So yesterday we acquired the sponsorship on Russell Branyan’s Baseball Reference page (note: I will be mentioning this at least 1000 more times because it makes me happy every time I do.) and while searching around BR for awhile I noticed some very interesting things about the prices of those sponsorships. First, I was very surprised at just how many players don’t have a sponsor. Maybe you don’t get much of a return on investment by sponsoring a page (and we certainly don’t expect to, we just thought it would be fun), but if you just get a kick out of it there are plenty of players available for 10 bucks or less. So far the most expensive player I’ve found with space available is Pujols at $3220. The cheapest to this point is Earl Henry Pruess (who had one career PA in 1920 for the St. Louis Browns in which he walked, stole a base, and scored a run. Not a bad career!). He’s two bucks.
I’m not sure how BR prices these, but it probably has something to do with page views and click-throughs and whatnot. For this reason retired players are a complete bargain. If Albert Pujols is worth $3220 (and Prince Fielder is worth $1480) how much do you think Ozzie Smith goes for? Maybe the greatest SS of all time, Hall of Famer, etc. How about $255? What about Jackie Robinson, one of the greatest players of all time, broke the color barrier, etc.? Only $240. Oh, and if you’re interested you can get Paul Molitor ($220) and Robin Yount ($205) combined for less than it would cost you to land Aramis Ramirez ($525).
I would love to take total BR sponsorship dollars per team and see how well it predicts wins, but we’ll have to get to that some other time. For now I’ll leave you with this:
Brewers Projected Starting Lineup (plus some extras).
Weeks – Taken
Morgan – $235 / Gomez – $100
Braun – $705
Ramirez – $525
Hart – $145
Gamel – $95
Gonzalez – $295
Lucroy – $105
Greinke – $310
Gallardo – $150
Marcum – $170
Wolf – $140
Narveson – $55
Axford – $125
K-Rod – Taken
Front Office – Counsell – $155
Future HOF – Taylor Green – $50
And for what it’s worth I’ve already gotten enough enjoyment out of this to justify Branyan.
