[Craig Costello]

Your Money Or Your Life?

I thought it would be interesting to take a look at the free-agent class of 1986/87 to see which clubs got the most for their money.

C Antti-Jussi Meresmaa  -- 3 years, $16.7M -- .293, 13 HR, 93 RBI, .875 OPS, 52.9 VORP
CF Theo Brittain        -- 2 years, $11.2M -- .317, 29 HR, 98 RBI, .960 OPS, 74.4 VORP
1B Francis Gautier      -- 5 years, $25.7M -- .333, 16 HR, 81 RBI, .882 OPS, 50.7 VORP
1B Lukas Stoger         -- 5 years, $25.4M -- .287, 18 HR, 61 RBI, .894 OPS, 28.0 VORP - injured for the next 12 months
1B Lorenzo Gutierrez    -- 5 years, $26.0M -- .291, 9 HR, 61 RBI, .778 OPS, 26.7 VORP
CF Jacquy Gilbert       -- 5 years, $18.1M -- .268, 19 HR, 79 RBI, .790 OPS, 29.0 VORP
SP Alexis Martin        -- 4 years, $17.6M -- 12-14, 4.79 ERA, 1.45 WHIP, 238.2 IP, 6.7 VORP
SP Robert Wood          -- 2 years, $9.5M  -- 12-8, 4.12 ERA, 1.43 WHIP, 231.2 IP, 25.7 VORP
CF Ian Meoni            -- 4 years, $21.7M -- .289, 24 HR, 84 RBI, .881 OPS, 48.0 VORP
SP Neil MacCombie       -- 5 years, $15.4M -- 8-19, 5.04 ERA, 1.28 WHIP, 214.1 IP, 0.0 VORP
SP Rory Begley          -- 4 years, $16.2M -- 13-9, 3.81 ERA, 1.16 WHIP, 231.1 IP, 20.7 VORP
RF Max Sabin            -- 3 years, $15.2M -- .316, 27 HR, 119 RBI, .928 OPS, 66.7 VORP
SS Vladimir Erantsev    -- 7 years, $28.2M -- .250, 15 HR, 46 RBI, .750 OPS, 34.5 VORP
LF Bernard Wulker       -- 4 years, $24.2M -- .316, 16 HR, 91 RBI, .836 OPS, 42.7 VORP
3B Dolf Pellenaars      -- 3 years, $15.1M -- .227, 18 HR, 74 RBI, .819 OPS, 31.4 VORP
SP Nenad Jevtic         -- 4 years, $18.1M -- 13-12, 2.86 ERA, 1.12 WHIP, 223.2 IP, 51.2 VORP

Vienna's success in winning their division is reward enough for their big spending and Brittain and Sabin both produced good years.

The only real failures were the pitchers Martin and MacCombie, but Gutierrez also underperformed - The Hitmen will hope he does the business in the post season.

Whilst not really a failure, Paris will not be exactly happy with paying Stoger $5M for rehabbing his ankle in 1988.