I cannot give baseball my all until the playing feild is leveled this is a joke!?

Question

Johan is likely going to go to the Redsox. Unbelievable. This is terrible. Competitive balance. Who is going to beat that 1,2 with Papelbon closing? Nobody! The Redsox are the new hated ones yet this version doesn't shower or shave. Boo! I'll stick to the NFL. The NBA is getting worse by the year. I used to only love the NBA now it's as far as pro
's NFL #1, then NBA, just cuz the NBA at least has a cap, then MLB could be #2 easy, but steroids, big market teams dominating, overpaid players nearly as bad as the NBA. Guillen got 12 mil a year lol that headcase?! Tori Hunter 19Mil good player but he's 35, ARod rediculous. Go NFL. If anyone deserves crazy cash it's them.

Answer 1

The NBA was able to enact a cap during the early 80s, a time when the league genuinely was approaching insolvency. It was a desperation move that the players considered necessary to save the entire enterprise.

MLB just grossed $6B this year, of which around $2.4B went to player payroll. That's a lot of money left for other legitimate operational expenses with plenty of profit-taking as well. Where have been the cries of "poor" lately?

Remember, the owners are in this for the munny, and are ready and willing to exploit both the players AND the fans -- and they do, constantly. The owners are nobody's friends.

Good grief, the entire NL has been nothing BUT "competitively balanced" (translation: mediocre) for at least the last two seasons. It took an EXTRA GAME to deliver a second 90-win team in 2007. For the last TWO seasons, no team in either league has finished above .600 or below .400; that never used to happen. Part of this parity can be assigned to the revenue sharing and luxury taxes enacted over the last two CBAs.

The point is, the money is there, for ALL THIRTY teams, to spend and try to build (although for this winter, the free agent crop is pretty thin, as teams have conscientiously worked to sign their star talent before free agency arrives). A salary cap solves certain problems in the right circumstances (while introducing other, less tractable ones, but no one ever wants to have that debate, as it plays poorly in the cheap seats). However, basically NONE of those circumstances obtain in MLB at this time. Want to rage against the efforts of your favorite team? Look only to the owner's skybox, because there's nothing else preventing resources from being used.

The Royals -- yep, the little Royals -- just signed a mediocre slugger for three years, $36 million. And yet the team owner couldn't bring himself to vote for the man who brought about these operational conditions for the Hall, but then the Wal-mart environment he came from and, for a time, captained, is one built on hating unions and organized labor. The next time you go shopping at one ("The best price isn't always the best deal") ask the greeter or one of the floor folks or cashiers (if you can find one) if they'd appreciate increased benefits -- like health care, or family leave, or enough money to live on -- that a union could provide. The MLBPA has provided such things in spades; the players are not complaining (and, important to note, in 1994 they were SATISFIED with the CBA; the owners' refusal to negotiate in good faith is what propagated the strike). No one is calling "collusion" in these times. Yet Glass' hard line in Wal-mart policy doesn't work in baseball.

Want to see your team improve? Rant at the owner and ONLY at the owner, because right now they, as a group, are the only thing preventing your team from getting there. They've got the money, both to find and to spend on the talent. All that is needed is a willingness to spend and the front office to do that smartly.

Answer 2

But researchers tested a number of mental and physical activities like biking, reading, solving crosswords, swimming, golf and dancing. They found that while most physical activities offered no protection against dementia, reading and crossword solving unsurprisingly reduced the risk by up to 50 percent. But put down your crosswords dancing offered an incredible 76 percent reduced chance of dementia.

"It's so nice to see you finally not spending your nights shouting insults at corn."



http://www.topcapshome.com

Answer 3

Three of the four teams that made it to the AL & NLchampionship series were dwelling in the bottom third echelon of team payroll in 2007. Cleveland #23/30 ($16,,673,267), Colorado #25/30 ($54,424,000) and Arizona #26/30 ($52,067,546).

The Yankees, on the other hand, with the highest payroll, were eliminated three games to one in the first round by Cleveland. The Mets, with the third highest, didn't even make the playoffs. Although, the Red Sox (#2/30) did sweep Colorada to take the World Series, this salary cap drivel is nonsense.

