Sure, you know Alex Rodriguez made $27-million and had an MVP-calibre season. But if you were building a baseball team, would A-Rod give you the best value for your money?

Canadian Business Online compared the salaries of more than 300 hitters, starting pitchers and relief pitchers against their 2007 regular season performance statistics to find the players who gave good value for their paycheques — and those who clearly didn't.

Our value tables show the players' key financial and performance statistics. Our hitters list defaults to dollars per run created, starting with the most expensive — and overpaid; for pitchers, it is dollars per inning pitched, also from most expensive to least. (See our Methodology for the details.) To see the top value players, sort the tables by clicking on the $/RC column title. Then sort by other financial and player stats, by team or by position.

In the course of compiling our ranking, we uncovered terrific bargains, solid value players, and horrendous money pits. From the first two, columnist Andy Holloway has assembled his $80-million fantasy baseball team. From the rest, we've drawn our least value all-stars.

The rankings: Hitters | Starters | Relievers
An exercise in team building: Our $80-million squad
Dishonorable mentions
Methodology
Least value all-stars (slideshow)

Andy Holloway on the business of sport
Sportsnet baseball homepage