Tracking how much Red Sox players have made per game so far this season

A topic on 98.5 the Sports Hub's midday show, Zolak and Bertrand sparked an interest in me.

The two co-hosts, Scott Zolak and a voice filling in for Mark Bertrand whose voice I couldn’t figure out and didn’t stay long enough to hear their name, talked about Major League Baseball attracting more players to its Home Run Derby by offering $1 million to its winner. The show’s producer, Jim Louth, introduced the topic, which eventually turned into Zolak shooting the idea down. When Louth stated that the winner would make $1 million for two hours of work, Zolak stated that players make that anyway. Louth quickly shot that notion down.

Obviously, Zolak was wrong. Anybody can do the math in their head to prove that if a player makes as much at $30 million, and because teams expect positional players to play in 150 games or so, a positional player will play between 450-600 hours of baseball per year. That’s $50,000 an hour for someone making $30 million per year and less, obviously, for someone that makes less. Pitchers don’t make much more or less.

The topic made me wonder though: How much does each Red Sox player really make per hour or per game?

Well, I did the math out. Some numbers initially surprised me, such as Andrew Benintendi making $4,125.30 per game played as well as David Price making $955,263.16 per game played. 

I performed the math for each Red Sox player on the 25 man roster as well as important players currently on the disabled list (Christian Vazquez, Dustin Pedroia, Drew Pomeranz, etc.).

Before I share with you how much each Red Sox player made per game played, I have to share with you how I figured each number and some aberrations to the formula.

So, to get dollars earned per game played, I factored that 98 games played is 60 percent of the season. Therefore, each player will have received 60.5 percent of their salary and thus, is divided amongst each game played. Here is an example.

Andrew Benintendi will earn $605,000 this season according to spotrac.com. 60.5 percent of that number becomes $375,402.50. Benintendi has played in 91 games this season, therefore $375,402.50 gets spread across 91 games, which equates to $4,125.30 per game played. In math terms:

$605,500 x .605 / 91 = $4,125.30.

Of course, some aberrations occur, such as Ryan Brazier earning $82,431.25 per game played. It’s unrealistic because Brazier earns a portion of his $545,000 only when he is on the Major League roster. Brazier has been on the Red Sox 25 man roster for only 10 days and has appeared in four games. So of course his salary per game is crooked and not reflective of his actual salary. Also, pitchers appear in less games than positional players and starting pitchers even less than relievers. If a pitcher and batter both make $1 million and the pitcher pitches in 50 games and the batter plays in 150 games, of course the batter will make less per game even though they make the same amount of money and most likely spent the same amount of time on the 25 man roster. So it is not an exact science, but it’s pretty darn close. I created this spreadsheet for your enjoyment, which depicts how much each Red Sox player has earned per game played. Salaries are based on spotrac.com and rounded to the nearest hundredth.
You can access the spreadsheet here

OOTP: May brings DFA of Ramirez, Sale struggles and draft class revealed

April showers bring May flowers, but what do May flowers bring? Pilgrims.  Thank you! Thank you! I’ll be here all night!

Now that I’ve got the joke out of the way, May is a rather down time in baseball. As far as trades and player movement goes, not much happens. Players generally know their role, the closer carousel figures itself out and the surprises of the season become the norm at this point.

It wasn’t surprising when the team started the month off 3-2. That moved us to 14-20 on the year. Still not ideal but a step in the right direction. I’m thoroughly impressed with David Price and Craig Kimbrel so far this season. Price sports a 4-3 at this point of the season and has pitched 46.2 innings in seven games with a 2.51 ERA. Batters are hitting .172 against him and he has a 0.75 WHIP. Kimbrel has seven saves to this point and has been lights out. In 11.2 innings, he has a 0.77 ERA (one earned run) and opponents are hitting .081 against him. The combo has been lights out and I’m loving it because I’m actually a huge David Price fan. When Price is going, he’s the key to the team winning the World Series. And with Chris Sale 1-4 with a 6.03 ERA, that’s the reason why the team is six games under .500.

