There has been some good ideas discussed here so far, and please bear with me as I add this to the dialogue.
From my PMs and e-mails with some of the original GMs who put together FGM, the salary scales we currently use are based on contracts from 2010. I have randomly cross-checked a variety of salaries throughout all the positions with the salaries listed on Cot's Baseball Contracts, and for the most part, it seems that all the salaries are based on the contracts players received in 2010. There are some contracts that don't go with this explanation, (i.e., C-7 $5m (Posey, Buster), and I have no way of knowing if there was some minor adjustments to the salary scales over the years, but for the most part, the salaries we use for rankings seem to coincide with the salaries from 2010.
When compared to the salaries of 2010, we all know that the salaries of 2015 have increased because increased MLB spending in the free agent market. With that in mind, I utilized the contract information provided by Sportrac, a site dedicated to MLB salaries. Here is a link to that site if you’re interested:
http://www.spotrac.com/mlb/rankings/base/relief-pitcher/That said, the suggestion has been made to "Adjust the salary scale for RP to start at 25% of the SP1 scale." In reference to that premise, I updated our current 78 tiered RP salary scale with the information listed on Sportrac. In addition, I updated the top 20 SP salaries for comparison purposes.
Here are the top 20 salaries of SPs for 2010 vs 2015:
2010 Salary Rankings 2015 Salary Rankings
SP-1 $23m (Sabathia, CC)---------------SP-1 $30.0m (Kershaw, Clayton)
SP-2 $23m (Santana, Johan)------------SP-2 $28.0m (Verlander, Justin)
SP-3 $18.5m (Zambrano, Carlos)--------SP-3 $25.0m (Lee, Cliff)
SP-4 $18m (Hernandez, Felix)-----------SP-4 $24.0m (Hernandez, Felix)
SP-5 $18m (Verlander, Justin)-----------SP-5 $23.0m (Greinke, Zach)
SP-6 $18m (Zito, Barry) ----------------SP-6 $23.0m (Sabathia, CC)
SP-7 $16.5m (Burnett, A.J.)--------------SP-7 $22.5m (Hamels, Cole)
SP-8 $15.5m (Myers, Brett)--------------SP-8 $22.0m (Tanaka, Masahiro)
SP-9 $15m (Lowe, Derek)---------------SP-9 $20.0m (Cain, Matt)
SP-10 $14.5m (Oswalt, Roy)------------SP-10 $20.0m (Price, David)
SP-11 $14.5m (Rodriguez, Wandy)-----SP-11 $19.5m (Wainwright, Adam)
SP-12 $14m (Buehrle, Mark)------------SP-12 $19.0m (Buehrle, Mark)
SP-13 $14m (Nolasco, Ricky)-----------SP-13 $18.0m (Weaver, Jered)
SP-14 $14m (Peavy, Jake)---------------SP-14 $18.0m (Wilson, C.J.)
SP-15 $13.5m (Halladay, Roy)----------SP-15 $18.0m (Lincecum, Tim)
SP-16 $13.5m (Johnson, Josh)----------SP-16 $16.5m (Zimmerman, Jordan)
SP-17 $13m (Dempster, Ryan)----------SP-17 $16.0m (Sanchez, Anibal)
SP-18 $13m (Jackson, Edwin)-----------SP-18 $15.0m (Lester, Jon)
SP-19 $12.5m (Carpenter, Chris)--------SP-19 $14.0m (Danks, John)
SP-20 $12m (Millwood, Kevin)----------SP-20 $14.0m (Gallardo, Yovani)
From these salaries you can see that the salaries of the top SPs has increased dramatically. If you compare the salaries for RPs in the same way, you can see that the suggested 25% is basically reflected in the salaries received by the top 78 RPs. The top end or the RP salary scale is actually lower and the bottom end is a little higher. Here is an updated salary schedule for RPs—with a comparison of the 2010 scale to the current 2015 scale.
