Money Can Only Get You So Much

The top three most paid players for the Yankees (A-Rod = $33,000,000, Jeter = $21,600,00, and Teixeira = $20,625,000) have a combined salary of $75,225,000, which means the Yankees would still have the eightieth highest payroll in baseball if those three players were the only ones getting paid. But some how there are four teams better then the big spending Yankees and the Yankees are also second in their division. But trading $201,449,189 for fifth place in the league isn't a terrible deal considering some other teams spending blunders. For example Houston's payroll is $102,996,414, and they are ninth in the league, and some how they are last in a very tough NL Central with a below .500 record. A similar case is with the Chicago Cubs, who spent the third most in the league at $134,809,000, but are now resting at a .500 record and in the middle of the pack for the NL Central Pennant and World Series trophy.

After doing this research I was perplexed at how teams who dole out so much money could still not being as well as they should. So I did some more research on the teams with spending problems: the Cubs, Astros, and Yankees. I came up with this. Many problems with teams not getting their money’s worth out of players has nothing to do with if the player is producing but actually, what the manager is doing with the player. I'll first start with the biggest spenders: the Yankees. There are obvious problems like giving so much money to the top feeders, but also little ones like giving Nick Swisher $5,400,000, which is $100,000 less than what Hanley Ramirez gets. Also giving Jose Molina $2,125,000, and only playing him 16 games is probably not a smart decision. As for Houston, their problems have more to do with their players not producing and getting injured then the other teams, but it may not be smart to give $1,750,000 to Darin Erstad a guy who is hitting .130, which is more then three times what Evan Longoria gets paid. And finally, the Cubs pay their top four starting pitchers a combined 47 million dollars, which means that the average starter for the Cubs is getting around $12,000,000.

THE WAY I SEE IT- I'm no GM or team owner so I can't tell you exactly what teams should do. What I do know is that teams have to stop giving the player that is very good that year a ton of money, and start investing in their farm systems where teams like Tampa Bay drafted and coached talented rookies into MLB Champions.