Sports: A Game Of Inches

We are four humble men who love sports, but hate sports commentary. Peter Gammons is our hero and John Madden is our enemy. If you were to ask us our purpose, our answer would be simple: "We are forever locked in Mortal Kombat for the souls of sports fans everywhere. Statistics are our science and 'the immeasurable character of men' is the obsolete religion of blind faith. Our job is to prove that God doesn't exist and that athletes are merely cold, metal machines with no hearts or souls."

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum

A conversation with a friend earlier today sparked a thought. Let's compare the Matt Holliday and Jayson Werth contracts.

CONTRACT VALUE

Matt Holliday: $120M/7 yrs ($122M in 2010 dollars)
Jayson Werth: $126M/7 yrs

WAR VALUE IN ONE/TWO/THREE/FOUR SEASONS PRIOR TO CONTRACT

Matt Holliday: +5.6/+11.3/+18.4/+22.4
Jayson Werth: +5.0/+9.9/+15.0/+18.2

AGE WHEN CONTRACT WAS SIGNED

Matt Holliday: 29
Jayson Werth: 31

WAR CHART BY PRODUCTIVITY

WAR CHART BY AGE

Yeah. I think the Nationals overpaid a bit. I think these guys would agree.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...: Obviously, it's an overpay. But big picture, Harper will be up, Strasburg and Zimmerman could be a great 1-2 start to a rotation, they have Storen to close, and Ryan Zimmerman. He's a good glue guy for them.; January 30, 2011 at 7:45 PM
David "MVP" Eckstein said...: Do not disagree. I think the Nationals needed to pay a premium to attract the talent. I just think the back end of this deal could be Soriano-bad; January 30, 2011 at 7:54 PM