The obligatory Albert Pujols and Prince Fielder article

Everyone who follows baseball knows, Albert Pujols and Prince Fielder will be free agents at the end of the season. In the past 4 years, Pujols has registered a 31.8 WAR, a 27.4 offensive WAR and a 3.8 defensive WAR. That means his average year (in the past 4 years) is 7.95 WAR, 6.85 O-WAR, .95 D-WAR. He is making 16 million dollars this year (with a 5.3 WAR) and has a WASP around the Halladay Standard at 3018. However, if he made 16 million in his average year, his WASP would be a solid 2013. His average year merits a 23.8 million dollar a year contract according to the Halladay Standard. Prince Fielder is a slightly different story. His WAR in the past 4 years is 15.9, 17.9 O-WAR, -2 D-WAR. He is making 15.5 million this year, (and with a WAR of 4.7) making his WASP pretty bad, at 5741 (Carlos Pena of the rival Cubs is slightly more efficient). His average WAR is 3.975, 4.475 O-WAR, -.5 D-WAR. According the Halladay Standard, his average season deserves 11.925 million dollars. Back to Pujols, since the minimum wage for Major League players is at $400,000, if he ends up making 23.850 million dollars, that would be equal to 60 minimum wage players. It would be nearly impossible to argue that Albert Pujols is worth 60 players, even minimum wage bubble players. Think about it, would you rather bring Albert Pujols to spring training, or 60 pre-arbitration major and minor league players?  The 60 players would only have to equal a .1325 WAR a piece to equal Pujol's production. Unless your a big money team with no worries about money or efficiency (especially because of injuries, can you imagine paying Pujols 23 million to sit on the DL because he tore up his knee in spring training?), it would be just goofy to sign Pujols to what he is worth.

The Transformation of Matt Lindstrom

Matt Lindstrom, currently a reliever for the Colorado Rockies, had a profoundly mediocre year for the Houston Astros last year. His ERA was 4.39 and his WAR was .3, which gave him a WASP of 5416.7. It was no surprise at all that the Astros didn't bring him back. For the Rockies this year, he has been much better, a 3.06 ERA with a 1.2 WAR. Even after the bad year of last year, the Rockies still paid Lindstrom more than he made in 2010. In fact, he is making nearly twice as much. However, his WASP is still a decent 2750. What are the reasons for this change? Well, there could be several. For one, he appears to be more healthy this year, he spent some time on the DL last year for the Astros, and didn't appear to be the same pitcher down the stretch and was yanked from the closer position. Statistically, Lindstrom was more of a strikeout pitcher last year, with 7.26 K's per 9 innings (5.94 K's per innings this year). He has walked less people though (2.52bb per 9 innings this year, and 3.38bb per 9 innings last year), and when people put the ball in play, they have done a lot less damage this year (.358 Batting Average on Balls in Play last year and a BABIP of .283 this year). The Astros sure could have used this year's Matt Lindstrom last year or this year.