With only two more regular season games on the MLB calendar and the playoff matchups still unclear this is foreshadowing the most exciting postseason in recent memory.
Since I make a living as a “money guy” my mind can’t help be fascinated by the staggering payroll differences * in professional baseball as opposed to other team sports that have embraced a salary cap. The parity created by the salary cap in other sports has leveled the playing field, encouraged competition and keeps fans on the edge of the seats hoping that “this is going to be the year” their team rises above and makes the payoffs. Baseball on the other hand is heavily skewed toward teams with the highest payrolls with the occasional “Cinderella Story”.
This year fans of the underdog will be hoping the San Diego Padres continue their surge and make the playoffs. I’m astonished how competitive they have been this season especially when you see that their highest paid NL rival, the Phillies, pays their players 3.74x more and their highest paid AL rival, the Yankees, pays their players 5.44x more.
I’ll be cheering on my hometown team the Tampa Bay Rays as opposed to my childhood favorite New York Yankees with 2.8x the payroll. Go Rays!
American League:
New York Yankees $ 206,333,389
Minnesota Twins $ 97,559,166
Tampa Bay Rays $ 71,923,471
Texas Rangers $ 55,250,544
National League:
Philadelphia Phillies $141,928,379
San Francisco Giants $ 98,641,333
Atlanta Braves $ 84,423,666
Cincinnati Reds $ 71,761,542
San Diego Padres $ 37,799,300
* Payroll statistics from USA Today
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What a large payroll allows you to do is to write off, ignore, or cover-up your mistakes. See: Burnett, A.J.
Great work keep it coming
Dude. This site is cool. How did you make it look like this ?
This website was created in WordPress… for more on how it was created follow this link: http://davidrepka.com/personal-brand/mother-necessity
~ Dave
keep up the great work on the site. I love it. Could maybe use some more updates more often, but i am sure that you got some better or other stuff to do , hehe. =p
Can I just say what a relief to find someone who actually knows what theyre talking about on the internet.
Payrolls does matter I think, I live here in
st. pete and I also cheer for the rays but they
stumble in the playoffs. My fear is not enough stars
to get over the hump you need that MJ or Kobe B.
They Need That star that can deliver in the post season because they keep losing and the only way
I see it, is to pay $$$ more money or keep getting
to post season and losing!!!