2010 Rockies Payroll Distribution by Position
by Jeff Aberle on Apr 8, 2010 6:03 PM MDT
in Purple Row Academy
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PrintIn lieu of a full Purple Row Academy article, due to the time constraints of being a college senior taking 21 credits, I have a fun chart and a little commentary for you.
As you may remember, last year I broke down the Rockies' Opening Day Payroll distribution by position. This year, I'm doing it with my own data and methodology (counting signing bonuses as fully paid the moment they are signed as opposed to pro-rating them and paying option buyouts the year the option is declined). Unfortunately, I don't have the time to calculate the values for the other 29 teams, so I won't be comparing the Rockies' payroll distribution to other teams in MLB--at least, not today.
The chart is based off the current 25 man active roster, with the 4 pitchers the Rockies have on the DL and buyouts of Yorvit Torrealba and Alan Embree counted separately.
| Position | Salary | % of ODP | Per Player |
| Corner IF | $ 20,056,000 | 24.03% | $ 5,014,000 |
| Middle IF | $ 6,725,000 | 8.06% | $ 3,362,500 |
| Infielders | $ 26,781,000 | 32.08% | $ 4,463,500 |
| Outfielders | $ 10,019,000 | 12.00% | $ 2,003,800 |
| Catchers | $ 4,000,000 | 4.79% | $ 2,000,000 |
| Starters | $ 34,043,000 | 40.78% | $ 4,255,375 |
| Reserves | $ 6,757,000 | 8.09% | $ 1,351,400 |
| Position Players | $ 40,800,000 | 48.88% | $ 3,138,462 |
| Starting Pitchers | $ 18,156,000 | 21.75% | $ 3,631,200 |
| Relief Pitchers | $ 9,236,000 | 11.06% | $ 1,319,429 |
| Total Pitchers | $ 27,392,000 | 32.81% | $ 2,282,667 |
| 25 Man Total | $ 68,192,000 | 81.69% | $ 2,727,680 |
| Disabled List | $ 14,533,000 | 17.41% | $ 3,633,250 |
| Buyouts | $ 750,000 | 0.90% | $ 375,000 |
| Grand Total | $ 83,475,000 | 100.00% | $ 2,852,586 |
What this tells us is that the Rockies are about even in payroll paid to pitchers and hitters--that is, once you take into account that all four DL players are pitchers, two of them highly paid. With the DL pitchers included, the Rockies are paying 50.22% of their payroll to the pitching staff. This is further proof that the Rockies are committed to a balanced approach when it comes to roster-building. In addition, the Rockies have a great distribution of payroll between starting pitchers and relievers ($3.63 million per player vs. $1.32 million) admirably reflected each positional groups' relative value to the team.
As you can see, the Rockies pay their starting position players at a much higher rate per player than they do their reserves ($4.26 million vs. $1.35 million), which again is in line with common sense. The corner infield positions (I counted Melvin Mora and Jason Giambi among them) are heavily weighted in terms of payroll distribution due to the presence of Todd Helton, while the outfield's salary total mostly comes from Brad Hawpe. When compared to the $3.27 million average MLB salary as cited by USA Today, Colorado's $2.85 million mean salary seems like a bargain.
Perhaps the most exciting piece of this roster equation is the fact that most of the best players are locked up for a few years at a reasonable rate. The Rockies are on average a team in their prime (28.1 years old) and possess four starting position players that are 25 or younger. That is the formula for a sustained run of excellence.
Finally, I leave you with a question for discussion since I've been unable to write a full-blown opus. It's a topic that I find to be quite interesting and one that fosters quite a bit of debate.
Here's the question: Where would you prefer the pitcher to bat in the lineup, 8th or 9th, and why?
I've included a poll at the bottom to gauge your responses.
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Depending on how well the pitcher hits...
would determine where he bats. However, giving an average pitcher, I would bat him 2nd so that he could sacrifice the lead off batter over to 2nd. Also, the way I see is that in most games towards the 9th inning, teams are batting around with the bottom of the order, so by having your pitcher bat 2nd, I think strategically makes your team better.
Also nobody wants to field a sacrifice bunt when the game just got started…so you have the element of ‘surprise’ if there is such a thing in baseball.
Have fun in school Jeff. What’s your major btw?
Making facetious trade rumors since 2012AD
2nd? you crazy
Id have the pitcher batting cleanup
May your summer be filled with Rockies wins and tacos.
by fantasyfencing on Apr 8, 2010 6:33 PM MDT up reply actions
I wasn't joking
but if you look at what wiki says…the logic is pretty sound when you think about it.
