Spending money on a major league baseball team does not always equal winning on the field, but it can help.. The Texas Rangers currently have the 8th highest payroll
in all of MLB at $142,346,873, as the Angels, Nationals, Tigers, Giants, Red Sox, and Yankees all spend more money. Yet, currently in the American League West the first place, team is the Houston Astros with a mere $69,139,200 in payroll spending.
That would seem to suggest that spending does not equal winning, but then again the Astros are a team much like the Rangers were back in 2010 with a ton of young homegrown talent and not many super stars.
The thing that sticks out with the Ranger payroll situation is that the number of injuries that are still on the disabled list or not currently with the team.
Matt Harrison $13.2 million
Yu Darvish $10 million
Derek Holland $7.4 million
Martin Perez $1 million
Kyuji Fujikawa $1 million
Antoan Richardson $600k
Nick Tepesch $517k
Jurickson Profar $509k
Lisalverto Bonilla $509k
Ross Detwiler $3.45 million
The grand total of salaries on the disabled list comes to $38,696 million of $142 million or 27% of the entire payroll is unable to perform. Additionally, only two of those on the DL are not pitchers. Yet surprisingly the Rangers rank only #20 in all of the MLB in ERA, as the starters overall have performed at or above expectations. It is the bullpen where there have been troubles, and it is pretty clear that the batting silence in April have been contributing factors to the poor start. As of today, the Rangers are 9.5 games out of first place and 7 games below .500. That it makes it a pretty good stretch to be thinking of stretch runs in the back half of the season, when the team is struggling now.
While things have improved, this is clearly a team trying to find an identity and find a way to win some games. The other good news is that a few of the guys on the DL may be back by the All-Star break or shortly after that, which could provide a needed boost for a stretch run. That is if the team does not fall too far behind the leaders before then.
The reality for this team seems to be that the injury bug has caused the team to overspend on starting pitching, and probably at the expense of the bullpen. However, that does not excuse the mental mistakes in the field, nor does it excuse, poor at bats, base running mistakes, and all the little intangible things that good teams and championship teams do. Some might call those the fundamentals of baseball, and as you watch the games it is clear that all those little things start adding up over time. The reality is that all of the money in the world is not a substitute for playing fundamentally sound baseball.
A good youth league baseball coach teaches his kids that baseball is a thinking man’s game built on situational awareness. There is a lot of time between pitches, and between batters, which means that players have time to think and should know what to do. A good example might be with a runner on second when you are leading in the game, a base hit to left field that is fairly short, the LF should throw the ball to 2B, and not try to get the runner at home. By doing that, yes, you allow the run to score, but you prevent the other runner from getting into scoring position. Throwing home is a low percentage play unless that is the tying or go-ahead run late in the game, it is usually best to play the percentages, and prevent the big inning. Another good example is the 8-pitch at bat: If players forced a pitcher to throw them a minimum, of 8 pitches, that raises the count for that pitcher and if done early in the game can force an early exit for that pitcher. The odds of getting on base increase the longer you are at the plate; it gives the batter the advantage in timing, and forces the pitcher to use his entire repertoire of pitches. Pretty soon the pitcher is just forced to throw fastballs or risk leaving an off-speed pitch up which could end up in the upper deck of the outfield. Consider this; if all 9-batters forced the pitcher to throw 8-pitches, after just 9 batters, he would have a pitch count of 72. What a team has to try to avoid are innings where a pitcher gets out of the inning with fewer than 12 pitches. Extending at bats is the key for a player to get to see the pitch that he really wants to hit.
Now that is a lot for most players to think about, but that is why these guys are considered professionals and get the big bucks. It is also, why so many have a hard time understanding how a team with the 8th highest payroll in all of baseball seems lost in terms of fundamentals. The Rangers are not eliminated but they certainly need to thinking about fundamentals if they are going to do more than what they have done so far. Payroll has no impact on knowing how to play the game.
