Players expect owners to seek cap

[Thrasha]

Re: Players expect owners to seek cap

Again, we have no way of proving what is coming in, so arguing either way is a waste..

If you wanted to do some investigating regarding each team owner's finances outside of baseball, this would help shed light on the matter.

Regardless of having the actual numbers, you'd have to be completely hard headed or dense to say that the Tribune Company is doing all it can to help the Cubs.

It was already reported they are having some concert at Wrigley, or had one this all star break. Not sure exactly when it takes/took place, supposed to generate a couple million I believe in revenue for the TC to pocket. It was mentioned because it was a sign that the FO might be more willing to add to the payroll around at the trading deadline because of the extra cash.

[mjb2124]

Re: Players expect owners to seek cap

Again, we have no way of proving what is coming in, so arguing either way is a waste.

That's the problem. We really don't have any significant numbers. I think some circumstances are obvious, but there's no data to back it up.

[Tomahawk]

Re: Players expect owners to seek cap

There is an excellent book written by Bob Costas that came out about 5 years ago which advocates baseball having a cap, but more importantly a cap and a floor. He even justifies that the majority of the MLB players would benefit if there was a floor in place because currently only the superstar player see the benefit of the large contracts these days. If there was a floor level that all teams had to reach then more players would be making more money.

It's a great book that is really worth ready if you like baseball and are interested in the financial side of it.

[CoRruPt-]

Re: Players expect owners to seek cap

You've got a team like the Baltimore Orioles, who without a doubt in my mind have to be tops in the league in revenue but are refusing to buckle on a trade that could possibly catapault them to a divsion title, because of a contract by Mike Lowell. Do I understand not wanting to be burdened by a contract of that nature? Most definitely. But too build a team into contention, you sometimes have to bite the bullet. Which they are appearing to be more than willing to not to do and stand pat while the Yankees and Red Sox continue the race without them.

Oh, come on. Why bother with the massive contract of a guy that would only serve as a #2 3rd baseman? Baseball wise and money wise, it's a moot move. The Orioles have a utility guy like Gomez that can back all the infield positions. There is no use in trading for a #2 guy with a 7.5M contract that'll just sit.

[DGetz]

Re: Players expect owners to seek cap

Oh, come on. Why bother with the massive contract of a guy that would only serve as a #2 3rd baseman? Baseball wise and money wise, it's a moot move. The Orioles have a utility guy like Gomez that can back all the infield positions. There is no use in trading for a #2 guy with a 7.5M contract that'll just sit.

I think it was assumed if the O's picked up Lowell he would split time between first and DH

[VanCitySportsGuy]

Re: Players expect owners to seek cap

Having a big payroll doesn't automatically your team will be a winner but it gives your club a wider margin of error to play with. A contract like Chan Ho Park's is much easier for a team like the Rangers to swallow than a club like the Royals.

I see positives and negatives of having a hard cap. On one hand, why should an owner be punished if he wants to spend a lot of money on his club, but on the other hand, a hard cap levels the playing field to a certain degree.

You're already seeing what a hard cap is doing for the NHL. There's talk the Oilers are going to make a run at Forsberg. Without a cap system, that would have never happened.

I know the Pirates owner has already stated he wants a cap and he's going to make his voice heard during the next round of talks for a new CBA. I wonder how many owners would join his fight for a cap.

[VanCitySportsGuy]

Re: Players expect owners to seek cap

With the CBA set to expire after next season I'm suprised I haven't heard from any owners outside of Kevin McClatchy.

I'm not a complete fan of a salary cap system but I can't deny a cap would help a team like the Royals compete with a team like the Yankees.

I was watching PrimeTime sports and Jeff Blair said almost every team is going to make money this season. If that's true I don't see why the new CBA would have major changes.

But for the sake of Royals, Pirates, Brewers, D-Rays fans, etc... I hope the new CBA gives them a better chance to compete with the big spending clubs.

[deeman11747]

Re: Players expect owners to seek cap

With the CBA set to expire after next season I'm suprised I haven't heard from any owners outside of Kevin McClatchy.

I'm not a complete fan of a salary cap system but I can't deny a cap would help a team like the Royals compete with a team like the Yankees.

I was watching PrimeTime sports and Jeff Blair said almost every team is going to make money this season. If that's true I don't see why the new CBA would have major changes.

But for the sake of Royals, Pirates, Brewers, D-Rays fans, etc... I hope the new CBA gives them a better chance to compete with the big spending clubs.

It's exactly the opposite. No salary cap actually HELPS the smaller market teams. They get the luxury tax from teams like the Yanks, Sox, and Angels and that helps them finance like 10% of their payroll.

So lets say they set the capy at $165 million. The Yanks get rid of some big contracts like Brown, Bernie, Giambi, Wright, Pavano, and Sheffield by the time the agreement is set. Guess what? The Yanks are just as, or almost as, good of a team without them and they're under the cap... and now no small market team gets any luxury tax money or revenue sharing money.


Unless they set a floor for payrolls at like $65 million to force the cheap owners to pry open their wallets.... the competitive inbalance is still going to be there... no matter how much money the upper teams spend.

[VanCitySportsGuy]

Re: Players expect owners to seek cap

It's exactly the opposite. No salary cap actually HELPS the smaller market teams. They get the luxury tax from teams like the Yanks, Sox, and Angels and that helps them finance like 10% of their payroll.

So lets say they set the capy at $165 million. The Yanks get rid of some big contracts like Brown, Bernie, Giambi, Wright, Pavano, and Sheffield by the time the agreement is set. Guess what? The Yanks are just as, or almost as, good of a team without them and they're under the cap... and now no small market team gets any luxury tax money or revenue sharing money.


Unless they set a floor for payrolls at like $65 million to force the cheap owners to pry open their wallets.... the competitive inbalance is still going to be there... no matter how much money the upper teams spend.

A minimum cap floor has to be there to prevent cheap owners like Glass pocketing the dough. The problem is that the highest to lowest payroll gap is so big that it's nearly impossible to close the gap. Even if there was a min. payroll floor of 50 mil and a high end cap of 120 mil there is still a 70 mil gap.

Basically MLB is a huge mess in terms of competitive balance. Nobody can say with a straight face that the Royals and Yanks have an equal chance at the playoffs on any given season.

I'm interested to see what changes happen in the next CBA. I would expect more revunue sharing but everybody knows revunues can be fudged. I remember Paul Beaston once said any skilled accountant can make a one million dollar profit look like a one million dollar loss.