The world of baseball is not fair. The Yankees, who as I mention I highly dislike, will go into '09 with a payroll well over $200 million. What did the formerly lowly Rays pay? Only $43 million in base salaries to earn their way into the World Series. What the Rays did is not so highly uncommon. The Marlins do it quite frequently. You build young, selling off your veterans for good minor league prospects, and then reap the rewards. The downside is that once these prospects prove themselves, small market teams can hardly afford to resign them, losing them to the large market teams (Yanks, Red Sox, Cubs, Mets, Angels). Do any of those teams sound familiar? That's because their in the playoffs about every year. Teams like the Rays and Marlins can't realistically build "dynasties" because they have to sell off their current talent for younger talent.
I am a Reds fan. We're middle market. In a year like this where the market is fairly slow, we still can't add enough players to be a legitimate contender. While other teams struggle to sign relievers and role players, the Yankees drop near a billion on contracts for Sabathia, Burnett, and Texiera. Where is the justice? The economy has gone down. This affects everyone, including the MLB, so it should come as no surprise that teams aren't throwing out as much money this offseason. Some teams still are. Will there ever be a level playing field?
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yeah, i saw something the other day that the 30 MLB teams have spent about a billion dollars on free agents this offseason. the Yankees have spent $423 million of that. to clarify, the Yankees have spent nearly as much money as the other 29 teams combined. that ain't right. i hate the Yankees, but i don't blame them here. they are within their rights under the current system. i blame MLB for not taking the initiative to get a salary cap in place years ago, because luxury tax obviously isn't stopping the Yankees and Red Sox and Cubs, and i blame the players for being greedy bastards (with a few exceptions). i'm all for unions, but the MLBPA is too strong, and they're gonna end up wrecking the game.
ReplyDeletethe players association is way too strong.. i agree. players have far too much control over what they can demand in their contracts. as for the yankees, i realize its not their fault. the luxury tax should be stronger if we want any kind of competitive balance. i don't even know if a salary cap is a viable option at this point considering the margin of difference in some teams salaries they are paying.
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