Top 10 A.L. First Basemen 2009
| Rank | Player | $ | Sal | +/- | AP | SW | 2008 |
| 1 | Miguel Cabrera | $31 | $38 | -8 | $30 | $35 | $33 |
| 2 | Mark Teixeira | $28 | $38 | -10 | $29 | $33 | $33 |
| 3 | Kevin Youkilis | $25 | $29 | -4 | $25 | $21 | $32 |
| 4 | Billy Butler | $21 | $14 | +7 | $16 | $12 | $11 |
| 5 | Justin Morneau | $20 | $33 | -13 | $26 | $26 | $29 |
| 6 | Paul Konerko | $18 | $15 | +3 | $16 | $14 | $12 |
| 7 | Carlos Pena | $18 | $22 | -4 | $20 | $20 | $21 |
| 8 | Nick Swisher | $15 | $9 | +6 | $6 | $9 | $11 |
| 9 | Lyle Overbay | $11 | $13 | -1 | $9 | $6 | $14 |
| 10 | Aubrey Huff | $9 | $21 | -12 | $23 | $15 | $32 |
| Average | $20 | $23 | -4 | $20 | $19 | $23 |
When the 10 best of anything lose $4 per player, then they're overpaid.
And - case by case - there's no denying that these guys got too much of our fake loot. Butler, Konerko, and Swisher were the only three to turn a profit. Worse yet, in a 12-team A.L.-only league, at least four teams got hosed if they didn't have anyone on this list from Swisher on up. Getting $11 of earnings - even if you only paid $13 - isn't a success story.
You can't really blame the market for being all that enthusiastic about these hitters. On average, they paid them what they earned in 2008 (give or take a few decimals). Thanks to Aubrey Huff's huge pay cut, six of these 10 hitters got raises, but even so none of these prices was particularly jaw dropping in early April.
The touts (AP and SW) don't necessarily agree, though, and their prices reflect a skepticism that in retrospect was extremely healthy. In a three-way battle with Sports Weekly and the market, Patton gets Butler, Konerko, and Huff. Sports Weekly only gets a piece of Swisher. The market gets everyone else.
There's definitely a ceiling on what power hitters who don't run can earn, and that ceiling is even lower in 5x5 than it is in 4x4.
Ten Most Expensive A.L. First Basemen 2009
| Rank | Player | $ | Sal | +/- | AP | SW | 2008 |
| 1 | Miguel Cabrera | $31 | $38 | -8 | $30 | $35 | $33 |
| 2 | Mark Teixeira | $28 | $38 | -10 | $29 | $33 | $33 |
| 3 | Justin Morneau | $20 | $33 | -13 | $26 | $26 | $29 |
| 4 | Kevin Youkilis | $25 | $29 | -4 | $25 | $21 | $32 |
| 5 | Chris Davis | $9 | $27 | -18 | $21 | $20 | $15 |
| 6 | Carlos Pena | $18 | $22 | -4 | $20 | $20 | $21 |
| 7 | Aubrey Huff | $9 | $21 | -12 | $23 | $15 | $32 |
| 8 | Carlos Guillen | $6 | $19 | -13 | $16 | $17 | $16 |
| 9 | Mike Jacobs | $7 | $16 | -9 | $16 | $7 | $19 |
| 10 | Paul Konerko | $18 | $15 | +3 | $16 | $14 | $12 |
| Average | $17 | $26 | -9 | $22 | $21 | $24 |
Looking at this group of hitters, I can suddenly see why the market overpaid for Miggy and Tex. They didn't want to stick their hands in the cookie jar and wind up with Guillen and Jacobs.
You could argue that I went out of my way to include some of the more extreme bombs here. Davis, Huff and Guillen all could have been included over at the hot corner a few posts down the road. Fair enough.
However, the list of the 10 best overlapped with the list of the 10 most expensive tells us that there simply weren't enough 1B out there...at least not in April. Kendry Morales (OF only on Auction Day) and Russ Branyan (3B) would eventually ride in and help prevent a total meltdown here, but this really was a disaster.
It was a man-made disaster, though, and not a natural one.
Ten Most Expensive A.L. First Basemen 2008
| Rank | Player | $ | Sal | +/- | AP | SW | 2007 |
| 1 | Miguel Cabrera | $33 | $42 | -9 | $33 | $36 | $34 |
| 2 | Justin Morneau | $29 | $28 | +1 | $26 | $28 | $23 |
| 3 | Carlos Pena | $21 | $26 | -5 | $23 | $26 | $31 |
| 4 | Paul Konerko | $12 | $25 | -13 | $23 | $21 | $18 |
| 5 | Ryan Garko | $16 | $18 | -2 | $15 | $16 | $16 |
| 6 | Kevin Youkilis | $32 | $17 | +15 | $15 | $15 | $18 |
| 7 | Casey Kotchman | $14 | $16 | -2 | $18 | $12 | $16 |
| 8 | Billy Butler | $11 | $14 | -3 | $17 | $11 | $10 |
| 9 | Lyle Overbay | $14 | $13 | +1 | $14 | $16 | $5 |
| 10 | Daric Barton | $4 | $11 | -8 | $8 | $9 | $4 |
| Average | $19 | $21 | -2 | $19 | $19 | $18 |
The market was a lot calmer about this group of 10 hitters in 2008. They took a bit of a beating, but not a $9 beating per player.
On the other hand, the 2009 crop was a much better group of hitters the year before, outearning the 2008 group $24-18. Both groups got raises, but it could be argued that the 2008 market was more exuberant than the 2009 market. The 2008 1B got a $3 raise vs. the 2009 1B $2 raise. The 2008 1B got a 17% raise; the 2009 1B "only" got an eight percent raise.
So while the market chased 1B in 2009, it really didn't chase them as far as you might think. To be certain, the A.L. crop of first basemen was failures, but they weren't failures because the market made it so.
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