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Los Angeles Dodgers VOC and Payroll Breakdown: Graph of the Day

 

"You know if the player's going to be a good player or not. That's what you really know," said Colletti, who was confident he knew that much about Ethier.

That Ethier would blossom into the top threat on the National League's best-hitting team? Or that he would become the best clutch hitter in baseball? Well, Colletti got kind of lucky there because Ethier has become historically good.

From the LA Times, taking some serious liberty with the definition of historical

Star-divide

This WAR (pun fully intended) is still fought on all sides. And perhaps no bigger immediate threat to reasonable thinking exists outside the fortune of Ned Colletti, who has ridden an almost impossibly talented set of youngsters and a weak division to baseball respectibility. And it's not so much that he's taken all of the credit, so much that it is continually heaped upon him by a certain local paper and a particularly fawning sports editorial writer.

The Dodgers have an odd claim to fame on this particular list, as they are the only team in playoff contention to have their payroll be down from their opening day estimates. The difference? Some unpaid 50 game suspension of a well-compensated eccentric LF that you may have heard something about earlier this summer. Even with that um ... "benefit" towards their payroll numbers, one that teams who lose a highly paid star to injury do not incur (see Rodriguez, Alex, Yankees, New York), Manny just can't offer enough in all facets of the game to be worth that kind of cash, even if the National League had a designated hitter.

One of the frequently debated questions regarding the VOC calculations (or any value metrics, including WAR, VORP, Win Shares, etc.) is the existance of the value of star power and the ability to sell tickets. Is Manny worth more than the sum of his baseball contributions? Ichiro? Ken Griffey, Jr? A few studies indicate that yes, there is some palpable value, but it is paltry compared with winning. In the case of a winning team that also has overpaid superstars, it's impossible to separate. However, the Dodgers are winning, of course, and so the standard thinking goes that it is because of these very players. The mainstream baseball media, of course, does nothing whatsoever to promote this.

The top 3 contributors on this team in terms of WAR are Matt Kemp, Casey Blake(!), and Clayton Kershaw. If Blake weren't having the second best year of his career and were closer to his career norms, the third would be Chad Billingsley. This is the most prominent example we've shown (so far) where the top payroll breakdown tells a much more interesting story than the VOC graph does: The Dodgers young talent isn't complementing their success, it's creating it.

Of the top 5 paid players, 2 are worth their money: Kuroda and Furcal. In terms of WAR, Kuroda is the 10th best player on this team. Furcal 12th. Schmidt is a completely lost cause, Pierre (despite having a season actually above what he projected, and what he had shown in prior years), was a lost cause the minute they signed the contract, and it wasn't bad luck: any due diligence would have revealed that he would be exactly what he is. And of course, Manny. I'm surprised some blind old scout with shingles doesn't get credit for identifying one of the best right handed hitters in baseball history, and after careful deliberation and listening to the plane of the bat swing, deciding that yes, he's a pretty good player.

After 2 straight years of Ned Colletti doing anything he could to prevent his young talent from contributing on offense, they eventually broke through on their own and made it impossible to send them back to the bench or platoon duty. The next couple of years should be a blast to watch, just remember to give credit where the credit is due.

1 recs  |  Comment 9 comments |

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It's a credit to to this (last?) year's market that O-Hud was so undervalued.

…and a mark of shame for every team that still needs help up the middle. Like, say, the Royals.

:(

"What we do in life, echoes in eternity!"

by Justin Bopp on Sep 21, 2009 2:22 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

+1 Twins

Hudson’s WAR is pretty good, but is WAcasilla is very good. In fact, he’d have been worth 18 mil for his contribution + the contribution of Alexa Casilla not playing.

by lookatthosetwins on Sep 21, 2009 4:58 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

People always forget to take away the corresponding gain from removing the negative

Walter did an informal study several years ago about replacing Angel Berroa with Alex Rodriguez and found that not only would the Royals get the +12 (total guess at what it was back then) from A-Rod, but also the +8 from Berroa not being on the team.

A TWENTY win difference in WAR! (Did we figure that translates to about 15-18 real wins?)Imagine what that could do for team like the Royals.

gag
I hate those memories.

"What we do in life, echoes in eternity!"

by Justin Bopp on Sep 21, 2009 5:21 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

My name is the Lorax

And I speak for the knuckleballers. It looks like you’re assuming Charlie Haeger makes the league minimum ($400k or so), which he does while he is in the big leagues (correct me if I am wrong about your assumption, I’m going off the fact that he’s below Eye Chart).

But Haeger wasn’t called up until 8/11/09, and received the lower Triple-A rate for the rest of the season. So my guess is he has been paid only about $100k. His WAR is negative, but you can’t penalize him the full $400k

by Tommy Bennett on Sep 21, 2009 11:29 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

It is here that I will propose what BtB, no, ALL of SBN must see: The MVOCP.

Yes, the Most Valuable-Over-Contract Player.

MAKE THIS HAPPEN WALTER.

"What we do in life, echoes in eternity!"

by Justin Bopp on Sep 22, 2009 2:57 AM EDT reply actions   0 recs

If you're just talking this year...

My quick search leads me to believe it’s Lincecum (7.8 WAR, 0.65M contract, ~34.5M VOC ) with a slight edge over Zobrist (7.4 WAR 0.4159M contract, ~33M VOC)

by stevesommer05 on Sep 23, 2009 8:12 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Agree with most of this post

Except that I’d like to know how a division that’s 29 games over .500 against the NL East and Central this season could possibly be considered weak. This is the second time in the past three seasons that the NL West has been by far the strongest division in the league. In 2007, Arizona, Colorado, and San Diego were the three best teams in the league, and the fourth place Dodgers were above .500. Yes, the division was weak in 2008, but this year, the 4th place Padres are only one game under .500 against the East and Central, and the last place D-backs are only six games under .500 against the other two divisions.

by The Dude Abides on Sep 23, 2009 11:06 AM EDT reply actions   0 recs

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