ANAHEIM, Calif. -- The high rollers already are back home. This year's baseball playoffs are for the little guys.

	“	A team gets the right bounces, gets a little bit hot, you can knock off a good team. But those teams that beat Arizona and New York are good teams. It's not a shocker. ”
		— Bobby Cox, Braves manager

None of the four teams left competing for spots in the World Series has a payroll among the top eight in the major leagues, according to figures compiled by the commissioner's office.

Five of the eight highest spenders didn't even make the playoffs, a stark contrast to the last few years, when spending meant winning.

So much for commissioner Bud Selig's argument that only the big-bucks teams can win. The Twins, Angels, Cardinals and Giants used a combination of smart trades, wise spending, team chemistry and cheap homegrown talent to advance to the league championship series.

"The A's, the Angels, small-market Twins, we went out there and showed people that we can get to the playoffs and we can compete,'' Minnesota center fielder Torii Hunter said.

Still, Selig isn't convinced he's wrong, insisting one year does not make a trend. "There have been a lot of surprises,'' he said.

The biggest is Minnesota, which is No. 27 among the 30 major league teams in spending with a $41.3 million payroll, according to figures based on Aug. 31 rosters, which include salaries, and prorated shares of All-Star and signing bonuses. Anaheim, the Twins' opponent in the American League championship series, is 15th at $62.8 million.

San Francisco, ninth at $78.4 million, is in the National League championship series against St. Louis, 10th at $76.2 million.

In the first round, the team with the higher payroll lost every series. The Angels shocked the New York Yankees (first at $133.4 million); the Twins beat Oakland (25th at $41.9 million); St. Louis swept defending World Series champion Arizona (fourth at $103.5 million); and San Francisco defeated Atlanta (seventh at $93.8 million).

"A team gets the right bounces, gets a little bit hot, you can knock off a good team,'' Braves manager Bobby Cox said. "But those teams that beat Arizona and New York are good teams. It's not a shocker.''

Look at the teams that didn't even make it into October. The list includes Boston (second at $110.2 million); Texas (third at $106.9 million); Los Angeles (fifth at $101.5 million); the New York Mets (sixth at $94.4 million); and Seattle (eighth at $86.1 million).

In the first five seasons after the 1994-95 strike, only one team not among the top half in payroll advanced to the postseason: The 1997 Houston Astros were 18th and lost in the first round.

The 1993 Phillies are the last pennant winners not in the top 10 in payroll, and no team in the bottom half of the list has won the World Series since the 1991 Twins.

Of 224 postseason games from 1995-2001, all but five were won by teams in the top half of the payroll standings.

This year, teams in the bottom half have won six, with another four won by the Angels, who are just above the midpoint. And the Angels didn't just knock out the Yankees, they embarrassed the four-time defending AL champions, compiling the best batting average by any team in any postseason series ever.

"These guys are hungry. You can see it in their eyes,'' Yankees pitcher David Wells said.

Selig calls the success of the Twins an aberration. He spent two years saying the small markets had lost "hope and faith,'' and is proud the new labor contract will shift more money from the big teams to the rest starting next year.

He still insists the richer clubs have all the advantages. He looks at teams like the Twins and Athletics and wonders how they can afford increased salaries as young stars become eligible for salary arbitration and free agency.

"The very teams we are talking about are the ones worrying about that,'' Selig said. "They've done a masterful job. The question is how long can they keep those players?''

Oakland made it back to the playoffs for the third straight season, winning the AL West even after star first baseman Jason Giambi left to sign a $120 million, seven-year contract with the Yankees.

In the end, money made little difference for the majors' big spenders. The most important numbers are wins and losses, batting averages and ERAs.

"I expect a great deal out of myself, whether I'm managing a team that spends $100-something million, or a team that spends $40 million,'' Yankees manager Joe Torre said. "You still as a manager, I think, have to work the same way.''