MLB small market teams not exactly happy

[shadoz19]

Starting to look like a common theme.

PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Pittsburgh's Kevin McClatchy lashed out at other baseball owners Friday for a return of free-agent spending that he fears may steer some clubs close to bankruptcy.

McClatchy, the Pirates' managing general partner, warned of a growing division between big-payroll and small-market clubs that could lead to contentious owners meetings and a much-harder stance during the next labor negotiations. The current labor deal with players runs until December 2006.

``I don't know what happened, maybe they drank some funny water, but they all decided they were back on the binge,'' McClatchy said. ``When somebody goes out and pays an average pitcher $7 million a year, then anybody who's an average pitcher says they need $7 million a year. That's very difficult, and when you're giving pitchers $18 million in arbitration, that also makes it difficult.''

Here's the rest of it.
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_y...pirates-mcclatchy-salarycap&prov=ap&type=lgns

Click to read more...

 

[Jobu]

Starting to look like a common theme.



Here's the rest of it.
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_y...pirates-mcclatchy-salarycap&prov=ap&type=lgns

You do realize that the average MLB salary DECREASED last year, right?

 

[shadoz19]

You do realize that the average MLB salary DECREASED last year, right?

Just cuz the average salary decreased doesn't mean the issues don't exist. The article was also referring to CURRENT FREE AGENT SPENDING.

 

[Jobu]

Just cuz the average salary decreased doesn't mean the issues don't exist. The article was also referring to CURRENT FREE AGENT SPENDING.

Oh, I see. Why don't we just have a system where owners decide who players play for, how much they can make, and how long they have to play? Why not eliminate negotiation in its entirety?

 

[Biggest Canuck Fan]

You do realize that the average MLB salary DECREASED last year, right?

Does that nullify or devalue the comments made by the GM of a storied Baseball Francise?

The bottom line is, while the players of the NHL would like a luxury tax to work, they know full well it won't because teams like Colorado, Toronto, New York Rangers, and Detroit will act like the Yankees, Mets, and the like... spend spend spend!!!

 

[CarlRacki]

You do realize that the average MLB salary DECREASED last year, right?

You do realize that was in no small part the result of several smaller market teams cutting payroll (i.e. Milwaukeee $40.6 million to $27.5 million, Pittsburgh $54.8 million to $32.2 million, Cincinnati $59.4 million to $46.6 million and Cleveland $48.6 million to $34.3 million), right?

You do realize that the luxury tax has utterly failed in its goal of discouraging big-spending teams from spending even more, right? Since its inception in 2002, the Yankees' payroll has gone from about $126 million to a projected $204 million. Boston's has gone from $108 to $135 million. The Mets' has gone from $94 million to $108 million.

You do also realize that with the ridiculous sums of money thrown this off-season to Carlos Beltran, Carl Pavano, Jaret Wright, Adrian Beltre, Pedro Martinez, Roger Clemens, Kris Benson and Randy Johnson (to name a few) that this trend will be nothing more than a one-year blip, right?

 

[Winger98]

Starting to look like a common theme.



Here's the rest of it.
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_y...pirates-mcclatchy-salarycap&prov=ap&type=lgns

the thing is that I think MLB recognized these growing problems during the last negotiations and worked to put themselves into position to incrementally implement stronger revenue sharing/salary drags over the course of the next few CBAs.

I'm not a Selig fan at all, but I like his approach to this. He's keeping the players on the field and will work to slowly gain more and more ground towards levelling the playing field amongst the teams. In my opinion, that's all the last CBA/luxury tax was meant to do: lay the groundwork for more effective systems in the near future.

 

[wazee]

the thing is that I think MLB recognized these growing problems during the last negotiations and worked to put themselves into position to incrementally implement stronger revenue sharing/salary drags over the course of the next few CBAs.

I'm not a Selig fan at all, but I like his approach to this. He's keeping the players on the field and will work to slowly gain more and more ground towards levelling the playing field amongst the teams. In my opinion, that's all the last CBA/luxury tax was meant to do: lay the groundwork for more effective systems in the near future.

I hope you are right. But to this long-time baseball fan, it sure looks like a disaster right now. I find myself losing interest in the game because the playing field is so overwhelmingly uneven. I still go to a few games...but more because I enjoy the atmosphere of a summer night in the ball park than because I care what is happening on the field. The deck is stacked against all but a few big market teams so I feel no excitement at the beginning of a season.

 

[SuperUnknown]

I hope you are right. But to this long-time baseball fan, it sure looks like a disaster right now. I find myself losing interest in the game because the playing field is so overwhelmingly uneven. I still go to a few games...but more because I enjoy the atmosphere of a summer night in the ball park than because I care what is happening on the field. The deck is stacked against all but a few big market teams so I feel no excitement at the beginning of a season.

