Comments on: The Rays’ Success Is Bad For Baseball

By: PaulW

PaulW — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 14:13:09 +0000

Here’s how I see it. If the Rays do win it all, it could bring 26-27 other baseball owners around to thinking “Hey, instead of wasting $40 million on an aging marquee name that will be more injury-prone and well past his prime, I can spend $10 million on developing 4 to 6 young guns into a long-term winner!” Even the Yanks and the BoSox could start realizing they don’t need to waste millions on free agency, and bring wages down accordingly. It’ll keep the small market teams from wasting their own FA money as well.

Now, this could affect that ‘luxury tax’ system in place where the big-money teams (yanks, cough) pay a tax based on payroll: if the payroll drops enough, no more tax revenue, and the small market teams lose that revenue. So hopefully it’ll force the teams down the road to establish a more equitable and effective revenue-sharing system…

By: sgt.adams

sgt.adams — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 02:10:02 +0000

Hold on just one minute Will N. I usually don’t post on these, but did you really just try to justify that these guys have ever earned millions of dollars to go play a game?!?! Lets be honest here. Disregaurd the fact that I, being a member of the military, along with my other brothers in arms are grossly underpaid for putting our lives on line (I don’t care if you agree with why we are where we are) what about all the other civil servents who are in the same postion such as police officers, teachers, fire fighters, and so on. Don’t tell me that getting paid more money in one day than the average American because you are good a swinging a bat or catching a ball (talking about pretty much every “sports star” here) is justified in any way. Your post, much like what I imagine your general opnions to be, are a farce.

By: rtl

rtl — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 22:21:37 +0000

You lost me with your comment:

To borrow from Senator Obama and the subsequent fear-mongering reaction to his comments, we need to “spread the wealth around” in baseball.

So to disagree is “fear mongering”? Sounds more like you’re into fascism.

By: kevin

kevin — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 21:04:00 +0000

i don’t think that the revenue sharing amounts are hidden. a simple google search will find them for you.

for example, 2001:

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=1333

(i’d look more, but i’m at work).

the idea of a “salary floor” is one of the silliest things i’ve ever heard.

2008 Florida Marlins: 84-77, $21 million payroll.

2008 Atlanta Braves: 72-90, $102 million payroll.

Teams like the Marlins are trying to compete the best way they know how; by getting a nucleus of younger players that can play. Their revenue is in line with their payroll.

Teams like the Braves can afford higher spending because there are substantially more baseball fans that attend games in Atlanta then there are in Miami.

But then you get owners like Peter Angelos, who simply loves to complain about how hard it is to compete in the AL East. No one is telling Angelos he needs to spend big bucks. What Orioles fans want (and I’m sure it’s the same in places like San Diego and Pittsburgh) is to admit that you’ve been “rebuilding” for 10 years (or more) now, and it’s time to try something different.

You can’t just look at payroll as the measure of whether a team is trying to win.

By: jose cantu rodriguez

jose cantu rodriguez — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 20:04:54 +0000

Yes, a salary floor would fix a lot of this. You can’t sit at the table to play poker if you’re never going to throw in to the pot and fold your hand all the time.

Also, as fans we are beat over the head over and over again with the amount of player salaries and bonuses. This only works to serve the owners, as they can cite the high salaries as the reason for high prices for tickets, beer, parking, gear, etc. This also works to turn the fans against the players, b/c the players are so rich, etc. I’d rather have the money go to the players. I never bought a ticket to see the owner.

Owners should have to publish the amount of money they spend on the draft, development and minor leagues. They should also have to publish the amount of revenue sharing money they receive, which is basically they’re start up money for the season before they sell one ticket or get any localTV money. But all we’re ever goinig to hear about is how much the players make and how much it costs to go to the game.

Most people like to eat hamburgers and sausage, NO ONE wants to know how it’s made. Go Rays!