GameDay Chatter: All-Stars and Payrolls

by Jon Marthaler on Jul 20, 2009 10:00 AM EDT in GameDay Appearance Comment 9 comments

More photos » by Charlie Riedel - AP

Two teammates, now parted.

On Sunday, I made another appearance on the afternoon Twins Extra Innings show, as part of the GameDay Chatter segment. Here's my effort:

Twins fans who watched last Tuesday’s All-Star Game had to be a little bit frustrated. Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau, and Joe Nathan represented the Twins, but the usual passel of ex-Twins was also in attendance. Johan Santana and Jason Bartlett were present and accounted for; Torii Hunter was selected, but couldn’t play because of injury.

Hunter and Santana, of course, both left because the team felt that it couldn’t afford their salaries, and maybe that’s true: Santana is making between $20-25 million per year over the next five years, and Hunter will make nearly $18 million in each of the next four seasons. That's a lot of money to spend on just one player.

That said, it should be clear: despite the long-anticipated bump in team revenues with the move to Target Field next season, the Twins have been doing things on the cheap.

Let’s do the math: team revenues have been north of $130 million in each the last two seasons. League-wide revenues are at an all-time high. Attendance is up this year. But despite the team’s continued claims of spending 50-52% of revenues on player salaries, their payrolls over the last two years have been right around the 40-45% range.

League-wide, too, baseball is doing things on the cheap (despite the Herculean efforts of Boston and the New York teams.) Player salaries as a percentage of league revenues have dropped down to around 50% - surprising, considering the other three pro sports in this country give away nearly 60% to players as terms of their union contracts.

The Twins have been pocketing the savings over the past few years, and team revenues are set for a dramatic upswing. Don’t let them get away with letting another All-Star go because of claimed financial considerations.

1 recs | Comment 9 comments | Share

Story-email Email Printer Print

Comments

I heard this on the radio yesterday

Well done sir!

Baseball is the soundtrack to my summer.

by FoulJack on Jul 20, 2009 11:36 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

There are a LOT of teams with higher payrolls that perform worse than the Twins. I just don’t like the idea of saying our payroll needs to be X, and then we have spent enough.

That said, I do like the idea of using our $$ to lock up the homegrown talent we do have.

I think free agent money should be spent very carefully. I don’t really like the idea of paying top dollar for top of the line free agents.

Resign the homegrown stars to the big money and fill in the gaps with solid, but reasonably priced free agent talent.

by Dale on Jul 20, 2009 12:08 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

The Twins have had

money to spend the last couple of seasons, but there haven’t been an abundance of good choices on the open market. With the surplus they’ve signed Mauer, Morneau, Nathan, Cuddyer and Baker to multi-year extensions. I think it’s fair to hold the organization’s feet to the fire in terms of saying “you do have this much to spend”, but we still need the team to spend wisely. And spending to hit a payroll of X simply to hit that number is a bad philosophy.

by Jesse on Jul 20, 2009 3:36 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I agree.

Taking $20 million and dumping it into the payroll sea won’t help anything. But the team has been faced with “keep this expensive player?” questions twice in recent years, and in both cases, chose to dump guys who were All-Stars this year.

I understand why they did so, and to a point I even agree with the decisions. That said, they’re going to face more choices like this in the near future, both with All-Stars and other players, and I’m not willing to buy the “financial hardship” pleas any more.

by Jon Marthaler on Jul 20, 2009 3:58 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Fair enough.

And considering how recently those All-Stars were let go, they’ll be under even more scrutiny as Joe and Justin approach the end of their contracts. They’ll face a full-scale fan riot if they don’t bring Joe back.

by Jesse on Jul 20, 2009 4:25 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

And also,

well done on another Chatter!

by Jesse on Jul 20, 2009 3:36 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Silly I know,

but when the Twins unceremoniously traded away Matt Lawton, who at that time was the face of the franchise, and an all around good guy, I was pissed. I really felt betrayed by the org. as he seemed like the one steady likeable player who had suffered through the darkness and could lead the ‘youngsters’ out of it.

Since Lawton, I have come to realize that it is all business, and I will not be sad to see Joe go. I will be sad if it makes him sad, but if he can do better elsewhere, more power to him and we’ll move on. It might take a year or two but we have no one else to root for and we’ll root on.

by montanatwinsfan on Jul 20, 2009 6:36 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

On another note:

Don’t let them get away with letting another All-Star go because of claimed financial considerations.

I am not sure how we could make good on that suggestion, but I have my tire iron, and garbage can lid/shield ready.

I probably already missed my opportunity though as about 15 years ago I was an usher for one of my best friends weddings. I apparently escorted (the late) Carl Pohlad to his seat and didn’t know it. I was wondering why our other buddies, sitting in the back were gesticulating and seemed apoplectic. As it turns out they were trying to get me to trip him just before he sat down, or give him a sharp shove. I didn’t even know who he was. I just thought he was some old guy without a date.

by montanatwinsfan on Jul 20, 2009 6:40 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs