The Bleacher Bums: September 8, 2005 Archive

You get what you pay for....

Posted at 11:01 AM on September 8, 2005 by David Zingler (1 Comments)

Carlos Silva erupted, Kyle Lohse whined and Brad Radke complained. Our offense isn’t holding up their end of the bargain they cried. Those poor pitchers, right? Not exactly.

According to ESPN.com, the Twins have eleven players making $1 million or more this season. Seven of them are pitchers. The starting rotation of Brad Radke ($9 million), Johan Santana ($4.75 million), Carlos Silva ($1.75 million), Kyle Lohse ($2.4 million) and Joe Mays ($7.25 million) make up $25,150,000 or 44% of the team’s $56,615,000 payroll. When you throw in closer Joe Nathan ($2.1 million) and setup man J.C. Romero ($1.25 million), the figure rises to $28.5 million or 50%.

The position players, by comparison, are paupers; only Torii Hunter ($8 million), Shannon Stewart ($6 million) and Jacque Jones ($5 million) are earning substantial money. And Hunter, of course, has been injured and out of the line-up for over a month. Regulars Justin Morneau, Joe Mauer, Nick Punto, Jason Bartlett and Michael Cuddyer meanwhile, all make less than $350,000 a piece.

To me, it looks like the Twins are getting exactly what they deserve – a solid to great pitching staff, good outfield play and an infield full of unproven, inconsistent youngsters.

So next time a starting pitcher thinks about throwing a hissy fit, maybe he should take a deep breath and a quick glance at his paycheck.

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