The Danger of Using Words Like Most, Best, Always, Never, Etc.

Watching the MLB All-Star last night with fellow Creative Galeite and baseball fan Dan Weaver(@snf), we got the absolute pleasure of listening to Joe Buck and Tim McCarver. Listening to those two usually includes three hours of me yelling at my television. Buck is a decent enough play-by-play guy, until he decides to have an opinion. McCarver on the other hand, tends to be illogical and plain wrong.

While throwing out plenty of gems last night, one in particular caught our ire. McCarver claimed that Kevin Youkilis is the best valued player in baseball. His fantastic stats and very reasonable $6,250,000 salary support his idea. Umm, wait a minute Tim. This may seem true because the only teams you see are the New Yorks and Cubbies that play every Saturday afternoon game you call on Fox. However, for those of us who actually watch the rest of baseball, it’s just absurd. Add to that the understanding of contracts amoung younger players, and it makes the comment even worse.

So, with that in mind, I give you an entire starting lineup we’ve created, full of better valued players, many of which are better overall players then Youkilis. If you sum the salaries of this lineup, it comes in under Youk’s salary. Be sure to read the notes at the end before getting too huffy.

C Pablo Sandoval $401,750

1B Mark Reynolds $422,500

2B Ben Zobrist $415,900

3B Evan Longoria $550,000

SS Ryan Theriot $500,000

LF Nelson Cruz $408,070

CF Adam Jones $435,000

RF Justin Upton $412,000

DH Josh Hamilton $555,000

P Tim Lincecum $650,000

So here we have 10 guys, 7 of which were all-stars, and two that should have been. Their total combined salary is $4,750,220. I’ll take these 10 over 1 Youk, and pocket the remaining $1,499,780. Thanks. Next time Tim, just say he’s got reasonable salary compared to a lot of players in the league. Best is one of those dangerous words.

Notes:

• I used a DH because as Tim explained to us, that’s what’s given the AL the advantage in all-star games, even when played in the NL without it.
• Sandoval came up as a catcher and can still play it.
• Salaries are from ESPN.com.
• There may be a few better options at some positions, or better configurations that would still come in below Youk’s salary. I spent 10 minutes creating the list.