What’s the difference between me and you? About 110 million dollars in payroll for starters. Yeah, the Dodgers vs the Cubs this weekend felt like the haves vs the have nots. LA with the highest payroll in the MLB at 260M vs the Cubs coming in just above league average at 150M. The sad thing about it… the Cubs don’t have to be in that position, but… they will remain there, until the “timing is right”… Until then, the Cubs will continue to get their heads bashed in by the top teams in the league.
110 million huh? That difference is higher than the total payroll of 9 MLB teams. So the Cubs could merge complete rosters with some other team, OR could have made the decision to pay some players this offseason. Some names come to mind… NL All Star Kyle Schwarber, Anthony Rizzo and his 20+ HRs, Kris Bryant has been hurt, and Javy hasn’t been very good, but those were all OUR guys. OK, we don’t want to pay them… then who? Correa, nope. Freeman, nope. Rodon, nope. Any free agent of any worth would have sufficed. But we get Suzuki and Stroman; again, nothing against those guys, but the Cubs are spending like they are a mid-market team, and that’s just not true.
It’s not all about payroll, right? You know, the whole Moneyball thing that has worked for organizations in the past. Then sometimes, crazy stuff happens… like what is going on with the MLB team that has the lowest payroll. If you haven’t heard, that team, the Baltimore Orioles, have won 8 in a row. It probably won’t last, but it’s fun to see. If the Orioles somehow got to the World Series to face LA, we’re talking about 260M vs 45M. Will MLB ever do something to level the playing field? Seems like it has worked out pretty well in the NFL…
The Dodgers didn’t exactly kill us this weekend, although it was a 4 game sweep, 2, 1, 2, and 2 runs respectively. Thing is though… as the series went on, it just felt like the Dodgers were playing with us. Whenever they needed to, they upped their game, and left us in the dust; they have the horses to do that. Besides the first game, where the Dodgers lead all along, the Cubs were in position to win in every other game. Up 3-0 in Game 2, the Dodgers kicked it into gear, scoring a run in the 6th & 7th, and one in the 9th to tie & 10th to win. Cubs were up 1-0 heading to the bottom of the 6th in Game 3; 1 in the 6th, 3 in the 7th put it away for the Dodgers. Finally, the finale… why did I feel like even though the Cubs were up 5-0 after a half inning, that this game was still in question? The Dodgers offense is so deep; the Cubs pitching… not so much. Too bad all those Cubs fans in attendance didn’t get one W to celebrate…
After the sweep, the Dodgers are now 22.5 games better than the Cubs in the standings; it feels like more than that. It’s kind of depressing honestly, to see the tale of two organizations: one that spends to put the best product on the field, and another that chooses the opposite. For God’s sake the White Sox have a bigger payroll than us… embarrassing is the only word that comes to mind. Yeah, it sure is different here… not sure about you, but it feels like the Cubs have turned back the clock on their “commitment” to winning… Fun times…
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