Disciples of Uecker

This past Monday, Sports Illustrated baseball writer Jon Heyman asked a few baseball agents and executives to guess what Prince Fielder’s next contract will look like. Here were the predictions:

Agent No. 1: $125 million, 5 years
Agent No. 2: $150 million, 6 years
Executive No. 1: $175 million, 7 years
Executive No. 2: $105 million, 5 years
[Heyman's] prediction: $168 million, 7 years

The average annual value between those five guesstimates is $24 million, with durations ranging from five to seven years. $24 million a year is a lot of money, especially when you have to pay that to a player every year for five or more years.

Here are the number of players that FanGraphs’ dollar value system says have been worth at least an average of $24 million dollars per year over intervals from 2010 and backward:

• Just 2010: 24 players (16 on offense) worth at least $24 million
• 2009-2010: 24 players (13 on offense) worth at least $48 million
• 2008-2010: 16 players (7 on offense) worth at least $72 million
• 2007-2010: 11 players (7 on offense) worth at least $96 million
• 2006-2010: 7 players (5 on offense) worth at least $120 million
• 2005-2010: 5 players (3 on offense) worth at least $144 million
• 2004-2010: 3 players (all on offense) worth at least $168 million