You playing with my money, you playing with my emotions!
4 December 2009 1:36 am
You might have seen it, but MLB released a salary report last week and the news is good, if you play baseball for a living at the highest level: the average MLB salary is $3 million, up from, well, $3 million in 2008 ($2.93 to be more exact- but- whatever). I was interested in where all this money might have gone over the years. What positions are MLB teams putting the premium dollar on? Let me rephrase that- upon what positions are MLB teams putting the premium dollar? Check out the following graph:
The DH had a huge spike in 2006 though 2008. The reasons being seem to revolve around Planet Giambi: in 2007 and 2008 , Jason Giambi earned a cool $23 million to hit the designated hits. Jim Thome pulled in $15m, Big Papi $$13m, and both Mike Sweeney and Gary Sheffield earned $11m. In 2008 we also see Matsui ($13m) and Frank Thomas ($12.5m) entering the fray, keeping the average up.
The cliff-dive regression in 2009 is interesting: most guys moved back into the field for their primary position (Matsui, Damon, and – sort of – Sheffield, moving to the NL), others just didn’t earn the same paycheck (Giambi, Sweeney), and others left us (Thomas).
All told, it seems that MLB teams consistently value the qualities exhibited in the DH above all else: namely, the bat.
Here’s the same numbers, demonstrating the percentage of the league average salary going to position:
One Response to You playing with my money, you playing with my emotions!
Nick on December 8th, 2009 at 11:37 am
It would be interesting to chart this data against production against the rest of the league. It seems silly to pay so much for an unnecessary position especially when shortstops and first basemen, two far more important jobs, make consistently less.
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