John Mutka: Huge salaries don’t guarantee World Series

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New York Yankees' Alex Rodriguez reacts after striking out against the Detroit Tigers in the seventh inning in Game 5 of baseball's American League division series Thursday, Oct. 6, 2011 in New York. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

Updated: November 16, 2011 11:53AM

In baseball money talks, but overcompensated players often walk.

 Monstrous salaries don’t guarantee World Series rings.

The filthy rich Yankees and Phillies provide classic examples of financial flops. They rank 1-2 in payroll, but produced zero results and have retreated to their man caves for the rest of the playoffs.

To say the Yankees are cost-efficient, invites ridicule even though they led the league in home runs.

Their high-protein offense created empty calories after a 97-win season. Though outscoring the Tigers 28-17, the feast-or-famine Yankees scored only nine runs in three losses.

Put the blame on fading superstars Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter for one-run losses that sealed the Yankees’ fate. Their combined salaries of more than $46 million surpass the team payrolls of the Pirates, Padres, Rays and Royals.

Rodriguez, 36, managed just two singles in 18 at-bats, and struck out for the final out of the playoffs for the second year in a row.

Here’s how else A-Rod has rewarded the Yankees for their misguided generosity in recent postseasons: 2010: .219; 2009: 6 homers, 18 RBI; 2006: .071; 2005, .133.

To be fair he has been hampered by injuries to his right knee and left thumb, but his consistent failure to deliver in the playoffs makes him an easy target for those who enjoy playing the blame game.

Superstars are supposed to be leaders, but the Yankees have won only one World Series with A-Rod in the lineup. In 2009’s World Series win he hit six of his 13 playoff homers and drove in 18 of his 41 runs.

Unlike guys like Reggie Jackson and the Bulls’ Michael Jordan, who regularly delivered dramatically in the clutch, A-Rod has been taking money under false pretenses. Sure he enjoyed seven straight 100 RBI seasons, but that’s not what fans remember. In a recent New York Post survey 50 percent of those who responded blamed him for the Yankees’ latest flop.

Jeter wasn’t even mentioned though he was 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position. The 37-year-old vet is the guy they will lionize in the Bronx when they talk about the Ghosts of Octobers past. He hasn’t driven in more than 70 runs in the last five seasons, but his fan club applauds him for piggybacking the Yankees to seven World Series appearances from 1996 to 2009.

Given their age and closer Mariano Rivera’s shrinking longevity, the Yankees will be needing a major overhaul within the next two years, especially if portly lefty C.C. Sabathia keeps packing calories on his 300-pound frame. Rivera, 42, no longer can claim to be baseball’s best closer and could be nearing the end even though he collected 44 saves.

When the Phillies brought in Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee and Roy Oswalt to compliment Cole Hamels and Vance Worley — assembling what many consider the best pitching staff in at least two decades — it was widely assumed the World Series was theirs for the taking.

In the city of not-so-Brotherly Love all but Oswalt (9-10, 0-1 in the playoffs) delivered. Halladay (19-6) and Lee (17-8) racked up 230-plus innings and Hamels (14-9), a homegrown product, pitched 216 innings. Worley compensated for Oswalt’s subpar year with an 11-3 record, but it all went out the window in the postseason.

The modestly compensated Cardinals (12th highest payroll), locked and loaded with Albert Pujols (37 homers, 99 RBI) and Lance Berkman (31 HRs, 94 RBI). They heated up late, winning 16 of their last 21 to overtake Atlanta for the wild-card berth

Lee and Oswalt were post-season flops, but Halladay nearly derailed the Cards with two quality starts (1-1, 16 innings, nine hits). In a game five classic, former teammate Chris Carpenter outdueled him.

Over the long haul I like Philadelphia’s chances of making it back to the Fall Classic before the Yankees. With five quality starters, manager Charlie Manuel could fill out his lineup with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and still have a fighting chance, though slugger Ryan Howard’s achilles injury does raise the anxiety level.