Sports 472: State of the Sport: Baseball

For the first few weeks I will be blogging about the state of different sports. This week's feature is baseball.

With the baseball playoffs in full swing and down the final 4 of the sport (Cleveland, Boston, Arizona and Colorado), this should be an exciting time for the sport and MLB. However a well documented cloud (or puddle if you will) of steroids continues to hang over Major League Baseball, and now the highest paid player in baseball may be opting for free agency to get an even richer contract. I used to work for a baseball team back in the 90's and I remember reading a lot about salaries and how high they were getting, how owners were frustrated about this. But doesn't this go back to self control? I mean I know people will say "Well if so and so didn't pay this for a player someone else would have." Economics and baseball are screwed up. MLB's top 10 teams in payroll (Thanks to USA Today)

New York Yankees $ 189,639,045
Boston Red Sox $ 143,026,214
New York Mets $ 115,231,663
Los Angeles Angels $ 109,251,333
Chicago White Sox $ 108,671,833
Los Angeles Dodgers $ 108,454,524
Seattle Mariners $ 106,460,833
Chicago Cubs $ 99,670,332
Detroit Tigers $ 95,180,369
Baltimore Orioles $ 93,554,808
St. Louis Cardinals $ 90,286,823
San Francisco Giants $ 90,219,056

Of these teams let's look at who is still in the playoffs...1. The Red Sox. So now here's a list of the bottom 8 teams in payroll:

Cleveland Indians $ 61,673,267
San Diego Padres $ 58,110,567
Colorado Rockies $ 54,424,000
Arizona Diamondbacks $ 52,067,546
Pittsburgh Pirates $ 38,537,833
Washington Nationals $ 37,347,500
Florida Marlins $ 30,507,000
Tampa Bay Devil Rays $ 24,123,500

Notice something? I sure did that the 3 of the 4 remaining teams in the playoffs are here. I'd also like to point out that the Yankees, Angels, Cubs all of whom are on the top part of the hgihest spenders got bounced in the first round by their bottom spending counterparts.

I guess owners of MLB should take a page out of the real life playbook which is this. It's how much money you spend on a player but the quality of how that player will preform. Now I'll give you this, a lot of free agency is luck, players getting/staying healthy, career years, off years by "proven" well paid players, and so on. However this is a treand that has been occuring over the past 6-7 years that the lower spending teams are out performing those teams that are spending more and more money. The GM for the NY Yankees Brian Cashman said best, "My ultimate goal would be to home-grow everybody. That's not realistic, but my biggest dream would be to home-grow it all," Cashman said Monday night. "I'm very devoted to the amateur pipeline in the domestic and international markets."


So the question begs, if you were an owner, how do you allocate a $65 million dollar payroll (this is between the high spenders and the low spenders on this list). IF you know enough, post a 25 man roster, if not tell me how you'd like to see baseball handle the seriod issue.