Is Baseball broken

[fix]

Let me preface this by stating I despise salary caps.

But is it time for MLB to implement a hard cap like they've done in the NBA, NHL etc...

Clearly luxury taxes haven't helped teams like the Royals, Twins etc from competing with the Steinbrenners of MLB

[SunCoastSooner]

Braking my silence once again for this issue.

Does anyone remember when baseball was competitive and actually fun to watch for more than just a handful of three game series a year? I vaguely do but I was just a small child back in those days. I'm almost thirty now and baseball has been utterly worthless for my entire adulthood. I worshiped baseball when I was a lad, in the fall get home after school and immediately start on my homework in front of the boob tube catching a Braves game on TBS, the Cubs on WGN, or whatever afternoon game was being shown on ESPN, in the summer gather at a friends house and watch a couple of games, but as I got older and the sport became less and less competitive and I have completely lost all interest. Early in my adulthood you could wake when the Playoffs would get here so I can watch the same five or six out of eight virtually each and every season; now I don't even really give a shit about that either. Until baseball does something for the sport to make it competitive for more than six to twelve teams each season (like in the other sports) I won't be coming back to the fold and there are a shit load of others like me.

There is a vast movement amongst people my age, and especially younger, that are getting more and more into soccer... yeah there are no salary caps in it either but it is also a much larger sport globally. While the national leagues may be a bit boring outside of the top 2 to 6 teams as well you also have the Champions League, EUROPA, and National Cups to watch as well.

[SunCoastSooner]

Soccer? Who are you kidding?

Can you name the only two professional sports leagues in America that did not lose money last season? One is the NFL... take a wild guess what the other is... it wasn't MLB or the NBA so there's a hint for ya.

[Laxplayer]

Can you name the only two professional sports leagues in America that did not lose money last season?

Gay midget mud wrestling?

[SunCoastSooner]

Can you name the only two professional sports leagues in America that did not lose money last season?

Gay midget mud wrestling?

MLS...

[Dinsdale]

Clearly luxury taxes haven't helped teams like the Royals, Twins etc from competing with the Steinbrenners of MLB

You could make the Yanks and Sux each give KC $500,000,000 and they'd just stuff it into their pockets like they always do.

[JMak]

Rack SCS!! Hit the nail on the head...it just aint fun to watch and hasn't been since, well, I don't remember. That along with the season extending into October and playoff and WS games starting well into the evening...MLB sucks ass.

I am looking far more forward to the World Cup this summer than anything at all about MLB.

[SunCoastSooner]

Clearly luxury taxes haven't helped teams like the Royals, Twins etc from competing with the Steinbrenners of MLB

You could make the Yanks and Sux each give KC $500,000,000 and they'd just stuff it into their pockets like they always do.

They already basically do and the Royals do as well with the sham that is the luxury tax. Wow... you mean with that cool Million Kansas City could go from $53M payroll to a $54M.... Geeeez that should catch them right up with the $200M+ payrolls of Boston and New York.

I am looking far more forward to the World Cup this summer than anything at all about MLB.

As am I... fuck MLB.

[SunCoastSooner]

Wow... you mean with that cool Million Kansas City could go from $53M payroll to a $54M....

Try $30 million in revenue sharing last year. The also get anywhere from 20 to 30 million per year by playing the "woe is me" small market roll and getting a larger cut of MLB's Central Fund.

But yeah, go ahead and make the argument that it's the big payroll teams that are bad for baseball. Or pound another Zima and watch a bunch of Euro-Trash fag up a field of grass. I'm good either way.

Wow... okay... toss another $20M on top and those small payroll teams are officially only 1/3 the budget as the Spankees and Sucks... that will make a whole lot of difference in the competitve market.

I am willing to bet there are two people under the age of 40 who have replied to this amazing thread... Jmak and myself... congrats on having slightly more interest than hockey both in real life and on this board. You have fun watching the dinosaur go extinct and revel in the fact it's unlikely it will be around when your grandchildren, who probably already born, won't be able to watch it at your ancient age since other people mine and Jmak's age are too busy watching Eurofag from AC Milan flop against eurofag from Seville... another huge congrats on destroying America's past time with your pompous and bullshit attitude.

[Dinsdale]

When those teams rake in $40 to $50 million from teams like the Yanks and MLB's itself and neglect to raise their payrolls, who exactly is causing the difference in the competitive balance?

Bingo.

I don't have 2009 figures, but there has been multiple years since the advent of the Luxury Tax that the Royals have recieved more in subsidies than they've doled out in player payroll.

But the Yanks and Sux are "ruining baseball," right?

The Yanks not only give the mail-it-in-teams direct support with the tax subsidy, they also sell out their building for them when they roll through town... the Yanks SAVE the shit-teams' asses, rather than "ruin their chances."

My best-baseball-watching buddy (and his retired father) are, like R-Jack, diehatd A's fans (the father helped build the stadium, back in the day). And I feel bad for you guys -- giving Billy Bean a cut of the profit, rather than a salary, was the death-sentence for that franchise. Hewas a tightwad when it was on someone else's dime, but now that he has a vested interest... change the name to the Oakland Expos.

[Dinsdale]

Hewas a tightwad when it was on someone else's dime

Gotta imagine the 00-01-02 division title run was prior to profit sharing, right?

And how many of the guys that got them there were retained?

