Salary Disparity: An Item That May Only Interest Me

by Freneau on Nov 30, 2005 1:36 PM EST in Kansas City Royals News

A quick glance at the Royals' salary listing reveals something interesting:

1. Mike Sweeney $11,000,000
2. Matt Stairs $1,200,000
3. Jeremy Affeldt $950,000
4. Angel Berroa $500,000

How very Wal-Mart of the Royals, eh? Now, a few things: 1) this will likely change a bit, as the Royals inevitably sign a mid-level free agent at some point for 2-3 million per and 2) don't construe this as instance #4,992 of Sweeney-hating in the Royals universe, Mike is the Royals best player, and he's the one guy who seemed legitimately interested in staying out of the Damon/Dye/Beltran/Sweeney jumble.

Given what we know about Damon now... he's almost like a Rodman figure, with his Detroit days almost seeming like a completely different human being.

But back to the salaries... thats still, like... umm... a tad odd don't you think? When the number one guy makes nearly 10-times more than anyone else? Hell, even Wal-Mart has a bunch of Presidents, VPs, etc that all pull in comparable money...

KC Royals Baseball: Saving On Those Pesky Labor Costs in Order to Provide the Metro Area with .350 Baseball at a Low Price, and with a Family Atmosphere!

Losing the Wal-Mart way: Always

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It interests me too

I wonder how that affects morale in the clubhouse. Sweeney seems a great guy but there has to be some resentment that he makes about 20 times what most of the players make. Combined with his holiness, there has to be some dislike of Mike.

And it's pretty crazy to think that our payroll is about $27m total right now with $11m going to the man PittsburghPA likes to call Mike Stinkey.

After thinking about it for three years, I'm still not sure if it makes sense to trade him or not. For a long time I decided that we should keep him, on the selfish grounds that we suck anyway and he's the only guy I like watching hit. But I'm starting to be swayed to the notion that if we really are going to have a $40m payroll, we just can't afford to give that much dough to one guy.

At this point, I still think I'm for keeping him. We're going to be awful with or without him and I like watching him hit, although that value is almost completely offset by the "OMG! Sweeney sucks!" syndrome we're forced to suffer though on RoyalBoard and the radio here. I guess if I thought Allard could significantly improve the team, I'd support a trade, but I don't trust Allard.

by Hippstar on Dec 2, 2005 12:10 PM EST reply actions

20 Times

Yea, you'd have to think theres some resentment, but because-- or maybe not-- its KC and not some other market, we never rerally hear stories about it... I just cant see anyone in the KC media baiting anyone to say something negative about sweeney,,,

and what are the gonna write anyway, "Affeldt still sucks, but thinksSweeney overpaid"

by LeoBloom on Dec 2, 2005 2:01 PM EST reply actions