Back on the last day of April, when the Giants took the NL West for the first time, I wrote about payrolls and now this chart of wins (x) by current payroll (y) shows Moneyball clearly at work:

At 10th or lower payroll: White Sox, Rays, A’s, Brewers, Reds, Mariners and Giants are all performing as well or better than the top spenders: Dodgers, Yankees, Astros, Red Sox, Mets and Padres.

Two-thirds of the season have passed. Will the big-salary teams kick it up a gear in the home stretch?

The Irregular Season Champs down in LA have spent at least 20% more than every single major league team. Uh, who wants to tell them there hasn’t been a back-to-back champion in the 21st century?