Checking out the payrolls

On the day the Yankees reportedly spent $180 million to bring Mark Teixeria, the Associated Press released information on team payrolls for the 2008 season, citing figures sent to clubs in recent days by the commissioner's office.

Of note is the list has the Phillies with the 10th highest payroll in 2008, at $112.7 million.

According to the AP, the figures are for 40-man rosters and include salaries and prorated shares of signing bonuses, earned incentive bonuses, non-cash compensation, buyouts of unexercised options and cash transactions. In some cases, parts of salaries that are deferred are discounted to reflect present-day values. The gap between the Yankees and No. 2 Boston of $75 million is more than the entire payroll of nine teams.

1. N.Y. Yankees $222,519,480
2. Boston 147,075,645
3. New York Mets 144,693,962
4. Detroit 136,198,404
5. Chicago Cubs 130,508,691
6. Los Angeles Angels 128,142,467
7. Los Angeles Dodgers 125,864,496
8. Seattle 120,456,113
9. Chicago White Sox 113,641,026
10. Philadelphia 112,654,711
11. St. Louis 109,989,046
12. Houston 100,189,948
13. Toronto 98,343,520
14. Atlanta 92,494,314
15. Milwaukee 90,324,347
16. Cincinnati 82,886,440
17. San Francisco 82,074,873
18. Arizona 80,998,526
19. Baltimore 78,888,250
20. Cleveland 78,663,582
21. Texas 78,640,138
22. Colorado 74,791,621
23. San Diego 71,212,182
24. Kansas City 69,297,547
25. Minnesota 65,096,667
26. Washington 59,699,668
27. Oakland 55,223,294
28. Tampa Bay 51,020,720
29. Pittsburgh 50,764,410
30. Florida 27,003,450
Total 2,879,357,538