Fire Gripes About Payroll Inequity in Baseball




Don't get on Buck's bad side when a mic is nearby.

Orioles Manager Buck Showalter's recent comments suggesting that baseball teams can't succeed without a big payroll need to be fired.

Last week Showalter said: "I'd like to see how smart Theo Epstein is with the Tampa Bay payroll. You got Carl Crawford 'cause you paid more than anyone else, and that's what makes you smarter?"

What if Epstein had Tampa's payroll? For 2011, the team formerly known as the Devil Rays will spend $72.3 million. While it's impossible to say exactly what moves Epstein would make, his team would definitely have a shot at making the playoffs based on spending alone. In 2010, one team made the playoffs while spending less than Tampa will in 2011 (Rangers), one team made the playoffs with roughly the same payroll (Reds) and a third team (Padres) narrowly missed the playoffs while spending significantly less. Oh, and then there's Tampa: it won the AL East in 2010 over Boston and the Yankees.

Obviously a fat wallet helps a team win, but Theo's own Sawx didn't make the playoffs last year with their $162.7 million payroll, so if Buck wanted to knock Theo for not being so smart, maybe he should have said Theo doesn't maximize his resources very well.

It seemed like "Moneyball" would finally convince people that money isn't everything in baseball, but that was 2002 and people still haven't learned. When will baseball realize that it's not entirely about how much money you have, but how you use it?