Answer 4

I also agree with you for the most part, however I have a question for you. You say that you hate the MLB now because it is stacked in favor of the Red Sox and Yankees. But isn't the NFL stacked in the same way. Look at the undefeated Patriots. The only league that doesn't appear to be hugely one sided is the NBA, where a group of good teams compete (Dallas, San Antonio, Phoenix, Detroit) and this year (Boston and Orlando seem to be upper tier teams as well).

Answer 5

As a Red Sox fan I would love to have Santana in our rotation...that said they do play a full baseball season and the Sox, Tigers, Yankees, or anyone else aren't just handed a trophy...many things can happen during a season and you never know who is going to win in the end...if the Sox get Santana they will most likely be the odds on favorite to win it all but odds mean nothing...remember a few years ago when the Yankees got Randy Johnson and a large number of people thought they were going to dominate the whole way towards another World Series? Just because the Sox get Santana doesn't mean they will win anything.

Answer 6

I like the NHL model, where there is a cap and a floor, with the cap being approximately twice that of the floor. Imagine having that set up in MLB! You'd see competitive balance restored in a hurry. Problem is, Selig and the owners threw in the towel during the great pig-out of '94; you'll never put that genie back in the bottle again. Nothing short of a full scale, concerted owner shutdown would ever get such a cap-floor arrangement in place in baseball, and the fans would have to be completely united behind the owners for this purpose. But the haves would never do it; they like the current "buy a pennant" system too much to want to change it-why would they want to change something that puts them at such a great advantage year after year?

Answer 7

Great Teams should not be penalized because bad teams refuse to put money into scouting and player development. If you are not willing to develop talent and spend the money necessary to keep the talent you have and build around it you deserve to lose. Don't blame the Yankees and Redsox blame your cheapscate owners.If I have the ability to upgrade a already solid position with a higher caliber player without mortgaging my future I'm fool not to do it.Its about making good personel decisions . The teams with less money need to develop their farm systems and lock up young talent cheaply instead of buying has beens wasting money they could be spending on keeping the talent they have. They also have to know when to get rid of aging veterans and get the most for them. The teams at the bottom have noone to blame but themselves for their misfortunes.

Answer 8

Quit crying like Pirates ownership.

As long as a team can build a solid farm system, and can be able to replace players it loses, a team with a $50-60 Million payroll should be able to compete against a team with 2-4 times that.

Its the idiot owners in Kansas City, Baltimore, Tampa Bay, and Pittsburgh who give fans like you a reason to scream salary cap when owners in Miami (when things were going right), Minneapolis, Oakland, and St. Louis know how to build a team without breaking the bank.

Answer 9

A doctor at an insane asylum decided to take his patients to a baseball game. For weeks in advance, he coached his patients to respond to his commands. When the day of the game arrived, everything seemed to be going well. As the National Anthem started.......the doctor yelled, "Up Nuts" And the patients complied by standing up. After the anthem ...he yelled, "Down Nuts". And they all sat back down in their seats. After a home run was hit, the doctor yelled, "Cheer Nuts". They all brokeout into applause and cheered. When the umpire made a particularly bad call against the star of the home team, the Doctor yelled, "Booooo Nuts!!!" and they all started booing and cat calling. Thinking things were going very well. The doctor decided to go get a beer and a hot dog, leaving his assistant in charge. When he returned, there was a riot in progress. Finding his assistant, the doctor asked," What in the world happened? " The assistant replied, "Well, everything was going just fine till a vendor passed by and yelled PEANUTS!" Q: 12-year-old Jeff Maier reached out and caught a fly ball at the Yankees-Orioles game, causing Baltimore to lose the first game of the playoffs. A: This means that Maier has already caught more fly balls than the entire Mets outfield

Answer 10

You're right for the most part. They do need a cap, or more incentives like the Larry Bird rule in the NBA so teams have an incentive to sign there players for long term deals. There are some positive signs, Jake Peavy signed an extension to stay with the Padres. What the sport really needs in less selfish jerks whose only desire is to see how big of a contract they can get (cough Alex Rodriguez) and more players who take less money to stick it out with the teams that first noticed them and took the time, effort and money to develop them into the superstar they are. Boy i bet baseball was really fun to follow in the 70's and 80's.