Baseball needs a salary cap… now!

Hey, I do agree with the idea of a salary cap. But seriously, the Yanks HAVE done this the last 8 years and won NOTHING. And the Tigers haven’t done this until last year. But look what it’s done for the Yankees, Tigers, and Cubs lately. No championships. Besides, Ilitch learned from last year. He hasn’t spent much money this offseason at all. I wouldn’t include the Tigers in that category. Really,the Yankees (and to an extent, the Sox) are in a class ALL by themselves.

You need to be smart when you’re operating under a salary cap… like Ilitch, Ken Holland, and the Red Wings. 🙂

Please, so many things wrong with this whine-fest. First, the Yankees are not raising their payroll this year. They are only replacing players they cleared from the books. So there’s nothing different about their payroll this year than last year (when they finished third). To act as though there is now some sudden crisis is ridiculous.

Next up let’s look at the Texiera and Burnett contracts. Both were offered equal or more money to play elsewhere and chose to play for the yankees instead. No salary cap is going to change the fact that both prestige and endorsement deals will come with playing in NY no matter what.

The Yankees have had the highest payroll for 9 or so year, and have no championships to show for it. And yea, the Rays made the series last year. Why do you think you can just dismiss that because it doesn’t fit your argument? Are you also going to dismiss the fact that Minnesota is good every year? How about Oakland’s long string of success?

Now then, let’s look at team profit. The latest info I could find was from 2005, but it works for our argument since we’ve already established that the yankees aren’t doing anything with their payroll this year they haven’t done in the past. The yankees in 2005 had an operating income of -50 million. Other teams in the negative were Boston, NYM, and LAA. Notice anything about those teams?

Yea, they are willing to lose money if it means putting out a quality on the field product. And you claim the Yankees disrespect their fans? BS, the yankees are one of the few teams who respect their fans enough to not pocket their extra money and to instead put it back into the product. Every team in the league should hope for an owner as dedicated as the Steinbrenners have been to success.

Oh, and for comparison, some of the top teams in operating income for ’05 were Toronto, Washington, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Texas, and KC. Gee, what do all those teams have in common? Right. One other tidbit. In the 2008 farm system rankings Toronto was 25th. Considering they haven’t made the playoffs in awhile you’d think they’d be able to put together a decent farm system…

but they haven’t, and that’s why they suck and will continue to suck. Enough with the excuses and the whining. The yankees have done nothing wrong, have done nothing to disrepect the game or the fans, and the ownership is doing exactly what all ownership groups ought to be doing but aren’t, doing all they can to put a successful team on the field.

One more thing, let’s talk about why on earth the Jays didn’t move Burnett for prospects at the trade deadline. What were they thinking? Again, the problem isn’t payroll, the problem is inept management.

CODY: First of all, I’m not surprised you never mentioned the obscene contract of CC Sabathia. Of course you’d leave that out since it doesn’t fit your arguement. Second, Tampa had to endure 10 straight horriffic losing seasons to ammass the talent they needed to make last year’s run. No team should have to put up with that. That’s what makes Tampa’s success an exception rather thanthe rule… along with the fact that they won’t make the playoffs this year. And asking a city and a state already heavily in debt to pay half a billion for a stadium and then dump almost the exact same amount in the free agent pool less than half a year later… I’d say that’s disrespectful. Real owners pony up the money for their own venues. Don’t believe me? Take a guess how much public money went into giving the Maple Leafs their new home. Answer: Zero. And while some may believe that downplaying the accomplishments of teams like Oakland and Minnesota are baseless… the fact that Oakland and Minnesota wouldn’t win if they were in the AL East is not.

Pherific: I understand what you’re trying to say but the spending presents an uneven playing field that the other leagues have already successfully addressed with a salary cap. Baseball needs one not cause of the Tigers, the Yankees, Cubs and Sox need to be reigned in. Since the 1994 strike, only two times has a team not named the Yankees or Red Sox have made it to the playoffs fromthe AL East. The Orioles in 98, and the Rays last year. Only two times out of a possible twenty-eight playoff spots in fourteen years has a team besides the Sox and Yanks left the AL East to go into the playoffs… and the Yanks have only missed once since that time. Coincidence? While some fans want more post-season berths to avoid the same teams buying their way to the playoffs… the Salary Cap is clearly the way to go. The Yankees running off and spending money just for the sake of spending money (don’t need to spend it just cause it’s off the books), is going to be a leading factor the brings it in. Fans are tired of it and want it to make the game more balanced for everyone, not just the select few.

