We Don't Need No Salary Cap

I've argued to friends before that, unlike other sports, I don't think baseball needs a salary cap. Unfortunately, I've never had much to go on other than my personal beliefs and the recent success of the Rays. But today, I made this nifty discovery. That's right, a chart that plots win-loss record against payroll. And oh, would you look at that - as of this morning's standings, the 8 projected playoff teams (Yankees/Rays/Twins/Phils/Padres/Braves/Reds/Rangers, along with the Giants, which had an identical record to the Rangers) have an average payroll of $108.2 million - or about $3 million higher than that of the White Sox. And I don't hear anybody railing against the White Sox for having a ridiculously high payroll (despite them, admittedly, having the 7th-highest in the MLB). Take out the Yankees, who have a payroll a ridiculous 27% higher than the second-deepest-pocketed team (the Red Sox), and the average drops to $94.2 million, or a payroll $700,000 more than the Cardinals, who have the 9th-highest. But again, I don't hear anybody whining about the Cardinals throwing money around. Additionally, according to this chart, 14 teams are getting more or the same number of wins relative to the rest of the league than their payroll would seemingly indicate - most notably, every single one of the eight current playoff teams. Even then, only the Yankees and Phils are getting the same relative number of wins.