2011 Major League Baseball: Do Wins Cost This Much?
The key seems to be to spending money in player development while leaving your team the flexibility to address your needs midseason. Four of this year’s playoff teams fit that description. Texas, Detroit, St. Louis, and Milwaukee all sit in the 10-20 range of payroll, and all made moves either in the offseason or around the trading deadline to address weaknesses. The acquisitions of Mike Adams, Doug Fister, Edwin Jackson and Zack Greinke were great additions that filled in holes around teams built primarily with homegrown talent.
Tampa Bay got there purely on their unmatched ability to acquire talent via the draft, and Arizona got there by making two very smart deals that landed them young, team controlled aces in Daniel Hudson and Ian Kennedy. So yeah, you can spend money to be successful, but you better have a whole lot to spend or know exactly where and how to spend it.
Commentary provided by Brett Talley (@TheRealTal) of TheFantasyFix.com.
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