AOL Sports Lists Cheapest Great Team

by Eli Greenspan on Jun 30, 2008 2:34 PM EDT

AOL Sports came up with a list of players, all making six-figure salaries that would rival any team at the moment. Imagine this line-up.

Phillies Pitcher Cole Hamels-$500,000- won 15 games and struck out 177 in 183 innings

Red Sox Reliever Jon Papelbon, relief pitcher- $775,000-72 career saves and 1.62 ERA.

Catcher Brian McCann-$800,000-hit .333 in '06 and has 47 career HRs. Only 24 years old

Brewers 1B Prince Fielder-$670,000-youngest player to ever hit 50 HRs

Angels 2B Howie Kendrick-$400,000- has hit .306 over parts of 2 ML seasons

Nationals 3B Ryan Zimmerman- $500,000-has driven in 200 runs over last two seasons

Marlins SS Hanley Ramirez-$439,000- fell one homer short of being third player in history to hit 30 HRs and stealing 50 bases

Astros RF Hunter Pence-$396,000-hit .322 with 17 HRs in 107 games

Diamondbacks CF Chris Young-$400,000-fell 3 stolen bases short of being first rookie to ever post a 30-30 season

Brewers LF Ryan Braun-$455,000-2007 Rookie of the Year hit 34 HRs and drove in 97 runs in 113 games

Can't help but make you scratch your head at some of the salaries for established players not playing at even close to the level of some of these young players. Let's see where these guys are after their next contract negotiation.

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Comments

Dumb post. These guys haven't reach arbitration and are working on their initial contracts. Why don't they make a team of people who have reach arb and signed contracts after reaching the open market.

by Anonymous on Jun 30, 2008 8:52 PM EDT reply actions

Brian McCann? What happen to Russell Martin? Martin has allaround similar number and can steal bases also. Martin also calls a pretty good game.

by Anonymous on Jun 30, 2008 10:59 PM EDT reply actions

Josh Hamilton-$396,830

I'd take him in RF over Pence any day.

by Anonymous on Jul 1, 2008 4:01 AM EDT reply actions

didn;t braun sign an extension for big money?

by Anonymous on Jul 1, 2008 11:20 AM EDT reply actions

This has got to be one of the stupidest posts on any site ever. Doing underpaid lists for all MLB players is meaningless because the pay scale is not even for all players. Young guys are set to make small amounts of money and gradually increase their salaries until the big pay day when they hit free agency (7 years after entering majors).

That makes this list essentially a list of the best young MLB player at each position that has yet to hit arbitration. YIPPEE!

And by the way, in my opinion the system makes complete sense. The established older players deserve the majority of the money, and when you can prove that you're not simply a fluke and you can maintain your greatness, then you'll deserve the big time contract.

I would much rather see Manny Ramirez making $20M in his 14th year than Ryan Braun making $20M in his 2nd year.

by Anonymous on Jul 2, 2008 2:38 PM EDT reply actions