Projected 2010 Starting Catchers and Their Benchwarmer Salaries

At some point in one of the Godfather books, Vito Corleone reveals to Michael his prime motivation: to stay alive. All the rest (intense devotion to the olive business, etc.) follows therefrom. The Benchwarmer equivalent to this ethos is making sure you have players who are.....playing. With 16 Benchwarmer teams per league and 30 real life starters, if you can get more than two of them on your team, you are not only working toward preventing the dreaded benchwarmer batter oh-fer, you are increasing the likelihood of your opponents having this problem. With five bench slots, I try to have at least one backup at every position, with as many multi-position guys (preferably ones who can hit) as possible. If you can get a starter with a salary of 250 or under, he can be stashed in the minors or played as necessary.

This list doesn't include some prospects who haven't officially won jobs yet. I also kind of gave up on figuring out the Mets' plan for now, as they seem to have at least four backup catchers. My goal is to keep this post updated and linked throughout the year. I have ordered the list by career OPS. I also made up a stat called "Bang" which is short for "Bang for the Benchwamer Buck" and is simply OPS / Salary. This isn't too useful as an overall measure, but can tell you at a glance that Miguel Montero is about twice as good a bargain as Russell Martin, directly below him. For that matter, after checking out some of the Bangs that jump out, does it really seem like the worst idea to invest in, for example, Lou Marson, Taylor Teagarden and Jesus Flores for a measly 613 Bucks?

Updated 3/20/10 - Mets read this blog, acquire the great Barajas.

Team	Starter	2010 Salary	Career OPS	Bang
Min	Joe Mauer	4616	892	.193241
NYY	Jorge Posada	1404	859	.611823
Atl	Brian McCann	2160	853	.394907
LAA	Mike Napoli	1050	850	.809524
Bos	Victor Martinez	3519	837	.237852
ChC	Geovany Soto	1020	809	.793137
Was	Ivan Rodriguez	1217	807	.663106
Col	Chris Iannetta	828	807	.974638
Fla	John Baker	853	787	.922626
Pit	Ryan Doumit	786	780	.992366
Ari	Miguel Montero	1108	776	.700361
TB	Kelly Shoppach	718	776	1.080780
LAD	Russell Martin	2071	774	.373732
Cle	Lou Marson	100	771	7.710000
ChW	A.J. Pierzynski	1662	754	.453670
Bal	Matt Wieters	644	753	1.169255
KC	Jason Kendall	1206	752	.623549
Tex	Taylor Teagarden	238	752	3.159664
Cin	Ramon Hernandez	869	743	.855006
Mil	Gregg Zaun	518	732	1.413127
Oak	Kurt Suzuki	1909	727	.380828
SF	Bengie Molina	1735	726	.418444
Phi	Carlos Ruiz	776	716	.922680
Tor	John Buck	518	705	1.361004
StL	Yadier Molina	1423	692	.486297
NYM	Rod Barajas	1083	691	.638042
SD	Nick Hundley	367	683	1.861035
Det	Gerald Laird	925	673	.727568
Hou	J.R. Towles	119	609	5.117647
Sea	Rob Johnson	295	589	1.996610

My 2010 Top Benchwarmer Baseball Prospects

I am defining "prospect" as any player eligible for rookie status in 2010. For the purpose of this list the player must be currently on the Benchwarmer player list. For the "starters" I am choosing based on a combination of upside and the ability to contribute to a BWB lineup sooner rather than later (i.e. having a job is a big help). All salaries are 100 unless noted otherwise.

Here is a full Benchwarmer starting roster (+ taxi squad):

updated 1/25/10

C: Buster Posey - SF
1B: Justin Smoak - Tex
2B: Scott Sizemore - Det
SS: Alcides Escobar - Mil (Salary 147)
3B: Pedro Alvarez - Pit
OF: Jason Heyward - Atl
OF: Desmond Jennings - TB
OF: Dustin Ackley - Sea
DH: Brett Wallace - Tor
B1: Chris Carter - 1B - Oak
B2: Carlos Santana - C - Cle
B3: Fernando Martinez - OF - NYM (Salary 106)
B4: Ian Desmond - SS/2B - Was (Salary 109)
B5: David Freese - 3B/C/1B - StL
SP1: Neftali Feliz - Tex (Salary 200)
SP2: Stephen Strasburg - Was
SP3: Wade Davis - TB (Salary 202)
SP4: Brian Matusz - Bal (Salary 200)
SP5: Jeremy Hellickson - TB
SS1: Kyle Drabek - Tor
SS2: Madison Bumgarner - SF
RP1: Daniel Bard - Bos (Salary 497)
RP2: Drew Storen - Was
RP3: Daniel Schlereth- Det
RP4: Clevelan Santeliz - CWS
RP5: Carlos Gutierrez - Min
T1: Jacob Turner - SP - Det
T2: Chris Heisey - OF - Cin

