Grading the Crapshoot: N.L.

Last time out, I looked at the cheap players in the American League and their ROI in 2009. Today, I'll take a look at the National League.

2009 N.L. $1-3 hitters by position

Position	$	Sal	+/-
C (20)	$62	$28	+34
1B (2)	$1	$4	-3
2B (6)	$11	$2	+9
SS (12)	$42	$18	+24
3B (13)	$45	$20	+25
OF (24)	$133	$38	+95
UT (4)	$15	$4	+11

One reader's theory was that endgame middle infielders are much more productive than their OF counterparts. That was generally true in the American League, but that was turned on its head in the National League. The 18 middle infielders here averaged $2.94 of earnings per player, which was the lowest of any position except for the "utility players (three A.L. DH imports and an N.L. PH only), who averaged $2.67.

Outfielders earned $5.54 per player. Even catchers ($3.10) and corners ($3.07) did a little better.

The average earnings by position are mostly a red herring. A lot of these players earn $0 or - in some cases - don't even take the field. Nineteen of the 81 players who went for an average salary of $3 or less didn't play in the majors in 2009. While a few of these were prospects who didn't make it yet (Pedro Alvarez, David Freese, Jason Heyward), many of them were either fringe major leaguers or free agents at the time of the early February CBS Sports auction who wound up signing in the A.L.

We're not looking for $3 or $5 players with these cheap bets, though. We're looking for these guys:

$10+ hitters; < $3 salary, N.L. 2009 Catcher (1) - Miguel Montero ($16 earnings, $3 average salary)
Corner Infield (2) - Pedro Feliz ($13, $3), Martin Prado ($16, $2)
Middle Infield (1) - Brendan Ryan ($14, $2)
Outfield (6) - Matt Diaz ($20, $2), Dexter Fowler ($17, $3), Carlos Gonzalez ($16, $2), Scott Hairston ($11, $3), Andrew McCutchen ($22, $3), Fernando Tatis ($11, $1).
Utility (1) - Jonny Gomes ($13, $1).

There are a couple of prospects here that might not have been auctioned in leagues where you can't buy minor league players, but this list is surprisingly dominated by veterans. Many of them worked their way into more playing time than anticipated in the spring, but there are a couple of cases where the expert leagues look like they fell asleep at the wheel.

Only two of the 11 hitters here are $1 players; for everyone else, you wouldn't have been able to go on the ride if you didn't have a couple of dollars in your pocket for the endgame. I don't talk about this very much, but one of the reasons I don't like to go over par early in the auction is so that I can express my preferences later in an auction. I wouldn't have seen all of these guys coming, but if I had the money, I sure would have said $4 on Feliz.