Baseball doesnt need a salary cap that badly, and the sport certainly isnt a joke w/ out it. How can one really argue that it gets rid of parity when the three top teams in terms of salary all missed the playoffs? Especially when we have Tampa Bay going from the worst team in the league to having the 2nd best record in baseball, and being one game from the WS in a matter of a year. Talk about parity.
Well said...Rays showed that you don't need big names on your team to win. You just need to play as a team
Entering last years NFL playoffs the Giants had spent the least money in the NFL at only 75+ million. The Chiefs spent a 108+ million and went 4-12.
So what? You're taking a snapshot of one year. NFL teams can tweak the cap and "load up" but they also end up having to scale down to make future cap figures. Baseball allows free spending every year without any regulations. The Yankees are always the team spending significant amounts more than any other team in MLB. Are all of you really going to tell me that the Yankees are one of the favored teams every year because they do such a great job of prospect development in their farm system? Please. You can't argue that this system dosen't negate parity for the teams willing to spend a fortune. Other teams can make small runs like the Marlins have or this year the Rays by developing prospects but they'll dissapear as soon as those prospects start getting ridicuolus salary offers from teams like the Yankees or Boston. They buy their success bottom line. When you've got teams that are consistently 50-100 and even 150 million above other teams payrolls that's an absurd system.
Again, you can't take a snapshot of one year in MLB and use that as an argument for parity. THe Rays rise has come from them developing their farm system and perfect timing. Very similar to how the Marlins got to the series when they embarrassed the Yankees in the World Series. The free spending teams are always the top favorites every year are they not? Did they get there the same way the Rays have? Nope. The Rays will have their roster ravaged at some point and that team will dissapear again while the Yankees will have a roster full of All Stars year in and year out because they bought it. The miracle on Ice U.S. hockey team defeated the Russians who fielded a professional team of hockey players every olympics. That defeat certainly didn't cover up the discrepency between how the Russians fielded Olympic hockey teams versus the U.S. who used all amateurs.
Totally incorrect statement. Baseball Teams that exceed a certain amount must pay a luxory tax for having a significantly high payroll. Listen, statistically speaking, with the Angles, Marlins, RedSox, WhiteSox, Cardinals, RedSox and potentially Philly or TB/RedSox again, the pattern is clear, in zero way shape or form, Highest Money into Payroll does not guarantee a championship! Now, would I love to see a salary cap in baseball.....sure, but its not about preventing one team from over spending, I would do it for the economics of the game, and add a low payroll penalty tax to any team that complains about paying FA's and home grown studs, vs. letting them head off to $$$$. Put in a top side cap, and penalities for bottom side. Year, after year, some owners put out crap product and hide behind this notion of a salary cap. Fine, beat them at their own game. Cap the top, and penalize the bottom. To me, if you want to own a sports franchise, especially in Baseball, then pony up the cash to pay for a proper product on the field.
Are you comparing a luxury tax to a salary cap? Really? Not comparable. I know yank fans are fine with the system as is. Why wouldn't you be? Shouldn't blind you from the straight facts that the long term success of the organization is based on buying that level of success versus the MAJORITY of other teams having to scrape and claw to build their farm systems and be lucky enough to have enough prospects develop at the right time in order to compete. Then they get to have the deep pocket clubs immediately ravage their rosters.
Never sad it was comparable or a replacement. You made a false statement, I corrected it....that is all.
I don't even know where to start. Lets compare the Yankee's and the Rays. Avg attendance from 2008 Rays 22,259 while the Yankees was 53,069. Part of the Rays even reaching that figure was playing the Yankee's 9-10 times at home each year along with the Sox. If baseball had a salary cap of say 125 million your telling me that the Rays, Marlins, and Oakland that spend a combined $112 million in 2008, will suddenly shell out a combined $375 million, while drawing a combined 59,040 fans. Give me a break baseball is a business too... On top of these teams receiving free money from NY, Boston, etc.
Actually I did not make a false statement. Baseball does allow free spending. A luxury tax does not limit a teams spending. If you could show me how it does it would be very enightening. It simply taxes a team on the money they were going to spend to buy their yearly All Star rosters anyway. The luxury tax is revenue producing. Baseball simlpy came up with a way to profit off this flawed system rather than solve the issue.
