Interesting Detroit Tigers payroll numbers

Many people out there think the Detroit Tigers will be big players in the free agent market this coming off season. In cruising around the blogosphere today I saw a number of discussions about what the Tigers may spend, what they feel they can spend, and what they really should spend on payroll in 2011. We have to remember that baseball is a business and the bottom line is important at least to the owners. However Tigers owner Mike Illitch is no spring chicken and he may want to construct a club that can win now.

Since we have no way to really know what goes on inside of Mr. I’s head, we have to go through the numbers. In 2008 they spent 137 million dollars on payroll that fell to 115 million in 2009, and rose to nearly 134 million in 2010. Some 65 million have come off the books. In looking at the contracts it appears the Tigers right now have around 66.5 million already committed to payroll for 2011. We have to figure the end number for the 2011 season is between 100-120 million dollars.

Of course from a business standpoint we can effectively argue that the Tigers should shed more payroll dollars. In 2008 they had 3.2 million fans come out to Comerica Park. In 2009 that fell to just north of 2.5 million paying customers, and in 2010 the attendance was down yet again to just north of 2.4 million. Detroit is still in economic quicksand so we don’t really know what they will do.

Many would argue that they cannot afford to tie up 15-19 million/season dollars in Carl Crawford. Even though they have 46.75 million dollars of payroll tied up in Miguel Cabrera, Jose Valverde, Justin Verlander and another 18.5 tied to Carlos Guillen and Brandon Inge, they could easily afford 15-18 million for Crawford even if the payrolls was to drop to the 100 million dollar level. Especially all that he can bring to this club, and considering Guillen’s contract will come off the books following 2011.

Related Links:

•Detroit Tigers news and notes
•The Business of Major League Baseball
•Pride of the Tigers
•Joshua Lobdell.com