In our draft for D&D Baseball: The Gathering, we picked any players regardless of how much their contracts would drive up ticket prices for our elven fans. I looked at the 2011 cost of each of the players picked in the draft to see if there was any correlation between where a player was picked and how much he made. This beautiful tricolore graph that you see below this text that you are currently reading shows how much the average, maximum, and minimum salary of a given round measures against the average, maximum, and minimum spent in the average round. In round 20, for example, the total salary was the exact same as the average salary per round of the total draft as shown by the fact that it measures a 1.0, or 100% on the graph. Below the 1.0 line means that that round had a lower average than the average round, above means a higher average than the average round. Confused yet? Too bad! That is all the explanation that will be given.
By and large, it seems like each round of the draft was fairly, well, average. In the early rounds, there was a lot of money spent (round 1 had a total of $118 million, round 2 had a total of $138 million, the average per round was $63 million), but the most expensive player in those rounds wasn't significantly more expensive than the average most expensive player per round. This becomes clear when you look at the most expensive players in each round:
Each one of these is a high priced player, some who have lived up to the contract, others who have not. Only in round 2, where ARod, the highest payed player in the history of the game, the man whose salary could have bought Bear Sterns and had money left over, was significantly over the average maximum salary per round ($31 million as opposed to the average maximum of $15.8739 million). Where the biggest difference lies is in the minimum salary per round. Only in the second round, where Nelson Cruz was the lowest paid player taken, was the lowest paid player significantly above the average lowest salary for all the rounds. Cruz's'z contract, which pays him $3.6 million this year, is quite a bit more than many of the other minimum salaries of the lowest paid players in the rounds who made the league minimum of around $450k, and more than the average minimum salary of $811,976.9833. Players who made the league minimum were taken in an overwhelming majority of the rounds, starting as early as round 3, where the Dread Pirate was taken by Omar at a full 50 times lower salary than the highest paid player in that round, CC Sabathia ($450k vs $23 million). Even in the first round, there were 5 players whose salary was $5.5 million or below (Braun, Tulo, AGon, and Votto). Conversely, even in the 23rd round, there were players who signed large contract years ago and failed to deliver (AJ Burnett at $16.5 million and Lance Berzerkman at $8 million). Indeed, there was talent to be found in all rounds of the draft no matter what the price tag.
I next wanted to look at the total payrolls of each of the teams. Tabulating the team that hit the field opening day, I found that Andrew's team was by far the most expensive team, but the rest of the teams were all pretty clustered together.
Looking at the makeup of Andrew's team reveals the reason for his free spending: the glut of Yankees on his Roster. Between ARod, Jeter, Mariano, and AJ Burnett, Andrew spent $77,5000,000, alomst 75% of Omar's complete roster and about half of the average team payroll. It was also interesting to note that, despite going quite young on his team, Lenny Dykstra didn't save much on his payroll having the 7th highest payroll in the league. Omar, coming in with the lowest payroll of $91 million, saved a lot of money by having his high round draft picks be cheap players who will soon be free of the sheckels of thier minor league long term deals. Joey Votto, David Wright, Andrew Mccutchen, and Hunter Pence were his first 4 draft picks and had a total salary of $26 million, less than twice the average salary for the 6 highest paid first rounders alone (Pujols, Hanley, Miguel Cabrera, Halladay, Holliday, and Crawford. Average salary: $16 million). Indeed, Omar sniffed out that value quite nicely.
Finally, I wanted to look at the spending habits of each team individually. I found who was the highest and lowest paid player for each round, as you saw above, and correlated that with who picked them. In other words, which teams were the most swayed by the high price of admission and which were the biggest bargain seekers.
