Highest Career VORP: Active Players

As part of another of my pet historical projects (this time, going back and looking at how players have performed compared to the amateur draft), I am in the process of calcuating VORP historically for players for the years before 2013 when the game started doing it.

Anyway, I've finished all of the players listed as active in the most recent archive for 2018, and thought I would share some of the findings.

Note: Because of the nature of my project, it only covers players taken in the amateur draft since the 2003 season. Players picked as part of the inaugural draft aren't in my database.

Most Valuable Active Players, by career VORP.

1. OF Brian Frison, 816.9 over 11 years
2. SS John Hukill, 747.9 over 11 years
3. 1B Dong Lutz, 730.5 over 13 years
4. SP Ronald Placencia, 696.3 over 10 years
5. SS Ricky Peppers, 646.3 over 12 years

Of these, four of the five were selected in the first round. New York picked Placenica in the second round in 2004 with the 21st pick.

Here would be the All-Star team of active players, by career VORP and by position at the time of drafting:

C: Herman Gossard: 408.9/11 years (2nd is Beau Manning: 394.9/12 years)
1B: Dong Lutz: 730.5/13 years (Luis Jeon: 520.6/14 years)
2B: Bill Turek: 337.9/12 years (Duane Gerhardt: 253.2/8 years)
3B: Eugene Alustiza: 420.2/10 years (John Grondin: 337.2/6 years)
SS: John Hukill: 747.9/11 years (Ricky Peppers: 646.3/12 years)
LF: Armando Cedeno: 315.6/10 years (Sherman Evanoff, 129.7/5 years)
CF: Miguel Cuesta: 455.8/13 years (Anton Suarez: 262.5/10 years)
RF: Brian Frison: 816.9/11 years (Paul Shunk: 588.9/12 years)
SP: Ronald Placencia: 696.3/10 years (Christopher Hester: 630.4/11 years)
RP: Junior Cuomo: 335.9/12 years (Timothy Vallejo: 335.5/12 years

There's lots about this I find interesting, but I can't get over how close Cuomo and Vallejo are in career value. Even though he's not a Monarch any more, I'm still rooting for Vallejo to finish ahead of Cuomo, although I recognize that's pretty unlikely.

And, among active players, SP Jim Edgar has the lowest career VORP at -63.1 over 6 years.

Any questions about the process of determining VORP before 2013 or about anyone active and their numbers or position ranking can be dropped in the comments and I'll try to answer them.

Sim Done

My apologies, guys.  The sim was done last night, but I didn't get a chance to post it to the blog.

Next sim will be Saturday night.

Sim's Done (1/31/19)

Welcome to the preseason, when hope springs eternal and every team dreams of winning the Cecil Cup.

Next sim (covering the rest of the game week):  Thursday night

Review: 2011 Draft

With the signing of John Grondin to a huge contract this past week, I thought it might be fun to look back at the first round of the 2011 draft.  Why the 2011 draft?  Because Grondin was the first pick in that draft.

1st pick:  3B John Grondin (signing bonus $1.2m), Covington, just signed with Shackamaxon (LA)
925 games, .314 average, .921 OPS, 180 HR, 337.2 career VORP.

2nd pick:  LF Robert Estill ($2.8m), Hickory, currently with Maui
776 games, .244 average, .780 OPS, 99 HR, 66.0 career VORP

3rd pick:  3B Telmo Dalmau ($811k), Danville, free agent
567 games, .267 average, .760 OPS, 44 HR, 52.8 career VORP

4th pick: 2B Timothy Mendiola ($422k), Houston, currently with Saskatoon
1072 games, .282 average, .754 OPS, 191 SB, 114.3 career VORP

5th pick:  SP Jose Lamela ($262k), Denver, currently with Maui (AAA)
10 games, 3-1, 9.90 ERA, 2.50 WHIP, -10.2 career VORP

6th pick:  RF Santiago Salazar ($864k), Walla Walla (now Ohio), currently with Saskatoon
898 games, .245 average, .774 OPS, 130 HR, 37.3 career VORP

