Yankee's 2008 Payroll Efficiency

The numbers in these charts, by the way, are in terms of millions of dollars.



The 2008 Yankee's cumulative net payroll win-value was +12.23 million. The win-profit margin is nothing impressive, given the size of the Yankees payroll (est. at $210 million).

As one might notice, there are very many negative value contracts on the Yankees payroll for the primary roster spots. Carl Pavano, Bobby Abreu and Jason Giambi were the most inefficiently paid players on the 2008 squad; each had a win-value profit margin below -$10 million.

Johnny Damon, Xavier Nady and (suprisingly enough) Derek Jeter were the only primary offensive players whose contract values provided a postive win-value profit margin.

It was the Yankee's pitching, anchored by rookie arms, that kept the team's cumulative win-value profit margin positive. Players like Joba Chamberlain and Phil Hughes, who were paid in peanuts, kept payroll way down while providing the team some value along the way. That and Mike Mussina's stellar final year in the majors.

A-Rod, suprisingly enough, wasn't really overpaid in 2008. He provided the Yankees with just enough offese to create $160,000 in win value profit.

What one could conclude from this graph is that the 2008 Yankee's offense was, indeed, highly overpaid.