Relief Pitchers Salary Scales2010 Salary Scale 2015 Salary ScaleRP-1 $15m (Rivera, Mariano)--------------------RP-1 $9.0m (Broxton, Jonathan)
RP-2 $13.5m (Lidge, Brad)………………………………..RP-2 $9.0m (Miller, Andrew)
RP-3 $12.5m (Broxton, Jonathan)……………………..RP-3 $8.5m (Clippard, Tyler)
RP-4 $12.5m (Rodriguez, Francisco)…………………RP-4 $7.5m (League, Brandon)
RP-5 $12m (Nathan, Joe)………………………………….RP-5 $7.0m (Davis, Wade)
RP-6 $11.5m (Cordero, Francisco)…………………….RP-6 $7.0m (Soria, Joakim)
RP-7 $10.5m (Bell, Heath)…………………………………RP-7 $7.0m (Belfour, Grant)
RP-8 $10.5m (Wood, Kerry)……………………………...RP-8 $6.5m (Marshall, Sean)
RP-9 $9m (Fuentes, Brian)...........................................RP-9 $6.0m (Gregerson, Luke)
RP-10 $7m (Ryan, B.J.)...................................................RP-10 $5.5m (Storen, Drew)
RP-11 $5m (Francisco, Frank).....................................RP-11 $5.5m (Neskek, Pat)
RP-12 $5m (Runzler, Dan)...........................................RP-12 $5.5m (O’Flathery, Eric)
RP-13 $5m (Shields, Scot)...........................................RP-13 $5.5m (Logan, Boone)
RP-14 $4.5m (Linebrink, Scott)..................................RP-14 $5.0m (Smith, Joe)
RP-15 $4m (Affeldt, Jeremy).......................................RP-15 $4.5m (Affeldt, Jeremy)
RP-16 $4m (Farnsworth, Kyle)....................................RP-16 $4.5m (Ziegler, Brad)
RP-17 $4m (Jenks, Bobby)...........................................RP-17 $4.5m (Romo, Sergio)
RP-18 $4m (Madson, Ryan)........................................RP-18 $4.5m (Mujica, Edward)
RP-19 $4m (Marte, Damaso) .....................................RP-19 $4.5m (Hunter, Tommy)
RP-20 $4m (Romero, J.C.) ...........................................RP-20 $4.5m (Duke, Zach)
RP-21 $4m (Speier, Justin) .........................................RP-21 $4.5m (Motte, Jason)
RP-22 $3.5m (Downs, Scott) .....................................RP-22 $4.0m (O’Day, Darren)
RP-23 $3.5m (Marshall, Sean) ..................................RP-23 $4.0m (Grilli, Jason)
RP-24 $3.5m (Papelbon, Jonathan) .......................RP-24 $4.0m (Lopez, Javier)
RP-25 $3.5m (Wheeler, Dan) ....................................RP-25 $4.0m (Howell, J.P.)
RP-26 $3m (Cruz, Juan) ..............................................RP-26 $4.0m (Hochevar, Luke)
RP-27 $3m (Soria, Joakim) ........................................RP-27 $4.0m (Estrada, Marco)
RP-28 $2.5m (Bard, Daniel) .......................................RP-28 $3.5m (Parnell, Bobby)
RP-29 $2.5m (Embree, Alan) .....................................RP-29 $3.5m (Parra, Manny)
RP-30 $2.5m (Marmol, Carlos) .................................RP-30 $3.5m (Thorton, Matt)
RP-31 $2.5m (Park, Chan Ho) ...................................RP-31 $3.5m (Belisle, Matt)
RP-32 $2.5m (Rauch, Jon) ..........................................RP-32 $3.5m (Detwiler, Ross)
RP-33 $2.5m (Soriano, Rafael) .................................RP-33 $3.0m (Matusz, Brian)
RP-34 $2.5m (Street, Huston) ..................................RP-34 $3.0m (Bastardo, Antonio)
RP-35 $2m (Adams, Mike) .........................................RP-35 $3.0m (Jepsen, Kevin)
RP-36 $2m (Corpas, Manuel) ....................................RP-36 $3.0m (Cotts, Neal)
RP-37 $2m (Guzman, Angel) .....................................RP-37 $3.0m (Choate, Randy)
RP-38 $2m (Hawkins, LaTroy) ...................................RP-38 $3.0m (Kelley, Shawn)
RP-39 $2m (Kobayahsi, Masahide) .........................RP-39 $2.5m (Webb, Ryan)
RP-40 $2m (Miller, Trever) ........................................RP-40 $2.5m (Duensing, Brian)
RP-41 $2m (Rhodes, Arthur) ....................................RP-41 $2.5m (Axford, John)
RP-42 $2m (Sherrill, George) ....................................RP-42 $2.5m (Strop, Pedro
RP-43 $2m (Wagner, Billy) ........................................RP-43 $2.5m (Walden, Jordan)
RP-44 $1.5m (Aardsma, David) ................................RP-44 $2.5m (Peralta, Joel)
RP-45 $1.5m (Bonser, Boof) ......................................RP-45 $2.5m (Perez, Oliver)
RP-46 $1.5m (Bruney, Brian) ......................................RP-46 $2.5m (Williams, Jerome)
RP-47 $1.5m (Capps, Matt) ........................................RP-47 $2.5m (Cecil, Brett)