7th pick:  SP Nelson Coghlan, Brooklyn ($418k), currently with Brooklyn
86 games, 25-38, 4.67 ERA, 1.47 WHIP, 33.2 career VORP

8th pick: 2B Danny Lorenzen ($803k), New York, currently with Houston
831 games, .257 average, .671 OPS, 25 HR, -8.8 career VORP

9th pick:  SP Cesar Almendarez ($196k), Los Angeles (now Shackamaxon), currently with Cleveland
127 games, 25-37, 4.77 ERA, 1.37 WHIP, 34.1 career VORP

10th pick: 1B Santiago Delrosario ($234k), Saskatoon, currently with Shackamaxon (AAA)
Made it to AA in 2013, AAA in 2018.  Never played in the majors.

11th pick: SP Frank Wooster ($181k), River Cities.  Suffered career-ending injury in 2015
73 games, 45-12, 3.85 ERA, 1.22 WHIP, 3 SHO, 83.8 career VORP

12th pick:  CF Bill Elder ($172k), Seattle, currently with Hickory
365 games, .215 average, .659 OPS, 16 HR, -15.1 career VORP

Obviously, Covington was right on the money with Grondin as the first pick.  However, who knows if that would still be true if Wooster hadn't gone down with his injury.  Just looking at the numbers he put up in 2 1/4 seasons is a bit frightening.

Sim's Done (1/28/11)

Signings:

The winner of the John Grondin sweepstakes is.... Los Angeles!  The winning bid was a five year deal worth $30.6, $25.3, $27.5, $29.6, $29.7 and a mutual option sixth year for $31m.

In addition, New York signed C Adrian Labarbera (Hickory) to a minor league contract.

Next sim will cover the period to 2/1 and will occur tomorrow night.

Zev

Sim's Done (1/21/11)

Signings:

Maui signed SP Edgardo Barbosa to a minor league contract.
Houston signed SP Isaac Diehl (River Cities) to a two year contract worth almost $21m total and an mutual option year for $12m.
Houston signed SS James Brockway (Los Angeles) to a minor league contract.
River Cities signed MR Bruce Roughly to a minor league contract.

Next sim:  Tuesday night.

Zev

Monarchs Scrap Richardson Probe, Acquire Draft Pick in "Unrelated" Deal

After signing the oddly popular minor league washout Lawrence Richardson to a minor league contract earlier in the offseason, the Seattle Monarchs front office began to hear some disturbing rumors about his background and the cause for his popularity.

Today, the Monarchs took the unusual step of publicly announcing that they had concluded their probe and nothing was turned up. "Really, guys, we found absolutely nothing," said Monarchs Owner/GM Mack Shultz, as he fidgeted and his eyes shifted nervously. "Certainly nothing that would reflect poorly on his prior employer, the Los Angeles Scorpions. Nope. No sirree. Nothing found."

In purportedly unrelated news, the Seattle Monarchs today announced that they had acquired the tenth round pick of the Los Angeles Scorpions for the princely sum of $1.00. While the Scorpions clearly are counting every penny to afford free agent and soon-to-be tycoon John Grondin, this trade has caused more than a few eyebrows to be raised league-wide.

"Of course, the trade has NOTHING to do with the Richardson probe. How could you even insinuate that we would bury the bodies in exchange for a tenth round draft pick," said Shultz with less than convincing outrage. "We got it as part of a bet that Scorpions owner Michael Weintraub and I made about a fictional baseball league. My made-up team, the Seattle Mariners, took two games out of three from his made up team, the Philadelphia Phillies. This proved the Mariners were clearly better than the Phillies, and earned me the draft pick. That's why this trade was made. Certainly not to cover up Richardson's reported past as a mob enforcer supporting Michael's business dealines. Definitely not that."

In other news, the Los Angeles Scorpions are reportedly fleeing the jurisdiction of California ... um ... "moving the franchise" before next season.