This post could be subtitled “How the Yankees skew data”.

I looked at National League payrolls and postseason appearance here. Now it’s time to do the same for the American League.

As a reminder, I am using End-of-Year payroll data, and I sorted the division winners by their payroll within the division. On the first chart you will see “Yankees” and #1 a lot. That does not mean I like the Yankees. That means the Yankees won their division and had the highest payroll of teams in their division.

Yes, Martha, championships can be bought.

Eighteen of the top spenders took home the division, for a batting average of .461 – Gehrig, eat your heart out. Add in the second highest spender, and the percentage goes up to 61.5%, which is close to the National League for the top two spenders in each division.

Fans of the Royals can take some solace in the knowledge that the AL Central goes against the grain more than any other division in baseball. Only five of the division winners in the 13 years tracked by this study were top spenders.

The Wild Card race offers less hope to Royals fans than the National League Wild Card race.

Eight of the 13 Wild Card winners were top spenders (remember, the division winners have been removed from consideration for this portion of the study). Winners gonna win.

My conclusions:

1. It is not impossible for a cheap team like the Royals to make the playoffs, but the deck is stacked against them. Look to the Athletics, Rays, and Twins for examples of how it can be done.

2. It’s better to win the division, because the Wild Card race is also filled with big market teams. Only once in the past 13 years did a team from the AL Central win the Wild Card, and that was the mid-market Tigers.

3. As a group, AL Central teams appear to be poorly managed when compared to other divisions. The top spenders don’t make the playoffs as often as other divisions.