When Tyler Thornburg came back on May 5, I designated Brian Johnson for assignment. Johnson just wasn’t doing it. He had a 6.20 ERA and a negative WAR. While the easiest option would have been to send Bobby Poyner back to Pawtucket, Poyner actually has a 2.57 ERA in seven innings with opponents batting .222 against him. He’s a better fit for the bullpen and it allows Steven Wright to move back to the rotation.

In case you were wondering, this was the top players in the draft class.

I’m not a huge believer in the top player projections. I go for more of the potential star ratings when drafting. I usually match the players that the game projects to reach five stars and my scout projects to reach five stars and draft those players. But the list is always handy to have by one’s side.

On May 7, I made one of the hardest decisions I had to make so far in my tenure. Dustin Pedroia came back from the disabled list. Fitting him onto my roster was kind of hard. I didn’t want to get rid of Brock Holt because of his positional flexibility and because he was hitting .284 with a positive WAR. I didn’t want to get rid of a guy like Blake Swihart or release a player with multiple years left on their contract (Mitch Moreland, Eduardo Nunez, etc.). So I released DFA’d Hanley Ramirez, who was hitting .154 in 14 games. Taking on another dead contract wasn’t ideal, but without positional flexibility and without giving any productivity, Ramirez had to go.

Halfway through the month, my team is 18-25 and 7-7 in the month of May. Good enough for fourth place in the American League East in front of the New York Yankees. I can pinpoint the exact reasons why the team is under achieving. Reason one is Chris Sale. He is 1-5 with a 6.23 ERA at this point. Hitters are hitting .322 against him with a 1.7 HR/9 rate. What’s interesting is his fielding independent pitching is 3.76, meaning he’s actually pitching great outside the defense around him. Secondly is Rick Porcel-blow, I mean Porcello. He’s 2-5 with a 6.39 ERA with opponents hitting .322 against him. His FIP is 6.76, meaning, his fielders are actually make him better, which seems hard to do because of how bad he currently is pitching. When combining two top tier and top paid pitchers performing badly with a team that is 13^th in the American League in runs scored and 14^th in home runs, that will cause a sub .500 team right there. No excuses, we just have to do better. Unfortunately, this is a computer game so I can’t give the players a pep talk or call a meeting.

On a small note, on May 16 after our 6-0 win against the Oakland A’s Joe Kelly went on the DL with a dead arm. I called up Roenis Elias again. In that game, Sale actually went six innings and gave up zero runs in the win. Make me eat my words Sale! Make me!

On May 28, I received an email from the league about Andrew McCutchen, who will miss an “indefinite amount of time” for “personal issues.” Quite the shame for the Giants because McCutchen had hit 12 home runs up until that point with 39 RBIs and a .298 batting average.

As for us, we ended the month on a three game losing streak. Our record is 26-31. Not good. On to June.

OOTP series: April 2018

Getting all literary, the start of the baseball season symbolizes rebirth, right? A new baseball season metaphorically represents life and death. It is an infant born in April, grows through the summer and eventually fades away in October. Well, according to Out of the Park Baseball, not so much.

On day one of the new job, I received an email from Major League Baseball. It’s the commissioner.

We are sad to inform the other teams of Major League Baseball that Jerry Reinsdorf, Owner of the Chicago White Sox has passed away. Reinsdorf will be missed throughout baseball. HIs son will take over the team.

Wow. Way to hit a new General Manager right in the heart on day one...

I mentioned this when beginning this endeavor. The game will sometimes simulate owners passing away. It makes for a realist experience, but I did think it weird that a death occurs right on the first day. The OOTP actually did something to fix this flaw.

New OOTP 19 Update Available (Version 19.5.49)!

- Added Import/Export functions to both the draft pool
- Tweaked down owner death rate & owner selling team rate
- Fixed independent league teams signing MLB-quality players
- And much more...

Full info @https://t.co/ALicMCqKat pic.twitter.com/7cjb8Bdtih

— Out of the Park Baseball (@ootpbaseball) April 25, 2018

The 2018 season actually started off on a good note for the team. The Red Sox won 4-1. Chris Sale pitched seven innings of one run baseball, striking out 11 and earning the win. Craig Kimbrel earned the save and Mookie Betts hit a double and had three RBIs in the win. 1-0 Red Sox.

