I was going to write about the six most overpaid players in the big leagues this year but then I realized I could easily write about five grossly overpaid players on the Yankees alone.

Bobby Abreu - New York Yankees RF - $15.6 Million

While Abreu has been very good since the all star break his overall #'s as a RF making 15 million plus are not up to snuff. His OBP is only .370 (vs. his career .409) and his SLG is .449 (vs. his career .502) while he does have a lot of Runs & RBI that's more a testament of how ridiculous the Yankees lineup is than Abreu's value. It's also a good example of how misguided it is to use those types of situation based stats as a gauge of individual performance.

Roger Clemens - New York Yankees P - $18.7 Million

Over 18 million dollars for a pitcher who has been at average at best: 5-5 with a 4.34 ERA. His 6.5 SO/9 show how much Clemens has fallen off the level of the dominating pitcher he's been most of his career (8.6 SO/9 for his career.)

Johnny Damon - New York Yankees CF - $13.0 Million

13 million dollars for 8 home runs and a .264 batting average. His OPS+ is 101. In other words he's an average hitter. If he were a great fielding SS this would be acceptable but for a CF who's never won a Gold Glove? No.

Mike Mussina - New York Yankees P - $11.1 Million

11.1 million dollars for an 8-9 record and a 5.22 ERA. Mussina's .305 BAA may be the most ghastly # he's putting up this year. Mussina's been a great pitcher during his career (247 wins and a 3.69 ERA during an offense heavy era) but he's clearly not been worth near 11 million dollars this season.

Carl Pavano - New York Yankees P - $10 Million

Pavano pitched in 2 games for his $10 Million. While it's hard to fault a guy with injury problems, he's clearly not worth this type of money anyway. He's only had one good season in his career (2004 when he was, to be fair, really good with an 18-8 record and a 3.00 ERA.)

Jason Giambi - New York Yankees DH - $23.4 Million

Giambi has been struggling with injuries and subpar (by his standards) hitting ever since the steroids storm began. He used to be one of the best hitters in the game but he's nowhere near that status now. His 2007 .859 OPS is nearly 100 points below his career .951 mark and even farther below his awesome seasons with Oakland in 2000 (1.123) & 2001 (1.137) when he was the closest thing to Barry Bonds (in production) in the majors. That's the hitter the Yanks thought they were buying when they give him his huge contract.

Labels: New York Yankees