Projo Sports Blog

By Sam Mellinger
The Kansas City Star

It looks as if the Yankees will miss the playoffs, which would be the first time since the 1998 Orioles that baseball's biggest payroll didn't play in October.

As much talk as there is about the increasing revenue sharing and parity in baseball, money remains as good an indicator as any when assessing a team's chances to contend for a playoff spot.

Oh, meaningful September games aren't the sole right of the rich. Just last year, the Rockies and Diamondbacks (25th and 26th in payroll, respectively) played in the NLCS. The Indians (23rd) lost in the ALCS.

In each of the last five years, at least one of the game's lowest six payrolls have remained in contention into September.

But consider that in the last five years, there have been 64 teams sitting within three games of a playoff spot on Sept. 1, and 34 of them -- 53 percent -- were in the top 10 in payroll.

The Sept. 1 judgment date and three-games-out cutoff isn't perfect, of course. The 2006 Red Sox were 5 1/2 games out at that point. Last year, the Rockies were six back. But it does provide a good idea of who is playing the kind of September games that fans check scores on their cell phones for.

If baseball's parity isn't money-blind, it may be organizationally blind. More than half of the teams have been within three games at the beginning of September at least twice in the last five years.

Assuming we can add this year's Rays and Brewers to the list, 24 of baseball's 30 teams will have been there at least once since 2003 -- and that doesn't include the Rockies.

Only the Orioles, Blue Jays, Royals, Rangers and Pirates will have been without meaningful September games.

In addition to revenue sharing allowing more teams the opportunity of keeping star players, the wild card is the biggest reason for more teams being in contention. This year alone, for instance, 12 teams entered the weekend within three games of a playoff spot.

 Tags  Major League Baseball playoffs

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