What I want to do here is find the bullpens that are drawing the highest combined salary for this season. I've used the depth charts on mlb.com in combination with the active rosters on mlb.com to figure out each team's bullpen as best I can. Further, I've checked injury reports to include players that, if healthy, would be in their team's bullpen (B.J. Ryan, Mike Timlin, etc.).
For salaries, I used the excellent Cot's Baseball Contracts and assumed players without salary data (usually rookies or other young players) are making $400,000 this year. I know the major league minimum is actually $390k this season, but most teams kick in bonuses to their players, so $400k seems fair as a ballpark estimate.
2008 Opening Day Bullpens by Total Salary (in millions of dollars)
- Milwaukee Brewers, 26.850
- New York Yankees, 26.175
- Los Angeles Angels, 22.100
- New York Mets, 20.775
- Philadelphia Phillies, 17.950
- Chicago Cubs, 17.560
- Minnesota Twins, 17.525
- St. Louis Cardinals, 17.350
- Cincinnati Reds, 16.375
- Colorado Rockies, 15.774
- Toronto Blue Jays, 15.615
- Tampa Bay Rays, 13.858
- Chicago White Sox, 13.175
- Washington Nationals, 12.450
- Detroit Tigers, 11.875
- Houston Astros, 11.025
- San Diego Padres, 10.970
- Boston Red Sox, 10.936
- Baltimore Orioles, 10.660
- Cleveland Indians, 10.650
- Oakland Athletics, 10.100
- Kansas City Royals, 9.041
- Arizona Diamondbacks, 7.975
- Texas Rangers, 7.592
- Los Angeles Dodgers, 6.240
- Atlanta Braves, 6.000
- Pittsburgh Pirates, 5.535
- Seattle Mariners, 5.400
- Florida Marlins, 5.228
- San Francisco Giants, 5.188
Here are the members of the most expensive and least expensive bullpens:
Milwaukee: Eric Gagne ($10M), David Riske ($4M), Derrick Turnbow ($3.2M), Salomon Torres ($3.2M), Guillermo Mota ($3.2M), Brian Shouse ($2.0M), Seth McClung ($0.75M), Randy Choate (Disabled List - $0.5M)
San Francisco: Brad Hennessey ($1.6M), Vinnie Chulk (Disabled List - $0.8375M), Tyler Walker ($0.750M), Brian Wilson ($0.4M), Jack Taschner ($0.4M), Erick Threets ($0.4M), Merkin Valdez ($0.4M), Keiichi Yabu ($0.4M)
It's interesting that the Brewers' bullpen costs almost as much as the bottom six teams on the list combined. I was also surprised how highly Tampa Bay is on the list; I know they don't have the lowest payroll in the league anymore, but I didn't expect to see their bullpen in the upper half.
Milwaukee: Eric Gagne ($10M), David Riske ($4M), Derrick Turnbow ($3.2M), Salomon Torres ($3.2M), Guillermo Mota ($3.2M), Brian Shouse ($2.0M), Seth McClung ($0.75M), Randy Choate (Disabled List - $0.5M)
San Francisco: Brad Hennessey ($1.6M), Vinnie Chulk (Disabled List - $0.8375M), Tyler Walker ($0.750M), Brian Wilson ($0.4M), Jack Taschner ($0.4M), Erick Threets ($0.4M), Merkin Valdez ($0.4M), Keiichi Yabu ($0.4M)
It's interesting that the Brewers' bullpen costs almost as much as the bottom six teams on the list combined. I was also surprised how highly Tampa Bay is on the list; I know they don't have the lowest payroll in the league anymore, but I didn't expect to see their bullpen in the upper half.
3 comments:
The Brewers? I never would've guessed it.
Yeah, that's what happens when you decide to pay $10 million for a guy who digs the unkempt look and decide $3.2 million is the magic salary for middle relievers.
This was greaat to read
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