Making facetious trade rumors since 2012AD
In general, sacrifice bunting is a poor baseball decision
Sure, when it’s your pitcher who usually gets out, it makes sense. But purposefully moving your pitcher up to the #2 spot just to sacrifice bunt for the small amount of time the leadoff guys gets on with fewer than 2 outs (even if his OBP was .400, there will be a certain number of times that he’ll come up with the bases loaded or 2 out and you can’t sacrifice him over. So you’re looking at, like, 33% of the time that your pitcher is up there to bunt) doesn’t make any sense at all. The #2 batter bats more times in a game and over the course of the year than a #9 hitter, so you’re essentially handing the other team an extra free out per game and about 140 extra free outs over the course of a season. Nothing good there.
by controlled_slide on Apr 8, 2010 7:02 PM MDT up reply actions
Relevant tangent
If you have the Mike Hamptons and the Micah Owings batting second, there is no debate because they are naturally talented with the bat, but why don’t we give pitchers more time in the batting cages to get better..instead of just giving them a week or two during spring training? The NL teams are doing themselves a disservice by automatically equating a pitcher a person that can’t hit at a major league level even though they have the ability to pitch. Rarely, does it seem that pitchers are giving opportunities to practice hitting like a position player.
Making facetious trade rumors since 2012AD
Business Administration, with concentrations in Corporate Finance, Investment Analysis, and Marketing
The writer formerly known as Jabberwocky
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Eschew Obfuscation!
second is one of the worst places to hit your pitcher
tom Tango did an in depth analysis on lineup construction, using about a decade (or more of data). He deduced that the place to put your absolute best hitter was second (or maybe it was second best). Ill trust Tango over “wiki”. People object to this, since traditional thought says to put your best hitter third. But over the course of the season, the third hitter will bat with two outs and no one on base about half the time in the first inning, and there isn’t a lot you can do in that standpoint
There is also a reason teams don’t bunt in the first inning. The likelihood of scoring one run increases with the bunt, but it cuts the benefit of large innings even more. One run can he very valuable late in a close game, but it is just bad strategy to negate the possibility of a large inning early. Add to that the pitcher would only be in a bunt situation less than a quarter of the time and your poor hitter gets far more at bats than a legitimate hitter, and you have a largely negative situation.
For what it is worth, Tango says the pitcher should bat eighth, as part of adding legit bats in from of the power hitters. Ninth and seventh are about equal.
"I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious." - Albert Einstein
by Andrew T. Fisher on Apr 9, 2010 8:16 PM MDT via mobile up reply actions
Ninth.
I don’t really understand the benefit of batting the pitcher eighth. The benefits of having “two lead-off men” by having a real hitter bat ninth is outweighed by the drawbacks of having a rally-killer in the 8-hole. What happens when, say, you lead off the second inning with the cleanup hitter, and the #8 hitter comes up with two on and two out? A legitimate hitter (not necessarily a star hitter, but, say, a Clint Barmes) might be able to bring in a run or two. If you’ve got the pitcher there, you’re looking at the third out. Most of the teams that have fiddled with having the pitcher bat eighth are teams with weak offenses, which the Rockies don’t have.
And 9th as well
Over a season how many more at bats does the 8 slot get over the 9? I’d take Barmes over all our pitchers for those at bats.
www.clydesteadman.com
it depends upon the pitcher...
I grew up with pitchers like Drysdale and Palmer and Cuellar how could handle them selves at least Eckstin levels. Sandy Koufax could hit dingers too. Palmer tried several times to get the DH killed of because he felt it was costing him an advantage. He claimed it cost him an average of three games a year. Some pitchers enjoy hitting as a way to clear their head after a bad inning.
Lack of speed kills rallys too. pitchers are not encouraged to run as much as before and how many pitchers have you seen who have seemed lost on the base paths. With Cook in particular I’d like to see him batting eighth. He can help himself more often by moveing runners. Someone like Dex hitting behind them gives you the speed to avoid the DP and the distraction in front of your best hitters in the line up when it turns over.
I would not do it with Hammel or DLR; but I might in the future with Uball.
If the pitcher batted eighth, who would bat nineth?
Barmes? Fowler?
I'm not making a banana bread pastrami cottage cheese sandwich. That would severely ruin my reputation.
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