"If you spend more... you can win less."

“If you spend more… you can win less.”

This you know.

For some reason today seems to be the day that all major news outlets do funky things with data and charts (except for Philly.com, which is running syndicated national content about a local business on its homepage). Bloomberg, of course, threw its hat into the well-measured ring. Using the following formula, they’ve put together a chart of the smartest spenders in sports:

Our ranking of all 122 franchises in the NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB rates teams based on how much they spent in player payroll for every win during the last five seasons. Each team is compared against the average price per win in its league to produce a score we call the efficiency index. The less a team spends compared with its peers, the lower its score. Playoff victories and championships get extra weight. Payroll data come from the best available published sources.*

Playoff wins count for 10 percent of a season (e.g., 16.2 wins in baseball); Wild Card wins get half credit.

Championships count for 50 percent of a season (81 wins in baseball).

As you might imagine, Philly teams didn’t fare so well. Believe it or not, the highest overall finisher was the Flyers. They came in 39th overall among pro sports teams based on the fact that they spend well above the league average payroll, but also have above average regular season and playoff wins.

Next, the Eagles… at 61. This based on their above average payroll, slightly above average regular season wins… and zero playoff or Super Bowl wins.

The Sixers at 75. And there’s Marla Hooch. What a hitter!

And finally, you guessed it, the Phillies bringing up the rear at 84 based on their significantly above average payroll, and slightly above average regular season and playoff wins. Keep in mind, this goes back five years, so presumably 2009, 2010 and 2011, when the Phillies were arguably the best team in baseball, were included, and they still finished 84th! THANKS, RUBE!

You can view the full thing here and play with the numbers as you see fit. Ratchet up the championship wins to be worth 200% of the regular season – the highest it can go – and the Phillies fall to dead last. Fun times.