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