New Math
Joel Sherman of The New York Post reports that one baseball club has used Bill James' Win Shares formula and player salaries to determine whose payroll value is the highest. The results are quite interesting:
"The Cardinals, at $182 million, ended up with the largest payroll value, a reflection of having so many superb players and almost no useless ones. The Yankees, at $162 million, had the second largest payroll value, but that also gave them the sixth-worst differential (minus-$21 million) to their actual payroll of $183 million. The Mets had the fourth-worst differential, getting $55 million worth of talent for $100.7 million in actual payout.
"An executive who participated in this exercise, who asked his team not be revealed, conceded the fallibilities ... Still, what emerged is just how few established players earn their actual paychecks.
"This is mainly because by the time players reach free agency, they already have had their best seasons in their prime years. Clubs end up paying for what a player has done with the hope he will extend that performance further or only diminish incrementally."