The team left Tampa with a 1-3 record. To me, that record is a borderline fire-able offense for Alex Cora. Realistically, the Rays are one of the worst teams in the league and the new guy finds it acceptable to go 1-3 in the first series of the season? We want championships, not this garbage. Who does he think he is? Cora you’re...nevermind. The team heads to Miami and Roenis Elias is scheduled to start the first game. Ballsy move. Even more ballsy is the way Elias pitches. He throws 6 ⅓ innings, allowing six hits, one run, one walk, strikes out four and the team wins 6-2. Rafael Devers goes 2-for-4 with one home run and three RBIs. Bravo Cora...Bravo…

Bravo Manager Cora

I also get this message in my inbox:

Honestly, I’m impressed that Ichiro continues to defy logic and is playing baseball at 44 years old. I’m even more impressed that at his old age, Ichiro can hit .464 and even knock a ball out of the park. As the kids say, that's lit. I also get InMail of the MLB power rankings. The team ranked 21st. Basically ninth worst in baseball (checked the math twice. I'm a writer not a mather). When I first saw this, I thought, Who the eff do these people think they are? I understand my team is 3-6 to start the year, but four of my starters currently have a .300 or better batting average in the first 11 games. Sale has a 2.77 ERA, Price 1.38 ERA and Elias 1.42 ERA. Numbers don't lie people!

Eleven games in, I also picked up that Cora has been starting Brock Holt at second base, Mitch Moreland at first base and J.D. Martinez at DH. That means Hanley Ramirez and Eduardo Nunez are delegated to the bench. I find that an interesting move solely because of how well the two have played so far in real life. But I went through the stats and rationalized that Ramirez is a two star player and Nunez 2 ½ starts. In OOTP terms, if a player has three starts, they are generally good enough for a starting role on a Major league roster. Four stars means a player is above average. Five stars and that player is generally an all-star. Ramirez also started the year 0-14 at the plate and Nunez has played in only one game, so that backs up Cora's decision a little.

When Eduardo Rodriguez and Drew Pomeranz come back from the disabled list, I actually sent Hector Velazquez and Brandon Workman to Pawtucket. Both had not met my standards. Workman had a 5.40 ERA and Velazquez lost his only start and sported a negative Wins Above Replacement (WAR). With Elias pitching as well as he had, I fell I had to keep him, giving me a rotation of four lefties. I liked that, but it didn’t last long.

Three innings, six hits and five runs doesn't cut it for the Red Sox. That, and with Brian Johnson returning from the DL, I elected to send Elias back to Pawtucket. Elias is also a ½ star player, compared to Johnson’s two starts, so I went with the stars over everything..

Half-way through the month, I’m honestly pretty furious with the way my team has played to this point of the season. The team is 6-9 and basically last in every category.

I mean, I guess you can say sixth isn’t bad, but a wise man once told me if you’re not first, you’re last. If I’m not making every other team look like they're playing little league around these joints, I’m not happy. I actually thought about trying to trade for a pitcher because I don’t like the bottom half of my rotation, but I elected to not get too rash. I’m a GM, not a scratch ticket gambler.

Four days later and the game makes me eat my words. Rodriguez goes down with a torn rotator cuff, sidelining him for 11 months. I have Steven Wright five days away from returning from the DL, so instead of trying to trade for someone, I decided to call up Elias again and wait out for Wright. I’m also 9-14 and in last place in the American League East at this moment and honestly, I’m pretty frustrated with my team already, especially my pitching. It’s not like they’re bad, they’re top 10 in ERA, runs against and fifth in bullpen ERA. we’re just not winning games. I hate losing.

I finish the month with a 4-2 loss to the Kansas City Royals. Porcello goes six innings of four hit baseball, allowing three runs and striking out five. Our bats just can’t get anything together. Not a single starter is hitting over .280. The team is 11-18 and in last in the AL East. Surprisingly, the Toronto Blue Jays are in first place in the East with a 22-8 record. The Rays are in second with a 20-8 record.
Honestly, April didn’t go the way I wanted it to. Sale ended the month 1-3 with a 6.14 ERA. That blows. Kimbrel is sporting a 0.93 ERA though, which I love. But overall, not a good month. I can hear sports radio now. “This kid blows! Go pound sand Lewis! He’s too young, he’s bound to make these kinds of mistakes!” To that I say:

We’re on to May.

