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What do you think? Is Bill DeWitt a cheapskate owner?
I'm going to say "No."
The Cardinals' payroll this season is just over $90 million. The mean is about $83 million per team. (That's including the Yankees at more than a hundred million above the mean, and the Red Sox at sixty million above the mean.)
The median is around $80 million. The Cardinals' payroll ranks eleventh among the thirty major-league teams. It ranks fourth among the sixteen National League teams.
Of the ten major-league teams with higher payrolls, six are in New York, Chicago, or Los Angeles. Of course we are not going to outspend those teams. The other four teams who are outspending us this year are Boston, Seattle, Detroit, and Baltimore. Boston and Detroit are much bigger markets than St. Louis. Only Seattle and Baltimore might possibly raise my eyebrows.
Meanwhile, the Cardinals spend slightly more than league rivals in Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Atlanta--all significantly bigger markets.
In my opinion, the Cardinals' problems are not the result of a front office that is unwilling to spend money. It's that some of the guys getting the most money have aged much faster than anticipated, and our farm system has not been good enough to make up for it.
Of course, I'd be happy to see the team payroll go up to $100 million next year, like the front office semi-promised it would this year. Let's go spend $10 million this winter on a free-agent outfielder who can knock the crap out of the ball.
![:pray:](./images/smilies/pray.gif)