First basemen made the most money on average in 2010. This either means that teams still pay more for offense than defense, or that long-term contracts understand that high power offense lasts longer than great defense.
First basemen made the most money on average in 2010. This either means that teams still pay more for offense than defense, or that long-term contracts understand that high power offense lasts longer than great defense.
I think it might be a similar (though slightly different) argument that players at other positions tend to be younger. I’d love to see the numbers with age and service time included.
@Mitch: That is true. I have a graph on the site that shows that. If you look for position by age you should find it.
i’d also like to see CFs vs cornerFs, instead of having all OFs lumped together.
i would have expected SPs to have made more
Sluggers not only hit HR and RBI’s, but tend to have high OBP. These are the most valuable offensive players, and offense is almost 80% of the game for position players.
With the signings of Dunn, Pena, Konerko, and the trade for A-Gon following the year of the pitcher, the HR is more appreciated than ever.
In low run environments, it is harder to string together walks and BB’s to score, but one swing of the bat can drive in yourself and others. A great example is the Mariners. I predicted before 2010 that Ichiro and Figgins as the 1-2 punch in the Mariners lineup would be stranded more than any other 1-2 in MLB. Ichiro has a great OBP and steals a lot but does not get home much since they don’t have any good HR/RBI guys that follow him.