Big Money

It's nice to see the annual battle of the Haves in the respective League Championship Series. Don't be fooled that, just because the Yankees are out, this year's post season doesn't feature big money teams. The remaining playoff teams' salary rankings and team salaries (in rough numbers) are:

5. Angels $95 Million
6. Cardinals $92 Million
12. Astros $76 Million
13. White Sox $75 Million

On the other hand, our beloved Tribe ranks 26th with a team salary of $41 Million. The good news is that they narrowly beat out the Brewers ($40M), Pirates ($38M), Devil Rays ($37M), and Royals ($36). Now, what do the bottom four teams have in common with winning? The answer is "nothing." Each of the bottom four teams has been lost in the wilderness for at least a decade. Each is characterized by the annual exodus of good players who simply can't stand the culture of losing. This year, the Devil Rays distinguished themselves by having one of the best managers of the last ten years fire them. Sweet Lou, who is one of the toughest skippers in the bigs, just couldn't handle his ownership's continued complacency about losing. Poor Lou! He was under the delusion that baseball teams are supposed to win games and ownership's job is to give the manager the tools to do it. How quaint. Because I like him, I hope that, before Lou takes another managerial job, one of his friends has the common courtesy to tell him that the sole purpose of at least one third of all Major League Baseball teams is to show up expecting to lose 55-60% of their games and to pray for luxury tax money.