On the right rail, larry linked to Jeff Zimmerman of BTB who, using Josh Hermsmeyer's free injury time database, generated a table of games missed by team including percent of salary lost. It looks like this:
| Rank | Team | Total Salary | Salary Lost | Total Days | Number of Trips | Percentage of Total Payroll |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | LAD | $802,269,413 | $214,186,872 | 6717 | 61 | 27% |
| 2 | WAS | $395,077,500 | $87,927,311 | 7395 | 73 | 22% |
| 3 | TEX | $592,355,667 | $130,295,946 | 8521 | 77 | 22% |
| 4 | NYM | $912,960,802 | $198,784,051 | 7922 | 72 | 22% |
| 5 | ARI | $567,058,065 | $112,040,169 | 6347 | 72 | 20% |
| 6 | ATL | $752,293,394 | $146,002,505 | 6574 | 67 | 19% |
| 7 | OAK | $456,603,575 | $88,576,685 | 5211 | 50 | 19% |
| 8 | SD | $450,328,690 | $84,326,605 | 5964 | 68 | 19% |
| 9 | KCR | $415,440,333 | $77,368,885 | 7206 | 81 | 19% |
| 10 | DET | $650,323,576 | $120,741,210 | 6621 | 53 | 19% |
| 11 | BAL | $559,966,955 | $100,803,387 | 7716 | 68 | 18% |
| 12 | CLE | $481,570,082 | $82,899,809 | 5499 | 61 | 17% |
| 13 | ANA | $781,804,489 | $131,803,169 | 1864 | 24 | 17% |
| 14 | TBA | $279,920,832 | $45,948,441 | 4898 | 62 | 16% |
| 15 | STL | $701,113,759 | $113,433,432 | 6370 | 57 | 16% |
| 16 | CIN | $490,024,584 | $71,801,485 | 6894 | 70 | 15% |
| 17 | MIL | $448,053,000 | $65,448,742 | 4862 | 53 | 15% |
| 18 | COL | $476,445,377 | $67,833,222 | 5768 | 71 | 14% |
| 19 | SF | $673,267,093 | $91,626,965 | 4202 | 53 | 14% |
| 20 | TOR | $555,509,833 | $75,545,147 | 5243 | 57 | 14% |
| 21 | CHC | $780,401,763 | $106,017,190 | 5444 | 58 | 14% |
| 22 | PHI | $705,761,638 | $86,937,200 | 4540 | 62 | 12% |
| 23 | HOU | $655,044,680 | $79,356,784 | 3888 | 44 | 12% |
| 24 | BOS | $976,978,257 | $117,482,570 | 5556 | 71 | 12% |
| 25 | NYY | $1,464,447,266 | $175,817,451 | 6107 | 57 | 12% |
| 26 | MIN | $462,768,538 | $50,398,150 | 4917 | 49 | 11% |
| 27 | PIT | $350,135,323 | $37,785,164 | 4759 | 49 | 11% |
| 28 | FLO | $298,132,793 | $25,716,545 | 6007 | 56 | 9% |
| 29 | SEA | $747,503,317 | $59,606,332 | 5245 | 52 | 8% |
| 30 | CHW | $677,133,665 | $38,169,033 | 2135 | 38 | 6% |
So the Sox lost the lowest percent portion of their salary to injury than any other team from 2002-2009. 6% just also happens to be 2 standard deviations from the mean of 16%. That's $70MM total saved compared to average, or $8.8MM per season. That would be worth a 2-3 win player on the market in '10. And, actually, I'd bet the '10 levels are about average for the '02-'09 respective markets, so you could think of the Sox as getting an extra above average player per season over the time period covered.
I actually made this calculation another way in a Fanpost at BTB. To quote myself:
If you assume that the team loses a 1.5 WAR/150G player and has to call up a replacement level player and .85*Days Missed = Games Missed, then we can use the table and say
.85*DM*1.5/150 = .01*GM = WAR lost to injury
Here's how the Sox did when applying that calculation:
| Team | Total Days | Avg Days/Season | WAR Lost | WLAA |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ANA | 1864 | 233 | 1.98 | -4.05 |
| CHW | 2135 | 266.875 | 2.27 | -3.77 |
| HOU | 3888 | 486 | 4.13 | -1.90 |
| SF | 4202 | 525.25 | 4.46 | -1.57 |
| PHI | 4540 | 567.5 | 4.82 | -1.21 |
| PIT | 4759 | 594.875 | 5.06 | -0.98 |
| MIL | 4862 | 607.75 | 5.17 | -0.87 |
| TBA | 4898 | 612.25 | 5.20 | -0.83 |
| MIN | 4917 | 614.625 | 5.22 | -0.81 |
| OAK | 5211 | 651.375 | 5.54 | -0.50 |
| TOR | 5243 | 655.375 | 5.57 | -0.46 |
| SEA | 5245 | 655.625 | 5.57 | -0.46 |
| CHC | 5444 | 680.5 | 5.78 | -0.25 |
| CLE | 5499 | 687.375 | 5.84 | -0.19 |
| BOS | 5556 | 694.5 | 5.90 | -0.13 |
| COL | 5768 | 721 | 6.13 | 0.09 |
| SD | 5964 | 745.5 | 6.34 | 0.30 |
| FLO | 6007 | 750.875 | 6.38 | 0.35 |
| NYY | 6107 | 763.375 | 6.49 | 0.45 |
| ARI | 6347 | 793.375 | 6.74 | 0.71 |
| STL | 6370 | 796.25 | 6.77 | 0.73 |
| ATL | 6574 | 821.75 | 6.98 | 0.95 |
| DET | 6621 | 827.625 | 7.03 | 1.00 |
| LAD | 6717 | 839.625 | 7.14 | 1.10 |
| CIN | 6894 | 861.75 | 7.32 | 1.29 |
| KCR | 7206 | 900.75 | 7.66 | 1.62 |
| WAS | 7395 | 924.375 | 7.86 | 1.82 |
| BAL | 7716 | 964.5 | 8.20 | 2.16 |
| NYM | 7922 | 990.25 | 8.42 | 2.38 |
| TEX | 8521 | 1065.125 | 9.05 | 3.02 |
WLAA is WAR Lost Above Average, so negative is better. If Herm is synonymous with the White Sox ability to keep players on the field, then he's been worth 2-4 wins per season since '02. Either way, this seems to confirm that the Sox are the best in the business when it comes to keeping their guys on the field and that doing so has been a major competitive advantage.