Archive for the 'Other teams envious of Rays payroll' Category

Sep 29

Joy, Jubilation, and the Sheer Exuberance of Victory

Baltimore Orioles, BJ Upton, Boston Red Sox, Cheap is as cheap does, Chicks dig the longball, Cowbells, Dan Johnson, David Price, Evan Longoria, F*ck the Heck?, Feed your mind, Insane in the membrane, Jake McGee, Joe Maddon, joel peralta, Johnny Damon, Jordi Scrubbings, Karma is a bitch, Lifestyles of the rich famous and good looking, Magic Number, Memories, New York Yankees, Other teams envious of Rays payroll, Pink Hat Nation, Pink Sox Nation, Playoffs?, Putting us in our place, Rays look good in glass slippers, Tampa Bay Rays, there are no rules, Things that make us giddy, Too early to open a beer?, Victory!, Walk-off win, Walk-off wins make us giddy, Your thoughts please Jordi Scrubbings 6 Comments »

Our correspondent Jordi Scrubbings was at the game last night. Here is his report. You can also here Jordi tonight on “The Sully Baseball Show” which can be heard HERE…

When I was a younger, I rooted heart and soul for the New York Mets. My dad was a Mets fan and I followed in his footsteps. One of my fondest memories of my dad and I’s shared fandom was when Mookie Wilson’s grounder rolled through Bill Buckner’s legs in Game 6 of the World Series. Being young and skinny, my dad gave me a big hug and swung my around the living room. Although I was a happy new fan, he was overjoyed. The Mets lived to see another day.

Here I am today the roughly same age my dad was in 1986.  The Rays have in many ways replaced the Mets as my true heart’s desire. The Mets are my first fan love and I will never forget them, but since 2007 day-in and day-out I’ve ridden with the Rays.

Although the Rays have made the Read the rest of this entry »

Sep 20

Jordi Talks Rays With a Red Sox Fan

Blog O War, Boston Red Sox, Exagerated headline, Fans do silly things, Feed your mind, Jordi Scrubbings, Other teams envious of Rays payroll, Out of our comfort zone, Things that make us giddy Jordi Scrubbings 1 Comment »

Jordi Scrubbings is back with a special announcement…

Since I started writing here last year I have noticed something: people actually take me for somewhat of a Rays expert. Ha ha, the joke is on them.

Seriously though, in all honesty, it is always very humbling when someone contacts me to get my opinion on the Rays. It has happened on twitter and now, for the first time, it happened on a podcast.

A few months ago, I started a correspondence with California-based Red Sox fan and comedian, filmmaker, and television producer Paul Francis Sullivan. Being that I consider myself a writer/blogger/comic, I look up to Sully and the things he has done. But anyway, Sully and I started following each other on twitter and reading each others’ blogs – it was all very e-migo-ish and blog-bro-tastic of us.

Yesterday, while watching the Red Sox-Orioles game, I received a message from Sully asking me if I would interested in being interviewed for his podcast. Of course, I said yes. So after a few minor technical difficulties (no podcast I ever done goes 100% smooth), Sully and I connected and talked. And talked. And talked.

We talked for almost an hour about the Rays, the Red Sox, my soft spot for Tim Wakefield (we went to the same high school), the brilliance of Joe Maddon, baseball managers and the Hall of Fame, the 2008 Rays, relief pitching, and this year’s playoffs.

So please check out Sully’s podcast featuring me. We come on at the 60:00 mark. Thanks.

Mike Lortz (aka Jordi Scrubbings) Joins the Sully Show

And a big thanks goes out to Sully for the invite. It was fun talking with a Red Sox fan. They are an interesting breed.

Jan 06

[PROFITABILITY] Measuring Return On Investment In Major League Baseball

Other teams envious of Rays payroll, Payroll Cork Gaines 3 Comments »

Recently Drays Bay took a look at how much several of the Rays were worth in 2008 as compared to what those players were actually paid. Using the new “Value in Dollars” feature at Fangraphs, they showed that the Rays received $81.5 million of production from 10 players, for approximately $14.4 million in salary. That equates to a 450% return on investment.

That is pretty good, but it left us wondering exactly how profitable the entire team was, and exactly how profitable the Rays need to be in order to be successful. To do this we need a little more information.

