Show Me The Money

Red Sox Nation is rolling to the Rockies and most of the fan base is expecting them to return to Boston with their second World Series championship in the past four years. The Rox came in on a roll, riding a magic carpet ride through what increasingly is looking like a vaporous National League Playoffs.

On the field, this appears to be a mismatch. There is little mystery about why that is the case. Just look at the team's payrolls.

As the stunned sports columnists in Denver shake off the pixie dust from the amorphous Rockie run of 21 of 22 and ten straight against clearly inferior competition, they are beginning to hint at what an unfair fight it is, given the disparity in payrolls. I can understand that. I have played that card myself in relation to the Yankees even though a Sox fan complaining about the Yankee payroll is patently absurd.

And as much as we want to say it ain't so, it is. The Sox $142 milion payroll is almost three times the size of the Rockies $50 million. The starting nine man Sox lineup that started the first two games cost John Henry $74 million. The Rockies starting nine? $25.5 and $16.6 of that is Todd Helton!

The four man starting rotation the Sox roll out is worth $26.2 million, or almost four times the Rockies four man group which clocks in at $7.8. Interestingly enough, the key pitchers in the Sox bullpen, Paplebon, Okijima, Timlin, DelCarmen and Lopez are earning $5.1 million. That is actually LESS than the Rockies bullpen crew of Corpas, Fuentes, Heges, Affeldt and Morales which comes in at $5.6.

So what does it all mean? Mostly that Theo has more money to bury his mistakes. If you look at the everyday lineup, Pedroia, Youkilis and Ellsbury together make about a million or $500K less than Kazuo Matsui. The Sox legendary 3-4 of Manny and Papi pull in $30.3 million, but the Rockies thumpers, Holliday and Helton bring down $21 million. It's when you get to the bottom of the order where you see a ridiculous disparity. Drew (6), Tek (7) and Lugo (9) haul in an unbelievable $33.7 million. Compare that to Hawpe, Tulowitzki and Spielborg who combined earn $1.1 million or approximatley ONE THIRTIETH of the Sox trio.

So you would think with those kinds of differences, the Sox should be that much better. In the first two games, they have been. But the beauty of baseball is that the players do not bring their paystubs out to the field before they play. It's what they do on the field. And although the Rockies lineup has looked completely feeble against the juggernaut Sox, they could wake up at any time. Especially at home with their season on the line.

You have to feel good about the Sox chances, but don't be lulled into a false sense of security just because the Boston boys have bigger wallets. With the enigmatic Dice K and the Human Adventure Jon Lester going in the next two games, there is a distinct possibility that Ace Beckett may be called upon to pitch another pivotal game five with the series tied at 2-2.

The Sox still have some playing to do. And the size of their salaries won't help them one bit.