by Matt Frost

Created on: October 07, 2008   Last Updated: October 31, 2008

Baseball is a great game in the sense that chance, opportunities, and execution produce successful teams. A Hall of Famer gets a hit 30% of the time, the game is predicated on failure and the team that fails less wins. The theory is that high priced players fail less than lower priced players and to an extent that theory is probably true. During the course of 162 games high payrolls are more of an advantage than low payrolls, still with that being said the Florida Marlins have won 2 World Series in the recent past and the Tampa Bay Rays are 4 games from playing in their first World Series. A short series, as is the case in the playoffs, is based almost solely on the way the team is playing at that time. The argument could be made that 2006 St.Louis Cardinals were not the best team in baseball. They got hot at the right time and ending up winning the World Series despite having 83 regular season wins.

The St.Louis Cardinals are a higher payroll team than most, but if you look at 2003, the Marlins who have a very very low payroll defeated the New York Yankees in the World Series. The Yankees had all the higher priced players and the lore of their storied history, yet still couldn't win the World Series against a much less experienced, much more underpaid Florida Marlins team. Baseball salaries are the same as salaries in a different job, you are paid a sum of money based on the responsibility you have and based on how productive of an employee you are. Good employees occasionally do things incorrectly, make mistakes, and cost their organization opportunities for more success. The game is the same for low-priced players and ultimately comes to execution. If you get timely hits, play solid defense, and have pitching that can keep you in the game you are going to win most times. Experience is important in today's game, but there are situations where the young talented player rises to the ocassion and gets the hit, or turns the double play. High priced players were at one point low priced players who proved themselves deserving of more money in the eye of their teams. Josh Beckett won Game 7 at Yankee Stadium in 2003 and he makes much more money for the Boston Red Sox based on Boston's assumption that he's good in the playoffs. Look at the playoffs as an opportunity for younger players to assert themselves as stars of the game and perform at the same level as the high-priced players.

Being high-paid means that at some point in your career someone thought you deserved that money. That may or may not be the case 5 years later, remember experience is important, but with experience comes age and a reduction in athletic skills. If high salaries bought Championships the Cubs/Yankees/Red Sox/Cardinals would be in the LCS every year.

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