Following up on Monday’s little discussion about the A’s, Rays and Marlins … we decided to take a peek at who has made the MLB postseason since payroll began topping the $100 million mark. According to this database, that first took place in 2001, when the Yankees payroll totaled $112 million. Realizing that numbers can be interpreted any number of ways – usually, to fit someone’s argument; somebody sent in this link – perhaps you’ll be interested in these.

We broke the total payroll list down into three categories: “Big Spenders” (ie, Top 10 payroll), “medium” (payroll ranked 11-20), and “cheapskates” (payroll ranked 21-30).

(For instance: In 2007, here’s where the postseason teams ranked in terms of total payroll – Yankees (1), Red Sox (2), Angels (4), Cubs (8), Phillies (13), Indians (23), Rockies (25), Diamondbacks (26). We charted all of these from 2001, and 2007 was the only year in which three teams from the “cheapskates” category qualified for the postseason; 2004 was the opposite, with six of the eight teams coming from the “Big Spenders” category.)

Findings about the 56 postseason teams from 2001-2007

- 31 postseason teams came from the “Big Spenders” group – 55% (15 in the AL, 16 in the NL)
- 16 postseason teams came from the “Medium” group – 28% (7 in the AL, 9 in the NL)
- 9 postseason teams came from the “Cheapskates” group – 16% (6 in the AL, 3 in the NL)

Does that mean you can say, any team that began this season with a bottom 10 payroll in MLB only has a 16 percent chance of making the postseason, whereas a “Big Spender” has a 55 percent chance? Well, from 2004-2006, there was only one postseason team from the “cheapskates” category (Oakland in 2006).

In addition, we’d be interested to see Divisional payroll breakdown – for instance, the AL Central doesn’t seem to produce “Big Spenders” (seven of the eight playoff teams from that Division had “medium” or “cheapskate”), or perhaps one in which somebody takes a look at any teams who moved from one category to another and whether or not there was an immediate result (ie, postseason).

Obviously the best move is to spend as little as you can as wisely as you can, but we’re going to stand by the obvious – if you spend money, it enhances your chances of winning.