Yankees, Rangers payroll disparity largest in playoff history

CWhen the Texas Rangers and New York Yankees do battle in the ALCS, it will mark the greatest disparity in raw dollars between payrolls in the history of playoff baseball, at $152 million. Seriously.
Below, we’ve compared the 2010 payrolls (figures per ESPN.com) of both teams, and presented some fun facts for you to impress your friends. Don’t get enough spreadsheets at work? Of course you don’t.

• The difference between Alex Rodriguez (Yankees’ highest-paid player) and Michael Young (Rangers’ highest-paid) is Mark Teixeira.
• Re: The Rangers’ five highest-paid players. Cliff Lee, Cristian Guzman and Jorge Cantu were just picked up this summer via trade. Rich Harden was released four days ago.
• For the price of Alex Rodriguez, you could sign every Texas Ranger except the six highest paid.
• The difference between the Yankees payroll and the Rangers payroll is the Cubs payroll. The Cubs have the third-highest payroll in baseball.
• Kerry Wood is alive.
• Cliff Lee, C.J. Wilson, Colby Lewis and Tommy Hunter (all of Texas’ playoff starting rotation) combined make less than Mariano Rivera – the Yankees’ closer.
• Who the f**k is Boone Logan? And how does Neftali Feliz make less than him?
• Jeff Francoeur earns roughly $2 million per hit. (Not true, but feels that way.)
• The Yankees won 95 games at $207 million. The Rangers won 90 at $55 mil. The Yankees paid $30.4 million per extra win.
• The Rangers could triple every current player’s salary, sign Mark Teixeira away from the Yankees, and still have a lower payroll.

Most shocking takeaway from all this: Dallas-Fort Worth is a ‘small market?’ Never knew. Always seemed pretty honkin’ big to me.