dread_water

This is my first blog, so don't be too harsh on me...


Alex Rodriguez is making $28 million this season. The entire Florida Marlin's team is making a mere $21.8 million. According to the Associated Press, the top four highest paid players are in the American League. Jason Giambi Derek Jeter, Manny Ramirez, and Carlos Beltran round out the top five. It is pretty obvious that the AL (mainly the Yankees and the Red Sox) is dishing out an insane amount of money compared to the NL.

Again, according to the AP, which just released the team payrolls for 2008, says that the AL has six of the top ten highest payrolls. Oddly enough, there are six AL teams in the cheapest ten teams.

If I did the math correctly, the total for the fourteen AL teams is about $1,364,733,000. The sixteen NL teams is just below that, with $1,332,548,000. Even with two less teams, the AL is spending $32,185,000 more than the NL.

The AL teams are spending $97,480,000 on average, and the NL teams are spending $83,284,000. So on average, the AL teams are each spending $14 million more.

Does more money really make teams better? Overall, yes. The major exception though, is the Chicago White Sox, spending $121 million (fifth highest in MLB). Spending big bucks means that the team will be competitive every year, but does not guarantee a team a World Series title (ask the Yankees), much less a playoff berth (Mets). On the other hand, not spending a lot of money does not exclude a team from making it to the playoffs, much less the World Series (Diamond Backs and Rockies).

So does MLB need a salary cap? I don't think so. If teams have the money to spend, let them spend it. The best teams aren't the teams that spend the most, but spend the money they have wisely. Some of the best players don't make the most money, and many of the highest paid players are drastically overpaid. Even though I cheer for a small market team, I don't want to see a salary cap in place. After all, what would be the fun of watching the Yanks lose in the playoffs if they were spending the same amount of every other team?

So I'll let the Chicago Cubs pay $188 million. It doesn't mean that they can beat my Brewers, who are spending $81 million.

I got all of the individual team payrolls from the AP, the rest of the numbers I got on my own. Sorry if I made any mistakes.