The Reid Sox payroll is artificially low due to the arbitraton status of key contributors. Lester, Buchholtz, Ellsbury and Pedroia are getting about $20 milllion to $30 million less than they are worth based on their recent performance levels, but that savings rapidly dissipates from year to year. They will have to pay $200 million within two or three years to keep their team intact. The Red Sox payroll is also undervalued by the fact that the $50 million posting fee for Dice-K really should be allocated to the team payroll of each of his six contracted years.
Detroit had a much higher payroll a couple of years ago but ultimately had to confront the fact that 1) no matter how much any team spends, it cannot guarantee a championship, and 2) in their market, they can't pay what Boston, New York, Chicago and Los Angeles can and still turn a profit when they don't win the world series.
Ditto for Philadelphia. What they are doing right now will just be a blip on their long term payroll level curve. Oncve two pitchers develop lame arms, their revenue will plummet and they will have to cut payroll by maybe $50 million.
Detroit had a much higher payroll a couple of years ago but ultimately had to confront the fact that 1) no matter how much any team spends, it cannot guarantee a championship, and 2) in their market, they can't pay what Boston, New York, Chicago and Los Angeles can and still turn a profit when they don't win the world series.
Ditto for Philadelphia. What they are doing right now will just be a blip on their long term payroll level curve. Oncve two pitchers develop lame arms, their revenue will plummet and they will have to cut payroll by maybe $50 million.
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Here's Ubaldo's line (13-1 record at the time) from last year's appearance vs. the Sox:
