Hey everybody! Another small market-large market baseball thread!

Saw this link today. It describes how much teams spent on free agents during the off-season.

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2010/03/offseason-free-agent-spending-by-team.html

Some highlights ...

-- The Red Sox, Cardinals and Mets were 1-2-3 in free agent spending, but the Brewers were fourth at $55,650,000.

-- The Mariners, Braves and Reds -- all considered medium-to-small market clubs -- were also in the top 10. Tack on the Astros and Nationals in the top 15.

-- And the free-spending Yankees? They're ranked 19th, behind noted free-spenders ... the Oakland A's.

-- The bottom 10 consists of owners or ownership groups (Diamondbacks, Royals, Padres, Pirates, Indians, Marlins (who spent $0) who are renowned for not putting any money into their baseball operation, many preferring to live off the luxury tax teet to pad their profits.

The smart ones knew it all along, but its nice to have the numbers to back it up.

 

One question: Since the Yankees spent about a half-billion dollars a year ago, what holes did they have to fill this past year?

 

Valid point, O_T, and you're right, they probably didn't need to spend as much this year.

However, the classic argument has always been that small-market teams can't spend period and that big-market teams will out-spend them no matter what. That list says otherwise.

 

The other slight consideration here is that it doesn't account for salary lost this offseason. The Angels are fifth, but during the same time period they lost John Lackey, Chone Figgins, Vlad Guerrero and Darren Oliver.

But having said that, it's an interesting list. Never would have guessed the Brewers would be that high.

 

Picking out only one year is a joke, especially a year with a relatively weak free agent class coming on the heels of the Yankees spending like crazy. Tony already pointed out one big reason why. Team payrolls for this year are a much better indicator.

 

A better measurement would be net change in payroll. The Broke Ass Rangers are in the middle at $22.5M in new contracts, but they also dumped Kevin Millwood, Hank Blalock and Marlon Byrd among others. So I think they are a net minus in payroll even though they spent a little on Harden and Vlad.