Comments on: Does Money Buy Wins In Baseball?

By: Stormin' Norman Disciple

Stormin' Norman Disciple — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 23:29:42 +0000

You both make excellent points. This chart/data is obviously very limited, but is still interesting to look at. You guys seem to be saying that perhaps more money being spent for wins as the win total gets higher should be considered efficient. While I agree with that sentiment, this chart is looking only at the amount of wins vs payroll. In that context, I am pretty sure Florida is getting the most wins per dollar.

By: Jordan

Jordan — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 23:23:51 +0000

I agree with Golan to a large extent. I think Minnesota has been by far the most efficient team in baseball in terms of spending/winning for the past 10 years and these statistics only serve to support that proposition. Having players like Brad Radke and Justin Morneau forgo free agency in favor of giving the Twins home town discounts has not hurt either. From a purely statistical standpoint looking only at this chart it would seem to me that the Angels, Twins, Indians and Marlins are the 4 teams that have done the best in terms of getting the most out of their spending.
However, this chart fails to take into account other spending and simply looks at wins vs. player payroll, which in reality is only a portion of the overall spending budget of the teams. Things such as a managers contract, General Manager and all of his staff salaries, and especially money spent on signing foreign born players have a huge impact and are not accounted for in the data given. The Angels for example gave a 3 million dollar up front bonus to Kendry Morales (Cuban defector) 2 years ago and have given other similar large bonuses to 16 and 17 year olds out of the Dominican and Puerto Rico….but these numbers are not accounted for in the graph above. Other teams are also doing this of course, to varying degrees.

By: Golan

Golan — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 21:32:14 +0000

AMMENDMENT: Okay, FLA is farther southeast from the blue line then MIN, however, FLA still remains below the average Wins. Given that qualitative factor in combination with the quantitative evidence, and I still believe MIN is the most efficient.

By: Golan

Golan — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 19:47:22 +0000

I disagree with your analysis. The % range between the salaries and Wins is such that a relatively slight change in payroll makes for a huge difference between money spent per win. So if you have a low payroll, even if you don’t win that many games, you can still have a very low payroll per win ratio. Therefore, I believe the ideal position would be as far to the right of the average wins, combined with being far below the average payroll. Ideally, you want to have as large of a deviation southeast from the blue line as possible. Therefore, in my opinion, Minnesota has been the most efficient team.