If you think the Chicago Cubs disappearing act from the NLDS was a gyp, be thankful you’re not a fan of any of the following major league baseball teams:
- New York Mets
- Los Angeles Dodgers
- Chicago White Sox
- Seattle Mariners
For all of the teams above, none reached the playoffs and all, yes all, had higher team payrolls than Cubs baseball. What’s worse, if that’s possible, is of the four teams directly below the Chicago Cubs in salary expenditures, three had losing records for the 2007 season (Baltimore, St. Louis and San Francisco).
When it comes to getting post-season results for the regular season buck, the American League does have the edge. The top three spenders in the AL (New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, Los Angeles Angels) each made the post-season and the Red Sox with a payroll of a $143M, is starting World Series action tonight against Colorado.
Speaking of the Rockies, Colorado will represent the National League in tonight’s opening game with a paltry 2007 payroll of $54.4M. In fact, the combined salaries of the two NLCS finalists, Colorado and Arizona, was a mere $6M more than the Cubs 2007 payroll of $99M.
Lest we forget how much Chicago Cubs baseball underachieved in the 2007 playoffs, I’ve provided a salary/production comparison in the tables below. And to think I was just beginning to get over it…
| Salary vs. Production: Hitting | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cubs | Name | 2007 Salary | AB | Runs | Hits | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | SB | CS | BB | SO | BA | OBP |
| Alfonso Soriano | $10M | 14 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | .143 | .200 | |
| Ryan Theriot | $390,000 | 12 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | .250 | .308 | |
| Derrek Lee | $13.25M | 12 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | .333 | .385 | |
| Aramis Ramirez | $9M | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | .000 | .000 | |
| Cliff Floyd | $3M | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | .000 | .400 | |
| Mark DeRosa | $2.75M | 9 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | .333 | .500 | |
| Jacque Jones | $5.6M | 9 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | .222 | .417 | |
| Geovany Soto | $61,000 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | .200 | .500 | |
| Jason Kendall | $12.8M | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .250 | .250 | |
| D’Backs | Name | 2007 Salary | AB | Runs | Hits | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | SB | CS | BB | SO | BA | OBP |
| Chris Young | $380,000 | 13 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 8 | .231 | .444 | |
| Stephen Drew | $1.5M | 18 | 5 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 6 | .444 | .444 | |
| Eric Byrnes | $4.575M | 16 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 5 | .313 | .353 | |
| Conor Jackson | $392,000 | 12 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | .167 | .000 | |
| Mark Reynolds | $Unknown | 13 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4 | .154 | .313 | |
| Chris Snyder | $400,000 | 9 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | .333 | .500 | |
| Justin Upton | $1M | 5 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | .400 | 1.200 | |
| Augie Ojeda | $395,000 | 18 | 1 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | .333 | .400 | |
| Tony Clark | $1.034M | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | .000 | .000 | |
| Salary vs. Production: Pitching | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cubs | Name | 2007 Salary | GP | GS | IP | Hits | R | ER | BB | SO | W | L |
| Carlos Zambrano | $12.4M | 1 | 1 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 0 | 1 | |
| Ted Lilly | $6M | 1 | 1 | 3.1 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 1 | |
| Rich Hill | $0.4M | 1 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 1 | |
| D’Backs | Name | 2007 Salary | GP | GS | IP | Hits | R | ER | BB | SO | W | L |
| Brandon Webb | $4.5M | 1 | 1 | 7 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 9 | 1 | 0 | |
| Doug Davis | $5.5M | 1 | 1 | 5.2 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 8 | 1 | 0 | |
| Livian Hernandez | $7M | 1 | 1 | 6 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 0 | |
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