Introducing the newest General Manager of the Boston Red Sox

On behalf of the Boston Red Sox, Owner John Henry and the rest of the front office, we would like to introduce to you, the newest—and youngest to ever hold the position—general manager of the Boston Red Sox, Adam Lewis.

Ever since I was a little kid, it has been my dream to be the general manager of the Boston Red Sox. When I was no older than seven years old, with a closet full of Red Sox shirseys, the team's schedule memorized and notebooks full of team stats, I told people just that, that I wanted to be the general manager of the Boston Red Sox.
Now my dream can finally come true.
Starting today, I will be taking over the Boston Red Sox using one of my favorite computer grames, Out of the Park Baseball (OOTP).
I've been playing OOTP for about for years. Without sounding like a walking advertisement for the game, which is hard for me because I love playing the game, OOTP is the most realistic sports simulation game I have ever come across. It just so happens to be a simulation of my favorite sport as well.
The simulation amazes me and it's something my words can't do justice. It uses an engine so realistic that the feels just as hard, rewarding, fun and stressful that must come with running an actual baseball team. It tracks advanced stats such as Wins Above Replacement, Adjusted ERA, Fielding Independent Pitching, Isolated Power and more. I dare you to ask me what each of those mean.
As I embark on this task of taking over the Boston Red Sox, I wanted to share this alternated sports reality with you, the reader, because a community of OOTPers is better than a single player, plus I think it is entertaining to read about alternate sports realities, something I've taken part in in my spare time. So, on Fridays, I will publish an article taking you through one month of game play, which is not long in OOTP game play time. I'm hoping to write something funny, entertaining and whatever happens to catch my eye and deliver it in an insightful and sometimes irrational way of thinking. I want to create a story that everyone will join. Why else would anyone tune in?
With each post, I'll give a play-by-play of what interesting things happen (In other play throughs, I've had owners pass away, expansion teams enter the league, players go down for falling in the bathtub, and more). I've been known to win championships, having won three championships and making the playoffs an innumerable amount of times. I've also been known to have a short leash with my manager. I tend to go through managers like crazy, once fire Mike Matheny from my Red Sox team after just two months of one particular season.
So as the new General Manager of the Boston Red Sox, I hope to bring many championships to this sports city. We all love our Boston Red Sox and my ultimate goal is to bring the team and fans as many championships as I can.
And if you want to play along, and I encourage you to do so, you can purchase the game here.

OOTP dawg, get it

Game one reaction: Is Alex Cora really committed to his word? 8th inning problems and Bogaerts

The Red Sox are on pace to go 0-162 right now. It’s almost statistically impossible to lose 162 games, especially with David Price on the mound today, but here things are. The Red Sox are in last place in the AL East and are on pace to lose 162 games.

I hope that was enough to get most fans riled up about the infancy of the season and how ridiculous it is to make those type of comments after game one. Now onto the real analysis.

Yesterday’s 2018 opening day loss felt just as bad as 2003’s opening day loss to the then Tampa Bay Devil Rays. The year that Theo Epstein said “we don’t need a closer, we’ll go with the best available arm for the situation.” Pedro Martinez cruised through the seventh inning and when things were given to the bullpen, the whole project fell apart, letting up five runs in the bottom of the ninth inning at the mercy of Chad Fox throwing a fastball to Carl Crawford, who took it yard for the win. That game was actually decided by the same final score, 6-4.