Here’s some numbers for you, the Yankees are giving 60 mill their new three players (Tex, CC and AJ) and then you factor in Jeter and ARod, the Yanks will be paying 5 guys close around 110 million. They now have the four highest paid players in the game. Yep… that’s a competitive balance.

There’s nothing wrong with Sabathia’s contract. It doesn’t fit my argument but it doesn’t counter my argument either. My argument was that the yankees don’t just get free agents because of money. They get them for other reasons (prestige, ability to sign endorsement deals, etc) So Sabathia’s contract does nothing to invalidate that point. One need only look at basketball at how Lebron is..

most likely going to NY for the reasons I listed above. In baseball the Rockies can’t sign FA pitchers, the Padres can’t sign FA hitters because of their ballparks. These teams can either throw a temper tantrum and cry about it being unfair or deal with it and move on.

Clearly the city thought it was a worthwhile investment or they wouldn’t have done it. Getting public funding is hardly exclusive to the Yankees, it happens all the time. If the locals don’t like it they’ll let their government know about it, it’s certainly no concern of yours. Just more irrational yankee hate.

re: oakland and the twins. We don’t know how they’d do in other divisions because their schedules would be different. What we do know is you play in your division and suck it up. I’m sure the NFC East in football is pretty unhappy that Arizona is going to be a division winner this year. Tough. That’s the way it goes sometimes. Nobody ever improved their team by crying about their luck.

The braves once won 14 consecutive division titles. So what? Did that give the other teams the right to cry until the rules got changed because it was sooo unfair? The Yankees aren’t spending money “just to spend it”, they are filling holes in their lineup. They lost Mussina, they replaced him with Sabathia. They lost Pettite, they replace him with Burnett. They lost Giambi, they replace..

with Texiera. They moved close to 80 million off their payroll, what would you have the Steinbrenner’s do? Stick that 80 million in their pocket and not bother replacing the players they lost? Just because your horrible GM has that strategy doesn’t mean everyone else should too. Some teams actually want to win, don’t hate on them just because your team doesn’t seem to care one way or the other

You can cite all the numbers you want. Fact is there IS competitive balance. Teams that are run well , no matter the payroll, do well. Teams that are run poorly, no matter the payroll, do poorly. Last year top 3 in payroll: Yanks, Tigers, Mets. Last 9 years, 8 different champions. You aren’t mad because there isn’t parody. There is, you are just mad the jays suck.

CODY: You think the Jays suck, but the truth is had they been in any other division except the AL East, they would have made the playoffs with their records a few times over the last several years. One year, they had a better record than the team the eventually won the WS. They have been playing well enough to win in other divisions, just not in the AL East… becuase they’re competeing with a top spending teams in the league. That’s why I don’t think Minnesota or Oakland would have made it in the AL East, because they would have drowned like the Jays did… no matter how hard they tried.

And you really think New Yorkers are happy about forking over all that tax money for the new stadium, try reading Popeyechicken’s rants about it… last time I checked he wasn’t saying very nice things about it. There’s a compeditive balance in the NFL and the NHL because there is a Salary Cap… and there will be when Baseball gets one too. Just because the playoffs are a crap shoot doesn’t mean things are fair in baseball. Money makes a difference because it increases ones chances of getting to the playoffs in the first place. When one or two teams are always going and leaving the other three behind no matter what they try to do… that’s not a compeditive balance. That’s why MLB need a hard salary cap.

