Money doesn't always buy happiness

Sporting News, The, May 19, 1997 by Peter Schmuck

The message seemed clear last October. The eight teams that reached the postseason all were in the upper half of baseball's payroll rankings, and the team with the higher payroll won every postseason series.

The message seemed very clear. Spend big money or spend the season looking up at everybody who does. The large-revenue/ small-revenue dichotomy seemed intractable.

So how do you explain what's going on in the A.L. Central, where the Brewers and Royals are holding their own at or near the top of the standings?

The scrappy Brewers again are reflecting the personality of their hard-nosed manager. Phil Garner seems to get a lot out of his clubs, even when there isn't much there, and he has a no-name group of players making a solid early-season bid for respectability.

The Royals are doing the same, but they are not doing it the same way. Bob Boone has pulled together a surprisingly solid starting rotation to go with a restocked offensive lineup. The results have been mixed, but the Royals have proved they can mix it up with anyone in the American League.

Now for the flip side. That both teams look like viable contenders right now probably has as much to do with the shortcomings of the two preseason favorites as it does with the positive things that are happening in Kansas City and Milwaukee.

The White Sox stumbled so badly that they found themselves in dubious competition with the Cubs and Phillies for the worst record in either league before winning four straight last week. The Indians have gravitated toward the top of the standings, but they pitched poorly in April and blew a golden opportunity to push the White Sox into a major hole.

If the Indians had gotten off to a start comparable to the Orioles or Braves, the marginal success of the Royals and Brewers would look more, well, marginal. Instead, they're all up there at the top of the standings, which makes the small-revenue teams stand out

Of course, the division could right itself in a matter days. Even the White Sox were only five games out of first place when they were nine games under 500 last week. But there is reason to believe that at least one surprise club will emerge in the A.L. Central.

It probably will be the Royals, who should remain very competitive if Boone can get some consistent middle- and late-inning production from his bullpen.

The starting rotation is coming together nicely. Three Royals starters--Tim Belcher, Jose Rosado and Kevin Appier--were among the top five pitchers in the AL. ERA rankings last week, and the pitching staff was leading the league with five complete games.

That won't be enough, but the organization moved decisively to shore up the offense with the acquisition of designated hitter Chili Davis and infielders Jay Bell and Jeff King. So far, the Royals have not been one of the league's better hitting clubs, but they figure to improve now that Davis-- who was injured for much of April--has begun to establish himself in the everyday lineup.

If the Royals unravel, it probably will happen in the bullpen, where setup man Hipolito Pichardo has been forced into the closer role because of the health problems of closer Jeff Montgomery and promising Jaime Bluma.

The Brewers don't boast any compelling numbers. In fact, they have produced some very confusing numbers. Through Sunday, they were being outhit by their opponents by nine percentage points as well as being outslugged. The club's ERA also was significantly higher than its opposition's (4.56 to 4.35), and yet Milwaukee had the secondbest home record in the league (13-5) and had won seven of eight one-run games.

That's called chemistry. and it is attributable to the great job that Garner has done preparing an undermanned team to compete in the big, bad, large-revenue-leaning baseball world.

Can it last? That's the $60 million question. The Indians seem to be getting their pitching problems ironed out. The White Sox aren't going to play like the Cubs forever. The most talented teams usually rise to the top over the course of the six-month regular season, which doesn't bode well for the clubs trying to prove that money isn't everything.