Outside of just pure fandom hatred following yesterday’s loss, there are several talking points though I think are real concerns moving forward. First and foremost, who will be trusted in the eighth inning? It’s easy to ridicule Joe Kelly, the initial culprit of the bullpen’s meltdown. But Carson Smith wasn’t much better. The two combined for 49 pitches, three hits, six runs and four walks. Absolutely abysmal. After the extended usage of the two, one would expect both Kelly and Smith to not be used today. Taking that one step farther, say Kelly and Smith cannot be trusted in that situation at all going forward too. So, in the event that the Red Sox are up anywhere from one to three runs going into the eighth inning today, who do they throw? Does Barnes move into that role? Heath Hembree? The next time the Red Sox are in line for a save opportunity, it will be very telling of who manager Alex Cora brings in for the eighth inning. If neither Kelly or Smith come in, they’ve effectively lost the trust of Cora in that situation, and as far as the season goes, the Red Sox are in trouble if they have no one that can take on the eighth inning.

Also, it’s fair to point out if Cora’s bullpen usage of “using the best guy in the right situation,” was just lip service or not. When Kelly imploded, the highest leverage situation was right when Smith entered the game. All offseason, Cora talked about using closer Craig Kimbrel for situations outside of the ninth inning. He wanted to use Kimbrel in the highest leverage situation and if that meant it’s the seventh inning with guys on base, then so be it. Cora had the opportunity to prove that yesterday and elected for Smith instead. He explained it by saying,

“I’m not going to put him in that spot right now. We feel he’s ready, but I don’t think it’s fair for him to come into a situation. It’s not a clean inning. It’s something that we mapped out, we talked about it and we stuck to it. We decided he’s not coming in, as of now.”

Pair that with how Kimbrel talked about how he only wanted to come in the ninth inning and it seems as if Cora will not actually pull the trigger on using Kimbrel in the highest leverage situation. It sounds like Kimbrel told him no. Pay attention to what Cora said here too "We feel he's ready." So is there a problem between how Cora wants to use Kimbrel and Kimbrel's unwillingness to do so? The rest of what Cora said is player protection. He's taking the edge off of everything else he said. I understand too, it's not usual for a team to use their closer for more than three outs in the opening parts of the schedule, especially on opening day. I guess it’s best to wait 15 days and see how Cora uses the bullpen before we can fully commit to an answer or not, but if Cora was really into highest leverage situation possible, yesterday was his first chance to prove it.

Another note too, Xander Bogaerts looked as if he set the tone for the season during yesterday’s game. He hit too long doubles, going 3-4 at the plate with his only out being another long ball to the outfield. (Video here)
Bogaerts expressed that he feels he will be better this season, that he will continue to get better and that last year was a down year. If yesterday’s game was any indicator, I’m excited to watch Bogaerts this season. After yesterday’s game, I’m feeling Bogaerts might turn in a .300-30-100 season this year after seeing what he did yesterday. A sure sign of what’s to come.

As for today, I think David Price shows semblance of his former dominant self. Even after all the complaints from Red Sox fans and troubles Price has gone through, in his worst season, he still pitched over 200 innings, struck out over 200 batters and won 17 games. I think Price still has it in him and I think he shows some of it today.

Should UMass hire Rick Pitino?

Rick Pitino

Alas. It was only a matter of time that Rick Pitino, a man that loves the game of basketball, declare that he wants to coach again and will do so at any level of college or professional basketball.

Pitino’s program at Louisville did some regrettable things, such as illegally paying players and hosting parties that consisted of strippers. And because it’s Pitino’s program, he deserves every bit of the blame. Whether he was the person that handed out the money or his people that he put in charge of recruiting handed out the money, it ultimately doesn’t matter.

But does Pitino deserve a second chance? Pitino still knows how to run a program, winning 629 total career games as a coach, maintains a .732 winning percentage, and led Boston University to it’s first NCAA tournament birth in 24 years back in 1978, Providence College to the final four in the 80s and won a National Title with Kentucky. He consistently turned in positive seasons at Louisville when it comes to the team’s record (some wins have been vacated from Pitino’s record too). He knows how to find talent, coaching Patrick Ewing and Antoine Walker, while drafting Chauncey Billups and Paul Pierce during his time with the Boston Celtics. Essentially, Pitino knows how to turn around college programs.

So, why doesn’t UMass give Pitino a chance? He played for the college and has ties to the area in the fact that he coached at BU and not so far away Providence College. The team has been failing ever since the John Calipari days and has no real dedication to Matt McCall, who was the team’s second choice at coach after Pat Kelsey accepted the job and then turned it down. The team didn’t have any success under McCall, who went 13-20 this season.