It's sad when you can predict which teams will do better just by looking at their payroll...

Should be "Payrollball".

 

[SuperUnknown]

Oh, I see. Why don't we just have a system where owners decide who players play for, how much they can make, and how long they have to play? Why not eliminate negotiation in its entirety?

And if you read the article, it says that because of the "funny water" the owners drank, there might be a few owners going bankrupt because they sign players they can't afford to pay.

 

[iagreewithidiots]

McClatchy is more worried about hanging out with Steinbrenner then winning baseball games. He can still make money while fielding a terrible team.

MLB is still popular but what happens when the old farts all die? Young people dont care about baseball. Kids just entering their teens have never been alive during a year when the Pirates had a winning season.

So few young people care about baseball because they know sustained excellence is impossible for all but a few teams. They shouldnt care and they dont.

 

[CoolburnIsGone]

I dunno I kinda found it funny that they reference the Marlins signing of Delgado in there as "fiscal insanity", considering the Marlins are basically a small-market team in baseball. And that coming from the Orioles who are rumored to be working on a trade with the Cubs to acquire Sammy Sosa, who's got a huge contract himself (though the Cubs will pay part of it). The Orioles were in the running with Delgado for quite a while until one of the teams (most likely the Mets) up the offer a few million...but they were in it when it was $48 million over 4 yrs...an extra 6 million is considered "insane" for a player that's hit 30+ homers and 90+ RBIs for 8 straight seasons while being a left-handed hitter?? Its not like Florida hasn't had to lose a player or 2 this offseason that would've taken up most of that salary paid out (Pavano & Benitez).

Baseball will get a stricter luxury tax next time around that will really put pressure on the majority of teams...probably something around $75 million which would really put a crunch on teams that want to spend $200 million in salaries.

 

[Anksun]

And still Pittsburgh case is not the worse.

CAN you imagine how the young fans will feel about cheering for Toronto, Tampa Bay and BALTIMORE ????????

How those 3 teams (excluding NY and Boston of course) exactly have a GOOD chance to field a playoffs team for more than 1 year (even fielding 1 playoff team will be hard...)

They have the 200 millions payroll team as the first seed and the team that never want to be beaten by NY with a payroll of 120M- always ready to spend more if it hurts NY (who counter with another 10M spend in a second...)

New York
Boston
Baltimore
Tampa Bay
Toronto

Might as well buy a lottery ticket. What a nice system to help all teams...

 

[Biggest Canuck Fan]

And still Pittsburgh case is not the worse.

CAN you imagine how the young fans will feel about cheering for Toronto, Tampa Bay and BALTIMORE ????????

How those 3 teams (excluding NY and Boston of course) exactly have a GOOD chance to field a playoffs team for more than 1 year (even fielding 1 playoff team will be hard...)

They have the 200 millions payroll team as the first seed and the team that never want to be beaten by NY with a payroll of 120M- always ready to spend more if it hurts NY (who counter with another 10M spend in a second...)

New York
Boston
Baltimore
Tampa Bay
Toronto

Might as well buy a lottery ticket. What a nice system to help all teams...

Bravo!!!

I so support the NHL players now. Remember they are the ones who Said Baseball has a system in place that works

 

[futurcorerock]

And still Pittsburgh case is not the worse.

CAN you imagine how the young fans will feel about cheering for Toronto, Tampa Bay and BALTIMORE ????????

How those 3 teams (excluding NY and Boston of course) exactly have a GOOD chance to field a playoffs team for more than 1 year (even fielding 1 playoff team will be hard...)

They have the 200 millions payroll team as the first seed and the team that never want to be beaten by NY with a payroll of 120M- always ready to spend more if it hurts NY (who counter with another 10M spend in a second...)

New York
Boston
Baltimore
Tampa Bay
Toronto

Might as well buy a lottery ticket. What a nice system to help all teams...

i dont feel as bad for baltimore... they just picked up Sosa. Not to say he'd help them supplant either NY or Boston, but it looks like they tried pretty hard on this one.

 

[CarlRacki]

i dont feel as bad for baltimore... they just picked up Sosa. Not to say he'd help them supplant either NY or Boston, but it looks like they tried pretty hard on this one.

Baltimore, prior to this upcoming season at least, has never been considered a small-market team because their market has included the D.C. region. Also, their owner is one of the wealthiest in baseball.

 

[Donnie D]

Baltimore is the NY Rangers of baseball. Lots of money, but no clue how to spend it effectively.