Tom Hauck - Getty Images
Once production in all competitions is factored in, no team is getting more for their money than the Sounders and no player is providing more for less than Alex Caskey.
NOTE: I guess this is where I'm supposed to give my spiel that I don't think this is by any means a perfect metric for evaluating players. It obviously gives short-shrift to defenders or anyone else that doesn't produce a lot of goals and assists. It also makes no attempt to correct for playing time. That said, it's not totally worthless and does give you an idea of just how much offensive value you are getting out of a given player. Now, onto the actual story...
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Once all competitions are factored in, no player in MLS is providing more for his team than Alex Caskey and no team is getting more for their money than the Seattle Sounders.
As you may remember, last week I penned a story for SB Nation in which I basically invented a very imprecise statistic I called "Bang for the Buck." It was pretty simple: you added the goals and assists, divided them by the total compensation a player receives according to the MLS Players Union documents and then you multiply that by $10,000. The number you get is the combined goals and assists per $10,000 in total compensation.
Using only regular-season stats, since those are the only ones the league website makes available, I deduced that Simon Dawkins was the league's most efficient offensive player. His Bang was 1.80.
By contrast, Caskey's is 3.26. Keeping in mind that Caskey is making less than $34,000, his three goals and eight assists look even more impressive. Granted, two of his goals and four of his assists have come in non-league play, but those were all important contributions.
To put that in a bit of perspective, only two other players in MLS have Bang's of at least 2.0. Fellow Sounders midfielder Andy Rose is 2.37 with four goals and four assists and also being paid less than $34,000. Dawkins had an assist in U.S. Open Cup play to push his Bang to 2.0.
Also cracking the league-wide Top 10 is Eddie Johnson, who has a mark of 1.69. It's also worth noting that his 16 goals in all competitions is the third highest figure in MLS this year, behind only Chris Wondolowski (25) and Alvaro Saborio (19).
There are actually five Sounders in the Top 25, with Sammy Ochoa (1.57) at 11 and David Estrada (1.36) at No. 17. Just outside of that is Cordell Cato (1.14) at No. 26. The San Jose Earthquakes and Colorado Rapids each have three players in the Top 25, but no other team has more than two players.
Here's how all the Sounders players with at least one goal or one assist look:
| Last | First | Pos | Base | Total comp | g | a | Bang | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SEA | Caskey | Alex | M | $33,756.00 | $33,756.00 | 3 | 8 | 3.26 |
| SEA | Rose | Andy | M | $33,756.00 | $33,756.00 | 4 | 4 | 2.37 |
| SEA | Johnson | Eddie | F | $100,000.00 | $106,333.33 | 16 | 2 | 1.69 |
| SEA | Ochoa | Sammy | F | $55,000.00 | $57,500.00 | 7 | 2 | 1.57 |
| SEA | Estrada | David | F | $44,000.00 | $44,000.00 | 6 | 0 | 1.36 |
| SEA | Cato | Cordell | F | $44,000.00 | $44,000.00 | 1 | 4 | 1.14 |
| SEA | Scott | Zach | D | $46,314.00 | $46,314.00 | 2 | 2 | 0.86 |
| SEA | Rosales | Mauro | M | $200,000.00 | $225,000.00 | 2 | 15 | 0.76 |
| SEA | Alonso | Osvaldo | M | $185,000.00 | $185,000.00 | 5 | 6 | 0.59 |
| SEA | Evans | Brad | F | $145,475.00 | $159,225.00 | 5 | 4 | 0.57 |
| SEA | Burch | Marc | D | $65,000.00 | $65,000.00 | 0 | 3 | 0.46 |
| SEA | Montero | Fredy | F | $600,000.00 | $756,000.00 | 16 | 10 | 0.34 |
| SEA | Martinez | Mario | M | $48,000.00 | $48,000.00 | 0 | 1 | 0.21 |
| SEA | Ianni | Patrick | D | $89,303.00 | $89,303.00 | 1 | 0 | 0.11 |
| SEA | Johansson | Adam | D | $175,000.00 | $182,833.33 | 0 | 2 | 0.11 |
| SEA | Parke | Jeff | D | $185,325.00 | $185,325.00 | 0 | 2 | 0.11 |
| SEA | Zakuani | Steve | F | $110,000.00 | $208,000.00 | 1 | 1 | 0.10 |
| SEA | Gonzalez | Leonardo | D | $125,000.00 | $125,000.00 | 0 | 1 | 0.08 |
| SEA | Hurtado | John Kennedy | D | $160,000.00 | $161,000.00 | 0 | 1 | 0.06 |
| SEA | Tiffert | Christian | M | $600,000.00 | $625,000.00 | 0 | 2 | 0.03 |
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