As predicted, Andrew broke the piggy bank 7 times (ARod, Mauer, Jeter, Ethier, El Caballo, Derek Lee, and AJ Burnett) the most of any of the teams. As some may have predicted perhaps maybe, Ackbar sought value 5 times (Young, Scherzer, Daniel Hudson, Jose Tabata, and Jesus Montero) ,but was not the most value conscious drafter in the league. That honor went to Omar, who only spent the most in a round once all the way in round 21 with Big Z, but spent the least 5 times (McCutchten, Pedro Alvarez, Kershaw, Travis Snider (?) and Matt Wieters). Fooey and Bernie were the most boring spenders only going for the most expensive and least expensive players in a round once (Roy Oswalt and Travis Wood, and Carlos Beltran and Brett Anderson, respectively).
So that's it, that is how we drafted. I highly doubt that anyone made it all the way to the bottom of this post without skipping over some portions of what I have written. That's ok! I don't mind! If you read any of it, though, put a thought in the comments section! Or Email me if you want to write a post! That will be the last plea, but the offer will remain for the season. Also remember, while I wrap these numbers around myself like a warm blanket at night, you can write about individual players, as Tim previously had with Ben Zobrist, or weird lists about most upsetting injury or most soul crushing home run of the week or something! I know from seeing you (YOU!) during the season that you have a lot to say about the fantasy season and the league in general, so why not put that digital pen to paper and those grubby fingeys to keyboard and share it with the league, nay the world in total! You will feel better about yourself! And then much much worse after you hear a room full of silence.
I next wanted to look at the total payrolls of each of the teams. Tabulating the team that hit the field opening day, I found that Andrew's team was by far the most expensive team, but the rest of the teams were all pretty clustered together.
Looking at the makeup of Andrew's team reveals the reason for his free spending: the glut of Yankees on his Roster. Between ARod, Jeter, Mariano, and AJ Burnett, Andrew spent $77,5000,000, alomst 75% of Omar's complete roster and about half of the average team payroll. It was also interesting to note that, despite going quite young on his team, Lenny Dykstra didn't save much on his payroll having the 7th highest payroll in the league. Omar, coming in with the lowest payroll of $91 million, saved a lot of money by having his high round draft picks be cheap players who will soon be free of the sheckels of thier minor league long term deals. Joey Votto, David Wright, Andrew Mccutchen, and Hunter Pence were his first 4 draft picks and had a total salary of $26 million, less than twice the average salary for the 6 highest paid first rounders alone (Pujols, Hanley, Miguel Cabrera, Halladay, Holliday, and Crawford. Average salary: $16 million). Indeed, Omar sniffed out that value quite nicely.
Finally, I wanted to look at the spending habits of each team individually. I found who was the highest and lowest paid player for each round, as you saw above, and correlated that with who picked them. In other words, which teams were the most swayed by the high price of admission and which were the biggest bargain seekers.
As predicted, Andrew broke the piggy bank 7 times (ARod, Mauer, Jeter, Ethier, El Caballo, Derek Lee, and AJ Burnett) the most of any of the teams. As some may have predicted perhaps maybe, Ackbar sought value 5 times (Young, Scherzer, Daniel Hudson, Jose Tabata, and Jesus Montero) ,but was not the most value conscious drafter in the league. That honor went to Omar, who only spent the most in a round once all the way in round 21 with Big Z, but spent the least 5 times (McCutchten, Pedro Alvarez, Kershaw, Travis Snider (?) and Matt Wieters). Fooey and Bernie were the most boring spenders only going for the most expensive and least expensive players in a round once (Roy Oswalt and Travis Wood, and Carlos Beltran and Brett Anderson, respectively).
So that's it, that is how we drafted. I highly doubt that anyone made it all the way to the bottom of this post without skipping over some portions of what I have written. That's ok! I don't mind! If you read any of it, though, put a thought in the comments section! Or Email me if you want to write a post! That will be the last plea, but the offer will remain for the season. Also remember, while I wrap these numbers around myself like a warm blanket at night, you can write about individual players, as Tim previously had with Ben Zobrist, or weird lists about most upsetting injury or most soul crushing home run of the week or something! I know from seeing you (YOU!) during the season that you have a lot to say about the fantasy season and the league in general, so why not put that digital pen to paper and those grubby fingeys to keyboard and share it with the league, nay the world in total! You will feel better about yourself! And then much much worse after you hear a room full of silence.