June 8, 2015

Rotisserie-Style In-Season Valuations

Version 2, 2015

by Mike Gianella

Welcome to the second installment of Baseball Prospectus’s in-season, Rotisserie-style valuations for American League and National League-only formats.

In the linked document below, you will find values through games of Friday, June 5 for:

• American League Hitters
• American League Pitchers
• National League Hitters
• National League Pitchers

The formulas used to derive these valuations are not based on last year’s statistical formulas but have been derived based on 2015 statistics. Average salaries are based on the auction rosters for the CBS, LABR, and Tout Wars expert leagues.

Each update will be completed after a sixth of the regular season is done. So you can expect updates after the average number of games played per major league team hits 27, 54, 81, 108, and 135 games. The final update will occur sometime in the winter after the postseason has been completed.

Last time out, I simply presented the valuations without comment. This time, I wanted to make a few observations about what has happened to date.

As expected, the valuations on the top earners stabilized in both leagues, for both hitters and pitchers. Nelson Cruz ($53), Dallas Keuchel ($54), Dee Gordon ($59), and Zack Greinke ($47) were the leaders in the first pricing update. Josh Donaldson ($41), Sonny Gray ($42), Paul Goldschmidt ($50), and Max Scherzer ($40) are the leaders in the clubhouse in the second update. I have completed in-season valuations in the past but never tracked them, so I do not know how common or uncommon it is for all four leaders in each league to change like they did in this update.

The 10 most profitable hitters in the AL year-to-date are mostly cheap fliers (earnings, average salary):

1) Delino Deshields Jr. ($25, $0)

2) Stephen Vogt ($29, $6)

3) Devon Travis ($20, $0)

4) Kevin Pillar ($20, $1)

5) Jose Iglesias ($21, $1)

6) Alex Rodriguez ($25, $6)

7) Nelson Cruz ($41, $22)

8) David DeJesus ($19, $0)

9) Mark Teixeira ($28, $10)

10) Jake Marisnick ($21, $3)

The 10 most profitable hitters in the NL year-to-date are players who cost in the $3-5 range, and also include some studs who weren’t quite paid like studs:

1) A.J. Pollock ($40, $19)

2) Brandon Crawford ($26, $5)

3) Cameron Maybin ($22, $2)

4) Ender Inciarte ($23, $5)

5) DJ LeMahieu ($26, $8)

6) Dee Gordon ($43, $26)

7) Joe Panik ($21, $5)

8) Nori Aoki ($27, $11)

9) Adeiny Hechavarria ($19, $3)

10) Bryce Harper ($43, $28)

The 10 most profitable AL pitchers year-to-date:

1) Dallas Keuchel ($41, $11)

2) Andrew Miller ($30, $7)

3) Chris Archer ($39, $16)

4) Sonny Gray ($42, $21)

5) Jesse Chavez ($22, $1)

6) Joakim Soria ($27, $6)

7) Hector Santiago ($20, $0)

8) Miguel Gonzalez ($20, $3)

9) Wade Davis ($22, $5)

10) Edinson Volquez ($18, $2)

The 10 most profitable NL pitchers year-to-date. The AL had more than a few relievers make the list; The NL has Familia and is dominated by starting pitchers:

1) Jeurys Familia ($28, $1)

2) Aaron Harang ($25, $0)

3) Jason Hammel ($29, $6)

4) Shelby Miller ($30, $9)

5) Dan Haren ($22, $3)

6) Michael Wacha ($32, $13)

7) A.J. Burnett ($26, $9)

8) Gerrit Cole ($36, $19)

9) Jacob deGrom ($32, $16)

10) Carlos Martinez ($22, $6)

The full list of valuations can be found here.

Mike Gianella is an author of Baseball Prospectus. Follow @MikeGianella
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