They say a picture is worth a thousand words.

This year, more than any in the recent past, clubs that had skinny player payrolls proved that having money didn’t mean you had to go without talent.

How so? Consider the ALCS. The New York Yankees were ranked #1 in Opening Day Payroll at $206,333,389. The Texas Rangers were ranked # 27 at $55,250,544.

• Put another way, the Yankees player payroll was 3.73 times greater than the Rangers.
• The difference between the two ($151,082,845) was more than the Pirates, Padres, and Marlins spent on their player payroll, combined, with $26,685,645 left over
• Salaries this year: A-Rod ($20 million), Sabathia ($23 million), Jeter ($21 million) combined is more than the total player payroll of the Rangers by $8,749,456.

Finally, the chart and table below show how the now American League Championship Series winning Texas Rangers stacked up against the New York Yankees by cost per Marginal Win, a measure of efficiency. As the this shows, the Rangers got more with less (see Who Got the Biggest Bang for the Bucks in MLB for 2010? for details on all 30 clubs).

x = 2010 ALCS Champions

Maury Brown is the Founder and President of the Business of Sports Network, which includes The Biz of Baseball, The Biz of Football, The Biz of Basketball and The Biz of Hockey, as well as a contributor to FanGraphs and Forbes SportsMoney. He is available for hire or freelance. Brown's full bio is here. He looks forward to your comments via email and can be contacted through the Business of Sports Network.

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