Marlins have five A-Rods (do the math)
We are headed into a world of Sabermetrics here that would be sure to send Bill James over the edge but here goes.
How come, we wondered, the Florida Marlins are 8-5 on the young baseball season and the New York Yankees are 8-7 when the Yankees have one player who is so terrific, Alex Rodriguez, that he makes more money than all the players on the Marlins combined? Reportedly, the Yanks are paying A-Rod $28 million while the entire Florida roster makes less than $22 million.
Well, we looked at the stats through the first few weeks of the season and here's the reason -- for less than what the Yankees are paying Ridriguez, the Marlins have five players whose average performance is just as good as the bazillion-dollar man.
A-Rod is having a decent start -- he's batting .300 (18-for-60) with three home runs and 8 RBIs. Meanwhile, the Marlins who have a similar number of at-bats compared to A-Rod (48 or more) are batting a combined .282 (71-for-252) with an average of exactly three home runs (15 total) and 7.6 RBIs (38 total). The five are Hanley Ramirez, Mike Jacobs, Josh Willingham, Jorge Cantu and Dan Uggla. Not exactly Murder's Row but on average, about the same production as A-Rod.
And you get five of them.
Comments
Bill , in your A-Rod vs Marlins assessment , you were combining the stats of 5 Marlins against A-Rod , my question is , if you add 4 Yankees to A-Rod , are the production comparable ? I know the Marlins are cheaper , but would their 8 starters hold up against Yankee's 8 ?
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Allan,
I don't know ... I didn't take it that far. My guess is that at this point in the season, it's probably close. My point is what does the $28 million get you compared to broadly speaking the $22 million. It was just a quirky comparison.
-- Bill O.
Posted by: Allan | April 16, 2008 1:04 PM
Is this satire? If it's not then you really have no idea about baseball.
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It was just a quirky look at what the $28 mil gets you comparted to $22 mil, actually less because those five guys don't comprise the roster total.
-- Bill O.
Posted by: MlbFan30 | April 16, 2008 1:59 PM
I think its more a reflection on the sad state of affairs that MLB is in. The disparity between the halves and the halve nots is huge. Granted money does not buy championships. However, look around the league and see the quality players that the Marlins produced and was not able to keep.
Posted by: Captain Jack | April 17, 2008 8:53 AM
The yankees are paying too much for A-rod. A great player will be great even if you don't pay him he would play for free.
Posted by: billymarlin | April 17, 2008 6:51 PM