Camden Depot article on relative importance of team-controlled players vs. free agents

[Frobby]

Executive Summary:

-Team controlled players contributed 36% of total wins from 1997-2006 and roughly 52% of wins from 2007-2015 indicated the increased value of a successful farm system.

-Team-controlled position players and team-controlled pitchers contribute roughly the same percentage of production.

-The top twenty-five team-controlled pitchers produced 60% of total production and the top twenty-five team controlled position players produced 50% of total production.

http://camdendepot.blogspot.com/2016/02/for-top-100-prospect-lists-f-is-passing.html

Due to the fact that a significant number of players sign extensions that go beyond their team-controlled years, I'd argue that even the 52% figure is an understatement of the importance of a good farm system.

Looking at the Orioles, on offense, 15.5 of 17.9 rWAR came from team controlled players (Adam Jones, JJ Hardy, Delmon Young and Everth Cabrera netted to 2.4 rWAR). For the pitchers, 11.0 of 17.6 rWAR came from team-controlled players (I counted Wei-Yin Chen as someone signed as a free agent, and O'Day and Jimenez).

Of course, a lot of the Orioles' WAR came from players who are team-controlled, but who were not developed in our farm system (Davis, Brach, Gonzalez, Pearce, etc.).

[weams]

http://camdendepot.blogspot.com/2016/02/for-top-100-prospect-lists-f-is-passing.html

Due to the fact that a significant number of players sign extensions that go beyond their team-controlled years, I'd argue that even the 52% figure is an understatement of the importance of a good farm system.

Looking at the Orioles, on offense, 15.5 of 17.9 rWAR came from team controlled players (Adam Jones, JJ Hardy, Delmon Young and Everth Cabrera netted to 2.4 rWAR). For the pitchers, 11.0 of 17.6 rWAR came from team-controlled players (I counted Wei-Yin Chen as someone signed as a free agent, and O'Day and Jimenez).

Of course, a lot of the Orioles' WAR came from players who are team-controlled, but who were not developed in our farm system (Davis, Brach, Gonzalez, Pearce, etc.).

I can't disagree with too much here.