DAY FIVE: We need a locksmith

Aaron is angry and underpaid.

I made this chart because I hate the Boston Red Sox. Their late season implosion made me happier than this kid:

It made me happy because the Red Sox once fancied themselves as the Anti-Yankees. The Yankees buy players thus they essentially buy championships. The 2004 Sox (and every ensuing Sox team) won using the Yankees strategy of luring free agents with the all-mighty dollar. They also won by taking lots and lots of steroids. Not that every team in that era didn't have players on 'roids (they all did) but only the Sox won the World Series that year as a result of taking steroids. 

This graph shows that the 2011 Boston Red Sox had the third highest payroll in Major League Baseball, but failed to make the playoffs. Their payroll of nearly $162 million was roughly four times that of the Tampa Bay Rays. 

Tampa Bay paid their players just over $41 million and won 91 games- an average of $450,000 for every game won (41,000,000/91= roughly 450,000). The Red Sox paid $1.8 million dollars for every game won. The Yankees were the least efficient- they paid their players $203 million and won 97 games for an average of $2.1 million dollars for every game won- but they still made the playoffs. 

The teams are sorted top to bottom in order of total salary with Kansas City (team salary of $36 million) and the Yankees (team salary of $203 million) at the bookends. 

Click to enlarge.