04/25/24
December 03, 2003
Where's the Parity?: For baseball, the luxury tax and revenue sharing were supposed to assist the small market teams in putting a 'better product' out on the field and creative a competitive balance and in some cases, they are using it appropriately. However, some owners (including Commish Bud Selig himself) are still cutting way back on payrolls, pocketing the extra funding and breaking promises to fans to produce a competitive team.
posted by jerseygirl to baseball at 01:28 PM - 15 comments
Fuck Bud. Someone needs to run him over. The Yankees-Sox offseason isn't exactly making the luxury tax plan look effective.
posted by Bernreuther at 02:00 PM on December 03, 2003
SpoFi: Fuck Bud!
posted by garfield at 02:17 PM on December 03, 2003
No, seriously here. I'm a Brewers fan. I have opinions about this. We just tossed off our best player to Arizona, and got a handful of people that are going to be too expensive for our payroll in two years. Maybe less. I don't know. I know I could feel a lot worse about it, and maybe I should. I see some value in Counsell and Spivey, and De La Rosa (if you believe the buzz) is a pretty good prospect. All of the talk is that we need to hold on until our farm system develops, and then reap the harvest - Minnesota style. I'd love nothing more than to watch the Brewers build again this year, and maybe get 70 wins. Maybe in two years, they make the playoffs. Maybe three. Hey, maybe four. Probably five. But there's a chance they can do it, if they're patient and honestly want to let the farm system mature. But Bud and Wendy (remember, Bud's got a sidekick) seem to quash anything that looks to move the Brewers in a winning direction. So we'll see. I'm waiting.
posted by rocketman at 02:49 PM on December 03, 2003
With regards to the topic, I think parity is close in MLB. I don't care what people say about the Yankees spending habits, they lost two of the last three WS, and almost didn't make it to them (was it Oakland in 2001? and then the Red Sox this year). They look like a crumbling dynasty, and they look very, very beatable most nights. I think the Red Sox have a WS championship in their future - they had a sparkle this year that only one other team - the Marlins - matched, and judging from the trades and signings so far, it looks like they're ready to keep that sparkle. This is why I think they're the evil empire it's okay to like - they've managed to cast themselves as underdogs, despite the fact that they won 95 games last year. But the way you get a mix of high and low payroll teams in the playoffs every year - in my mind, that's parity. I don't care if the Braves look to crush their opponents. If they get beat in the DCS by a team with a fraction of the payroll, all is well.
posted by rocketman at 02:58 PM on December 03, 2003
what a bunch of nonsense. the yahoo article is taking quotes from scott boras. dig: "The rich aren't getting richer," Boras said. "The teams below are just not delivering the product on the field that they promised the fans they would spend to do." take it with a grain of salt. this guy's got an agenda to push and part of it is higher contracts for his clients. you think he's pissed because the number of teams willing to overpay for over-valued big names effects his wallet. you bet. and it's high time that contracts came back to earth....that was the problem in the first place. promise the fans they would spend? i got news for ya.....anybody with an ear to the tracks can tell you that spending doesn't mean winning anymore. ask the mets and the dodgers. in fact spending money on lucrative contracts is one of the quickest ways for a team to remain a loser for a long time. some teams, like mets, have learned this the hard way. soon other teams (read: yankees) are going to learn that too. i'll knock selig for bullshit that he's brought to the brewers....but at least the brew crew is in a position to be flexible if they take the oppurtunity to be competitive. other teams who were throwing around a lot of loot don't have that luxury anymore.....or at least are taking a second look before they spend a gazzillion dollars signing a player to a ten year contract. but i guess at the same time....the owners created this environment in the first place.....but i think some of things that selig has done haven't been all that bad. he's a better man than scott boras.
posted by oliver_crunk at 03:42 PM on December 03, 2003
I agree with you oliver, and I would doubt Scott Boras if he claimed the sky were blue, but he does have a point if he's talking about teams that spend less in payroll than they take in in revenue-sharing. If you're going to have a payroll ceiling (or even a soft one like the luxury tax), there ought to be a floor as well. No team should receive a dollar more than they spend.
posted by yerfatma at 03:50 PM on December 03, 2003
There needs to be a minimum payroll to keep bastards like Selig from totally ruining his team. It works in the NBA: the LA Clipper's owner, Donald Sterling (a notorious tightwad along the lines of Selig), was forced to sign a few big-name players to meet the minimum payroll for the league. I guarantee that he would have let every free agent go if that minimum was not there.
posted by dusted at 04:15 PM on December 03, 2003
I definitely agree that there should be a floor (Costas argues well for one in Fair Play) but you can't point to Sterling and the Clips as justification for one, unfortunately. They were meeting the floor prior to their free-agent 'spree' this summer, and at were also the NBA's most profitable team at the same time. :/
posted by tieguy at 05:26 PM on December 03, 2003
There will never be parity in baseball without a salary cap. I'll believe money doesn't matter in the sport the first time in history that the Yankees have to drop a good player for monetary reasons -- something that happens every single season to more than half of the league.
posted by rcade at 08:14 AM on December 04, 2003
There will never be parity in baseball without a salary cap. Kinda wishful thinking. If the Yankees and Sox can't spend all their money on players, it will go to GMs, managers, coaches, scouts, training facilities, equipment, etc. A salary cap might reduce the importance of money, but it won't erase it. I know someone is going to bring up the NFL as a counter-example, but you can't compare the NFL to any other sports league: the NFL did everything right. Even if they weren't so damn socialist about other revenues (find another sport where gate receipts are split close to 60/40 like the NFL), the national TV dollars that every team gets an equal piece of dwarf the other revenue streams, or at least give each team a chance to compete. Give MLB or the NHL an equally-split, national TV revenue stream like the NFL and you'd see things change (for the better) overnight.
posted by yerfatma at 10:56 AM on December 04, 2003
The Brewers agree to open their books to financial scrutiny. Milwaukee politicians and taxpayers are seriously pissed off by Bud Wendy Selig's cash grab.
posted by dusted at 02:40 PM on December 04, 2003
$110 million in yearly operating revenue and the Brewers want to spend only $30 million on players. Where's the money going? Bud Selig must be making the team pay for the frequent surgeries required to extract his head from his ass.
posted by rcade at 04:39 PM on December 04, 2003
"There has to be state involvement because there is public money involved,"
posted by garfield at 04:49 PM on December 04, 2003
The Brewers agree to open their books to financial scrutiny. Y'know, whenever you punted on 3rd down in Joe Montana Football '94 for the Sega Genesis, Pat Sumerall would yell out, "Uh-oh! What a mistake!" I think of that some times. This is one of those times.
posted by yerfatma at 05:12 PM on December 04, 2003
the bentleyvanguard requires registration, but you can pretty much claim 'other' on all info inquiries and create yourself an account.