Here's another in a continuing series of If You Have a Problem at First Base, There's an Easy Solution series. Walter Young is a big slugger in the Orioles system (formerly in the Pirates system). He's 25, so he's past the point of being a prospect. The Orioles could have brought him up last year for the league minimum; instead, they spent four million on Palmeiro.

In the 1985 Bill James Baseball Handbook, major league equlivancies are introduced using that method with a slight modification in the adjustment for competition from .82 to .81, here's how Walter Young's numbers look compared to Palmeiro.

Young's OBA wouldn't be as good, but he makes up for it with his slugging percentage. If nothing else, it's pretty clear that Palmeiro wasn't worth 13 times the money. The cheap solution eluded the Orioles. And with Palmeiro back for another year, the mistake is repeated.