Tag: miami marlins

Overall, Not Spending Means Not Winning In MLB

When people talk about Major League Baseball teams that compete on small budgets, the most common names that are brought up are the Tampa Bay Rays and the Oakland A’s. Obviously, the Cleveland Indians want to join that club by slashing their payroll over the past three seasons.

In 2020, two of the teams that ranked in the bottom five in payroll made the playoffs. The AL Champion Rays were one, and the Miami Marlins were the other. The other three were all under the .500 mark, led? by the Pirates, who had the worst record in the sport at 19-41.

The others were the Orioles and Royals.

The last season in which 162 games were played, which is a better comparison because more teams made the post-season in ’20 due to the shortened season. Only the Rays, among the five lowest payrolls in the sport, made the playoffs. The other four teams, Toronto, Pittsburgh, Miami, and the Chicago White Sox were a combined 117 games under the break even mark.

We understand that sometimes payroll is tied to a team’s success. For example, rebuilding teams, organizations that choose to tear down their rosters to go with young talent instead of declining veterans, will have low payrolls. And in the 90’s, when the Indians had perpetually contending teams, we remember GM John Hart defending his high payroll by saying the Tribe had a lot of good players, so they should rank high on the list of teams with big salary expenditures.

In 2018, the lowest payrolls belonged to Tampa Bay (90-72), Oakland (97-65 and made the playoffs), White Sox (62-100), Miami (63-98), and Pittsburgh (82-79).

And the lowest payrolls in 2017 belonged to San Diego (71-91), Oakland (75-87), Milwaukee (86-76), Cincinnati (68-94), and of course, Tampa Bay (80-82).

Because we wanted to show five full seasons (not counting 2020) of data, in 2016, the teams spending the least on players were Tampa Bay (68-94), San Diego (68-94), Milwaukee (73-89), Oakland (69-93), and Miami (79-82).

When people talk about being successful with small payrolls, they are really only talking about two organizations: The Rays and the A’s. That’s two teams out of 30, which isn’t a good percentage. Only Tampa Bay last season made the World Series. So, having a low payroll doesn’t exactly translate to success in the post-season.

The other organizations which were mentioned several times earlier included Pittsburgh, which had one season over .500 and that was 82-79, and Miami, which probably only made the playoffs in 2020 because they expanded the post-season last year, and would they have made it if the season were 162 games?

It also seems like there is room for only one small payroll team in the post-season each season. So, this year, the Indians and their slashed payroll have to compete with Tampa, because as of today, the A’s have moved out of the bottom five for 2021.

The White Sox were in the bottom five many times in this piece, but again, they were in rebuild mode, waiting for their young prospects to be good, and then spending to complement them, and San Diego pretty much did the same, although they collected a ton of prospects and then traded many of them (not all) for established players.

Yes, we understand the success that Tampa Bay and Oakland have had, but they are the only two organizations have success. Can the Indians join them as teams that don’t spend and still can compete? The odds say no, and that’s way it’s a huge gamble.

If it doesn’t work, the folks that will pay the most are the people who buy tickets. The Dolan ownership has already burned a lot of bridges with the baseball fans here, this move could be the final straw.

Perez Should Have “Saved” His Comments

After saving Saturday’s 2-0 victory over the Miami Marlins, Indians’ closer Chris Perez decided to vent about being booed and the poor attendance at Tribe games this season.

This is one of those things you cannot mention even if it is true, just like telling your boss he’s treats people poorly.

There is little to be gained by making such comments.

There is some truth to what Perez said, the Indians are playing well right now and there is no question attendance has been disappointing.

However, crowds are starting to catch on and almost 30,000 showed up Friday and Saturday with the return of warmer weather to Cleveland.

So, not only should the reliever have kept his thoughts to himself, they were also ill-timed.  It’s another case of someone with the Indians trying to put a wet blanket on fans’ enthusiasm.

As for the booing, Perez should understand a couple of things:  First, it’s just a handful of people vocalizing the negativity.  The majority of fans don’t boo as a general rule.

Secondly, fans aren’t usually booing the player.  They are criticizing the manager for making the decision to put the player in that position.  No one is expecting Perez to understand this, but more than likely that’s what the jeers were about.

Fans know that Perez’ history is that he doesn’t pitch as well in tie games as he does when he’s protecting a lead.  Yet, Manny Acta brought him in anyway, that’s what the fans were upset about.

(By the way, there should be no issue with bringing the closer in at home, there can’t be a save situation).

The fact is Cleveland fans have sat through eight losing seasons in the last ten years.  No matter how well the Tribe has played this season (in only a quarter of the season), fans haven’t experienced sustained winning (if you call sustained two straight winning years) since 2001.

Also, last year’s team started even better than the 2012 Indians, getting off to a 30-15 start, yet finished under .500 for the season.

So forgive the team’s supporters when they look at this year’s ballclub with a jaundiced eye.

It would have been understandable if Perez had made his comments following Thursday game in which he was booed, but to wait until he strikes out the side two days later, and then spout off, well, he lost the higher ground on this argument.

Remember that the closer has been known to speak off the cuff.  He criticized an opponent in his first season as closer because they had the audacity to win by bunting in a situation that Perez didn’t deem appropriate.

After another blown save, he criticized his catcher for allowing a passed ball.

Since then, Perez appeared to have matured until his comments on Saturday.  But he threw himself under the bus.

As for his comments about people not wanting to play in Cleveland, the same things were said in the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s.  Why?  Because the Indians were a losing organization.

Over the last decade, they have returned to that status.

Ask the players who wore the Cleveland uniform from 1990-2001 if they enjoyed their time here.  Guys like Kenny Lofton, Jim Thome, Albert Belle, Orel Hershiser, etc. loved it here and are loved back in return.

The fans love them because they won.

Fans want to have that same feeling about Asdrubal Cabrera, Shin-Soo Choo, Jason Kipnis, etc., but they feel the players are short-term here, and management can’t afford to keep them.

Chris Perez doesn’t understand that, and that’s his prerogative.  He’s a ball player.

He still should have kept his mouth shut.  Nothing good can be gained by criticizing the people who buy tickets.

KM