Today, September 1st, 2010 is an excellent day to pit some of Ike Davis’s and Danny Valencia’s stats head to head. Why, you ask? Because according to Fangraphs, as of today, the two Jewish rookie breakouts are in a dead heat in Wins Above Replacement at 1.9, and hence, approximate dollar value to their team, at $7.6 million in precious Jew Gold. How this is calculated is tricky, but allow me to break it down as best I can: using various calculations, it is possible to predict how many more runs a team scores with a certain player in the lineup over the course of an entire season, and how many more they allow with that player playing defense. This is based on hits, homers, stolen bases etc. Based on a Pythagorean formula, you can predict that approximately ten runs scored (ie: ten runs scored more than allowed, like 810-800, amounts to about one “win”, or won game that the team could expect to win.
The Mets and the Twins, as of today, have each scored 19 more runs this year thanks to Ike Davis and Danny Valencia, or 1.9 extra wins. Doesn’t sound like much. But consider that a spread of 30 more wins than losses, 96-66, virtually guarantees a playoff spot, and The Yankees of last year paid $195,000,000ish to go 22 games above 81-81, (103-59), or approximately $8,800,000 per extra win, or approximately $4,800,000 per member of the forty man roster, although the win shares were obviously not split evenly- a slight overpay.
Once again, Davis and Valencia are each worth about $7.6 million in the current market. What’s exciting about this all, at least for Twins fans, is that Valencia, on account of his hot glove and high batting average, has made up the lost ground of nearly half a season: 59 games compared to 116 for Ike. It’s almost like Danny is doing the work of two people for the Twin Cities, like they’re getting the work of two people… in one! See what I did there?
That joke used to kill for Sid Caesar.