Fortunately for O’Dowd, he and his staff’s drafting skills would make up for these turkey deals. The Rockies had already drafted Todd Helton No. 1 in 1995 and Matt Holliday first in 1998. Under O’Dowd they added Garrett Atkins (eighth round) and Brad Hawpe (No. 11) in 2000; Jeff Francis (No. 1), Jeff Baker (No. 4) and Ryan Spilborghs (No. 7) in 2002; Chris Ianetta (No. 4) in 2004; and very possible 2007 NL rookie of the year Troy Tulowitzki (No. 1) in 2005. The Rockies also signed Manny Corpas (1999) and Ubaldo Jimenez (2001) as undrafted free agents, thus giving Colorado 11 homegrown players out of 25.

Then again, it doesn’t take a cheap team to have developed its own players. While Boston certainly can open up the vault for a Manny Ramirez, or be fortunate enough to have Minnesota dump David Ortiz onto its lap for nothing, general manager Theo Epstein’s team wouldn’t be where it is without homegrown players filling key spots.

The Red Sox have their own rookie of the year candidate in Dustin Pedroia (No. 2, 2004), a should-have-been-All-Star first baseman in Kevin Youkilis (No. 8, 2001) and an ace closer in Jonathan Papelbon (No. 4, 2003). Three other Boston-organization-only players — pitchers Jon Lester (No. 2, 2002) and Manny Delcarmen (No. 2, 2000), and outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury (No. 1, 2005) are also on the playoff roster.

Perhaps these teams’ respect for homegrown players comes in part because these general managers have worked together before.

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O’Dowd, while he was assistant GM in Cleveland, hired Shapiro, whose father, Ron, O’Dowd knew when he was in the Baltimore front office, and Ron Shapiro was Cal Ripken Jr.’s agent. Byrnes met Ron Shapiro at a Haverford College alumni baseball game, and his recommendation helped convince his son, and O’Dowd, to hire Byrnes for Cleveland’s front office.

When O’Dowd moved to Colorado, Byrnes followed him as his assistant general manager. That is, until 2003, when Byrnes left to become Epstein’s assistant with Boston.

But of those four, Epstein is the only one assured of having the budget to re-sign all of his young talent. Unless the other general managers get a significant budget increase, eventually some of their players will be wearing Yankee uniforms. Or maybe Red Sox uniforms.

At that point, we’ll see whether MacArthur’s adage, or Melvin’s, still applies. But for now, fans can enjoy a baseball playoff in which the only outrageous price of admission is what they paid for their tickets.

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