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Originally Posted by Ronnie Dobbs2
I have no problem with the Yankees spending. I do, on the other hand, think people continuing to equate the RS and Yankees, while ignoring both the disparity between the two and the multitude of teams near the Red Sox, is disengenuous.
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The Yankees are clearly in a different category, as I've alluded to in all my previous posts. The Red Sox are the next on the list though if you look at their pattern over the last decade. Based off of payroll estimates from Baseball-Reference.com (for 2001-2008) and the CBSSports.com link above (for 2009), the Yankees have averaged a $175M payroll from 2001-2009, rising from $112M to peaks of $208M in 2005 & 2008.
Here's some other notable teams:
Boston: $121M average, low of $100M in 2003, high of $143M in 2007
Mets: $110M average, low of $93M in 2001, high of $138M in 2008
Dodgers: $101M average, low of $83M in 2005, high of $119M in 2008
Cubs: $94M average, low of $65M in 2001, high of $135M in 2009
In each year, here is how each of those team's payrolls compared to the Yankees:
2001: Bos - 98.2%; Mets - 83.0%; Dodgers - 97.3%; Cubs - 58.0%
2002: Bos - 85.7%; Mets - 75.4%; Dodgers - 75.4%; Cubs - 60.3%
2003: Bos - 65.4%; Mets - 76.5%; Dodgers - 69.3%; Cubs - 52.3%
2004: Bos - 69.0%; Mets - 52.7%; Dodgers - 50.5%; Cubs - 49.5%
2005: Bos - 59.6%; Mets - 48.6%; Dodgers - 39.9%; Cubs - 41.8%
2006: Bos - 61.5%; Mets - 51.8%; Dodgers - 50.3%; Cubs - 48.2%
2007: Bos - 75.7%; Mets - 60.8%; Dodgers - 57.1%; Cubs - 52.9%
2008: Bos - 63.9%; Mets - 66.3%; Dodgers - 57.2%; Cubs - 56.7%
2009: Bos - 61.2%; Mets - 67.7%; Dodgers - 49.8%; Cubs - 67.2%
So in 6 of the last 9 years, Boston has had the 2nd highest payroll.
On average, Boston has had 69.0% of the Yankees payroll, the Mets 63.0%, the Dodgers 57.8% and the Cubs 53.7%.
Is there a big gap between the Yankees and everyone else? Yep. Is the gap much closer between #2 and #3? Yep. And perhaps the Mets and Cubs are now going to consistently compete with the Red Sox for the #2 payroll in the game moving forward.
Let's review my original statement:
Quote:
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Unless you're talking about the Yankees or possibly the Red Sox, salary is a consideration...
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I still don't feel this is controversial. I guess to make Red Sox fans feel better, I should've added the Mets and Cubs after I said "possibly the Red Sox"; would that really have changed my larger point?