Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
January 17, 2008
Paying for Hitting

MLB relased the average salaries for 2007, and designated hitters were the highest paid position:

Designated hitters had the highest average at $8.49 million, followed by third basemen ($5.75 million), first basemen ($5.68 million), outfielders ($5.54 million), shortstops ($4.96 million), starting pitchers ($4.26 million), second basemen ($2.91 million) and relievers ($1.66 million).

Teams still pay for hitting. However, DHs are overpaid. They don't hit that much better than left and right fielder nor first basemen. A designated hitter is almost always an older player, who has the benefit of arbitration and free agency behind him. A lot of money is wasted on designated hitters, which is a good reason to eliminate the position.


Posted by David Pinto at 08:49 PM | Players | TrackBack (0)
Comments

"A lot of money is wasted on designated hitters, which is a good reason to eliminate the position."

From whose perspective? MLB is not hurting for it, and of course the players would not say it's a waste. Would you rather the money just be saved for the owners or distributed to other players, presumably raising their average salaries?

Posted by: Sean at January 17, 2008 10:15 PM

sometimes your lack of knowledge of baseball is mind boggling. You really don't see a lot of rookies at DH. Why? It's a waste. What do you see - aging superstars, veterans with bad knees. The Piazzas, Sheffields, Thomases, Giambis don't come cheap and they can hit. Look at the 4 AL playoff teams and who their DHs were - Ortiz, Hafner, Anderson, Giambi/Matsui. All over 30 - combined over 4000 RBI and 22 100 RBI seasons. Obviously Giambi is grossly overpaid but if you want to contend in the AL you need to be able to thump and stick in that extra big bat.

Posted by: Bandit at January 18, 2008 09:33 AM
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