I think this is the last of my forays into TV Market Size/MLB Team Payrolls/Postseason Appearances. Thank you for indulging me in this offseason journey.

I have been studying TV Market size, NL and AL payrolls and postseason appearances. Now I seek to answer this question: How often do large TV market teams make the postseason versus the small market teams? I have a pretty good hunch what the answer is based on my previous studies, but I might as well take this last step, eh?

We identified the top-5 TV-market teams as:

· Mets and Yankees

· Dodgers and Angels

· Cubs and White Sox

· Phillies

· Rangers

The bottom-5 TV market teams:

· Orioles

· Padres

· Royals

· Reds

· Brewers

So now it is just a matter of counting the postseason appearances, except the data is already skewed in the big boy’s favor by the fact that they have eight entrants, and the small boys only have five. So, I am adding the next three small-market clubs to even things out (I got the TV market data from here):

· Cardinals

· Rockies

· Pirates

Throwing the Cardinals in will draw some howls, but I did not know another way to even it out (maybe count each small-market postseason appearance as 8/5?).

Big TV Market teams make the postseason at a 2.6 to 1 clip over Small TV Market teams. The eight Big TV Market teams appear in the postseason at a .375 rate, while Small TV Market teams are batting .144, and the 14 Mid-size TV Market teams account for the rest.

The last question I wanted to ask is this: How do the Royals compare with other AL Central teams in payroll? As if this question REALLY needed to be asked, right? Facebook fans comments about the Glass family, Wal-Mart, and cheapness are actually very valid here.

First, a chart of the Royals ranks within AL Central. The number indicates payroll rank, with “1” meaning the highest payroll, and “5” being the lowest. Brace yourself, Effie.

Painful as they are, those numbers really don’t give justice to the story. The Indians, Tigers, and White Sox have all claimed #1 payroll over the past 13 years. Even the Twins have been a respectable #2 (twice) and #3 (twice).

If Dayton Moore can only bump the payroll up to $75M, that’s only good for #4 in today’s market.