Just a quick update on something Aaron mentioned yesterday.
With the Phillies eliminated, we can now say that none of the top-nine payroll teams made it through the first round of the playoffs. In fact, the Tigers and Cardinals are the only teams left with a payroll north of $100 million.
Here are the payroll and payroll ranks of the four remaining teams, according to USA Today:
10. Tigers – $106 million
11. Cardinals – $105 million
13. Rangers – $92 million
17. Brewers – $85 million
It’s even interesting when you look at the teams who were eliminated in the first round. The Rays and Diamondbacks were among the bottom six in payroll while the Yankees and Phillies ranked one and two, respectively. The playoffs can be pretty random, but we somehow ended up with four teams in the middle. Parity feels pretty good, doesn’t it?