Low cap leagues rock if you like realism. I play in as many $60M and $40M leagues as I can find. IMO, they are more like putting together RL teams.
If you look at the values of each RL team, there are only 5 teams with a salary greater than $90M with the '27 Yankees leading the way at $96M (I am not counting the 1890 Philadelphia Athletics and their $120M salary as it is $30M more than the next team). The lowest team is at $37M. Most RL teams fall between $50 and $80M and the typical average team salary is under $70M in most seasons (see below).
Year |
Teams |
Total payroll (M's) |
Avg payroll (M's) |
Highest payroll (M's) |
Lowest payroll (M's) |
1972 |
24 |
$1,647 |
$68.6 |
$81 |
$54 |
1982 |
26 |
$1,756 |
$67.5 |
$79 |
$55 |
1992 |
26 |
$1,770 |
$68.1 |
$76 |
$58 |
2002 |
30 |
$2,063 |
$68.8 |
$83 |
$56 |
2012 |
30 |
$2,012 |
$67.1 |
$75 |
$54 |
So really, $80M teams are closer to all star/WS teams whereas, low caps as defined here, are more like RL, and true low cap leagues, below $50M, are few and far between.
It seems that all-star teams are more popular here than getting close to RL performances. I find that funny with as many complaints as I see about players not performing to their RL statistics. If owners truly wanted RL, they would play in the $60M leagues.