Thanks to Fangraphs new WAR, Value in Dollars and Salary features, we can easily see how much a player made vs. how much he was worth. For the Rays, getting more value for less buck is essential if the team is going to continue it's recent success. We all know Andrew Friedman has made some excellent moves via trades and signings, but now we can actually see how good those moves have been in terms of dollars. Finally, we have this data available for pitchers.

Today, I take a look at the signings/trades of 2006.

A few ground rules here.

• To qualify using "worth", The player must have been acquired by Friedman prior or during the 2006 season and must have had at least 50 IP as a starter or 20 IP as a reliever with the team during the year.
• Several players were acquired by Friedman, but did not qualify for worth. However, since they received a salary, I included them in the salary portion of the chart. Call them "sunk costs."

Looking at some of those names just makes me cringe. Brian Meadows was just awful, but as a whole Friedman some how got $9.9 million worth of production for $4.10 million dollars in costs.

WTFITW you ask? He's the pitcher that was worth $4.8 million dollars while with the Rays. Other steals of 2006 include Ruddy Lugo, who pitched 85 innings and was worth $2.6 million while making the league minimum. And some how Shawn Camp, who was valued $3.2 million and was worth almost a full game over replacement level. This leads me to believe that if Camp had been playing in front of the 2008 or 2009 defense, I'm pretty sure we'd have a different perception of him.