Doug Melvin: Bargain Hunter Extraordinaire
by roguejim on Dec 27, 2008 9:04 AM CST
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PrintI 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.
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.
negative WAR pitchers
guessin…
Gagne, Riske, Mota and I’m blanking after that. Maybe Villy if you mix his starter and reliever tRAs?
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.
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.
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
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.
I mean the fact that Melvin got Lamb/his agent to not ask for anything more.
---
Juuuust a bit outside!!
http://www.rightfieldbleachers.com
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.
For what?
Any additional money he would get from the Brewers would be deducted from what the Twins still owe him. Lamb isn’t getting any more than what his original contract called for, no matter how it’s being split between the two teams.
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NL Central Standings
| W | L | PCT | GB | STRK | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Chicago
|
0 | 0 | .000 | 0 | Lost 0 |
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Cincinnati
|
0 | 0 | .000 | 0 | Lost 0 |
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Houston
|
0 | 0 | .000 | 0 | Lost 0 |
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Milwaukee
|
0 | 0 | .000 | 0 | Lost 0 |
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Pittsburgh
|
0 | 0 | .000 | 0 | Lost 0 |
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St. Louis
|
0 | 0 | .000 | 0 | Lost 0 |
(updated 2.16.2012 at 1:03 PM CST)
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