2011 A.L. Starting Pitchers

It doesn't matter what the best pitchers did the year before. The market has a certain amount of money budgeted for the best pitchers, and by gar that is what the market is going to spend.

Ten Most Expensive A.L. Starting Pitchers 2011

#	Name	$	SAL	+/-	CBS	LABR	TW	PK	2010
1	Felix Hernandez	$23	31	-8	35	30	29	34	$35
2	CC Sabathia	$29	27	2	29	26	26	30	$28
3	Jon Lester	$20	27	-7	29	27	25	29	$26
4	Justin Verlander	$46	24	22	26	21	25	26	$26
5	Dan Haren	$31	23	8	25	23	20	25	$17
6	Jered Weaver	$36	23	14	25	21	22	27	$29
7	David Price	$24	21	3	23	20	21	27	$28
8	Max Scherzer	$13	20	-8	22	19	20	17	$18
9	Francisco Liriano	$2	20	-18	23	18	19	21	$19
10	Colby Lewis	$16	16	-1	16	17	16	15	$19
	Average	$24	23	1	25	22	22	25	$25

The 10 most expensive A.L. starting pitchers in 2010 earned $31 per pitcher the prior year but still were paid an average salary of $24. Since 2008, the average salary of the 10 most expensive A.L. starters has been $25, $23, $24 and now $23.

If you've been reading this series faithfully, this shouldn't be a surprise. The market has been spending aggressively for years on the top hitters. They're either going to take the money from the bottom hitters or the pitchers, and the market doesn't like to take money from any of the hitters.

This is a pretty successful group of pitchers. Liriano is ugly, but the group is great (Verlander helps, but he was barely better than Zack Greinke in 2009 and certainly nowhere near the dominant level that Pedro Martinez established at his peak). Getting $20 or more worth of stats from the seven most expensive starters has never happened. These guys really aren't being paid on spec, either. Haren's the only one who gets a big raise here; Scherzer is the only other pitcher who gets more than a $1 raise.

Now we know what Rotoman was waiting for. The heck with spending big bucks on the top hitters; he's going to put together a killer staff and worry about offense later. In a four-way, hypothetical battle with the three expert leagues, Rotoman gets Sabathia, Weaver and Price and ties CBS and Lester, Verlander and Haren. Verlander's the obvious prize here, but someone walking into an auction with Rotoman's prices could have done well buying any two of these pitchers and back filling his staff with cheap fliers.

In addition to the ties above, CBS also grabbed Felix, Scherzer and Liriano. LABR only gets Lewis and Tout Wars gets shut out.

There's nothing wrong with getting shut out on the top pitchers as long as you get at least one pitcher on this next list that wasn't on the list above.

 

Top 10 A.L. Starting Pitchers 2011

#	Name	$	SAL	+/-	CBS	LABR	TW	PK	2010
1	Justin Verlander	$46	24	22	26	21	25	26	$26
2	Jered Weaver	$36	23	14	25	21	22	27	$29
3	James Shields	$34	12	22	9	14	14	12	$5
4	Dan Haren	$31	23	8	25	23	20	25	$17
5	CC Sabathia	$29	27	2	29	26	26	30	$28
6	Josh Beckett	$27	16	11	17	15	17	14	-$2
7	C.J. Wilson	$27	11	16	12	12	10	11	$20
8	Ricky Romero	$27	14	13	15	13	14	13	$17
9	Doug Fister	$25	1	24	1	1	1		$7
10	David Price	$24	21	3	23	20	21	27	$28
	Average	31	17	13	18	17	17	19	18

Half of the pitchers here are unique to both lists. Romero is the only pitcher anyone gets outright (CBS). CBS ties Tout Wars on Haren, LABR on Wilson and both LABR and Tout on Fister. LABR and Tout tie on Shields.

These pitchers cost the same as their counterparts in 2010. But those guys earned an average of $24 in 2009, compared to the $18 the 2011 Top 10 earned in 2010. Even though it seems like the market is slightly cheating these pitchers, compared to years past they're paying them pretty much what they're worth. For pitchers, this is radical. In the next post, I'll see if this continues down the line or if the guys at the bottom get paid more relative to what they did last year.