World Series Champs in this time span, four of them were in the top ten on this list with the San Francisco Giants being the only non-top ten team to win a World Series at #21.

2006-2010 Rankings Full Spread Sheet (click)