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The Divergent Spending Of Cubs And Cardinals
Written by wrigleyville   
Monday, 02 February 2009
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The whining has started:

The Cubs are buying division titles (though they are still hapless losers because they can't win in the playoffs)!

A salary cap is needed!

In short: Life isn't fair.

The latest in the genre comes from the incomparable Richard Justice, last seen in these parts claiming the Astros are all set to win a winnable division in 2009 and MLB screwed the Astros out of the playoffs by forcing them to play baseball away from home after a horrendous storm.

Now, as ACB noted this weekend, Justice says the Cubs are drunks who do things the wrong way and the big revenue St. Louis Cardinals are somehow noble underdogs:

I still like the St. Louis Cardinals in the National League Central. Who cares if the Cubs have spent like drunken sailors?

The Cubs have thrown money around the last three winters, and all it has gotten them is more disappointment. Does anyone think Milton Bradley is going to decide a division race?

Actually, it's gotten them back-to-back division titles. Anyway, that's the lead. He concludes the column thusly:

Now they're counting on some of those kids to hold up against a Cubs team that has been built by throwing millions on top of millions. It's an interesting contrast.

Each franchise is forced to do things differently. The Cardinals have been built the way good organizations traditionally have been built: from the ground up.

Getting back to the playoffs would be a tribute to a franchise that does things right.

In between is all manner of nonsense claiming the Cardinals will be just "fine," so long as one or two of their "kids" plays as well as Albert Pujols did when he was a kid. No small feat. But OK, Richard.

But does Richard have a point? Are the Cubs somehow doing things "wrong"? As opposed to the "right" way of the Cardinals?

By "wrong," he seems to mean "immoral." Poor Richard apparently objects to the Cubs spending money to - you know - win, as they have the last two seasons. Better to lose with dignity than win with extravagance.

Given his premise, let's look at how the two teams are spending their money, based on Opening Day payrolls and annual revenues for 2003-2008 (payroll numbers from Cot's Baseball Contracts; revenue numbers from Forbes.com):

2008 ('08 revenues available in April)
Cubs*: $118.3 million.
Cardinals: $99.6 million.

2007
Cubs*: $99.7 million (47% of $214 million revenue).
Cardinals: $90.3 million (46% of $194 million revenue).

2006
Cubs: $94.4 million (48% of $197 million revenue).
Cardinals*: $88.9 million (48% of $184 million revenue).

2005
Cubs: $87 million (49% of $179 million revenue).
Cardinals*: $92.1 million (56% of $165 million revenue).

2004
Cubs: $90.6 million (53% of $170 million revenue).
Cardinals*: $83.2 million (55% of $151 million revenue).

2003
Cubs*: $79.9 million (51% of $156 million revenue).
Cardinals: $83.8 million (64% of $131 million revenue).

* Division winner. Payrolls also generally increased during the season as players were acquired.

First off, it's clear Justice's canard about the "right way" and the "wrong way" is a load of bunk, assuming morality is irrelevant. Each team has won three division titles in the last six years; each team has won with varying degrees of spending - sometimes more and sometimes less than the other. Each - even the Cardinals - had a mixture of core players that were homegrown (Pujols) and foreign (Rolen, Edmonds, Walker).

Second, what's his beef with spending? What would he have baseball teams do with this explosion of revenue? Grow peace gardens for the war effort? Even as revenue has grown, teams are spending less of it on baseball players. In this period, the MLB average for payroll as a percentage of revenues dropped from 63 percent in 2003 to 52 percent in 2007.

The Cardinals used to be at the high end of this scale. Recently, however, the Cubs are investing more money (but a fairly constant percentage of revenues) on players salaries in pursuit of a World Series. One would guess the disparity will be even greater in 2009 (given the Cubs' $140 million payroll and the Cards' $100 millionish payroll).

Third, are the Cubs "spending like drunken sailors" or are the Cardinals owners hudding around their nickles and being, well, cheap?

The Cubs saw revenue grow by 37 percent between 2003 and 2007, while payroll jumped 25 percent. From 2003 to 2008, payroll grew by 48 percent.

Meanwhile, the Cardinals revenues increased by 48 percent between 2003 and 2007 as their Opening Day payroll grew by an eensy 7.7 percent. From 2003 to 2008, payroll grew by 19 percent.

No wonder Albert Pujols is encouraging the Cardinals to pry open the wallet to sign Manny Ramirez.

So, while the professional scolds like Richard Justice wring their hands, I'd much prefer the Cubs invest in a good product on the field, thank you very much.


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