July 24th, 2006 by Phil Frangos
What is really wrong with Baseball
Tell me one good reason why fans of teams like the Pittsburgh Pirates, Tampa Bay Devil Rays & Kansas City Royals would have any interest in watching their pathetic squads after the midway point of the season.
Floundering near the bottom of their respective divisions, and really no hope for future success, how do the these teams expect to compete when the New York Yankees and Mets of the world can go out and buy any player they need, and add to a payroll that is unattainable by all the other teams in the league? It’s the same old story, year after year with the sorry excuse about how small market teams can’t compete with the big markets.
Teams like Tampa Bay, who really have two players worth spending a dime to go watch in Carl Crawford & Scott Kazmir, Pittsburgh with Jason Bay & Freddy Sanchez, and Kansas City with…well they have David DeJesus? I mean come on, these teams continue to field garbage players year after year, and the question is, when are things going to change?
Remember when Barry Bonds played for the Pirates and Carlos Beltran played for the Royals? Back then there wasn’t much difference between team payrolls, until salaries started to escalate to where they are today.
The players association will never give in to a salary cap, we know that. However, they should take note of how the NHL dealt with their salary problems that forced a year long shutdown. When they returned, they came back with a bang and with a new salary cap system and now the sport is in great shape with parity throughout the 30 team league.
Baseball doesn’t necessarily need to institute a salary cap maximum, but a minimum would help solve alot of their problems. A minimum salary cap of say 70 million would force teams like the aforementioned Pirates, D-Rays, & Royals to go out and spend money to compete each season, and not have the excuse that they can’t afford to sign guys. Players would actually benefit from this as it would make more money available to them.
Of course, as I have said many a time, until that bonehead Bud Selig is booted from the league, things will probably remain just as they are. And what a joke these teams have become. Get it together Players Association!
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1 Comment
August 1st, 2010 at 8:33 am
Hafner is brutal. They have to get him out of the middle of the order. I’d bench him and use him in pinch hitting role only. The guy is through.
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