You have a franchise, which of these two do you take at each position (no pitchers)

Okay, you have a franchise with a 60 million dollar payroll, you have to pick either of these two players from each position to take (includes their current contracts and you have to prepare to cover contracts in 2013 again). Which of the two do you take? Prepare to defend your selections

Projected WAR for each season in bold

You can not trade players, you are stuck with the player you chose for the life of their deal, and you can't have a future payroll over 60 million either

C - Matt Wieters (pre-arb 13, free agent 16)(4.0 12-16), Brian McCann (8.5-12, 12-13) (4.0 12-13)
1B - Eric Hosmer (pre-arb 2014, free agent (2018) (3.0 - 12, 4.0 - 13, 5.0 14-18), Adrian Gonzalez (21-12, 21-13, 21-14, 21-15, 21-16, 21.5-17, 21.5-18) (5.5 12-16, 4.0 - 17, 3.0 -18)
2B - Dustin Ackley (pre-arb 2015, free agent 2018)(3.0 - 12, 4.0 -13, 5.0 14-18), Ben Zobrist (4.5-12, 5.5-13, 7-14, 7.5-15) (5.0 12-15)
SS - Starlin Castro (pre-arb 2013, free agent 2017) (3.0 - 12, 3.5 - 13, 4.0 14-17), Troy Tulowitzki (8.25-12, 10-13, 16-14, 20-15, 20-16, 20-17, 20-18, 20-19, 14-20) (6.0 12-16, 5.0 17, 4.0 18, 3.0 19, 2.0 20)
3B - Brett Lawrie (pre-arb 2015, free agent 2018) (4.0 12, 5.0 13-18), Evan Longoria (4.5-12, 6-13, 7.5-14, 11-15, 11.5-16) (6.0 12-16)
LF - Brett Gardner (2.8-12, arb-13, arb-14, free agent-15) (5.0 12-15), Carlos Gonzalez (5-12, 7.5-13, 10.5-14, 16-15, 17-16, 20-17) (5.0 12-16, 4.0 17)
CF - Mike Trout (pre-arb 2015, free agent 2018) (3.0 - 12, 4.0 13, 5.0 14-18), Jacoby Ellsbury (8.05-12, arb-13, free agent 14) (6.0 12-13)
RF - Stanton (pre-arb 2014, free agent 2017) (5.0 12, 6.0 13-17), Justin Upton (6.75-12, 9.75-13, 14.25-14, 14.5-15) (6.0 12-15)


Write out players and then payroll at the bottom

example

LF - Cargo
CF - Trout
RF - Stanton
Payroll
12 - 74, 13 - 71, 14 - 75, 15 - 70, 16 - 75, 17 - 70 etc Each year has to be under 75 million, on the arb pay outs, you can take guesses at what the player is likely to make. Use the basic 20,40,60 scale that players traditionally get paid on)
Take a players projected WAR and for first year of arb divide it by half (example 5.0 WAR pay them 2.5 million), second year pay them WAR=1 million (5 mil for 5 WAR) and for the final year pay them twice the million per WAR (5.0 WAR gets 10 million)
Pre-arb is 450k for now
As well, total your projected WAR each year, how much WAR do you have each year? You get a 0 at that position if for example in 2014 if you take McCann at catcher.

Again, this is just a fun exercise, don't get upset with the players projected WAR (they are just round figures) or salaries, just try to put together the best value per dollar that you can in this completely fictional exercise.

All the ones on the left & then spending the rest of my payroll on pitching

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by etothep

All the ones on the left & then spending the rest of my payroll on pitching

---

I'd certainly still take Longo over Lawrie

My team

2012
C - Wieters 450k, 4.0
1B - Hosmer - 450K, 3.0
2B - Zobrist - 4.5, 5.0
SS - Tulo - 8.25, 6.0
3B - Longo - 4.5, 6.0
LF - Gardner - 2.8, 5.0
CF - Trout - 450K, 3.0
RF - Stanton - 450K, 5.0

That's 21.85 Million, 37 WAR

2013
C - Wieters - 2.0, 4.0
1B - Hosmer - 450K, 4.0
2B - Zobrist - 5.5, 5.0
SS - Tulo - 10, 6
3B - Longoria - 6, 6
LF - Gardner - 5, 5
CF - Trout 450K, 4.0
RF - Stanton 450K, 6.0

That's -29.85 and 40 WAR

2014
C - Wieters - 4.0, 4.0
1B - Hosmer 2.5, 5.0
2B - Zobrist - 7.0, 5
SS - Tulo - 16, 6
3B - Longo - 7.5, 6
LF - Gardner - 7.5, 5.0
CF - Trout - 450K, 5.0
RF - Stanton - 3.0, 6.0

That's 47.95 and 42 WAR
See how it works?

2015
C - Wieters - 8, 4.0
1B - Hosmer - 5.0, 5.0
2B - Zobrist - 7.5, 5.0
SS - Tulo - 20, 6.0
3B - Longoria - 11, 6.0
LF - nobody
CF - Trout - 2.5, 5.0
RF - Stanton - 6.0, 6.0

That's 60 million, 37 WAR

2016
C - nobody
1B - Hosmer - 10, 5.0
2B - nobody
SS - Tulo - 20, 6.0
3B - Longoria -11.5, 6
LF - nobody
CF - Trout - 5.0, 5.0
RF - Stanton - 12.0, 6.0

That's 58.5 million, 27 WAR

2017
C - nobody
1B - nobody
2B - nobody
SS - Tulo - 20, 5.0
3B - nobody
LF - nobody
CF - Trout - 10.0, 5.0
RF - nobody

30 million and 10 WAR

2018-on
Only have Tulo, owed a combined 54 million for 9.0 WAR

Your team: 202 WAR for $302.15M

My team: 226.5 WAR for lots of years of league minimum plus arb #s

Not to even mention my team's far superior pitching


dude, i can't type today

C - Matt Wieters
1B - Adrian Gonzalez
2B - Dustin Ackley
SS - Troy Tulowitzki
3B - Brett Lawrie
LF - Carlos Gonzalez
CF - Jacoby Ellsbury
RF - Mike Stanton