Baseball's 50 Most Valuable Players

This is a couple of weeks old, but Baseball Prospectus did another list of the 50 most valuable "properties" in baseball:

If you were starting a baseball team from scratch, which players would you want to build your team around? In practice, these are the ground rules:

• All players playing baseball in any professional league are eligible, including players in the minor leagues and players in professional leagues outside of North America.

• All present contracts are wiped out. In other words, price does not matter.

• Major league service time is also wiped out -- all players are treated as rookies. However, the structure of MLB's free agency rules is left intact. What this means is that you have six years of major league service time at your disposal before your player becomes a free agent. In most cases, this simply means that you'll get the player's 2007 through 2012 seasons -- A-Rod's performance from age 31 through age 37, for example, or Jose Reyes from age 24 through age 29. But if the player is still developing, you're also allowed to stash him in the minor leagues and then start his service time clock at some point in the future.

• Off-field factors such as marketability are not considered, except to the extent that they affect on-field performance. So, Daisuke Matsuzaka does not get any extra credit because he helps you build your brand in Japan.

Their top 10:

1. Albert Pujols
2. Joe Mauer
3. Johan Santana
4. Miguel Cabrera
5. Grady Sizemore
6. Hanley Ramirez
7. Jose Reyes
8. David Wright
9. Brian McCann
10. Alex Rodriguez

I think Hanley Ramirez is underrated as compared to Jose Reyes, but I'd still take Reyes over him. It's a tougher list this year - last year, I thought the top 4 were pretty obvious (Pujols, then Wright, A-Rod and Cabrera in some order). Here's my list:

1. Albert Pujols
2. Grady Sizemore
3. Jose Reyes
4. Johan Santana
5. Joe Mauer
6. David Wright
7. Miguel Cabrera
8. Alex Rodriguez
9. Carlos Beltran
10. Chase Utley

While Cabrera has a good chance of being the best non-Pujols hitter over the next six years, I don't think he has much chance of being a third baseman by the end of that time, which is why I'd put him below Wright, despite the difference in their offense.

What do you guys think?