Here are 12 longer term picks to fill out our roster's minor league spots. Looking for ultimate upside here. I may tweak this (so many choices!):

M1: Aaron Hicks - OF - Min (a homer pick, but so was Joe Mauer)
M2: Donovan Tate - OF - SD
M3: Bobby Borchering -3B - Ari
M4: Mike Trout - OF - LAA
M5: Jared Mitchell - OF - CWS
M6: Lonnie Chisenhall - SS - Cle
M7: Ike Davis - 1B - NYM
M8: Tyler Matzek - P - Col
M9: Casey Kelly - P (SS?)- Bos
M10: Chris Withrow - P - LAD
M11: Shelby Miller - P - StL
M12: Josh Vitters - 3B - ChC


OK, who did I forget? Or, which recent first round draft picks will be better BWB contributors than these guys? Comments encouraged.

Projected 2010 Closers and Their Benchwarmer Salaries

You should have at least two of these, as saves are counted for the first two slots in your bullpen. Obviously you can save a lot of money by getting the right guy before a couple of 40 save seasons (note massive salary discrepancies below), but don't guess wrong, as the expensive, reliable guys never seem to be available when you want them. I will actually try to keep this list up to date throughout the season and keep a nice link to it somewhere. Please comment with corrections, updates, comments :), etc.


updated 1/23/10 with Dotel to the Pirates

---

Ari	Chad Qualls	1253
Atl	Billy Wagner	869
Bal	Mike Gonzalez	2182
Bos	Jonathan Papelbon	6110
ChC	Carlos Marmol	2980
ChW	Bobby Jenks	1616
Cin	Francisco Cordero	4644
Cle	Kerry Wood	1270
Col	Huston Street	2908
Det	Jose Valverde	2477
Fla	Leo Nunez	1527
Hou	Matt Lindstrom	813
KC	Joakim Soria	3502
LAA	Brian Fuentes	3351
LAD	Jonathan Broxton	4080
Mil	Trevor Hoffman	2912
Min	Joe Nathan	7753
NYM	Francisco Rodriguez	4444
NYY	Mariano Rivera	8231
Oak	Andrew Bailey	3777
Phi	Brad Lidge	2718
Pit	Octavio Dotel	1386
StL	Ryan Franklin	4587
SD	Heath Bell	3918
SF	Brian Wilson	3694
Sea	David Aardsma	3470
TB	Rafael Soriano	2959
Tex	Frank Francisco	1007
Tor	Jason Frasor	1679
Was	Matt Capps	1009

Save the Dome?

This guy knows he wants some kind of stadium for the Vikings. Would probably settle for a renovated Dome.

Raul Mondesi for President

30-30 men never die...

2009 ALDS Game 3 - Last Twins Metrodome Game

Nine Top NL 2009 Rookies and Their 2010 Benchwarmer Salaries

(See previous AL list one post down)

Chris Coghlan OF - Fla: 1330
Tommy Hanson SP - Atl: 1332
J.A. Happ SP - Phi: 1621
Andrew McCutchen OF - Pit: 1105
Dexter Fowler OF - Col: 902
Randy Wells SP - ChC: 2625
Garrett Jones 1B, OF - Pit: 699
Casey McGehee 2B, 3B - Mil: 917
Seth Smith OF - Col: 847

Eleven Top 2009 AL Rookies and Their 2010 Benchwarmer Salaries

Since BWB salaries take into account more than one year of performance, these players may be a good value in your draft (or will they slump sophomorically?) :

Andrew Bailey RP - Oak: 3777

Elvis Andrus SS - Tex: 995

Jeff Niemann SP - TB: 2401

Rick Porcello SP - Det: 2053

Brett Anderson SP - Oak: 2378

Gordon Beckham 3B - CWS: 903

Nolan Reimold OF - Bal: 753

Matt Wieters C - Bal: 644

Brad Bergesen SP - Bal: 883

Ricky Romero SP - Tor: 2207

Travis Snider OF - Tor: 325

Save The Met

Metrodome from the Guthrie

Harper's Index Statistic of the Day

Estimated percentage of all existing blogs that have not been updated in four months: 94

Tip of the Day: Pick up players now, while they're cheap!

Starting From Scratch

The winter's been going by awfully slow, I've had a free team, a reward for winning a division last year, just sitting there waiting to be activated, and said division winner has nine dollars to its name.  I've had my fill of mock drafts, prospect lists, and doomsday predictions for society.   Time for a draft!

