MLB: Can the small-market teams still compete?

PHILADELPHIA — Milwaukee Brewers owner Mark Attanasio thought about the teams in baseball's final four this year — all large-market clubs — and wondered if there would be room for his franchise anytime soon.

"We don't know if that's a trend or just an aberration," he said. "The disparity among the clubs appears to be widening."

Baseball's four league championship series teams were all among the top nine in opening-day payroll this year, led by the top-spending Yankees at $201 million. They were joined by the No. 6 Angels ($114 million), No. 7 Philadelphia ($113 million) and the No. 9 Dodgers ($100 million).

No room this year for the little guys.

"It's certainly trending in the direction," Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane said. "The big markets are always going to be there. Whether or not they're the only ones there I guess remains to be seen."

Just last year, the Tampa Bay won the AL pennant with a $51 million payroll, 28th among the 30 major league clubs. And parity has increased throughout the sport under the 1996-2001 and 2002-06 labor contracts along with the current deal, which runs until December 2011.

Since the end of the Yankees' run of four World Series titles in five years, 23 of the 30 major league teams have made the playoffs from 2001-09, with only Baltimore, Kansas City, Texas and Toronto missing out in the American League, and Cincinnati, Montreal-Washington and Pittsburgh failing to make it in the National. Seven teams have won the World Series in the last eight years, with only the Boston Red Sox taking the title twice.

Increased revenue sharing has helped the small and middle markets, and the luxury tax has slowed spending by the Yankees somewhat.

"We've had very good success over the last several years," said Bob DuPuy, Major League Baseball's president and chief operating officer. "While it has attracted people's attention that this year the higher-payroll teams and the higher-revenue teams made the playoffs, it is just one year and not enough to declare a trend."

Among the top 15 spenders as of the start of the season, just four had losing records this year: the No. 2 Mets (70-92), No. 8 Astros (74-88), the No. 12 White Sox (79-83) and No 15 Indians (65-97).

And just five of the bottom 15 finished with winning records: No. 18 Colorado (92-70), No. 22 Texas (87-75), No. 24 Minnesota (87-76), No. 25 Tampa Bay (84-78) and No. 30 Florida (87-75).

SHORT REST FOR SABATHIA: To the surprise of virtually no one, Yankees manager Joe Girardi announced Saturday that left-hander CC Sabathia would start Game 4 of the World Series on short rest.

Girardi followed his postseason pattern of using just three starters — Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Andy Pettitte. The alternative was Chad Gaudin, who has not started a game since the next-to-last day of the regular season.