I think Ben should get most of the credit for 2013, and I think Dombrowski should get a lot of the credit for 2018.
I know you feel differently. That's fine of course, we're all entitled to our opinions.
Price's postseason heroics should add something to any evaluation of his 2018 season. These are real games we're talking about.
As for Mookie, yes, his postseason hitting numbers should detract, but of course his fielding and baserunning would also have to be figured in.
I think you're wrong about the loss of IFA funds. You only lose IFA funds if you sign a free agent who received a qualifying offer. You lose $500,000 if you were under the luxury tax cap and $1 million if you were over the cap.
The calculation doesn't really measure what the players are worth. All it really tells you is how much the average free agent is getting paid per WAR.
Like I say it is inflated because there have been so many free agent busts.
The fangraphs values are based on actual dollars per WAR for actual free agents. The reason the dollars seem inflated is because all the busts like Pablo are included.
Neither FanGraphs nor any of the other stat systems, as far as I know, have made any attempt whatsoever to build postseason performances into their numbers.
How many teams, honestly, are in a position to pay $250 million in payroll costs (including the taxes)?
Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers, maybe one or two others?
That's right. I'm fine with it, and all Sox fans should be. We ploughed through all the limits in quest of a ring. We got the ring, we have to pay the penalties.
That said, it also points out that it wouldn't be a very sharp strategy to do this every year.
The difference being that the big-time player opt-outs are 'early' in the contract, giving the player the best of both worlds, security AND opportunity.
The team options are always 'tacked on' at the end.
Player opt-outs like the one in Price's contract are obviously just one more incentive for the player to sign on the bottom line.
Scherzer's contract has been a steal, crazy as that might sound.
Jeter's contract was excellent based on his fWAR. His offense more than compensated for his defense. You're just going to have to accept that.