"When your payroll is around $68 million or $69 million, people say they should be going far in the playoffs.
The Pirates' opening day payroll, around $45 million, was the lowest in the National League.
For years, the Yankees have talked internally about keeping their payroll around $200 million.
The Phillies want to keep their payroll around $140 million; only the Yankees spent more than that in 2009.
No team spends as much as the Yankees, of course, but they have so far stuck to their plan to keep their 2010 payroll around $200 million.
Accusations abound that the Yankees are trying to buy their way to success with an annual payroll around the $200m mark.
But the Yankees, who want to keep their payroll around $200 million, did not want to enter a bidding war for a prospect they knew little about who could not be counted on this season.
The Mets would prefer to keep their payroll around $95 million for next season, but with trades for elite hitters failing to materialize, Phillips may turn to Wilpon for authorization to pursue a top free agent.
"We're playing the odds," said Mr. Baker, who also has a good business in what he calls "delivering payroll around the country"; that is, driving stacks of United States dollars to places where Iraqis get paid by the American authorities.
In particular, ESS Support Services Worldwide (ESS), a dining facilities subcontractor, routinely hired private armed security companies to shuttle managers, personnel, and payroll around Iraq, rather than arrange to travel with military convoys as required by LOGCAP III.
With payrolls hovering around the $30 million mark last season, the Florida Marlins and the Tampa Bay Rays, for example, don't seem to be spending the $20 million or more that they get in revenue sharing on player salaries.
