Dave Studeman of The Hardball Times released the numbers for Net Win Shares value today. Net Win Shares Value effectively calculates how overpaid or under paid a player is relative to his peers. If you simply looked at contributions relative to salary, only pre arbitration eligible players would populate the list. This formula changes a player's relative value based on his status. For example, a pre arbitration player is expected to produce a win share above replacement for every 17 thousand dollars above the league minimum he makes, while a free agent is expected to produce a win for every 1.7 million dollars.
In his article, Studemun mentions that the Dodgers received fewer contributions from free agents than any team in baseball, so I wanted to see how the Dodgers broke down on a player by player basis. I also threw our young starters in the list for comparison.
Penny: $10,734,341
Martin: $9,546,353*
Saito: $8,169,774^
Loney: $6,900,353
Billingsley: $6,900,353
Kemp: $3,372,353
Broxton: $3,372,353
Seanez: $2,559,370
Ethier: $2,490,353
Lowe: $531,205
Kent: $410,932
Gonzalez: -$608,613
Wolf: -$1,864,230
Nomar: -$1,994,520
Furcal: -$3,866,877
Pierre: -$4,640,523
Tomko: -$4,901,114
Schmidt: -$7,146,205
*All pre arb players were calculated with a 400 thousand dollar salary
^ Calculated as an arbitration eligible player. Studemund's formula breaks down for pre arbitration eligible players that make more than the league minimum. If you assume Saito is a pre arbitration eligible player, he becomes the most overpaid player in baseball, which obviously isn't the case.
What surprised me is that even our veterans that were considered to have good years, Lowe and Kent, only barely broke even, and only Penny was under paid at all. Heck, Rudy Seanez was the second best value amongst veteran players on the team, though that would be true of any non roster player that turned around and had a semi useful season.
The Dodgers simply lack veteran players that are signed to anything resembling a below value contract aside from Brad Penny. We have a young enough core that it's probably not a huge problem, but it's certainly not something that looks good on Ned Colletti's resume.