As you all know by now, the New York Yankees are the 2009 World Series Champions. The Yankees brought home their 27th title in franchise history last night, behind the six-RBI performance from series MVP Hideki Matsui.
The Yankees winning again has reignited all the talk about Major League Baseball having serious problems in terms of competitive balance. In fact, that's been the focus of the morning sports talk shows (in particular, Mike and Mike in the Morning).
I wanted to share a few of my thoughts on it, and then I'd love to have you leave your comments below.
*First and foremost, don't blame the Yankees. It's easy for everyone to say "I hate the Yankees" because they are the symbol of all that is wrong with baseball's disparity between the high payroll teams and the low payroll teams. However, they aren't doing anything wrong. They are operating under a different budget than everyone else because of the market they are in and their owner's willingness to pay for big time free agents. What do you want the Yankees to do? Stop trying to win? That's absurd.
*Also, if you are going to "hate" the Yankees for being at the top end of this, then you should also hate the Pirates and Royals for being at the low end. Again, it's not the teams, it's the system. So if you hate the team at the top of the system, then shouldn't you also hate the teams on the other end?
*Now that being said, something needs to be done. I don't think it's the worst thing in the world that those that spend the most, win the most. That's the American way usually. The problem comes in when those that don't or can't spend that kind of money, don't have a chance to compete.
*Look at this way: Since the playoffs expanded in 1995, the Yankees and Red Sox have combined to make the playoffs 23 times. Obviously, those are the two teams with the highest payrolls and both come from major media markets. Since 1995, the Blue Jays, Royals, Pirates, Expos/Nationals, Rays, Tigers, Brewers, Reds, Marlins, and Orioles have combined to make the playoffs eight times. With the exception of the Tigers, these are all smaller market teams with small payrolls.
*Those are probably all numbers that you've heard before. Let me give you two final pieces of information that I think better illustrates the problem.
-Major League Baseball loves to tell everyone that 23 of the 30 teams have made the postseason this decade. One of those teams is the Brewers, who traded four prospects to get CC Sabathia for the second half of the season. The Brewers made the playoffs, losing in the first round. The two biggest pieces of the puzzle that got them there (Sabathia and Ben Sheets) left in the offseason (Sabathia to the Yankees where he won a ring, Sheets is an injured free agent). Milwaukee missed the playoffs by 11 games this year, finishing under .500. Most expect it will be a while before they have any chance of the postseason again.
-Two days ago, the Pirates traded for Akinori Iwamura, and will pay him 4.85 million dollars in 2010, making him the highest paid Pirates player. If Iwamura went to the Yankees, he'd be the 13th highest paid player. That just doesn't seem right to me.
Listen, I don't have the answers. I don't even know if I have the questions right. I just know that the numbers can be staggering at times. It just seems as if 10 teams know they are going to compete every year, 10 teams hope to catch lightning in a bottle and make that one or two year run, and 10 teams don't have a prayer.
Your thoughts? Is there an issue here? Is there something that can be done to fix it? Or is this just the way it works?
I've got a few comments, hopefully I can frame them well.
ReplyDeleteThe History:
Let's face it, Free Agency brought about a monster. Players generally go to the highest bidder.
This is good for the individual player but not always good for the small market teams as they do not have the revenue to keep their better players.
in some instances it is not good for the fan as the price of tickets rise.
It is a free market. Players will make as much as the market can bear. The better players will be paid the higher salaries while the lesser players (or unproven players) will make less money and most likely play for a smaller market team. Once players prove themselves, generally the small market teams will lose the player due to the lure of more money and better chance of making the playoffs.
Part II: The Yankees
ReplyDelete"They Bought A World Series!"- Yeah, all teams use their payroll some bigger than others. It would be foolish not to use your payroll (and market share) to your advantage.
I want to point out a few items:
1. New York has a high cost of living.
2. New York is high pressure (fans will eat their own). Some players cannot handle the NY pressure. In the early Free Agency days some players would only play for the Yankees if they were offered more money. Some used the Yankees to get other teams to bid higher.
Let's also state that money does not buy everything. The New York Mets have had the second highest payroll for years and have little to show for it.
Even before Free Agency, when salaries were more evenly distributed, The Yankees were still perennial winners.
The Solution?:
ReplyDeleteThere is already a "Luxury Tax" in baseball. If a team goes over a certain amount in salaries, they pay a luxury tax that goes towards the smaller market teams.
A salary cap would take away the free market and the players association will not accept that as the only ones who would not have a cap on their salaries would be the owners/associates.
If you are going to cap salaries or have revenue sharing, then the larger market teams will want input on smaller market teams, for example, arguing that teams may not have a market and push to have those teams moved to a larger market.
My guess is Major League Baseball will not do anything unless the smaller market teams begin to fail.