Spending money on a baseball team does not necessarily buy championships. The Yankees have learned that all too well in 2010.
As more and more general managers have begun to adopt what is known as the "Moneyball" style of management (based on Michael Lewis' 2003 book), by attempting to maximize value per dollar spent using new ways of analyzing players, there have been several teams with low payrolls competing with the wealthiest titans of the league.
This year, only three (Yankees, Phillies, Giants) of the eight postseason teams were in the top-10 in payroll.
The Texas Rangers, who rank 27th in the league with a $55.3 million payroll, will be playing in the World Series for the first time in franchise history on Wednesday night. To get there, they ran over the Yankees, the only team to spend over $200 million in 2010.
Here's a complete list of MLB teams' 2010 payrolls. The playoff teams are in bold.
1. New York Yankees: $206.3 million
2. Boston Red Sox: $162.7 million
3. Chicago Cubs: $146.9 million
4. Philadelphia Phillies: $141.9 million
5. New York Mets: $132.7 million
6. Detroit Tigers: $122.9 million
7. Chicago White Sox: $108.3 million
8. Los Angeles Angels: $105 million
9. Seattle Mariners: $98.4 million
10. San Francisco Giants: $97.8 million
11. Minnesota Twins: $97.6 million
12. Los Angeles Dodgers: $94.9 million
13. St. Louis Cardinals: $93.5 million
14. Houston Astros: $92.4 million
15. Atlanta Braves: $84.4 million
16. Colorado Rockies: $84.2 million
17. Baltimore Orioles: $81.6 million
18. Milwaukee Brewers: $81.1 million
19. Cincinnati Reds: $72.4 million
20. Kansas City Royals: $72.3 million
21. Tampa Bay Rays: $71.9 million
22. Toronto Blue Jays: $62.7 million
23. Washington Nationals: $61.4 million
24. Cleveland Indians: $61.2 million
25. Arizona Diamondbacks: $60.7 million
26. Florida Marlins: $55.6 million
27. Texas Rangers: $55.3 million
28. Oakland Athletics: $51.7 million
29. San Diego Padres: $37.8 million
30. Pittsburgh Pirates: $34.9 million
