Published: Sunday, Nov. 01, 2009

Updated: Sunday, Nov. 01, 2009

Big markets rule baseball in ’09

All four ballclubs to make LCS were top nine in payroll

PHILADELPHIA — Milwaukee Brewers owner Mark Attanasio thought about the teams in baseball’s final four this year — all large-market clubs — and wondered whether there would be room for his franchise anytime soon.

“We don’t know if that’s a trend or just an aberration,” he said. “The disparity among the clubs appears to be widening.”

Baseball’s four league championship series teams were all among the top nine in Opening Day payroll this year, led by the top-spending New York Yankees at $201 million. They were joined by the No. 6 Los Angeles Angels ($114 million), No. 7 Philadelphia Phillies ($113 million) and No. 9 Los Angeles Dodgers ($100 million).

No room this year for the little guys.

“It’s certainly trending in the direction,” Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane said. “The big markets are always going to be there. Whether or not they’re the only ones there I guess remains to be seen.”

Just last year, the Tampa Bay Rays won the AL pennant with a $51 million payroll, 28th among the 30 major league clubs. And parity has increased throughout the sport under the 1996-2001 and 2002-06 labor contracts along with the current deal, which runs until December 2011.

Since the end of the Yankees’ run of four World Series titles in five years, 23 of the 30 major league teams have made the playoffs from 2001-09, with only Baltimore, Kansas City, Texas and Toronto missing out in the American League, and Cincinnati, Montreal/Washington and Pittsburgh failing to make it in the National League. Seven teams have won the World Series in the past eight years, with only the Boston Red Sox taking the title twice.

Increased revenue sharing has helped the small and middle markets, and the luxury tax has slowed spending by the Yankees to some degree.

“We’ve had very good success over the last several years,” said Bob DuPuy, Major League Baseball’s president and chief operating officer. “While it has attracted people’s attention that this year the higher-payroll teams and the higher-revenue teams made the playoffs, it is just one year and not enough to declare a trend.”

Among the top 15 spenders as of the start of the season, just four had losing records this year: the No. 2 New York Mets (70-92), No. 8 Houston (74-88), the No. 12 Chicago White Sox (79-83) and No. 15 Cleveland (65-97).

And just five of the bottom 15 finished with winning records: No. 18 Colorado (92-70), No. 22 Texas (87-75), No. 24 Minnesota (87-76), No. 25 Tampa Bay (84-78) and No. 30 Florida (87-75).

There’s no absolute correlation between spending and winning. But having lots of bucks helps.

“We do not ever in this organization use payroll as an excuse for a lack of performance,” Florida Marlins president David Samson said. “We expect to make the playoffs every year, and our players when they take the field don’t get intimidated by other teams’ salaries.”