Maybe all these other teams would have better attendance if some teams could afford to hold onto their top players? Having a cap would limit the amount of all Stars any one team could take away from other teams keeping at least some control on salary inflation which would enable some of these teams and players to come to agreements that would keep players on other teams besides the Yankees. Sure baseball is a business. That's a valid argument. However, that point dosen't change the fact that there are a few teams in Baseball that are constantly at the top for the simple reason that they are willing to buy that position. That's why I'm not and have never been impressed with the Yankees and their "mysterious" extended success levels over the years. Somehow the NFL is making a cap situation work to create parity yet it won't work in baseball though huh?
The NFL has parity because they also have parity in the amount of fans each team draws which baseball most certainly doesn't. The Redskins spend the most money in the NFL just about every year, why they sell the most tickets, they averaged 88,090 fans a game. The Detroit Lions that blow every year, are poorly run, and have never won anything still drew an average of 61,304 in 2007. The 2nd highest attendance figure behind the Redskins was the Giants at 78,731. Even the worst NFL teams draw a ton of fans, while in baseball the bottom teams can't draw the attendance of the top teams and are dependent on top teams fans to there games.
The Yankees havent won since they started spending freely though. The Red Sox are a high spending team who has a lot of post-season success, aside from them it's been anyones game. And the Red Sox are where they are from player development as much as, if not more, than from buying big name free agents. The Yankees as an example of a team paying to be good, and ruining parity just doesnt really fly. Because they arent winning.
You stated without any regulations...Luxury Tax is a regulation to control in a small way a penalty for exceeding a threshold. Spin it any way you want, but its a regulation. Obviously, the Yankees are not concerned if you are impressed or not. And this type of stereotypical thinking in order to bash the Yankees is old and contrived. FA in Baseball started with Curt Flood in 1970. The Yankees under the non-FA system were as guilty as any team in under-paying for their stars they drafted or traded for (see Mickey Mantle having to take a $17k paycut following 1958 season, in which he batted higher then his triple crown season in 1956). They still won 20 of their 26 Championships during that time. Thats 20 Titles in 67 years (1903 1st WS ever played) - one every 3.35 years. They did squat in early FA from 1970-73 (all pre George S.) Following FA, and George Steinbrenner's ownership purchase in 1973 (who is constantly labled as a buyer of Championships), the Team has won 6 Championships in 35 years (including 2008). One in every 5.83/years. All total 26 Championships in 105 years....one in every 4.038/years. Obviously since FA, regardless of their SALARY level, they are not doing as well as they used to!!!! And frankly, if it wasn't for Brian Cashman who was hired as GM in 1998, and the fact that he would hide the names of his STUD Farm system players (Jeter, Pettitte, Rivera, etc) from George so he couldn't foolishly trade them away, the current run in the HIGH-SPENDING ERA of baseball would be a lot worse. So please, I wish this MYTH of the Yankees buying their championships in any way that is different from every other club would stop. The Yankees do have an improved Farm System (some rank it among the top 5 in depth for all MLB teams); and they have a smart GM, that regardless of high-contracts, keeps checks and balances on what some in the organization would rather do, heck, thats without having produced a Championship since 2000! The facts and statistics do not back up the claim that the Yankees in modern FA era are better than any other club, and certainly their own storied history, pre-FA.
Come on, who is preventing the owners of those teams to invest wisely and draft wisely to acquire young studs, and hold onto them? Who told the SF Giants to set a rediculous payroll market for the likes of Barry Zito? When a team trades or loses via FA its young studs its for one reason and one reason only...the owner is not willing to invest into the team they own.....and when the pull the trigger on a FA signing and blow their wad, and it comes back to bite them (just as it has with Pavano and the Yanks) suck it up and deal with it. And while you havent stated a "market/location" issue specifically; I would immediately point out and state that the NY Market is labled as the best of the best (LA and Chicago in the mix); but teams like the Nets, Knicks, Islanders, Rangers, Mets, Jets and Giants historically have a problem winning in this "so-called" goldmine of a market....as if its a guarantee of success. The Yankees have won over their history, because of the chances they have taken, and the luck in acquiring talent in the draft, trades, and free agency - frankly they play to win it all - would you claim every other team has this attitude as well? - thus FA's are also interested in pursuing a chance to be part of the history of the greatest franchise in Baseball history. All in all, it still hasnt produced the top of the heap Championship that they get labled as buying 26 times in their history. Thats hogwash!
Yep, Joba got a DUI last night, not good young man.... ESPN - Yanks' Chamberlain held for DUI, speeding; formal charges due Monday - MLB
Ahhh, he was just celebrating that he is back in the Rotation for '09 Joba Chamberlain will start 2009 in Yankees' rotation - Sports Rumors - MLB - Yahoo! Sports
