No, because the majority of those players will never reach the Major Leagues and the surefire AAA prospects are at least two years away.
Okay, playoffs are set, let’s see what we have. Rereading the thread to see what the claims were – great read, btw – I see that my stated hypothesis was this:
“I would suggest that on opening day, if your team’s payroll is in the top half of the league, your team has a significantly better chance of making the playoffs than those in the bottom half.”
1 $209,081,579 New York Yankees
2 $138,685,197 Detroit Tigers
3 $138,293,378 New York Mets
4 $133,440,037 Boston Red Sox
5 $121,152,667 Chicago White Sox
6 $119,216,333 Los Angeles Angels
7 $118,595,833 Chicago Cubs
8 $118,536,038 Los Angeles Dodgers
9 $117,993,982 Seattle Mariners
10 $102,424,018 Atlanta Braves
11 $100,624,450 St. Louis Cardinals
12 $98,641,957 Toronto Blue Jays
13 $98,269,881 Philadelphia Phillies
14 $88,930,415 Houston Astros
15 $81,004,167 Milwaukee Brewers
16 $78,970,067 Cleveland Indians
17 $76,904,500 San Francisco Giants
18 $74,277,695 Cincinnati Reds
19 $73,677,617 San Diego Padres
20 $68,655,500 Colorado Rockies
21 $68,239,551 Texas Rangers
22 $67,196,248 Baltimore Orioles
23 $66,202,713 Arizona Diamondbacks
24 $62,182,767 Minnesota Twins
25 $58,245,500 Kansas City Royals
26 $54,961,000 Washington Nationals
27 $49,365,283 Pittsburgh Pirates
28 $47,967,126 Oakland Athletics
[color=Blue]29 $43,820,598 Tampa Bay Rays
30 $21,836,500 Florida Marlins[/COLOR]
Even though neither the Yankees nor Mets made the playoffs this year, the playoffs spots are completely dominated by the teams that had high payrolls on opening day.