Money buys Pennants

"You can't just buy championships" people argue in baseball...the Yanks have no chemistry and are the best team that money can buy, or the Mets are collection of overpaid players, or the Sox are contributing unfairly to outrageous MLB salaries, or the Cubs just pay a lot of money to not win are simple minded and asinine. Money buy opportunity and wins. The Florida Marlins are an anomaly, an outlier, and a product of luck.

Currently, 9 of the top 10 payrolls in baseball are in first place or playoff contention with the Mets being out of it due to a plethora of injuries to its best players . While 4 of the bottom 5 payrolls are in last place by an average of 20 games.

The MLB chemistry issue is overblown. Baseball is an individual sport masquerading as a team sport. It's reasonable to argue that winning uplifts morale and is positively correlated with chemistry. So, spend money, get good players, and you increase your chances of winning. Don't spend money and pray that you get lucky with a young player. Money is the most reasonable, tangible factor involved in constructing a winning team.



Any and every team can spend more or less than they currently spend. Indeed, all teams can't spend the same amount of money, but they all definitely can spend significantly more or less than they currently do. It's just many owners would rather not spend money on payroll and would rather pocket the money.

Sportynation, this is my Minority Report.