RP-48 $1.5m (Delcarmen, Manny) ..........................RP-48 $2.5m (Russell, James)
RP-49 $1.5m (Durbin, Chad) .....................................RP-49 $2.5m (Sipp, Tony)
RP-50 $1.5m (Feliciano, Pedro) ................................RP-50 $2.5m (Blevins, Jerry)
RP-51 $1.5m (Franklin, Ryan) ....................................RP-51 $2.5m (Rzepczynski, Marc)
RP-52 $1.5m (Gonzalez, Mike) .................................RP-52 $2.5m (Dunn, Michael)
RP-53 $1.5m (Hanrahan, Joel) ..................................RP-53 $2.5m (Nicasio, Juan)
RP-54 $1.5m (Hoffman, Trevor) ...............................RP-54 $2.0m (Stammen, Craig)
RP-55 $1.5m (Howell, J.P.) ..........................................RP-55 $2.0m (Tazawa, Junichi)
RP-56 $1.5m (Kuo, Hong-Chih) ................................RP-56 $2.0m (Stauffer, Tim)
RP-57 $1.5m (Lewis, Colby) ........................................RP-57 $2.0m (Chavez, Jesse)
RP-58 $1.5m (Lincoln, Mike) ......................................RP-58 $2.0m (Petit, Yusmeiro)
RP-59 $1.5m (Monasterios, Carlos) .........................RP-59 $2.0m (Hernandez, David)
RP-60 $1.5m (Qualls, Chad) .......................................RP-60 $2.0m (Breslow, Craig)
RP-61 $1.5m (Reyes, Dennys) ...................................RP-61 $1.5m (Crow, Aaron)
RP-62 $1.5m (Rodney, Fernando) ...........................RP-62 $1.5m (LeClure, Sam)
RP-63 $1.5m (Saito, Takashi) .....................................RP-63 $1.5m (Watson, Tony)
RP-64 $1.5m (Wilson, C.J.) ..........................................RP-64 $1.5m (Alburquerque, Al)
RP-65 $1m (Betancourt, Rafael) ...............................RP-65 $1.5m (Wright, Wesley)
RP-66 $1m (Calero, Kiko) ...........................................RP-66 $1.5m (Herrera, Kelvin)
RP-67 $1m (Camp, Shawn) ........................................RP-67 $1.5m (Shaw, Bryan)
RP-68 $1m (Eyre, Scott) ..............................................RP-68 $1.5m (Tomlin, Josh)
RP-69 $1m (Frasor, Jason) ..........................................RP-69 $1.5m (Perez, Chris)
RP-70 $1m (Gutierrez, Juan) ......................................RP-70 $1.5m (Ogando, Alexi)
RP-71 $1m (Heilman, Aaron) ....................................RP-71 $1.5m (Collins, Tim)
RP-72 $1m (Kilby, Brad) ..............................................RP-72 $1.5m (Phelps, David)
RP-73 $1m (League, Brandon) .................................RP-73 $1.5m (Brothers, Rex)
RP-74 $1m (Medders, Brandon) ..............................RP-74 $1.5m (Cook, Ryan)
RP-75 $1m (Mota, Guillermo) ..................................RP-75 $1.5m (Thayer, Dale)
RP-76 $1m (Okajima, Hideki) ....................................RP-76 $1.5m (Fien, Casey)
RP-77 $1m (Tawaza, Junichi) ....................................RP-77 $1.5m (Salas, Fernando)
RP-78 $1m (Thornton, Matt) .....................................RP-78 $1.5m (Ramos, Cesar)
As has been suggested in another thread, updating our salary schedules to reflect the current free agent market is something that needs to be done. I believe that is at the heart of resolving our dilemma with RP compensation.
We all use a variety of players on (P-n/a) contracts of $0.5m to stretch our salary cap dollars. With that, the 2015 RP Salary Schedule would seem to make it easier to give some of our RPs extensions, instead of just allowing them to go to Free Agency. That said, I agree with BHows when (paraphrasing) he says FGM is a hitter friendly league and we have to guard against further devaluation of our Pitchers. In our daily lineups, we have 5 RPs on a given day, and with our pitching limits, RPs are of value to each of our teams. With the revision of the salary rankings, I believe that we can keep our current formula for establishing a Type A & B free agent if we do something like the following:
Therefore, for Franchise GM, Type A FA are:
Top 6 C
Top 12 MI, CI
Top 15 OF
Top 30 SP
Top 7 RPType B FA are:
7th - 12th ranked C
13th - 24th ranked MI, CI
16th - 30th ranked OF
31st - 60th ranked SP
8th - 13th ranked RPThis would go along with the idea of adjusting the value of RPs to 25% of SPs and allow RPs to retain some value in FGM (#7 and #13 are used as cutoff limits because of the salary changes at those levels on the new scale).
This is, of course, in the discussion phase, so please share your thoughts.