Payroll

Today's PG Notebook:

"I think payroll is overblown," [McClatchy] said. "If you do the job you're supposed to do with your minor-league system and get the players in place, payroll will become less of an issue... Somebody could look at the amount of money the Toronto Blue Jays spent this offseason and say, well, that should guarantee a playoff spot. Or, quite frankly, the Boston Red Sox. Then, you look at the flip side, and the Florida Marlins, because they spent $15 million, should have the worst record in baseball. Payroll is not indicative, exactly, of how successful you're going to be."

This is one of the truest things McClatchy has said. Teams can win and have won with payrolls similar to the Pirates. Payroll is not the problem. The problem that McClatchy dances around with this quote is that the Pirates' Opening Day payroll this year was somewhere around $47 million. Of that $47 million, Jeromy Burnitz made $6M, Joe Randa made $4M, Sean Casey made somewhere around $6-7M, Roberto Hernandez made close to $3M, etc. Throw in Kip Wells at $4M and you've got close to half of that Opening Day payroll wrapped up in players that did very little to help this team (I know Roberto Hernandez pitched well, but how much better was he than Sharpless or Bayliss would've been?). McClatchy says that payroll becomes less of an issue when you "do the job you're supposed to do with your minor-league system and get the players in place." I don't see any evidence of that in the Pirates organization. Until they do that well, people will continue to make payroll an issue.