I read an article this morning over at MLBTradeRumors.com that Mark Mulder was retiring and saw that they casually mentioned that he had made $33M over the course of his career. Anyway, I got to thinking, "I wonder what the top 10 MLB baseball salaries were for 2009?" What I found was interesting, the Top 5 are usual suspects, but there are some surprises towards the bottom.
1.) A-Rod - $33M
No big surprise here, despite missing a month of last season, I'd say A-Rod earned his keep propelling the Yankees to their 27th World Championship.
2.) Manny Ramirez - $24M
OVER-RATED. (Clap, Clap, Clap Clap Clap) OVER-RATED.
3.) Derek Jeter - $21.6M
It will be interesting to see what kind of money Jeter gets when he's a free-agent next year.
4.) Mark Teixeira - $20.6M
All I have to say is, "damn, the Yankee payroll is massive." They have 3 of the top 4 highest paid baseball players. Teixeira deserves this salary, he may walk around like he has a stick up his ass but the dude can play.
5.) Carlos Beltran - $19.2M
Beltran missed 2 1/2 months of last season, now comes news that he had surgery again and will miss the first part of this coming season. When he's healthy, he's good, but lately he's been hurt way too much.
6.) Carlos Lee - $19M
Lee is one of the most underrated players in MLB in my opinion. His 162 game average is 93R, 30HRs, 109RBIs and a .291/.344/.503 triple-slash. If he was playing anywhere other than Houston, he'd be a superstar.
7.) Magglio Ordonez - $19M
Like I said, there are surprises. I know Mags used to be good and was rewarded with a lengthy contract which he is now towards the end of...but $19M for what he is now?? The Tigers have to be kicking themselves.
8.) Johan Santana - $18.9M
It's yet to be seen how elbow surgery will affect Santana, but I'm guessing he's still got plenty left and will be strong again this year. Oh, and worth $18.9M for sure.
9.) Carlos Zambrano - $18.75M
Is there a more over-paid player in MLB? If reports are true that Zambrano has indeed lost some weight, he may be a new man this year, but the old Zambrano is wildly inconsistent and generally a hot-head, and not worth $18M a year.
10.) Barry Zito - $18.5M
Ok, together now, let's all have a hearty laugh at the misfortune of the Giants. To fully appreciate the EPIC FAIL that this is, please go here: Barry Zito
In light of Zito's semi-renaissance last year (sub 4.50 FIP, whoohoo!!!), RJ Anderson took another look at Zito's megadeal last fall:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/barry-zitos-contract-revisited
Also, check out the discrepancy between Zito's salary and Zito's "dollar worth", i.e. WAR x value per win, since he came to SF. Ouch.
http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=944&position=P#value
fangraphs doesn't show it for whatever reason, but zito made 18.5M in 09 and will net the same amt. in 2010.
ReplyDeletehe'll also make 20M in 2013! hurrah!
ReplyDeleteinteresting fact about arod's contract. it is the highest now, in 2010 (32M).
2011 - 31
2012 - 29
2013 - 28
2014 - 25
2015 - 21
2016 - 20
2017 - 20
the only good thing about that deal is that it isn't backloaded, although the HR bonuses may negate that effect.