Wiedmer: Money alone won't save Braves

Arkansas-SEMO Live Blog

Quick question: What do the four largest payrolls in Major League Baseball have in common this morning?

Quick answer: None of the four -- the top-heaviest Los Angeles Dodgers, the New York Yankees, the Philadelphia Phillies and the Boston Red Sox -- are still alive in the playoffs.

In fact, only the Dodgers' somewhat misspent $235 million delivered a playoff berth. And the NL West champs couldn't even extend the St. Louis Cardinals -- who rank 13th in payroll, by the way -- to a full five games in their best-of-five division series, falling in four, their $200 million pitcher Clayton Kershaw suffering two of their three losses.

So while the Atlanta Braves officially remain without a general manager -- unless interim GM John Hart has silently taken the job on a permanent basis, as is being rumored -- it's worth noting that money alone doesn't automatically fix all problems.

It takes brains, patience, intuition, determination and at least a wee bit of luck. It ultimately becomes as much about people as money, which is why the Yankees -- despite having baseball's highest opening-day payroll each of the 10 springs prior to this one -- have but one championship (2009) to show for it.

It may also be why Braves president and former general manager John Schuerholz told the Atlanta media on the day the franchise parted company with former GM Frank Wren: "Scouting and player development are the life blood of any major league baseball organization. You look at a major league organization and you see the top 10 percent of the iceberg when you see a major league team play, and the 90 percent unseen by most people is what goes down in player developlement, scouting and international scouting."

To that end, the Braves announced earlier this week that they're bringing back super scout Roy Clark as a special assistant to the GM -- whomever that GM may be -- as well as promoting Brian Bridges to scouting director.

As for a hitting coach the Braves so desperately seem to need, may we suggest either Kansas City Royals hitting coach Dave Sveum or the Cardinals' hitting coach, John Mabry.

Taking over a woeful Royals unit at June's dawn, Sveum transformed a lineup that's now within four wins of its first trip to the World Series since 1985 into collecting 1,456 hits to just 985 strikeouts. By contrast, the Braves collected 1,316 hits while striking out 1,369 times. That's how you fall apart down the stretch.

Mabry's work has been no less impressive in St. Looie, where the Cards hit a preposterous .333 with runners in scoring position last season, then crushed Kershaw twice in seventh innings during the just-completed NLDS. After finishing last in the NL in homers during the regular season, 13 of the Redbirds' 18 runs against Dodger Blue came by home run. Apparently chicks aren't our only feathered friends who dig the long ball.

But a quick glance at payrolls over the last 10 years shows us is that while some money tends to be important, oversized payrolls can produce underwhelming results. Of the last 10 World Series champs, five fell between 10th and 13th for that year's opening-day payrolls. Two of the Boston Red Sox's three championships over that time were earned with the second-highest payroll and last year's trophy was hoisted by the fourth highest-paid team. The San Francisco Giants' two titles (2012 and 2010) were won by teams owning payrolls that stood eighth and 10th, respectively.

Look at this year's final four and Baltimore stands 15th with Kansas City 19th, while the Giants are seventh and the Cards 13th.

Given that the Braves were 14th in payroll this summer ($110,897,341), money shouldn't be the key issue. People are what makes the difference, which is why last week's decision to retain manager Fredi Gonzalez puts immediate pressure on whoever becomes GM, whether it's ultimately Hart, current Royals GM and former Braves front office exec Dayton Moore, or current Braves assistant GM John Coppolella.

This isn't to say Gonzalez should have been fired, just that both the manager's job and the new GM's honeymoon could be swiftly on the line if the Braves struggle early in 2015.

But whatever happens then, at least these playoffs are again showing us that winning in October is at least as much about sense as dollars.

Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.

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