Peter Angelos is Not Cheap

If one frequents Twitter for long enough, you hear a common refrain that takes many different forms.  Boil it down and it is a resounding "Peter Angelos is too cheap to spend any money".  This mantra is said often.  You tend to get it coupled with the idea that the Orioles are a sleeping giant (which I think is properly credited to Peter Gammons during the Flanny/Beattie years), which ignores how power and money have largely left the confines of Baltimore to other locations either by migrating down to DC, migration/buyouts to other areas of the country, or simply mainstays of Baltimore economy drying up.  A very complex issue is expressed very simply and Baltimore's presence as a top tier American city is something many Marylanders believe to their very core regardless of inconvenient facts like market size, corporate presence, population, etc.

To try to nail down the facts a bit, we could lean on Forbes and assume their estimates for payroll and revenue are fairly accurate.  If you accept that, then the Orioles have the ninth lowest revenue in MLB.  That is something that MLB itself would largely agree with as the Orioles quality for special compensation in the form of draft picks and revenue sharing because they are categorized as a low revenue club.  To those who might scoff at that, in what interest is it in MLB to make the Orioles look better off than they actually are.  Other teams would want that compensation.  MLB might well would prefer the Orioles to look better so that the tangled issues with MASN might untangle a little easier.

Anyway, below we have a list of clubs, payroll, and revenue.  It is ordered greatest to least in club's proportion of revenue dedicated to MLB payroll. 

Rank 2017	Team	2017 Payroll	Estimated Revenue	% MLB Payroll
1	Tigers	$200	$275	72.7
2	Orioles	$164	$253	64.9
3	Royals	$146	$246	59.3
4	Marlins	$120	$206	58.3
5	Rangers	$173	$298	58.1
6	Nationals	$165	$304	54.1
7	Mariners	$154	$289	53.4
8	Blue Jays	$144	$278	51.8
9	Rockies	$128	$248	51.6
10	Dodgers	$226	$462	48.8
11	Cardinals	$150	$310	48.5
12	Angels	$164	$350	46.9
13	Mets	$156	$332	46.9
14	Indians	$126	$271	46.4
15	Braves	$126	$275	45.9
16	Giants	$182	$428	42.4
17	Twins	$105	$249	42.1
18	Red Sox	$179	$434	41.2
19	Astros	$122	$299	40.9
20	Cubs	$177	$434	40.8
21	Reds	$93	$229	40.6
22	Athletics	$82	$216	37.8
23	W. Sox	$100	$269	37.2
24	Yankees	$195	$526	37.1
25	DBacks	$93	$253	36.8
26	Rays	$71	$205	34.8
27	Pirates	$92	$265	34.5
28	Phillies	$112	$325	34.4
29	Brewers	$61	$239	25.4
30	Padres	$61	$259	23.7

As you can see, and pretty much what we have said here at the Depot for awhile, the club's current philosophy is to highly leverage their operation into MLB pay.  As such, the Orioles devote the second highest percentage of revenue to MLB payroll.

At the very least, I think this helps show that there is uncertainty in saying that Angelos is cheap.  Indicators exist that the opposite might well be true.