Dear Mr. EFL Answer Man:
Any scientific or non-scientific data on what the rough average is for money spent per team during the rookie draft (recently)?
Also, how much money should I budget to pocket for in-season transactions? Just rule of thumb.Newbie
Dear Newbie:
Apparently you are laboring under a misunderstanding. Either you think the Answer Man knows stuff, or you think he looks stuff up. Either way, veteran EFL owners are going to have to clean up the ice cream they just spewed all over the table, guffawing at how silly you’re being.
I hope those old EFL owners are sitting back down again, because this time I actually did some research. And hey, this research stuff is kind of interesting. I might have to try it again someday.
We spent $242,750,000 as a league last year in the Rookie Draft, or $24,275,000 per team. All of us used our first draft claim amount except John Johnson, who had pick #29 and got Brandon Nimmo for $4,000,000. We drafted a total of 62 players, 6.2 per team, at an average cost of $3,915,323. The last player we took went at pick number 166 — in the 6th round, essentially
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In 2016, in an exceptionally rich rookie class (Carlos Correa, Corey Seager, Francisco Lindor, etc.), we drafted 56 players and spent $264,000,000 for an average of 5.6 players per team, $26,400,000 per team, and $4,724,290 per player. The last player we took was at pick 171, again in what was essentially the 6th round.
Your in-season budget is hard to pin down. First, our salary cap will change the day after Opening Day, in proportion to the change in MLB salaries compared to 2017. Then we give ourselves an additional $500,000 every month. And there’s Shohei Otani — he’s unprecedented, so the bidding on him as a debutant, only good for this season, is unpredictable. I expect it to go very high.
Last year we are missing data from our end of April and May meeting. For the end of June, July, and August we drafted a total of 53 players at a total cost of $68,575. That’s $6,857.50 per team, and $1,293.87 per player for 5.3 players per team.
In 2016 we have data for all five of the monthly mid-season meetings. We spent a total of $208,011,000 on 103 players for a total of $2,019,520 per player for 10.3 players and $20,801,100 per team.
Players drafted per month:
2016 2017
End of April: 25 ?
End of May: 19 ?
End of June: 23 18
End of July: 11 18
End of August: 25 17
I don’t think anyone has ever studied these questions before. For a little bit there I knew something no one else did!
I’m glad I got to try this actual research stuff while we still had 10 teams. I can’t divide by 11 in my head, not without actual effort.
Gratefully yours,
EFL Answer Man
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