MLB Trade Value

Dave Cameron, who writes for USS Mariner, Fangraphs, and the Wall Street Journal, among others, is concluding a fantastic series on Fangraphs. He is ranking the top 50 assets in Major League Baseball. Players amass Wins Above Replacement (WAR). A team composed entirely of replacement level players wins about 50 games, so it takes roughly 35-45 WAR to be a playoff team. This past offseason, teams paid roughly 4.5 millions per WAR on the free agent market. As you can see, teams cannot buy their way to the playoffs; their payroll would be at least 180 million. So players that are within their six years of team control and quite valuable. Taking into account WAR, projected WAR, current and projected salaries, date becoming eligible for arbitration, date becoming a free agent, risk, potential, and scarcity, Cameron is exposing the masses to a new way of valuing baseball players. No longer are Alex Rodriguez, CC Sabathia, and Manny Ramirez the most valuable players to their teams. Evan Longoria, Hanley Ramirez, David Wright, Albert Pujols, and Matt Wieters hold those spots now. I've included links to the series below. The top 5 will be revealed Monday on Fangraphs.

Introduction

#50-46

#45-41

#40-36

#35-31

#30-26

#25-21

#20-16

#15-11

#10-6

Baseball Prospects, Part 3

Kris Medlen, SP, Atlanta Braves
Played second fiddle to Tommy Hanson in the minors, but got the call to the bigs earlier. The upside is Kevin Slowey with strikeouts so there's a lot to get excited about here.

Anthony Swarzak, SP, Minnesota Twins
Pitched great in the minors, and has continued it in two starts with the big club. His FIP indicates that he's been mighty lucky. I don't think he's a ML starting pitcher.

David Hernandez, SP, Baltimore Orioles
Tons of production without the tools, Hernandez made his ML debut last night. He pitched well, and should figure as a back end rotation pitcher, which is better than almost everything the Orioles currently have.

Fernando Martinez, OF, New York Mets
Widely anticipated for a long time, his debut flew under the radar; sort of anticlimactic given his lax production in the minors. He's begun his career 0/7 and we'll see if the fantastic tools ever translate into Hanley Ramirez meets Justin Upton.

Jake Fox, 3B, Chicago Cubs
Sort of a AAAA player; this years Nelson Cruz perhaps? Needless to say, the Cubs would be thrilled if he produced anything like Cruz. Only time will tell if Fox is a legitimate major leaguer.

Matt Wieters, C, Baltimore Orioles
The most anticipated debut since at least David Price last year. All of Wieters' tools are major league ready. Comparisons have already been made to Mike Piazza. This kid is really, really special