Bill Smith setting lower payroll expectations

Via Jon Krawczynski's AP column today (I can't find a direct AP link, so I just picked a Google result - more page hits for the Willmar paper!):

The Twins' payroll reached $115 million this season, and after watching the results on the field, it could be a tough sell to ownership to get to that number again.

"I think we pushed it beyond where we should have," Smith said. "Ownership let us go with it in an attempt to win and it didn't work. It backfired a little bit. All of the injuries made it tough.

"We want to win and ownership wants to win. We also have to be somewhat responsible. Payroll becomes a function of revenues. We're going to have plenty of money. We're going to win with players not money."

If that's not a setup for reducing next year's payroll, I don't know what is.

8 months ago BeefMaster 5 comments 0 recs |

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Payroll is not being slashed

Jim Pohlad was interviewed by the Strib earlier this week and while he expects the payroll to go down a bit, it’s not like it’s being gutted. Yes, they still have to pay Mauer and Morneau (even if Morneau takes the entire season off to deal with concussion symptoms; really the only way the team can get his salary off the books is if he retires). Yes, there will be money coming off the books due to free agents signing elsewhere, options bought out, and trades being made. But the team will still have a nice chunk to play with and are looking at the free agent market.

If next year is as bad as this year, or worse, then it’s time for Jim to start cleaning out the executive offices.

by leo3375 on Sep 30, 2011 11:53 AM EDT reply actions

I believe they moved Delmon with the idea they'd spend that money

not save it…I see payroll coming down a bit but it’s not like they’re going to cut it in half

At this point I’m wondering which of our prospects get traded, if any?

The beard abides.

by Jason Kubel's Beard on Oct 1, 2011 12:07 AM EDT reply actions

Sell Parmelee high?

They can potentially cut $30 million or more with Young and Thome gone, letting Kubel, Cuddyer, and Capps go, and buying Nathan out. What they’d spend it on… dunno, I’ll rosterbate later.

by spanspanspan on Oct 3, 2011 7:38 AM EDT up reply actions

Is this a setup for reducing payroll or having a smarter payroll?

I saw Moneyball and my dad finally did and we had a long discussion about it this weekend. (Flawed film in terms of accuracy, but ignoring all that it was pretty good baseball film.) One of the things he noted was that they make a big deal about the A’s losing to the Twins at the end, ignoring that the Twins also had a team based on “Moneyball” (i.e. high value for the dollar players with a low payroll)… which is more or less how the Twins won in ‘87. By contrast, the 2011 Twins didn’t have that.

I’m not necessarily reading that Smith is saying that they’re going to spend less money… just that they’re going to attempt to spend it smarter. It seems like they were the college kid with the first credit card — spending money on an unknown Japanese player just because they could, splurging on the hometown favorite, etc. Now that the first billing statement is in, there’s a realization that maybe they should think a little harder before they use the plastic money card that comes free with a new stadium. Not that they can’t still use the card; they just have to have a plan for paying the bill at the end of the season (i.e. with a playoff appearance).

by ColossusOfRhode on Oct 3, 2011 4:10 PM EDT reply actions

I noticed that too in Moneyball

the announcer said “this loss to the Twins proves the A’s model doesn’t work….”

wasn’t the whole point of the A’s model that limited resources could beat financially rich teams….and the Twins in 2002 were just getting over contraction. It didn’t prove anything.

Good movie though, I really enjoyed it.

The beard abides.

by Jason Kubel's Beard on Oct 3, 2011 5:19 PM EDT up reply actions