It's early in the season still, but what the heck, let's have some fun. Here are some "brand name" free agents that signed this past winter, along with their "generic" equivalents. This is an extremely superficial analysis, so don't get too hung up on it. Just havin' some fun here...

Starting Pitcher

	Yr	$M	IP	ERA	ERA+	H/9	HR/9	BB/9	K/9
Statistics are courtesy of Baseball-Reference and are through games of May 18, 2008.
Carlos Silva	4	48	58.1	4.17	94	9.87	0.93	1.70	3.70
Mark Hendrickson	1	1.5	53	3.91	105	9.17	0.51	3.23	4.08

Silva works a little deeper into games, which is nice. And in a rotation that also includes Miguel Batista and Jarrod Washburn, he'll never be mistaken for the worst option.

Relief Pitcher

	Yr	$M	IP	ERA	ERA+	H/9	HR/9	BB/9	K/9
Statistics are courtesy of Baseball-Reference and are through games of May 18, 2008.
Francisco Cordero	4	46	19.1	2.33	191	5.12	0.47	6.05	10.71
Chad Durbin	1	0.9	29.1	2.15	205	6.44	0.31	4.29	4.91

Yeah, Cordero's got the big advantage in strikeouts and he's more likely to sustain his current level of performance, but still...

Catcher

	Yr	$M	PA	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS+
Statistics are courtesy of Baseball-Reference and are through games of May 18, 2008.
Jorge Posada	4	52.4	66	.302	.333	.476	121
Rod Barajas	1	1.2	72	.273	.333	.470	120

I still don't understand why you sign a 36-year-old catcher to a 4-year deal.

There weren't any significant signings of first basemen.

Second Base

	Yr	$M	PA	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS+
Statistics are courtesy of Baseball-Reference and are through games of May 18, 2008.
Luis Castillo	4	25	138	.263	.378	.307	85
Aaron Miles	1	1.4	101	.315	.364	.348	89

Bleh to both.

The third base market was kind of silly. There was Alex Rodriguez, Mike Lowell, and everyone else that teams other than the Yankees and Red Sox could afford. No shortstops of note either. Left field? Sorry, the only big name there still hasn't signed.

Center Field

	Yr	$M	PA	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS+
Statistics are courtesy of Baseball-Reference and are through games of May 18, 2008.
Andruw Jones	2	36.2	153	.167	.275	.273	42
Corey Patterson	1	3	129	.227	.273	.412	74

Not that Patterson has been very good, mind you, but at least he is cheap and hits the occasional home run.

Right Field

	Yr	$M	PA	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS+
Statistics are courtesy of Baseball-Reference and are through games of May 18, 2008.
Jose Guillen	3	36	166	.245	.277	.440	93
Emil Brown	1	1.45	177	.256	.282	.369	84

The irony of this one, of course, is that the Royals signed Guillen to replace Brown. What they've gotten is a more expensive version of Brown. Seems to me when you're going for this skill set, you shouldn't pay top dollar for it.

Of course, hindsight is 20/20, and there's plenty of season left. Still, it's interesting to see how similar some of these guys have been so far. As they say, if you can't see the difference, then why pay for it?