The Brewers , marlins, and rays being really good with low payrolls is great for baseball. But also a team like the Mets that spends a ton but is horrible , is also great for baseball.

Edit : OMG guys I cant beleive I got almost 300 likes on my comment! Thanks

One of baseball’s redeeming qualities is that there are diminishing returns on winning. Going from 80 to 85 wins is really meaningful. Going from 95 to 100, much less so.

Somehow, this always happens whenever the owners try to add a salary cap.

Ahem, the Red Sox got a 13 game winning streak. They’re back in the playoff race

Bob Nutting tries to ruin this team despite the success

I need a salary cap and not just that, I demand it NOW. I can't go on until the Rays have a fair chance to win like the Mets. It's not fair the Mets can sign anyone they want and not really do much with it. I care more about my team being able to sign stars, that matters more than consistent winning.

A big reason for this is that players are debuting later and peaking earlier than ever, which is sort of effectively punishing teams for spending in free agency

As a Rays fan, I'm sad to see Littell and Fairbanks struggling, but I'm happy for Mead! I miss Lowe and Mangum very much.

I'm not sure that this year is the year of the small market teams. The Yankees, Dodgers, Cubs, Philadephia, Rangers (currently in first place in the AL west), White Sox (even though they don't currently have a high payroll, they play in Chicago), Arizona and recently the Red Sox, are all in playoff position and they are not small markets. That's most of the good teams. Plus, the small maket teams that are doing well, that are in playoff position, are the usual suspects: Cleveland, Tampa and Milwaukee. The only exceptions are St. Louis, Pittsburgh and Miami because they have winning records.

Sidenote most or the teams on this list arent as poor as they want people to think they’re just extremely frugal

While this is all true, none of those low payroll teams are going to be in the World Series.  That is why the large market teams continue to spend big because they know that is what it takes to win championships.

I've thought for a while now that there are two ways to make a not-good player good, and that the Brewers are the best at doing that.
A.) Maximize their strengths, like help a guy who gets a lot of swing and miss get the MOST swing and miss. Or,
B.)Shore up their weaknesses. This is a lot more risk reward, but if done right you get guys like Miz(learned improved command and breaking balls) or Garcia Jr/Liam Hicks.(added power to their impressive contact skills.)

Rich teams do not like to rebuild they reload. Poor teams rebuild no matter their record.

This video was pretty good, I do agree. The only thing is that the White Sox are not a small market, since they are in the 3rd largest market in the country. Miami is also a massive market, they have 6.43 million people for their metro population. They are considered Florida's main MLB team, and have an even bigger base. The issue is that they are not getting fans, because their historical ownership fumbled what would be one of the largest fanbases in MLB.

"Spending more leads to more winnings." Meanwhile, the Angels.

Seeing the Pirates in the “smart” is crazy. 😂. And yet, when healthy, they can put out a lineup where every hitter has wrc+ over 100.

Quite interesting when you compare the Dodgers and Mets. Both teams spend a lot and have POBs/GMs that they pried from successful smaller markets. However Friedman has been able to adapt to using his analytics paired with the blank check of Guggenheim whereas Stearns has kept the Mets metting

While I appreciate being a bit of an underdog it is absurd that the CHICAGO White Sox are in this sort of discussion at all. Jerry Reinsdorf has held us hostage for so long.

Would love to see a similar breakdown of the other side of this. I know you touched on it at the end, but it would be interesting to compare the teams in the top x of spending to performance this season. For some reason it seems like a lot of veterans with big contracts are really underperforming this year, while others have stepped up. Curious how much developing something like bat speed translates to increased performance.

So basically get a bunch of really talented young players on rookie contract so you can massively underpay them for their performance. Not a new strategy, but one I think all the non-giant market teams have finally adopted.

This is why baseball needs massive CBA restructuring though. I get why the players don't want a cap, I do, but the goal should really be to raise the median salary not the average. Get a floor, get a cap, get 100% revenue sharing, shorten rookie contracts. I'm sure the union's lawyers can figure out some kind of language or write in a penalty so the owners can't withhold revenue from the split.

But it's kind of ridiculous how big a discrepancy there is between WAR and salary.