I’d be careful of using popeye to support your argument until you unblock him, if you haven’t already. My team recently tried spending a bunch of money to bring in new, established players (for 2008), and it didn’t get them very far (although I think this coming year will be a different story. I don’t have any vendetta against any team, although I am definitely not fans of the Yankees or Sox. I think a salary cap should exist for a few reasons… mainly because I think it is OBSCENE that anyone makes that kind of money, but also because it’s a pretty simple concept that those who CAN offer the most money WILL. “No salary cap is going to change the fact that both prestige and endorsement deals will come with playing in NY no matter what.” Exactly, so why do they need extra help by being able to offer way more money than other teams? New York and Boston have the cities the play in to help entice players to go there. The market and appeal is generally bigger in those cities. Also, I don’t recall anyone offering Teixeira more money than NY, CODY. You might need to cite that one. The flip, though, is that every team has streaks of good and bad seasons.

The Yankees were bad from the 80’s to the mid-90’s. The Sox don’t exactly have the best track record. The Tigers were SHIT from 1989 to 2005. Let’s not even TALK about the Cubs and White Sox. If you’re going to go by championships, this discussion isn’t relevant. But 9 of the 14 AL Wild Card winners were NY or Boston. 8 of those 9 years, both teams were int he playoffs. I don’t think that excusesthe Jays or anyone else for sucking, but I do believe that the current system of division alignments, coupled with the lack of a salary cap, make things very difficult for other teams. I think a re-alignment is a stupid idea, except for putting the Brewers or someone back in the AL. So to me, a salary cap is logical. New York and Boston haven’t been able to dominate other sports (save a great year for the Celtics and the Patriots being a REALLY smart organization) because they can’t just say “Come here to the biggest market in America AND we can pay you the most money!”

The best teams, long term, in the salary capped leagues (Patriots/Steelers/Bucs/Colts in the NFL, Spurs/Pistons/Lakers in the NBA, Red Wings in the NHL) are all run VERY well, and THAT’S why they succeed. Farm systems are important in MLB, maybe moreso than other sports… but it’s a little defeating that sometimes teams can’t keep the stars they groom because they can just take a LOT more money to play somewhere else. So I think a cap should happen, but I’m not sure Peter and I agree on exactly why.

http://www.scoresreport.com/2008/12/26/nationals-outbid-yankees-for-mark-teixeira/

Apparently the Braves also offered Burnett an identical deal as the Yankees but it seems Burnett’s wife doesnt’t fly, and lives in the northeast. As such, she preferred having her husband play where she could hop a train or whatever and go see him. So yea. I’m a bit of a hot stove junkie, follow the offseason news rather obsessively 🙂

Eh, a salary cap isn’t a bad idea. I wouldn’t be upset if they implemented one. I just don’t think it’s a dire and life or death situation we have one RIGHT NOW!!!! There is no crisis, baseball is doing great. Also, if Sabathia doesn’t deserve every penny he’s getting who does? The owners? Because it’s not like lower salaries would mean lower prices passed on to the fans.

What I object to is this idea that the yankees are evil and want children to starve and hate the baby jesus just because they try to win. I stand by my assertion that any fan would be lucky to have their team’s owners so dedicated to winning. Everything the Yankees do is within the rules, so there is absolutely no reason to get so hysterical over them.

CODY: I was this upset when A-Rod signed his 10 year, 250M deal, ditto for Hampton when he signed his mammoth 10 year deal with Colorado as well. I don’t care if it’s within the rules, I think a cap is necessary to curb the obscene spending of all teams, including the Yankees. Had Tex had signed with the Nationals for over $200 million, you still would have see an entry calling for a salarycap. You’ll see another when a player (whoever that is) signs the first contract that goes over 30+ million a year… regardless of what team it’s with. The points made in the entry still stand. If the Yanks have all this money to pay for all these players, why couldn’t they use their own money to build their stadium like other rich teams in other leagues have?

I’m a bit mixed on the whole stadium thing. If pressed for an answer i’d say it should be up to a referendum of taxpayers who would be funding it. If the taxpayers want to fund it, go for it. Years ago we had a vote here for a couple of pennies in additional tax on fast food that would have gone towards building a baseball stadium…

in hopes of luring one of the upcoming expansion MLB teams to this area. The vote did not pass and of course NC got not baseball team. While the public spoke and it should stand, it was pretty disappointing because while it would have cost some public money the benefits it would have brought to the area would have been huge.

(of course using public funds to lure a new sports franchise to an area and using public funds to build a new stadium for an already existing franchise are two very different things)

btw – Pujols will sign for over 30 a year and he will be worth every penny.