What Pitino could bring to the table as well is connections to alumni. With college sports, the real dedicated fans are the alumni. They’re the ones that will follow no matter what, unlike the average fan, who stops paying attention when things go sour. Alumni will get randy at the fact that they can meet him at events, take a quick picture, and watch a former player and superstar coach, at the helm the team. In return, I can see a lot of alumni donating to the school because of all the fun they had at these alumni events meeting Rick Pitino. Isn’t that what it’s all about for a college, getting people to donate to the school?

If I were at the helm of UMass, I’m sure as hell calling Pitino’s people. It’s a perfect fit, a desperate coach with a track record of turning around college programs and a team that has done nothing but go down athletically in the last 20 years.

Matching the Giants: What it would take for the Red Sox to get Giancarlo Stanton

Giancarlo Stanton

On Thursday, John Paul Morosi reported that the Miami Marlins would accept a dealfrom the San Francisco Giants that included second baseman Joe Panik,hitting-prospect Chris Shaw and pitching prospect Tyler Beede if the Giants were to take on at least $250 million of the $295 million left on Stanton’s contract.

At first glance, the pool of players seems rather short for the price of Stanton. Panik provides a decent major-leaguer under good contract terms. Panik made only $600,000 last season and under arbitration through 2021, a steal for a former all-star and gold glove winner. Shaw ranks as the second best prospect in the Giants farm system according to MLB.com while Beede ranks third. The Giants’ system as a whole ranks sixth worst in the league according to MLB.com’s 2017 midseason rankings.

            The Red Sox can take on the entirety of Stanton’s contract if ownership allowed. The only thing that stops the Red Sox is ownership’s want to stay below the luxury tax threshold. With the threshold slated for $195 million, the Red Sox are pressed right up against that following assigning arbitration eligible contracts. The prospect pool seems match-able for the Red Sox as well. So lets take a look at it and see if the Red Sox were to match the Giants, what would they need to offer?

            Player No. 1: Center fielder Andrew Benintendi

            Benintendi is younger than Panik by three years and out-produced Panik offensively, but the Red Sox don’t have any other major league talent of similar caliber, similar age and similar pay grade. Benintendi made $549,000 last season, is under team control for six more years and has good potential. Benintendi came in second in Rookie of the Year voting this past season while Panik came in sixth his rookie year. Benintendi provides logical MLB-talent the Marlins seek.

            Player No. 2: third baseman Michael Chavis

            Chavis ranks as the 92^nd prospect in baseball according to MLB.com, making him another slight overpayment by the Red Sox. But again, the Red Sox don’t have another exact similarity to Shaw and outside of Chavis’ ranking, the two match up well. Both were selected in the first round of the draft, Chavis in 2014 and Shaw in 2015. Both expect to have plus power with good size but below average defense. Both have similar potential to become a big-league starter if they work on their defense along with progressing their power hitting. Both prospects rank second in their respective farm systems. That’s a pretty close comparison in value.

            Player No. 3: RHP Tanner Houck

            Houck is a farther away from reaching the Major Leagues than Beede, but fills out the talent pool well. At 21 years old, Houck ranks fourth in the Red Sox farm system and hits the low-to-mid 90s with his fastball, reaching 98 at times, making him not too far away from Beede talent-wise. He’s projected to become a starter/reliever in the Major Leagues, meaning he fill the role of fourth or fifth starter or the later innings depending on his team’s preferences. The profile seems similar to Justin Masterson when Masterson was part of the Red Sox farm system. Beede’s probably projected for a little more success than Houck, but the Red Sox would have to give up a little more in Benintendi and Chavis, evening out the offer.

            The Red Sox have what it takes to match the Giants; it just comes down to money and Benintendi. Would the Red Sox give up six controllable years of a player they really like? I would have to think hard about that, but for Stanton, I would do it. Stanton just won the NL MVP award, can hit 50 home runs in any given season and has all the similar tools of Manny Ramirez plus more. I would take Ramirez in his prime over Benintendi and I would take Stanton over Benintendi as well.