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.
Today, I take a look at the signings/trades of 2006. A few ground rules here. The player must have been acquired by Friedman prior or during the 2006 season and must have had at least 150 PA's with the team during the year. This is why Ben Zobrist makes the 2006 list, but won't make the 2007 list. Also, this is strictly positional players until fangraphs provides the data for pitchers.
Here is the list:
0.498
1.4
0.286
-$2.70
Salary & Worth in terms of Millions
In total, Friedman paid $4.3 million for $8.10 million worth of production. That is almost a 2:1 dollar ratio. He really hit on Ty Wiggington and Greg Norton who produced a combined $9.7 million dollars of production for just $1.5 million dollars of salary. As you can see, shortstop in 2006 was a mess with Tomas Perez and Ben Zobrist combining for -$4.9 mil of "production". Luckily for us, 2006 was Friedman's worst year in terms of actual salary vs. worth.
The analysis for 2007 & 2008 will be posted later this week