Bargain or Bust: The 2010 Giants Salaries

The Giants last season were very much feast or famine in getting value from their players. They had some huge bargains and some huge busts but not a lot of players that earned what they "deserved."

This is pretty interesting to me and I wonder if this is a normal occurrence around baseball or if the Giants were a special case last year. Unless someone knows off the top of their head, that could be something interesting to look at another day.

Here are the 2010 Salaries, WAR turned into Value ($4.25 million per win), and then the difference.

Name	WAR	Salary	Marginal Value	Difference
Andres Torres	6	$ 426,000	$ 25,500,000	$ 25,074,000
Aubrey Huff	5.7	$ 3,000,000	$ 24,225,000	$ 21,225,000
Buster Posey	3.9	$ 400,000	$ 16,575,000	$ 16,175,000
Tim Lincecum	5.1	$ 9,000,000	$ 21,675,000	$ 12,675,000
Matt Cain	4	$ 4,583,333	$ 17,000,000	$ 12,416,667
Pat Burrell	2.7	$ 300,000	$ 11,475,000	$ 11,175,000
Juan Uribe	3.2	$ 3,250,000	$ 13,600,000	$ 10,350,000
Jonathan Sanchez	2.6	$ 2,100,000	$ 11,050,000	$ 8,950,000
Madison Bumgarner	2	$ 400,000	$ 8,500,000	$ 8,100,000
Pablo Sandoval	1.9	$ 465,000	$ 8,075,000	$ 7,610,000
Freddy Sanchez	2.7	$ 6,000,000	$ 11,475,000	$ 5,475,000
Brian Wilson	2.7	$ 6,500,000	$ 11,475,000	$ 4,975,000
Sergio Romo	1.2	$ 416,500	$ 5,100,000	$ 4,683,500
Santiago Casilla	0.9	$ 400,000	$ 3,825,000	$ 3,425,000
Eli Whiteside	0.7	$ 405,000	$ 2,975,000	$ 2,570,000
Nate Schierholtz	0.5	$ 416,500	$ 2,125,000	$ 1,708,500
Dan Runzler	0.4	$ 400,500	$ 1,700,000	$ 1,299,500
Travis Ishikawa	0.3	$ 417,000	$ 1,275,000	$ 858,000
Guillermo Mota	0.3	$ 750,000	$ 1,275,000	$ 525,000
Jeremy Affeldt	0.2	$ 4,000,000	$ 850,000	$ (3,150,000)
Edgar Renteria	1.3	$ 10,000,000	$ 5,525,000	$ (4,475,000)
Barry Zito	2.1	$ 18,500,000	$ 8,925,000	$ (9,575,000)
Aaron Rowand	0.5	$ 13,600,000	$ 2,125,000	$ (11,475,000)

It isn't surprising (or at least shouldn't be if you watched the team last year), but Rowand and Zito are the worst offenders, with Huff and Torres leading the team. Torres is unreal; according to this calculation, he was worth nearly 60 times what the Giants paid him!

What was most surprising to me is only two guys were within $1 million of their pay and value. Even then, Mota, who is closest, was worth 70% more than what the Giants paid him.

All very interesting.

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