2013 Free Agent Team - Review

Well, the 2013 season is over - except for the World Series.

But who cares about that, right?

What everyone really cares about is how my 2013 Free Agent Team did?

Last offseason I gave myself an imaginary $100 million with which to sign players to my imaginary team and see how they'd fare this season.

Here's a reminder of who I picked and how much I paid them.

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I think I did pretty well estimating the contracts the players would sign for.  

 I offered a total of 25 contracts for a total of $98.7 million.  23 of those players actually signed, and for a total of $87.3 million.  A few players I wanted to sign did not sign.  I offered $6 million to Roy Oswalt  and minor league contracts to Kevin Millwood, Jamey Moyer and Dana Eveland.  Millwood retired and nobody else bit on Oswaly, Moyer or Eveland.  If they had signed for what I had offered my total contracts would have to $94 million.  Very close to the $98 million I projected.

So, how'd the team do?

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Not too well.  For my $100 million I only bought 10 Win Above Replacement.  With replacement level being at about 48 wins my team would have won in the neighborhood of 58 games.  Only the Astros won less games than that and their payroll was about a fifth of mine.  

So, where'd I go wrong?

Like 2012's team, my starting pitching didn't really perform.  Only 2 of my starters made anything like a full season's worth of starts and I didn't even have a 5th starter since none of Jamie Moyer, Kevin Milwood or Dana Eveland pitched in the bigs.  Roy Oswalt and Jeff Francis only managed about 100 innings between them.

The hitting wasn't much better.

Half of my non-pitchers performed below replacement level.

I whiffed really bad on Macir Izturis whose .236/.288/.310 line was 2 wins below replacement.  It looks worse when I considered Kelly Johnson who managed 1.2 WAR.

Jeff Keppinger wasn't much better.  He managed -1.5 WAR.

My starting SS, Alex Gonzalez, was an absolute disaster.  He cost the team 1.1 WAR.  Luckily he only got 118 PA's or it could have been worse.

Kevin Youkilis also only managed 118 trips to the plate.  He cost me another .4 WAR.  At least he cost the Yankees that as well.

Melky Cabrera disappointed me and the Toronto Blue Jays.  He was worth negative .9 WAR.

So what'd I do right?

The biggest win was my gamble on Francisco Liriano.  He had a great bounce back season worth 3.1 WAR. 

I also did very well with another Pirate, Russ Martin.  Martin helped the Pirates to the playoffs with his 4.1 WAR season.  He helped my team win more games than the Astros.  

My backup catcher, Humberto Quintero, was also solid.  He put up .6 WAR in limited duty.

Nick Swisher had an ok season worth 2.4 WAR.  Not nearly what I expected when I handed him $17 million this year - the biggest contract I gave out.

Angel Pagan gave me just over 1 win.  I should have went with Shane Victorino instead.

Eric Chavez peformed well in limited duty.  His .7 WAR helped.

My bullpen was ok.  They managed just under 2 WAR.  High dollar (for me) Matt Lindstrom was excellent - I don't know why teams underrate him so?  Jamey Wright and Chad Qualls were productive as well.

There it is.  A very mediocre use of $100 million (and a few hours as well).

I'm getting ready to start my 2014 team.  I hope I do better.