The best MLB Team money can buy
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by Kdark11
My friends and I were caught up in an argument on the best value players in Baseball so I thought I would open this one up to a larger forum. Here is my attempt to build the best and most experienced team I can for as little money as possible. I would enjoy hearing your opinions on this team.
Criteria: I felt it was important to have a good mix of veteran players with some youth. I avoided adding rookies to this roster in an attempt to keep this in some way realistic. Adding rookies would simply create a small payroll that would never happen in the real world. I tried to get the best player looking back the past few years for consistency and utility. Pitchers were dificult because I could have added young guys with small salaries and to some extent I did (Joel Zumaya and Justin Verlander). I don't think anyone will disagree that experience plays and even bigger role in the pitcher position than almost anywhere on the field. The 3 starting pitchers on this roster all have playoff experience and you can set up a Righty, Lefty, Righty Rotation. I also believe we have a good mix of style out of these 3 pitchers. I went with experience at the closer role choosing Joe Borowski. Chipper Jones at DH was interesting to look at even for me. He has the highest salary on this squad and mainly because of all the playoff experience and consistency he brings to the table. Since he is in the later stages of his career, I thought it was reasonable to have him at DH. The two bench players were added to this roster based on utility. Neither are considered the best at their position. Carlos Guillen can play virtually all infield positions and can bat almost anywhere in a lineup. David DeJesus can play all 3 outfield positions and can bat lead off.
The total salary of this team is $56,020,333 (8 players shy of a 25 man roster). These figures are based on 2007 salaries and does not take into account an extensions that these players may have signed.
1B Ryan Howard ($900,000)
2B Placido Polanco ($4,600,000)
SS Hanley Ramirez ($402,000)
3B Chone Figgins ($3,500,000)
LF Matt Holliday ($4,400,000)
CF Curtis Granderson ($410,000)
RF Alex Rios ($2,535,000)
C Joe Mauer ($3,750,000)
DH Chipper Jones ($12,333,333)
BN David DeJesus ($2,000,000)
BN Carlos Guillen ($5,000,000)
P Dan Haren ($2,250,000)
P Tom Glavine ($7,500,000)
P Justin Verlander ($1,030,000)
RP Joel Zumaya ($410,000)
RP Fernando Rodney ($1,000,000)
RP Joe Borowski ($4,000,000)
