Fun With Numbers

[NWinAZ]

I was really, really bored so I went over all 30 teams and their team payrolls. Since I hear so often that money doesn't buy you championships (though Yankees have more championships by far than any other team and they spend top 3 every year so...), I wanted to break the spending down more than just in total payroll because that to me is misleading.For example, a team can spend $150M, but $90M goes to 3 guys then there is either 1- Really good young talent allowing them to do this or 2- Some real cheap vets who are cheap for a reason.

So I first added the top 2 contracts for each team and then the top 3 for each and giving both a percentage. Here goes nothing;

Top 5 Highest 2 man salary % teams-

5- Blue Jays at 33%
.527 winning %

3- Padres at 34%
.473 winning %

3- Phils at 34%
.351 winning %

2- Rockies at 38%
.437 winning %

1- Mariners at 39%
.452 winning %

Top Lowest 2 man salary % teams

3- Giants/Yanks/Dodgers at 21%
.534/.542/.548

3- Nats at 21%
.542

3- Reds at 21%
.471

1- Royals at 20%
.594

1- Astros at 20%
.568

As you can see, there s only 1 team above .500 in the Bad bracket, and only 1 team under .500 in the Good bracket. Tells me that 2 man teams don't win and that spreading the money around gives you a better chance of having a complete, competitive team.

I will post the 3 man percentage top and bottom 5 below.

 

[NWinAZ]

3 Man:

Top 5 Highest 3 man salary % Teams:

5- Phils at 43%
4- Blue Jays at 44%
3- Padres at 48%
2- Mariners at 50%
1- Rockies at 51%

Top 5 Lowest 3 man salary % Teams:

5- Dodgers and D-Backs (.493 winning%) at 29%
3- Royals at 28%
3- Astros at 28%
1- Giants at 27%
1- Nats at 27%

 

[DHoey]

Home grown talant takes a legit farm system

 

[NWinAZ]

Home grown talant takes a legit farm system

My take from the numbers is that if you have homegrown talent then you don't have to overreact for a couple of top dollar players. It also shows a solid roster is better than 2 or 3 highly paid players. Like Mariners and Rockies show, spending 50% of your salary on three guys doesn't work. Funny thing is Rockies are at $96.2M and M's at $125.5M. So how much you spend is less important than how you spread it.

 

[unlvmariners]

Interesting stuff. Can't say I'm surprised though.

 

[cezero]

1) farm building
2) trades
3) FA signings

those numbers tell me that Z is so bad at #1 and #2, the only way he could use 3 to potentially build a contender is he has a paryoll of about $300 million to work with

not exaggerating

if anything, it might take more

 

[NWinAZ]

1) farm building
2) trades
3) FA signings

those numbers tell me that Z is so bad at #1 and #2, the only way he could use 3 to potentially build a contender is he has a paryoll of about $300 million to work with

not exaggerating

if anything, it might take more

M's would have to be at $244.5M team payroll to be top 5 of lowest % based on 2 man bracket.

 

[NWinAZ]

M's would have to be at $244.5M team payroll to be top 5 of lowest % based on 2 man bracket.

That is why I can't understand all these so-called pro writers ask what is wrong with the M's. It is pretty obvious. Overpaid like you said with no added help from cheap/drafted players.

 

[wazzu31]

Pretty sure we were all saying that right after Cano signed then Rodney right after. They had half their payroll locked into 3 guys and 2 weren't everyday players. It was nice having Cano but without Cano they could've moved Miller to 2B, done a Tulo type trade or at least for an average SS and still pulled off a free agent signing or a trade for a legitimate outfielder a back up catcher, and heck they still would've had some left over cash to have signed Cruz at his deal with Baltimore as well.

Jack's biggest mistake was once Cano was ready to sign was that he didn't deal at least one of the cluster of Franklin, Ackley, Miller or Taylor. All them had solid value prior to the Cano signing, none were 5 tool guys and those are the exact type of guys that to coin Zona, it's better to trade them to early than too late.

 

[NWinAZ]

For fun I went back to the 2001 season and calculated the 2 man percentage and we were at 19% of total salary. That equals a complete team.

 

[seahawksfan234]

I think a point that sort of shows that is for $24m you can have Robinson Cano (say he's hitting well), or you can spend that $24m on Howie Kendrick ($9.5), Nori Aoki ($4m) and Nick Markakis ($11m) for a total of $24.5m.

 

[NWinAZ]

I think a point that sort of shows that is for $24m you can have Robinson Cano (say he's hitting well), or you can spend that $24m on Howie Kendrick ($9.5), Nori Aoki ($4m) and Nick Markakis ($11m) for a total of $24.5m.

Exactly. Like I said before, it isn't how much you spend but how you spread it. Ask Marlins and their $300M man way of building. Great player, but needs more vet bats around him which are around $10M per right now.

 

[seahawksfan234]

I think it's okay to spend in excess of $20m on your franchise player (say Felix), but once you spend more than $15m on a player, you start seeing diminishing returns with each additional million spent. Even when Cano is at his best, (his Yankee stats), I don't see that he is worth 2 $12m players.

 

[NWinAZ]

I think it's okay to spend in excess of $20m on your franchise player (say Felix), but once you spend more than $15m on a player, you start seeing diminishing returns with each additional million spent. Even when Cano is at his best, (his Yankee stats), I don't see that he is worth 2 $12m players.

The point of the numbers is that it doesn't matter what you pay one or two individuals, but you have to up the values around them to compete. Like I posted earlier, if you want to pay Felix/Cano $48.9M combined then the chart shows you have to be around $240M total to be competitive.

 

[seahawksfan234]

The point of the numbers is that it doesn't matter what you pay one or two individuals, but you have to up the values around them to compete. Like I posted earlier, if you want to pay Felix/Cano $48.9M combined then the chart shows you have to be around $240M total to be competitive.

Agreed.

 

[NWinAZ]

Agreed.

Otherwise if you want to stay at $125M payroll, then you have to spread it amongst top 10 at least like in 2001.