More on Competitive Balance

There used to be a website called FireJoeMorgan.com, which would take an article written by someone, and just completely destroy it paragraph by paragraph. I'm going to do something similar with this article from MLB.com about competitive balance in baseball. The article will be in bold and italics. My comments will be in normal font.

Bob DuPuy, Major League Baseball's president and chief operating officer, spoke about the sport's "enormous competitive balance" on an ESPN radio appearance Monday morning.

Already we have a problem if Dupuy really thinks that there is enormous competitive balance in baseball.

As a guest on "Mike & Mike in the Morning," DuPuy responded to fan criticism that the newly crowned World Series-champion Yankees "bought" a title with their $200 million payroll.

I wouldn't say they bought their title. They bought the players that won the title. There's a difference.

"I don't think that's a fair statement. Competitive balance has been a hallmark of the entire tenure of Commissioner [Bud] Selig," DuPuy said. "The numbers tell an awfully compelling story.

You know what else has been a hallmark of Selig's entire tenure? Steroids, an all-star game that ended in a tie, an ongoing feud with Pete Rose, games that start way too late for anyone to watch the whole thing, etc. I don't know that we want to use Selig's tenure as a good thing in this argument.

"Twenty of the 30 clubs have made the playoffs the last 10 years, when we've had eight different World Series champions."

I don't even know where to begin here. First of all, while 2/3rds have made the playoffs in the last decade, that's still 33% of your league that has experienced a decade of awfulness. Given that the playoffs now welcome in 8 teams a year instead of just four, that's 33% of your league that hasn't sniffed the top 8 spots for 10 years (and in most cases, much longer).

Secondly, as we talked about last week, the eight different World Series winners largely came from huge markets and huge payrolls (below are the teams payroll ranks when they won, according to baseball-reference.com)

2000 - Yankees (1st),

2001 - Diamondbacks (8th),

2002 - Angels (15th),

2003 - Marlins (24th),

2004 - Red Sox (2nd),

2005 - White Sox (13th),

2006 - Cardinals (10th),

2007 - Red Sox (2nd),

2008 - Phillies (12th),

2009 - Yankees (1st)

Even the teams that didn't rank top 10 are from huge markets (Philly, LA, Chicago). The lone exception is the Marlins, and again, they couldn't keep any of their players from that team and haven't been to the playoffs since.

The show's hosts, Mike Golic and Mike Greenberg, referred to having been "overwhelmed by the reactions coming in from people bemoaning the fact the Yankees have been able to buy a championship."

That's because most of the country realizes the huge problem. There are two places that they don't really care (From Philadelphia to the northeast, and the southern California area). Everyone else in this country hates the way baseball is set up, because the teams in the south, midwest, and northwest don't have a chance to compete anymore.

Listeners apparently have alluded to New York's signings last winter of the three top free agents, pitchers CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett and first baseman Mark Teixeira, all of whom played major roles as the Yankees won their first World Series since 2000.

Adding that trio yielded a payroll approximately equal to the combined payrolls of the five teams on the bottom of the list.

Thus, the problem! When three players make the same as five teams combined, that's a major issue.

"There is too much disparity," DuPuy said. "We'd like to see that gap close. That's why we've been pushing revenue sharing. But if you look beyond the Yankees, that ratio is more compressed than people realize.

Here's my issue with that statement: You can't look beyond the Yankees. They are the champions. They have been in the playoffs 9 out of the last 10 years. That's like saying "If you look beyond the murders, New York City is the safest place to live."

"Every team wants to have faith and hope it can make the playoffs."

Exactly. But every team doesn't have faith and hope. The Pirates, Reds, Royals, Orioles, Brewers, and others really don't have faith. Sure they all have hope, but that goes away by the all-star break, if not sooner.

DuPuy touched on a couple of ways in which baseball and its teams can continue to seek a more level playing field.

