Daily Archives: March 27, 2017
Largest Contract in Franchise History for Each MLB Team
While there is unfortunately no baseball being played during the winter months, we normally have the Hot Stove to keep us warm with endless rumors and huge contracts being handed out by teams who will inevitably regret it. Until this past winter, that is.
The free agent market just wasn’t any good, and Yoenis Cespedes was the only player on the open market to secure a guarantee above $100 million (four years, $110 million, to be exact). Heck, we saw Chris Carter and Mark Trumbo, who led their respective leagues in homers last year, bring home a collective guarantee of just $41 million despite launching a total of 88 bombs.
This past winter was the first time since 2009 any team didn’t break a franchise record by rewarding a player with a monumental mound of cash. However, there’s been plenty of damage done in this category since the turn of the century.
Here are the players who have signed the richest contracts for each MLB team.
Detroit Tigers Spring Standouts 2017
As you may have read already, we’ve looked at 2017 spring standouts from around the league, as well as how the Top 100 Prospects were faring. Now, with the Tigers being a week away from opening up the season in Chicago, I thought we’d give the team a look and see who has stood out so far.
As you know, the Tigers had the most players of any MLB club on World Baseball Classic rosters this season, so the normal standouts such as Miguel Cabrera, Ian Kinsler, and so on were on rosters, so their counting stats may not look great. The positive to this situation though is that more players got looks during games than normal, so you’ll see some names that you may not be familiar with here.
Standings don’t matter at all during spring training, but as a reference, Detroit is currently 12-17 in the Grapefruit League. Also stats matter very little, however there are certain indicators that I look at such as average, OPS, homers, hits, and strike outs for hitters, and for pitchers I look at WHIP, average against, strike outs, that can show a path of what is working vs. what isn’t. Again, you can’t read too much in these numbers though.
Stats through (3/26/17)
2017 All-Value Team: Baseball’s Top Pre-Arb Players at Each Position
When it comes to the baseball diamond, we hear a ton about the ballplayers who are taking home the most money — whether it’s over the life of a certain contract or a singular season. After all, if we put together a lineup with the highest-paid players at each position, it’d be pretty expensive.
But with the youth movement that’s happening throughout baseball, there are a bunch of players providing top-tier production for just a fraction of the price.
Some teams have already locked up their young talent to extensions — Rougned Odor‘s deal with the Texas Rangers is the latest example — yet there are still plenty stuck in between while waiting to become eligible for arbitration. Until that happens, organizations can get an incredible deal when a player’s salary is compared to their actual on-field production.
With that in mind, we set out to find the game’s best pre-arbitration players at each position. The only criteria: they can’t be eligible for arbitration yet or be signed to a long-term extension. So, is this list somewhat subjective? Yes, it is.
Some 2017 contract figures haven’t been released yet, but we can at least make some rough estimates on what they will be.
Without further adieu, here is the 2017 All-Value Team.
Sully Baseball Daily Podcast – March 27, 2017
Recording on a day that was a lot windier than I realized, I honored the late Todd Frohwirth. He might not be a name you remember, but he will be remembered by those that he affected.
Showing worth on this episode of The Sully Baseball Daily Podcast.
MLB Reports 
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