Payroll isn't everything... (A's 3, Yanks 0)

Brett Tomko shut down the Yankees for 5 innings today, leading the A's to a 3-0 victory.

That's right, the same Tomko who...pitched for the Yankees this year.

When one team's released reliever becomes another team's starter, you get a true sense of just how much of a financial advantage some teams have over others.

Of course, it could just be that the A's are a frugal organization. But in reality the Yankees have advantages now that make it very difficult for teams like the A's to compete.

Now there are teams out there who have the means to compete with and win consistently against the Yankees. Those teams include the Red Sox, the Dodgers, the Phillies, the Angels, the Rays, the Cubs, and maybe a couple of others. They make up baseball's elite. But I think Yankee fans will always feel a (very) slight twinge of payroll guilt, especially when seeing games like the one today, in which Tomko, a Yankee castoff, went up against A.J. Burnett.

And by the way, you can see that Tomko's team won. This is why I don't feel much payroll guilt at all. That's because, apparently, payroll isn't everything.