No ground rules were set out when colleague Andy Kehe approached me about an idea of creating our own All-Overprice and All-Bargain team.

But, I wanted to keep my 25-man roster as true to a major league roster as possible. I wanted to build my team like any general manager and skipper would. Andy has three first baseman, and couldn’t believe he needed a second catcher. There’s really the big difference in the makeup of our teams.

I don’t want to go the rosters and compare player-by-player. But I’d like to touch on a few points, and you can draw your own conclusions:

As far as Alex Rodriguez, let me clarify the statement. Is he worth 28 million dollars? No.  No athlete is worth that type of money. But is he worth being paid the highest salary in baseball. Yes. The guy can mash.  He’s a top-3 in every major hitting category. He’s the best third baseman far and away, and he’s worth being paid No. 1 money. The market just so happens to say its $28 million.

While I don’t have A-Rod, I do have my share of Yankees. Jason Giambi is not worth $23 million-plus, because he’s not if the top guy at his position. He’s been an albatross to the Yankees. Unfortunately, Steinbrenner can’t cut or trade him without eating all or most of his salary. Kyle Farnsworth ($5.9 mil.) was signed as a setup guy for Rivera. He’s not even the setup for the setup guy, anymore. Carl Pavano ($11 mil.) pitched one game last year. Nuff said.

And I’ll take Kendall’s salary over Brian Schneider’s inflated one anyday. Schneider (5.4 million) only makes that kind of money because he has to live in New York. He’s not worth anything close to that. Kendall has had 3 All-Star appearances. Schneider just one All-Star game.

Eric Gagne is not worth $10 and neither is Francisco Cordero worth $8.6 million. They are not the top closers in the game, which is a bad sign for our bargain closers. Bobby Jenks, Jonathon Papelbon and Matt Capps will likely command that kind of money when they’re eligible for arbitration.

As Andy pointed out, I splurged a little bit when it came to our bargain guys. But I don’t consider an extra $4 million ($3,438,550 To be exact) that much of difference, until you look at my roster. I’ll take my starting rotation, and bullpen guys over his group anyday. Justin Verlander ($1.13 mil) is an 18-game winner with 183 Ks, and Francisco Liriano (327,000) has Cy Young potential. Former Blaze player James Shields ($1 mil) struck out 184 for a terrible Rays team.

I built my team around speed with Weeks ($1,056,00), Hanley Ramirez ($439,000), Granderson ($1 mil), Victorino ($480,000) and Chris Young ($406,000) all threats to steal 30-plus bases.

Only guy on Andy’s bargain list that I have a serious problem with is Keith Foulke. Foulke hasn’t pitched well since the White Sox one the World Series in 2003. Don’t know what kind of a bargain that is.

Also, we both agreed that former Bakersfield Blaze outfielder Josh Hamilton ($396,000) might be the pick of picks. He’s making the league minimum and has 40-HR potential. It’s nice to have a guy with a local connection on both teams.

And, you’ll notice I selected Bakersfield’s own Phil Dumatrait ($390,050). The kid is going to have a breakout year. Mark it down.