Payroll to Results: Successful MLB Teams

by Matt Clark | June 14th, 2010 | View Comments

Did you ever wonder which teams in Major League Baseball really get the most bang for their buck? Sure the Yankees won the last World Series last year but weren’t they supposed to win when they had the highest payroll in baseball? Each year the Pittsburgh Pirates have one of the lowest payrolls in baseball so shouldn’t fans expect them to finish in the basement of their division each year?

I have calculated a formula called the “Payroll to Results Rating” that examines teams between the years of 2000-2009. I took into consideration their average payroll, total wins, and playoff success and ranked them from 1 to 32.

1. Florida Marlins

The fish have an average payroll of under $36,000 over the last 10 years and they were still able to scrape five 80 plus win seasons along with a World Series title. If this formula were calculating numbers over the past 15 years, their rating would be even higher.

Baseball’s Diamond in the Rough: The Florida Marlins

by Lewis Howes | January 21st, 2010 | View Comments

(This is a guest article by Stephen Lombardo) SD Dirk

It is unlikely for the Marlins to make news in January. Usually they handle their in-house business around this time of year. Trying to keep guys like Hanley Ramirez and Josh Johnson are priority number one for this so called small market team. However, this past week, the players union and the Florida Marlins have reached an agreement for this cellar dweller franchise to up their payroll. I guess the one big question can now be asked; did baseball just wake a sleeping giant?

For as far back as we can remember, the Marlins are a draft and trade team built on their pitching and a few scattered all stars in the lineup. Just look at their championship teams. The 1997 team had up and coming stars like Gary Sheffield, Edgar Renteria, Moises Alou and a few others, but they won because of their pitching. With the likes of Kevin Brown, Al Leiter, and Livan Hernandez anchoring their rotation they were obviously good enough to go all the way. The same argument can be made for their 2003 campaign. This team supposedly won by accident. Or did they? Once again they did it with budding stars on the field like Juan Pierre, Derek Lee, Mike Lowell, and Luis Castillo who was there for both titles. Yes they had the leadership of Ivan Rodriguez, but that wasn’t why they won. They won again with a rotation that when healthy went five deep. Josh Beckett, A.J. Burnett, Brad Penny, mid-season call up and phenom Dontrelle Willis, and yes Carl Pavano, were the biggest reasons why the 2003 Marlins won the World Series.