Doug Melvin: Bargain Hunter Extraordinaire

by roguejim on Dec 27, 2008 9:04 AM CST Comment 12 comments

I bet right now, Doug Melvin is at a yard sale somewhere, going through other people's post-Christmas discards to see what he could fix up (and turn into a starting pitcher).

MLBtraderumors.com looked at the free agent bargains and busts from 2008, and unsurprisingly, you-know-who was right there in the mix.

Top Ten Bargains

Willie Harris: +$14.6MM (paid $800K, worth $15.4MM)

Mike Cameron: +12.55MM

Jerry Hairston Jr.: +10.375MM

Milton Bradley: +10.3MM

Eric Hinske: +$8MM

Aaron Miles: +$6.9MM

Rod Barajas: +$6.2MM

Cesar Izturis: +$5.25MM

Russell Branyan: +$4.8MM

Pedro Feliz: +$4.4MM

Two players, in the top nine!

Cameron is particularly interesting: if I'm reading this right, he was worth about $18 million ($18.05 million - $5.50 million in salary = $12.55 million). New York Yankees, please pay attention: even with a $10 million salary, he'd still have qualified as the fifth-best bargain in baseball. (You dopes.) Last season was Cameron's most valuable season in his career.

Melvin was in fact singled out for his resourcefulness:

Doug Melvin and the Brewers came out almost $20MM ahead with their signings of Cameron, Branyan, and Jason Kendall.

There were no 2008 Brewers on the Top 10 Busts list, although Mike Lamb sheepishly checks in at #4. THAT would be a neat trick: if Doug Melvin could turn a 2008 Bust into a 2009 Bargain. It's also interesting that we lost one of our Bargains to free agency, tried to trade our other Bargain, and signed a 2008 Bust.

Finally, a surprising and apt observation:

Of the eight free agent hitters who cost $10MM or more in 2008, six did not earn their salary.

Though I'm sure Doug knows that already. In fact, I'll go ask him --- he's rummaging through my recycling bin right now.

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the list doesn't even include Kapler

This year’s possibles so far: Scott Thorman, Chris Duffy and Trot Nixon plus a bunch of relievers. It’d be nice if Morlan turns out well.

by ol Pete on Dec 27, 2008 10:35 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

good call on Kapler

Good thing we have a spreadsheet of all of this same exact data for current Brewers back to 2006! Kapler was a $6.9 million bargain by my calculation, putting him at t-6th on this list.

MLBTR Tim didn’t even figure out how to do pitchers, either :). DM doesn’t look quite as good when you factor them in, 4/5 of the main bullpen guys had negative value last year using the tRA pitcher WAR.

Scored three times and detonated an indisputable in four visits to the batting box.

by Jordan M on Dec 27, 2008 10:57 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

negative WAR pitchers

guessin…

Gagne, Riske, Mota and I’m blanking after that. Maybe Villy if you mix his starter and reliever tRAs?

by ol Pete on Dec 27, 2008 11:02 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

It's in the fanpost and spreadsheet

That was a little misleading. Torres was worth about 3 mil or .6 WAR, but he was paid slightly more than that. The salary I used for him is just a tad high, but he actually was slightly negative in the production minus salary calculation. Shouse was barely above 0 last year too, which surprised me a bit.

Scored three times and detonated an indisputable in four visits to the batting box.

by Jordan M on Dec 27, 2008 11:12 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Last season was Cameron’s most valuable season in his career.

Well, technically— but you really have to look at the wins above replacement to determine the “most valuable” year. The amount a win costs changes each year, so a 5-win player in 2002 like Cameron was worth less then than he is now. So you have to go by the WAR column to really get value, but yeah, last season was when he was worth the most money.

As I pointed out in one of the fanposts, just by moving Braun to left and Hall to third, he gained over 2 wins in value just on defense over the Menchkins platoon. Those 2 wins are worth about $9 mil, so in terms of total value bargain-wise he got close to $22 million by dumping Menchkins and signing Cam.

Also, there needs to be a tag category for Mike Lamb puns.

Scored three times and detonated an indisputable in four visits to the batting box.

by Jordan M on Dec 27, 2008 10:37 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

The best (only good) part of the Lamb signing is that the Twins are basically paying the whole salary.

It really was a brilliant piece of negotiation, and who knows maybe it’ll work out.

---
Juuuust a bit outside!!
http://www.rightfieldbleachers.com

by Jack Moore on Dec 28, 2008 1:02 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

No need to negotiate

He was released by the Twins before the Brewers picked him up. Minnesota would have to pay his whole salary minus what he made with his new team no matter who signed him.

Obscure baseball records and more at my blog, Recondite Baseball.

by TheJay on Dec 28, 2008 1:12 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

I mean the fact that Melvin got Lamb/his agent to not ask for anything more.

---
Juuuust a bit outside!!
http://www.rightfieldbleachers.com

by Jack Moore on Dec 28, 2008 2:11 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Why would they ask for more?

It would’ve been pointless for Lamb or his agent to haggle with the Brewers for a few hundred thousand over the minimum since he’s getting paid that money anyway.

Obscure baseball records and more at my blog, Recondite Baseball.

by TheJay on Dec 28, 2008 2:25 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

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