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Small markets watch Series from outside
Brewers, others hope to catch up
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Published: November 1, 2009
PHILADELPHIA
Owner Mark Attanasio of the Milwaukee Brewers thought about the teams in baseball's final four this year -- all large-market teams -- and wondered whether there would be room for his franchise anytime soon.
"We don't know if that's a trend or just an aberration," he said. "The disparity among the clubs appears to be widening."
Baseball's four league-championship series teams were among the top nine in opening-day payroll this year, led by the top-spending New York Yankees at $201 million. They were joined by the No. 6 Los Angeles Angels ($114 million), No. 7 Philadelphia ($113 million) and the No. 9 Los Angeles Dodgers ($100 million).
There was no room this year for the little guys.
"It's certainly trending in the direction," said General Manager Billy Beane of the Oakland A's. "The big markets are always going to be there. Whether or not they're the only ones there I guess remains to be seen."
Just last year, the Tam-pa Bay Rays won the AL pennant with a $51 million payroll, 28th among the 30 major-league teams. And parity has increased throughout baseball under the 1996-01 and 2002-06 labor contracts along with the current deal, which runs until December 2011.
Since the end of the Yankees' run of four World Series titles in five years, 23 of the 30 big-league teams have made the playoffs from 2001-09, with only Baltimore, Kansas City, Texas and Toronto missing out in the American League, and Cincinnati, Montreal-Washington and Pittsburgh failing to make it in the National League. Seven teams have won the World Series in the past eight years, with only Boston winning twice.
Increased revenue sharing has helped the small and middle markets, and the luxury tax has slowed spending by the Yankees a bit.
"We've had very good success over the last several years," said Bob DuPuy, Major League Baseball's president and chief operating officer. "While it has attracted people's attention that this year the higher-payroll teams and the higher-revenue teams made the playoffs, it is just one year and not enough to declare a trend."
Among the top 15 spenders as of the start of the season, just four had losing records this year: the No. 2 New York Mets (70-92), No. 8 Houston (74-88), the No. 12 Chicago White Sox (79-83) and No 15 Cleveland (65-97). And just five of the bottom 15 had winning records: No. 18 Colorado (92-70), No. 22 Texas (87-75), No. 24 Minnesota (87-76), No. 25 Tampa Bay (84-78) and No. 30 Florida (87-75).
There's no absolute correlation between spending and winning. But lots of money helps.
"We do not ever in this organization use payroll as an excuse for a lack of performance," said David Samson, the Florida Marlins' president. "We expect to make the playoffs every year, and our players when they take the field don't get intimidated by other teams' salaries."
"You still have to win games," he said. "I don't really focus on it the way frankly the media does as far as big payroll/small payroll. What we focus on is how teams are composed, the players they have and the way they build themselves and the way they perform."
After CC Sabathia left the Brewers to sign a $161 million, eight-year deal with the Yankees, Attanasio said maybe it was time to consider a salary cap.
Now, having had time to examine and reflect, he realizes proposing an absolute ceiling might provoke a confrontation with the players' union, which struck for 7½ months and wiped out the World Series after owners tried to get one in 1994. "There are better ways to address to competitive balance than salary caps," he said.
Two changes have been proposed for the amateur draft. One would extend it beyond the United States -- players outside the 50 states are free agents and can sign with anyone.
Another would eliminate negotiations for amateur players and replace them with a fixed slotting system. That could shift money from amateurs to veterans and decrease the commissions for the advisers who represent top high school, college and international players.
All that will be subject to collective bargaining.
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