NLCS 2010: San Francisco Giants Taking the Small Market Route to Success

Small market baseball is helping the San Francisco Giants be a successful playoff team.

The Giants beat the Atlanta Braves and are now up 3-1 on the Philadelphia Phillies after last night's 6-5 walk-off victory.

Even though the Giants have the 10th highest payroll at $97,828,833—with Barry Zito, Edgar Renteria, Tim Lincicum, Pat Burrell and Aaron Rowand getting $60.1 million—the team has upgraded its club midseason with mostly smaller pickups and have done well with its high draft picks and lower profile manager.

And so far, it has been more effective than the New York Yankees ($206,333,389) and Phillies ($141,927,381) high spending models.

Bleacher Report - San Francisco Giants
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