"Mid-market teams are signing their young stars to long-term contracts and we'll see those young stars with those franchises for years, and they'll build around them," said DuPuy, referring to such players as Troy Tulowitzki of the Rockies and Ryan Braun of the Brewers.

Good point DuPuy. Should we also point out that in choosing to sign Ryan Braun to a long term deal, it meant the Brewers couldn't sign CC Sabathia, Ben Sheets, or a number of other free agents, many of which ended up with teams like the Yankees and Red Sox?

"Second," DuPuy added, "all clubs agree that we need to reform the Draft. The idea is for the best players to go to the teams with the worst records, and that has not been the case."

DuPuy was referring to the increasingly consequential global talent supply, which is not subject to the First-Year Player Draft. International players are free to sign with any team.

"We need a world-wide Draft," DuPuy said, "to assure that the best go to the weaker teams."

I agree, but what you need and what you have are two entirely different things.

DuPuy said the negotiation in 2011 of a new Collective Bargaining Agreement with players will afford baseball another opportunity to "look at our revenue-sharing formulas," while defending the way those disbursements are currently being used by receiving clubs.

"We've had over $400 million transferred, and the rule is you have to use that money to improve your club. And the Commissioner tracks that every year," DuPuy said.

Again, great rule. But it's clearly not working.

On another subject, DuPuy dismissed a need to expand the use of instant replay, a subject that became a focus in the wake of a seemingly high number of incorrect calls by umpires in the postseason.

"Our job is to get the very best umpires on the field and for them to get the calls right," said DuPuy, who added that some of the calls in the postseason were "frankly inexplicable."

So if the job is to get the calls right...and there were calls this postseason that were "frankly inexplicable"...and the use of instant replay would eliminate both of these...then why are we dismissing instant replay so quickly? No one wants to get rid of the umpires, they just want to know that the game they are watching is going to be ruled correctly.

The Yankees Win

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?

How Good was Cliff Lee last night?

Phenomenal pitching performance by Cliff Lee to lead the Phillies to a 6-1 victory in game one of the World Series last night.

As the poll on the right proves, a lot of people that read this blog are picking the Phillies to win. I think that's largely because we consider ourselves fans of the National League, or more importantly, haters of the Yankees.

However, if you look at the national scope, virtually everyone is picking the Yankees (look at yesterday's post where I linked to the ESPN.com writers picks).

That doesn't make sense to me. I realize the Yankees won more games this season, have the highest payroll, and they are the Yankees for crying out loud. But why is everyone forgetting that we are talking about the Phillies -- THE TEAM THAT WON THE WORLD SERIES LAST YEAR. This isn't David vs. Goliath. It's Goliath vs. Goliath.

I realize the Yankees have the more impressive pitching staff and perhaps New York proves that over the next 2-3 games to get the series back on track. However, I'm just amazed at how everyone is sleeping on the Phillies this year. I can't think of another time in history that the defending champs are considered this much of an underdog.

Anyhow, enjoy the Series over the next few days. I am spending Halloween with my adorable 3-year old twin nieces, so the blog is going to get a few days off. I'll be back on Monday with more World Series thoughts. Don't eat too much candy this weekend!

World Series is Set

Well, it's going to be the Yankees and Phillies battling it out for baseball supremacy.

I'm excited about this matchup for a number of reasons:

1) You have the Phillies trying to become the first National League team to win back-to-back titles since the Big Red Machine of the mid-70's.

2) The Yankees are trying to reclaim their magic and win for the first time since 2000.

3) There are former Silver Hawks on each roster: Scott Eyre with the Phillies and Brian Bruney with the Yankees (Note: Bruney has not been on the postseason roster, but even still, if you are a part of the team, you get a ring).

4) It's the World Series. As baseball fans, this is what we all live for.

Make your predictions for the outcome in the poll to the right. In the last poll, only one person of the seven that voted wanted the Yankees/Phillies matchup. The winner was three people who would have liked to see the Yankees/Dodgers.