They locked up Chavez, since he signed reasonably cheaply.

The rest -- all out the door as soon as their young-player (cheap) contracts expired... if not sooner.

[SunCoastSooner]

Wow... okay... toss another $20M on top

Why do you hate math?

and those small payroll teams are officially only 1/3 the budget as the Spankees and Sucks... that will make a whole lot of difference in the competitve market.

When those teams rake in $40 to $50 million from teams like the Yanks and MLB's itself and neglect to raise their payrolls, who exactly is causing the difference in the competitive balance?

Look, just say you don't like baseball anymore. That's all. Just like I don't like soccer. Different strokes for different folks. Just save yourself the indignity of looking like a complete fucking moron when you try to lay out why you no longer like it.

First flawed argument- Only a handful of games matter and only a few teams are relevant.
You yourself said baseball was only watchable when you were a youth. Well son, when you were a youth there were only two division winners each league and no wild cards. It wasn't like there were a lot of six team races for those division crowns either. So in the years that the competitive balance in baseball has waned in the eyes of someone who doesn't watch, the amount of teams in the postseason has doubled. If you chose to pay attention, you would notice that far more teams are in the hunt for October baseball then there were before.

Second flawed argument- Small market teams can't compete.
They can. They are given resources to do so by the larger teams and the league as pounded over your skull earlier. They simply choose not to do so. This is not exactly a new phenomenon. There have always been owners playing to win and there have always been owners playing for profit. Guess what, it was that way when you were a lad as well. Every period in baseball there have been a cluster of teams who spend money and have a chance to win, and an equal cluster of teams who pinch pennies and depend of the attendance of a few diehards and the attraction of seeing these good teams roll into town. The cheap teams have always lived on the teat of the good money drawing teams, as a business decision.

Third flawed argument-My pompous and bullshit attitude.
Yes, baseball is dying a slow painful death because I, unlike you, actually have a grasp of it and its history and support the product. You got it. I'm the worm in the apple. I can expect my banishment from MLB games any time soon. That will save the game.

You don't like baseball, but you say you don't like baseball for all the wrong reasons. You feel the need to justify why you have outgrown the game and chose to usurp the talking points of stupid people to do so. It's just not your thing anymore. No biggie. You wouldn't get a girlfriend and blame the cost of shampoo on why you no longer beat off in the shower, would you?

Make all the excuses you want about it but I outlined why I find MLB boring... I still watch college baseball and umpired little league for a number of years. I enjoy the game just not MLB... as a professional sport I would rather soccer anymore than baseball. I haven't outgrown baseball I have become bored of the same shit every season.

Nifty pictures you had; I think I'll contribute... baseball is so much more civilized and less homoerotic.

[SunCoastSooner]

I outlined why I find MLB boring...

And I merely pointed out that every reason you gave for finding boring was either factually incorrect or a circumstance that was in effect when you thought it was exciting and fresh. Outside of every moron who claims to own a 950K house having greater access to the money figures and letting that affect their enjoyment of the product, the game itself really hasn't changed as much as you think.

It's not the game, it's you. You have changed and you no longer like MLB. That's not a bad thing or a good thing. It is what it is. I don't need to argue with you about not liking MLB. I just need to point out you would look like less of a slobbering dolt by just saying it's not your bag of tea anymore. When you have to come up with a lot of falsehood and hyperbole to defend a simple matter of opinion, you tend to come off a tad foolish. For someone who can't stand the "same old shit", you never seem to tire of that.

Oh yeah, sorry you don't find baseball homoerotic enough for your tastes.

I am obviously not the only one who finds baseball uncompetitive... even in this thread alone.

[War Wagon]

Try $30 million in revenue sharing last year. The also get anywhere from 20 to 30 million per year by playing the "woe is me" small market roll and getting a larger cut of MLB's Central Fund.

Link? :?

Good luck finding one as MLB doesn't release revenue sharing figures anymore.

But yeah, for arguments sake let's call it $30 mil.... I don't know where you think that extra 20-30 mil is coming from.

Now, I'm not defending Royals management or ownership here. They paid Jose Guillen $12 mil a year for shits sake. But they did spend a lot more on payroll last year than they ever have, they just aren't getting the results. Not sure why you're calling out KC anyway. Look at San Diego, Florida, Pittsburg or several other franchises that spent way less last year.

MLB's 40-man roster payrolls
Team Payroll
Yankees $215,080,715
Mets $141,302,331
Cubs $141,007,248
Tigers $138,477,723
Red Sox $137,199,512
Phillies $136,107,962
Dodgers $127,592,034
Angels $120,423,691
Astros $106,424,382
White Sox $104,751,673
Mariners $101,182,454
Cardinals $100,892,097
Braves $99,567,968
Giants $94,086,588
Brewers $87,772,297
Blue Jays $83,838,967
Rockies $83,492,729
Royals $80,588,529
Orioles $78,470,973
Rangers $76,524,452
Indians $75,512,530
Diamondbacks $73,495,966
Reds $72,146,812
Twins $71,903,577
Rays $70,682,817
Nationals $68,430,665
A's $60,954,872
Pirates $47,482,564
Padres $41,306,652
Marlins $36,803,494
Source: Major League Baseball. Includes salaries, bonuses paid, escalator clauses and buyouts for 40-man roster payrolls through Aug. 31.