Broken Bat - Discussion Forum: Salary calculations: How do they work?

Forum >> Discussions >> Salary calculations: How do they work?

Post ID	Date & Time	Game Date	Function

#42703	12/07/2016 3:15:09 am
AssumedPseudonym Joined: 10/26/2016 Posts: 1130 Deerfield Beach Rats V.7	I’m sorta curious on this one because of Rick Webb. Two seasons ago, he was making $0.75M, had a good year, got a raise to $1.5M. Last season, he did better almost across the board and was an All-Star and made All-League. So naturally this season he makes $1.3M. I mean, yay for my budget, sure, but this makes no sense to me unless there’s some sort of virtual salary arbitration going on…?

#42704	12/07/2016 5:13:45 am
garfscores Joined: 10/13/2014 Posts: 488 Battle Creek Sting IV.7	From what I've gathered salary is based on two main factors: 1) Performance- last three years avg correcting for league level, includes increases based on awards. 2) Loyalty- some players are more pronounced than others. More years spent with one team = higher discount. Basically, because you signed the guy as a free agent, he didn't have any loyalty, so his salary was inflated. Second year on your team, even with a great performance that takes over for a 60 at bat season, the loyalty factor lowers his salary overall. Updated Wednesday, December 7 2016 @ 5:25:17 am PST

#42713	12/07/2016 11:59:31 am
MukilteoMike Joined: 08/09/2014 Posts: 3294 Inactive	The salary calculations are screwy. My highest paid position player has only played three seasons and has an OPS of 646. My second highest guy has similar playing time and has an OPS in the 540s. I have other guys who have played longer and have 750+ OPS. Who knows what the heck is going on behind the scenes. Some guys must have better agents than others.

#42755	12/08/2016 2:03:39 pm
Crazy Li Joined: 01/25/2015 Posts: 879 Inactive	My salaries look fine. Long-time players are cheap... new hot free agents I picked up to try and upgrade are really expensive. My highest paid position player who isn't new this season is http://brokenbat.org/player/88969. He had an average season in 2029 but the crazy season down in VI in 2028 is probably influencing his contract here. Based on what I've seen, I fully expect http://brokenbat.org/player/118671 to get a healthy increase next season, probably making something close to 3M because he's been an instant star. On the pitching end, my highest-paid players are Santos and Mata, who are unquestionably my best 2 pitchers. Santos won 20 games for me last season and Mata won 19 (and I believe finished 3rd in Cy Young voting). While wins aren't the best measure of a pitcher by far, it's rare you see a 20-game winner that's bad.

#42756	12/08/2016 2:56:11 pm
garfscores Joined: 10/13/2014 Posts: 488 Battle Creek Sting IV.7	@Mike- I looked over your roster and nothing looks out of the ordinary. At bats seem to be weighted heavily in salary and you do a ton of platooning. It's a great way to keep salaries down, especially if your guys have good platoon splits.

#42761	12/08/2016 6:15:03 pm
MukilteoMike Joined: 08/09/2014 Posts: 3294 Inactive	Explain how Alarcon is making more than Burks. Burks has four years under his belt instead of three, has an OPS more than 200 higher and destroys Alarcon in every single category. Burks, however, makes slightly less than Alarcon.

#42765	12/08/2016 6:35:18 pm
Rock777 Joined: 09/21/2014 Posts: 9595 Haverhill Halflings III.1	I'm not going to pretend to understand the algorithm, but Alarcón is probably getting paid more because he is a SS. Defensive, baserunning, maybe even potential; lots of things are probably being factored in. Certainly not just hitting stats. I also suspect there is a bit of a fuzziness factor. 20K is really in the weeds for player salaries. I also suspect that the AI is not as good at determining "goodness" as we are. I suspect the AI looks at a .255 AVG over the last three years and says "below average hitter", where as you and I are going to ignore AVG and jump right to OPS, which would indicate "above average hitter".

#42766	12/08/2016 7:44:25 pm
garfscores Joined: 10/13/2014 Posts: 488 Battle Creek Sting IV.7	SS. My SS has one of my higher salaries, too. And some guys are just greedier than others. Updated Thursday, December 8 2016 @ 7:45:03 pm PST

#42842	12/11/2016 3:59:58 pm
Crazy Li Joined: 01/25/2015 Posts: 879 Inactive	I think Rock has a good point here... the logic used might be more of a traditionalist one like would be had in the actual MLB... most people in decision-making roles in the MLB still look at things from an an oldschool perspective (AVG, ERA, etc...). The number of those who take a more sabermetric-based analysis are comparatively fewer. What causes people to get paid money in real life? Hitting for high average, hitting lots of HRs, having a low ERA, winning games. OBPS and SLG aren't as often assessed and certainly not stuff like FIP.