Saturday, October 04, 2003
Minnesota and Florida are cities where the doom of baseball has been preached in recent years. The Oakland franchise has been a serial "aberration", winning year after year with a slim payroll. For those who think that baseball has a serious problem with the level playing field, here's a quick breakdown of payroll and the playoff series:
Team Payroll ($M) Rank San Francisco Giants 82.9 (9) Florida Marlins 49.0 (25) Atlanta Braves 106.2 (3) Chicago Cubs 79.9 (11) New York Yankees 152.7 (1) Minnesota Twins 55.5 (18) Boston Red Sox 99.9 (6) Oakland A's 50.3 (23)
Three teams from the top quartile, two from the second quartile, one from the third and a pair from the bottom quartile. Because anything can happen in a short series, the ALCS might come down to a pair of teams that total for a payroll slightly above $100M.
(Salary data from USA Today.)
posted by David 10:38 AM