So...I've just finished tweaking  my submission for a fresh team in the Bleed Dodger Blue (do these guys know each other?) League.  A chance to take a shot at absolutely anybody out there, and if you miss out on a $100 player with a real career in front of him, you might never see him available again.  In general, my strategy is to try not to think too much about how many other teams want "my guys," but fit as many of the guys I really want on my list as possible.   After all, just like the lottery, you can't win if you don't play.  I'd already done my draft's first draft before reading Dave R.'s top 16 draft targets - each guy is very compelling, but are there no BWB secrets any more? :)  After scouring and scrubbing I've got 6 of those players on my final list.  After the draft's done, I'll take a look at how successful I was in getting the guys I wanted, and if it looks like some other teams look a lot better than mine after putting the pieces together differently...

I guess this should be noted...

No Comment.

Twinsfest 2009

I swear, every time I go to Twinsfest, it happens to be the most brutal day of the year to attempt a short trek from a parking ramp to the Dome. This year, my blog photographer and I arrived a little early to ensure that I'd get my Killebrew card autographed (it's for charity, so there's nothing wrong with me). I could not believe the line out there in that weather. Small children literally screamed and ran in circles as their parents convinced them it was going to be fun to stand in a new, warm line for two hours just as soon as they were done waiting out here so they could stand next to a guy they've never heard of for three seconds.

According to The Man, 31,000+ attended this, and if that is true, most of them waited in the Ben Revere line after they were done with the M&M signatures. If Revere puts on another Loftonesque display in the minors this year, the Gomez bandwagon could break down and Ben could achieve backup-QB-like saviour status around town.

I'd anticipated this, beaten the rush to Ben, and my plan to be early to the Mudcat Grant line was going great, and it's not like he wouldn't be there or anything, seeing as how he was hanging with Fergie Jenkins (see above) selling signed baseballs for charity in the late morning. Well, official word soon came that he was "on a plane" even though he was also scheduled to appear the next day....anybody know the story?? The mainstream media is afraid to report the facts! As usual, baseless conjecture by bloggers must carry the day!

Item: World's Biggest Procrastinator Attempts Blog

Responding to an open invitation by the creator and commissioner-for-life of Benchwarmer Baseball, I decided that posting my deep thoughts on BWB, fantasy baseball, baseball, and other lesser elements of life might possibly be a way to slow my accelerating brain decay and short attention span caused by being born into Generation X.

Anyway....Anyone reading this for at least the next year knows what Benchwarmer Baseball is, but for future generations scrolling all the way to the bottom, BWB is basically an updated, web version of a 150 game season of Strat-O-Matic baseball, without the cool collectible cards, but the outcomes are determined by actual game results rather than dice, and you as the owner/GM/manager get the additional fun responsibilities associated with franchise-building, except nobody gets the extra revenue of the Yankees.  Players' salaries are based on performance (take that, Carl Pavano!), contracts are available for the long term planner, and you can experiment with how best to allocate your finite resources. With twelve minor league roster sports, you also get to experience the joy of watching a guy you draft never actually contribute anything at all.

I personally have two BWB teams as of now,  the 2002 champion Nordeast Knotholes, of the original Hall of Fame League, and the recently dethroned but perennial divisional powerhouse Nokomis Choo Choo Trains in the Longball League.  I resist the temptation to add more each year, as I already participate in two "real life" head-to-head leagues and one old-style NL-only rotisserie league.  As the winter crawls by though, and I spend idle minutes at work refreshing ballbug (I love this site!), it is BWB that comes to the rescue by beginning the building of 2009 rosters in December and January.  Apart from getting your own rosters set, it is interesting to scan through all the redistribution league drafts, see which prospects everyone is going for, and try to investigate a few new names your own personal favorite sites didn't mention.

With all the information out there, I am not exactly sure what I will be able to add; perhaps I will chronicle my teams' seasons, or the Twinkies' last year in the hallowed Metrodome, or I'll get laid off and spend ten hours a day on a fabulous new Manifesto.....most likely the former I suppose.  Through pure chance, the Knotholes have always been hitting-centric, with A-Rod on board since day one, and peaking when he was joined by Bonds and Giambi in their juiced prime. The Choo Choo Trains continue to win divisions with starting pitching, the staff currently anchored by Santana and Peavy.  Also right now the Knotholes are swimming in money (though not quite as much, due to a trade for Brian McCann this week), and poor planning left the Choo Choo Trains with, ahem, nine (thought it was a misprint!) dollars as of now.  Any big spenders out there want to give me a pile of money for Rick Porcello?