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.

2. St. Louis Cardinals

Talk about having productive years, the Cards have won the National League Central six times in the last ten years and won a World Series in 2006. Only the Yankees and Red Sox have won more game since 2000. One of, if not the, most underrated team of the last decade.

3. Minnesota Twins

Although their payroll is around $90,000 for 2010, over the past ten years there payroll has been about half that amount while Joe Mauer and Johan Santana helped guide the Twins to five American League Central Division titles.

4. Tampa Bay Rays

The Rays go from a team that had a payroll of around $25,000 for much of the early 2000s, to a team that won the American League pennant in 2008. The most improved award for the past decade, hands down, goes to the Rays.

5. Oakland Athletics

Billy Beane just knows how to find talent for a low price. Although they have struggled over the past few years, it is hard to argue their success during the days where their pitching staff consisted of Tim Hudson, Barry Zito, and Mark Mulder.

6. Philadelphia Phillies

In the early 2000s the Phils had the low payroll, in the late 2000s the Phils produced the results. Philadelphia is like the father figure to Tampa Bay, yet they have one thing they Rays would love to have, a ring.

7. Arizona Diamondbacks

Three National League West titles, one World Series championship, and six seasons with 80 or more wins since the year 2000 allow the Diamondbacks to be considered a fairly successful franchise, largely due to the likes of Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson in the early 2000s.

8. Chicago White Sox

If there were one world in the dictionary used to describe the White Sox it would be consistency. They have kept a moderate payroll, average about 86 wins per season, and have one World Series title over the last 10 years. Barack Obama and other White Sox fans cannot be too disappointed with the productivity of their ball club.

9. Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

Some people may have thought the Angels would be a little bit lower on this list but they did have an average payroll of approximately $88,000 over the past 10 years, but there is no doubting their success as they won the America League West five times and captured one World Series title over that same time period.

10. New York Yankees

Yankee fans can finally silence some of the critics that say they pay for their wins. Sure they have the highest payroll in baseball but they also have the most wins over the last 10 years as well as two World Series titles and four American League pennants.

11. Boston Red Sox; 12. San Diego Padres; 13. Atlanta Braves; 14. Colorado Rockies; 15. San Francisco Giants; 16. Pittsburgh Pirates; 17 Cleveland Indians; 18. Washington Nationals; 19. Houston Astros; 20. Kansas City Royals; 21. Milwaukee Brewers; 22. Cincinnati Reds; 23. Detroit Tigers; 24. Chicago Cubs; 25. Toronto Blue Jays; 26. Los Angeles Dodgers; 27. Texas Rangers; 28. Seattle Mariners; 29. New York Mets; 30. Baltimore Orioles

About Matt Clark

Matt Clark is currently an intern for Sports Networker, studying sport management and public relations at York College of Pennsylvania. He has an extreme passion for learning about new trends in social media and technology and how it is revolutionizing sports. He has contributed as sports editor for the York College newspaper, been an event manager for collegiate sporting events, intramural supervisor, contributor to the sports information department, and executive board member on the Sport Management Student Association. Matt is heading into his third season as part of the game-day entertainment with the Scranton-Wilkes Barre Yankees. Connect with him on Twitter @mattgclark

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(This is a guest article by Stephen Lombardo)

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.

The one consistency with this franchise is their ultimate decision to break up their championship roster a year after they won the title.  The riches to rags story of the 1998 Florida Marlins is well chronicled, and the 2004 Marlins just were not the same team that won a title over the vaunted New York Yankees the year before.

The obvious reason why this always happened is whom ever the owner was up to this point never wanted to spend the money to keep the team competitive year after year.  Instead they would invest in other parts of the franchise that better interests them.  However, if you have watched this team in the recent years, you can see that a new crop of starting pitching and young stars are on the rise in Miami again.

With the recent news that the Marlins are being forced to up scale payroll, what will that mean for the rest of the league?  The Marlins have a strong foundation of starting pitching (Josh Johnson, Ricky Nolasco, Anibal Sanchez) to go along with one of the top five players in baseball (Hanley Ramirez), and the reigning Rookie of the Year (Chris Coghlan).  Not to mention one of the better power teams this side of the Phillies in the National League.  With this forced upgrade in payroll, we would all be wise in assuming that they will nail down some if not all of these players to keep a strong foundation.  Furthermore, the players union is now making them a player in free agency.  Imagine next year’s Matt Holliday in the lineup with Hanley Ramirez.  Sounds scary for the National League because it is scary for the National League.  Isn’t this perfect timing with the opening of their new stadium in 2012?  I guess we could say that there’s a chance there will be something hotter in Miami than just the weather come Julys in the future.

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Stephen Lombardo is a recent graduate of St. Johns’ University, with experience working for the Staten Island Yankees. Previous experiences also include working at CBS during the NCAA tournament in 2009 and writing for a fantasy baseball website. To learn more about Stephen connect with him on LinkedIn.

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