Of the last four teams standing in the post-season, three of them have MLB's highest payrolls. Cot's Contracts has two payroll lists, one called Year End 40-man and the other called CB Tax 40-man. In the first list it goes Mets ($341.5M), Yankees ($303.8M), and Dodgers ($288.3M). Figuring in the Competitive Balance Tax keeps the Mets ($356.2M) in the top spot with the Dodgers ($351.7M) and Yankees ($314.8M) switching places.
The three highest-spending teams in the two biggest baseball markets are in the League Championship Series. That's the semi-finals. The winners go to the World Series. The networks are guaranteed one LA-NY matchup (that starts tonight on Fox) and may get two.
The Cleveland Guardians are 21st ($106.1M) and 23rd ($139.7M) on the two payroll lists. They have not won the World Series since 1948, back when they were the Indians and had guys like Bob Feller and Larry Doby. Any discerning baseball fan who isn't rooting for the Guardians is doing the game a disservice. I'll exempt lifelong fans of the other clubs. After all, somebody must like them.
--M.C.
p.s. The moneyline (Fanduel) on winning the whole thing stands at Dodgers (+150), Yankees (+170), Mets (+410), and finally the Guardians (+550). If you bet 100 bucks on the Bums you'll clear 50 bucks if they win. They are 3-to-2 favorites. The longshot G's will make you a profit of 450 bucks if they pull off two upsets. Their odds come in at 11-to-2.
