Quote Originally Posted by LeatherPants View Post
Let's pretend that 2020 was a normal year, and not COVID related, and that they raised their 2019 revenue about 10%, which has been the norm during normal years. That would have given them $303 million in revenue for 2020. A $147 million payroll is 48%, which isn't even the highest it's been during the Castellini years (they've gone up to 50% a couple of times). So no, a $147 million payroll isn't the highest it's even been, based on revenue. It's roughly what they were spending back in 2015-2016. In other words, it's about what they should be doing. I'm not sure how much credit they should get for spending what they should be spending anyway.
$147M is the highest dollar amount of a payroll. You know that. I knew that. And you know that’s what I meant. They generally spend what like 45-50% of revenue on payroll? For whatever reason they don’t spend more. I really don’t care what they reason is, whether they are reinvesting it, or pocketing it. Reality is, that’s the range they’ll likely spend in. It’s more important to spend that competently. It’s about as low hanging fruit as you can get in a rebuild year to scream the owner is cheap. No matter how rich you are, you have budgetary constraints. If the Reds are legit about this plan and stick to it, I think it’ll mean good things. Their back won’t be to the wall constantly payroll wise in hopes of a 500 or so finish. That level could be the baseline which they could add with the money they took off the books.

I wish the Reds could and would spend like drunken sailors, but it just isn’t going to happen. We can percentage of this and that all day. Bottom line is, they generally spend more than enough money to be a contender. In order to be that contender they need to do so competently with a sustainable plan. Seeing some fan favorites go sucks. Winker was one of my favorite players. But if the Reds can see the new model through, they can build a long term winner. And I like winning more than any single player.