  1. Drays Bay only looked at players acquired by Andrew Friedman and Co. Certainly this is the benchmark for how a front office is measured. But we are now in the fourth off-season for World B. Friedman and this is now their team. While they deserve credit for the players acquired in the last three years, they also deserve credit (or blame) for players they have chosen to keep from the previous administration.
  2. Drays Bay does not include pitchers. At this time, Fangraphs does not have dollar values for pitchers.
  3. We also need some reference in order to know how much “profit” is needed to be successful.

For the last point, we need to keep in mind that it would be very difficult for a team to perform worse than the $43.8 million payroll the Rays began 2008 with. In fact, the Rays have to show a “profit” with such a small payroll. Certainly the nearly 6:1 ratio shown above is great, but that may not have been much more than the Rays need to do to remain competitive, especially in the AL East.

We already know that the Rays were second only to the Marlins in cost per win at $451K. But how did the Rays performance compare to their $43.8 million payroll and how did that compare to the rest of baseball?

Luckily for us, Fangraphs does have the Value Wins and Dollar values for each team. If we compare each of these values to the opening day payrolls of every team, we have the following “profit” rankings (values in millions).

A few notes on the above table…

  • The Rays led MLB in profit and were second only to the Marlins in Return on Investment.
  • When the performance of the entire team is considered, the Rays actually outperformed their payroll by a little more than 3:1.
  • Only one team (Mariners, $36.7MM) performed worse than the Rays’ opening day payroll of $43.8 million.
  • The Reds performance ($43.5MM) was nearly identical to the Rays’ payroll, with Cincinnati winning only 74 games.
  • Not surprising, MLB as a whole overpaid their players by $42.6 million, although the actual number is likely higher as these values only consider players on the opening day payroll.
  • $72.2 million in performance was the minimum needed to be a playoff team.
  • Three teams made the playoffs (Angels, Dodgers, White Sox) that actually performed below their payroll. The Angels number shows just how weak the AL West was and how inflated their 100 win total was.
  • The Yankees show why they will always eventually have to pay back the Devil for buying championships. In an effort to always “get their man” they inevitably give extra years and dollars to players that will be in serious decline towards the end of the deals.
  • We hadn’t realized just how bad the Mariners were in 2008. Wow.

Simply turning a “profit” is not enough for the Rays. In fact, in 2007, the Rays played like a $57.9 million team despite only a $24.1 million opening day payroll. That team produced a $33.8 million “profit” in performance and a 140.2% return on investment, and yet they only won 66 games.

Now let’s take a look at what it took to make the playoffs the last three years (we did not want to go too far back in time as we are not taking into account inflation; values in millions).

Here, the math is very simple. Even if the Rays enter the 2009 season with a payroll in the $60 million range, they will still need to nearly double that value in terms of performance if they want to compete for a playoff spot in the always tough AL East.

Money In The Bank Pt. 3 [Drays Bay]
The ‘smart’ choice to win the Series? Tampa [MSNBC]

Sep 24

[THE EVIL EMPIRE] Playing In The AL East Is Too Hard For The Yankees

Other teams envious of Rays payroll, Payroll Cork Gaines 5 Comments »

Now that the 2008 New York Yankees are officially Roadkill, Hank Steinbrenner wants everybody to know unfair baseball is.

“The biggest problem is the divisional setup in Major League Baseball,” Steinbrenner wrote. “I didn’t like it in the 1970s, and I hate it now. Baseball went to a multi-division setup to create more races, rivalries and excitement. But it isn’t fair…You see it this season, with plenty of people in the media pointing out that Joe Torre and the Dodgers are going to the playoffs while we’re not. This is by no means a knock on Torre — let me make that clear — but look at the division they’re in. If L.A. were in the AL East, it wouldn’t be in the playoff discussion. The AL East is never weak.”

Oh, where to start…

We have no idea how anybody can compare the records of two teams from different leagues. This is just idiocy. Outside of 18 interleague games, the Yankees and the Dodgers do not play the same teams. Who is to say the Dodgers wouldn’t win 110 games playing in the AL East? Or that the Yankees wouldn’t still suck if they played in the NL West?

And we are having trouble remembering the time Hank came to the defense of the Rays or the Jays or the Orioles 10 of the last 11 years when the Yankees and Red Sox, two of the biggest payrolls in baseball, were finishing 1-2 in the AL East.

Steinbrenner later pisses all over the championship won by the Cardinals in 2006.

