Current HOF election results

[FrankWakefield]

Golly... Rico who? To learn more about him, I looked at Baseball Reference.

And then I had a quick look a Rolen's BR page.

If anyone goes back to look... Look at some real numbers. The numbers near the bottom of the BR pages.


Please consider who knows about baseball....

Us fans, arm chair historians, we who never grew up (not entirely a bad thing)?

Baseball writers?

Sports Center pundits?

Or those in charge of MLB teams who are spending money for talent?

Rico's total MLB earnings 11.6 million
Scott Rolen's total MLB earnings 117 million

Do I hear "not fair"... ok 11.7 / 8 seasons = about 1.5 million a year

Need I do math for SR? 117 / 17 = 6.88 million a year.


I'm not saying that's a bright line determining factor for measuring MLB baseball talent... but it gives a bit of insight into what the Teams thought of the talent. And, beware of making salary comparisons from different eras. The playing years should be about similar.

As I think about the salary approach, who do you reckon was making the most money from 2016-2020. Or 2011-2015? Maybe 5 year spreads are too many. Maybe 4 year increments would be better. Or 3.

Who do you think made the most money from MLB between 1927-1930? An easy guess would be Babe Ruth. But I haven't researched that. Long term contracts, free agency, and such would negate a bit of any validity in the salary approach.

One last thought... maybe Rico had crap agents. Bingo! That was the problem. They left 100 million laying on the table, if only they'd known to try to get it.