Fantasy Fundamentals From The Factory: Fair Market Value

Each Wednesday morning I take a break from the daily grind and flip through the pages of the newest USA Today Sports Weekly. Each week Ron Shandler has a Safety In Numbers article that appears. For those of you who aren't familiar with Ron Shandler, he along with Bill James are the most recognizable Sabermetricians in the business today. Shandler is the author of the Baseball Forcaster and runs a website for nerds such as I, called Baseball HQ. Typically his postings aren't can't miss material but todays posting was rather interesting. His company had compiled the player values for all everyday players in the big leagues and compared them to their draft value to see who has given the most and least bang for their buck. Most serious leagues use a salary cap format. Players go through a auction process and thus the winning bid is that players dollar value. The seasons starting amount was determined by the staff at Baseball HQ as is their 2010 value. In this posting I will give the Top 5 values of each position as well as the 5 Worst values by position. If you have a question regardin a player not listed please contact me and I will get the results for you.

C Best Opening Current Difference

1. Miguel Olivo 5 15 +10

2. Rod Barajas 3 9 +6

3. Ivan Rodriguez 0 6 +6

4. John Buck 2 7 +5

5T. Jason Varitek -1 2 +3

5T. Ronny Paulino 3 6 +3

C Worst Opening Current Difference

1. Matt Wieters 15 -3 -18

2. Joe Mauer 29 12 -17

3. Brian McCann 20 7 -13

4. A.J. Pierzynski 10 -2 -12

5T. Yaldier Molina 6 14 -8

5T. Ryan Doumit 5 13 -8


1B Best Opening Current Difference

1. Aubrey Huff 8 18 10

2. Justin Morneau 18 27 9

3. Paul Konerko 13 22 9

4. Nick Swisher 10 18 8

5. Ty Wigginton 5 13 8


1B Worst Opening Current Difference

1. Todd Helton 20 -2 -22

2. Derrek Lee 24 4 -20

3. Lance Berkman 23 3 -20

4. Mark Teixeira 26 9 -17

5T. Albert Pujols 41 25 -16

5T. Prince Fielder 29 13 -16

2B Best Opening Current Difference

1. Robinson Cano 24 35 11

2. Dan Uggla 13 18 5

3. Jeff Keppinger 2 6 4

4. Kelly Johnson 18 21 3

5. David Eckstein 3 5 2

2B Worst Opening Current Difference

1. Aaron Hill 0 18 -18

2. Jose Lopez 1 17 -16

3. Ian Kinsler 4 20 -16

4. Chase Utley 12 26 -14

5. Felipe Lopez 15 2 -13


SS Best Opening Current Difference

1. Alex Gonzalez 2 16 14

2. Reid Brignac 0 7 7

3. Yuniesky Betancourt 5 8 3

4. Josh Wilson -1 2 3

5. Cristian Guzman 5 7 2


SS Worst Opening Current Difference

1. Jason Bartlett 21 0 -21

2. JJ Hardy 12 -5 -17

3. Miguel Tejada 20 3 -17

4. Alcides Escobar 18 1 -17

5. Hanley Ramirez 37 21 -16


3B Best Opening Current Difference

1. Jose Bautista 6 19 13

2. Troy Glaus 8 20 12

3. Juan Uribe 6 16 10

4. Scott Rolen 14 23 9

5T. Casey McGhee 11 16 5

5T. Adam Rosales -1 4 5


3B Worst Opening Current Difference

1. Pablo Sandoval 10 27 -17

2. Chone Figgins 19 4 -15

3. Alex Rodriguez 30 17 -13

4. Chipper Jones 14 1 -13

5. Casey Blake 14 5 -9


OF Best Opening Current Difference

1. Alex Rios 15 33 18

2. Chris Young 8 23 15

3. Austin Kearns 2 15 13

4. Jonny Gomes 5 17 12

5. Angel Pagan 4 16 12


OF Worst Opening Current Difference

1. Adam Lind 24 2 -22

2. Carlos Lee 26 6 -20

3. Manny Ramirez 6 24 -18

4. Matt Holliday 32 14 -18

5. Matt Kemp 38 21 -17


P Best Opening Current Difference

1. Livan Hernandez -11 13 24

2. Carlos Silva -7 17 24

3. Mike Pelfrey -2 20 22

4. Doug Fister -6 13 19

5. Ricky Romero -4 15 19


P Worst Opening Current Difference

1. Zack Greinke 32 6 -26

2. Felix Hernandez 34 10 -24

3. CC Sabathia 33 10 -23

4. Jonathan Papelbon 30 7 -23

5. Dan Haren 30 9 -21


* Please note players currently on the DL were not included in the list.