“St. Louis winning the World Series — that was ridiculous,” Steinbrenner said. “The Cardinals won their division with 83 wins — two fewer than the Phillies, who missed the postseason…”People will say the Cardinals were the best team because they won the World Series. Well, no, they weren’t. They just got hot at the right time. They didn’t even belong in the playoffs. And neither does a team from the NL West this season.”

Apparently Steinbrenner has forgotten the Yankees 2000 World Series Championship squad that finished the regular season 87-74, 3 games behind Cleveland, who missed the postseason.

Regardless of how you feel about the divisional lineup in baseball or the unbalanced schedule, Steinbrenner should not be your voice of reason. This is the equivalent of somebody buying a $1 million Ferrari Enzo and then complaining about gas prices.

Luckily for Yankees fans, it is actually Hal Steinbrenner that runs the franchise. Hank just talks a lot.

Other things in baseball that are not fair:

  • Not getting a free pass to the playoffs with a $200 million payroll.
  • Seeing the Rays’ $44 million payroll and wondering where the extra $156 million went.
  • Having to spend $400 million of your own money on a $1.3 billion stadium.
  • Having to play the Jays, O’s and Rays 57 times each season over the last 10 years.
  • Having to trade for a $13 million player (Bobby Abreu) when another $13 million player (Gary Sheffield) goes on the DL.
  • Having to spend millions on unproven top-10 talents through international free agency (ie. Alfonso Soriano) when nobody will let you pick in the top 10 of the amateur draft.
  • Wasting $40 million on Carl Pavano and still making the playoffs 3 times.

Steinbrenner questions divisional setup [MLB]

Sep 02

[EVIL EMPIRE] $140MM Doesn’t Buy You What It Used To

Other teams envious of Rays payroll, Payroll Cork Gaines 10 Comments »

This is a repost from the “Pepper” series earlier today, but it is just too good not to have its own forum…

Those of you that are regulars in this little corner of the interwebs know we never bitch about payroll. Almost exactly two years ago, we did one of our only posts on the subject, in which we compared the salaries of the starting lineups for a late-season Devil Rays-Yankees matchup. At the time, the Rays were 30.5 games behind the first-place Yankees. The payrolls for the starting lineups on that night were $7.6 million for the Rays and $127.7 million for the Yankees, for a difference of $120.1 million.

Two years later, the Rays are now 12 games in front of the Yankees. Certainly the payroll discrepancy is less these days…right?


A 42.5 game swing in the standings and the payroll difference is still $125.7 million, $5 milion more than what it was two years ago. That is $174,000 per win for the Rays and $1.9 million per win for the Yankees.

Karma is a bitch and the Yankees are ours.

Jan 22

[2008 ROSTER] 2008 40-Man Roster And Payroll Projections

40-man Roster, Other teams envious of Rays payroll, Payroll Cork Gaines 7 Comments »

The 2008 40-man roster and payroll projection is based only players currently within the organization and will be updated when trades are consummated and free agents are signed.

We are now less than a month away from Spring Training and after the recent flurry of contracts signings with the Rays arbitration-eligible players, we now have a much better idea of what the 2008 Tampa Bay Rays roster will look like and what the opening day payroll will be. Today we take a look at the projected 40-man roster and payroll. Tomorrow we will update our 25-man roster projection.

Notes on the projections can be found after the roster…

A few notes on the 40-man roster and payroll projections…

  • The only salary that has the potential to be significantly different than that which we have listed is Mike DiFelice. We are assuming that the non-roster invitee will make the squad as the Rays backup catcher. DiFelice signed a minor league deal, but if he makes the roster it is unclear how much he would earn, but we can assume it would be in the $0.5-0.8 million range with plenty of incentives.
  • All of the first, second and third year players salaries are estimates but should be in the neighborhood. Therefore, barring any further free agent signings/trades, the opening day payroll will be within $500,000 of our prediction of $42 million.
  • That being said we can expect the Rays to sign a free agent left-handed relief pitcher. The salary for that player will be approximately $2 million, which would push the opening day payroll to approximately $44 million or about 57% greater than the 2007 opening day payroll .
  • We have not followed the off-season moves of the Marlins, Pirates and Nationals, but $44 million would rank ahead of all three of those team’s 2007 opening day payroll.
  • The next two teams on the payroll list, Arizona ($52 million) and Colorado ($54 million), both made the playoffs in 2007.