Joe Nathan Warms Up, 9/2/09

Familiar Metrodome sights: Nathan readying for the ninth, modern hairstyles and seats facing the wrong way for baseball. After Brian Duensing pitched the game of his life, striking out seven in seven shutout innings, and Jon Rauch tiptoed through the eighth, we saw an unfamiliar sight: Nathan shockingly and crushingly gave up four runs, including back-to-back HRs by Gordon Beckham and Paul Konerko.

Projected 2010 Starting First Basemen and Their Benchwarmer Salaries

If there's one thing I've learned after painstakingly reviewing teams' depth charts at catcher and first base, it's that the Mets stink. I'm adding a column to these tables each time.

updated 3/20/10 - Branyan in CLE? Sanchez in FLA?

*Note: Clement is penciled in as his team's starting 1B, but will not qualify in BWB until he plays 5 consecutive or 10 total games at 1B in 2010.

** 29 lifetime AB

Team	Starter	2010 Salary	Career OPS	Bang	Other Pos
StL	Albert Pujols	9874	1055	.106846
Col	Todd Helton	3350	994	.296716
Hou	Lance Berkman	3472	967	.278514
Phi	Ryan Howard	7973	961	.120532
Mil	Prince Fielder	7054	931	.131982
Det	Miguel Cabrera	6426	925	.143946
Cin	Joey Votto	2200	924	.420000
NYY	Mark Teixeira	7108	923	.129854
Was	Adam Dunn	4031	903	.224014
Bos	Kevin Youkilis	3621	878	.242474	3B
Fla	Gaby Sanchez**	100	874	8.740000
ChC	Derrek Lee	4966	873	.175795
SD	Adrian Gonzalez	5381	869	.161494
TB	Carlos Pena	2581	858	.332429
Atl	Troy Glaus	1053	856	.812915	3B
Min	Justin Morneau	3849	851	.221096
ChW	Paul Konerko	2953	843	.285472
LAA	Kendry Morales	3574	839	.234751
Ari	Adam LaRoche	2997	834	.278278
Cle	Russ Branyan	1213	822	.677659
Tor	Lyle Overbay	1821	812	.445909
SF	Aubrey Huff	2690	812	.301859
Bal	Garrett Atkins	1962	811	.413354	3B
LAD	James Loney	2997	806	.268936
KC	Billy Butler	3058	798	.260955
Tex	Chris Davis	1002	793	.791417
NYM	Daniel Murphy	1198	768	.641068	OF
Oak	Jake Fox	301	761	2.528239	3B, OF
Sea	Casey Kotchman	1217	742	.609696
Pit	Jeff Clement*	144	701	4.868056	C

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

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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...