** Due to the popularity of this post, we have converted it into a page at: MLB Cost Per Win Standings. This post is no longer updated. Please visit the preceding link for the most current standings. **
The MLB Cost Per Win Efficiency Standings are my gift to small market baseball fans everywhere. Have you ever wondered how good your baseball team would be if MLB was smart enough to adopt a salary cap as every other major professional sports league in the United States has done? You are in the right place! After the completion of each week’s MLB games (Sunday night or Monday morning), I will update the standings to reflect how much money each MLB team has spent per win based on their Opening Day payroll. I realize this is not a perfect system, but it is a fairly reliable gauge for how well each MLB team would do if competitive balance was restored with the implemention of a salary cap. I hope you enjoy! Please share and favorite this page so you can see how your team is progressing throughout the season.
Update through May 22, 2011:
This week, the Cleveland Indians joined the Tampa Bay Rays and Kansas City Royals as the only teams paying less than $2 Million per win. As far as the standings go, there was no movement in the American League since last week. In the National League, the St. Louis Cardinals jumped one spot in the Central and the Arizona Diamondbacks jumped ahead of the San Diego Padres for first place in the West. Despite this changing of the guard in the West, all four playoff teams in the National League are the same as last week, with only some seed shuffling occurring.
| American League | |||||
| EAST | Cost Per Win | Wins | Opening Day Payroll | ||
| Tampa Bay | $ 1,578,984 | 26 | $ 41,053,571 | ||
| Toronto | $ 2,720,339 | 23 | $ 62,567,800 | ||
| Baltimore | $ 4,062,097 | 21 | $ 85,304,038 | ||
| Boston | $ 6,470,499 | 25 | $ 161,762,475 | ||
| NY Yankees | $ 8,107,561 | 25 | $ 202,689,028 | ||
| CENTRAL | |||||
| Kansas City | $ 1,642,091 | 22 | $ 36,126,000 | ||
| Cleveland | $ 1,696,226 | 29 | $ 49,190,566 | ||
| Detroit | $ 4,595,662 | 23 | $ 105,700,231 | ||
| Chicago Sox | $ 5,808,591 | 22 | $ 127,789,000 | ||
| Minnesota | $ 7,515,800 | 15 | $ 112,737,000 | ||
| WEST | |||||
| Oakland | $ 3,024,386 | 22 | $ 66,536,500 | ||
| Texas | $ 3,845,803 | 24 | $ 92,299,264 | ||
| Seattle | $ 3,932,936 | 22 | $ 86,524,600 | ||
| LA Angels | $ 5,772,632 | 24 | $ 138,543,166 | ||
| National League | |||||
| EAST | |||||
| Florida | $ 2,190,154 | 26 | $ 56,944,000 | ||
| Washington | $ 3,040,806 | 21 | $ 63,856,928 | ||
| Atlanta | $ 3,346,257 | 26 | $ 87,002,692 | ||
| NY Mets | $ 5,402,150 | 22 | $ 118,847,309 | ||
| Philadelphia | $ 6,177,728 | 28 | $ 172,976,379 | ||
| CENTRAL | |||||
| Pittsburgh | $ 2,047,591 | 22 | $ 45,047,000 | ||
| Cincinnati | $ 3,037,885 | 25 | $ 75,947,134 | ||
| Milwaukee | $ 3,562,389 | 24 | $ 85,497,333 | ||
| St. Louis | $ 3,765,485 | 28 | $ 105,433,572 | ||
| Houston | $ 4,158,471 | 17 | $ 70,694,000 | ||
| Chicago Cubs | $ 6,252,366 | 20 | $ 125,047,329 | ||
| WEST | |||||
| Arizona | $ 2,332,167 | 23 | $ 53,639,833 | ||
| San Diego | $ 2,414,165 | 19 | $ 45,869,140 | ||
| Colorado | $ 3,832,525 | 23 | $ 88,148,071 | ||
| San Francisco | $ 4,377,716 | 27 | $ 118,198,333 | ||
| LA Dodgers | $ 4,961,381 | 21 | $ 104,188,999 | ||

