Whether it be the bleak economy, the New York Yankees, or both, baseball owners are starting to think that maybe a salary cap isn't such a bad idea. Not surprisingly, the owner of the team that was outbid by $60 million for CC Sabathia is in the cap camp."I would ask, if it's such a bad idea, what sport doesn't have a salary cap other than us?" Milwaukee Brewers owner Mark Attanasio said Wednesday.
A salary cap isn't on the agenda of the major league owners meetings this week. But it could become an issue when the present collective bargaining agreement expires after the 2011 season - especially if the economy worsens.
"I think there's a lot of owners that would like to have that right now," Oakland owner Lew Wolff said. "I think the parity is what we're looking for, and the more ways you can get to parity the better. I think it's pretty good now, but I think it could be better.It should be noted that owners were worrying about the economy and its effects on baseball while they were attending the owners meetings at an "exclusive mountainside resort". Perhaps having these type of meetings by conference call is another idea on how to save money, no?
"It's a very good question, because maybe this recession, depression, whatever we're in may be a change for a lot more years," Wolff said.
But perhaps a salary cap would be a good idea, the question would be where to put that cap. And to me, a more important question would be where to put a salary floor, because you can talk about teams wanting parity and complain about how the Yankees spend all you want. But you also have to make sure that cap or no cap, certain other teams aren't putting together a team on a shoestring budget while hoarding all of their revenue sharing money to remain profitable. Just because teams like the A's are always finding a way to get the most out of their money, doesn't mean every team is willing and able. Parity is fine as long as every team makes some sort of effort to put their profits back into the product.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-15-2009 @ 10:59AM
murph said...
Want to fix baseball ? Forget a salary cap
Baseball unlike football basketball and hockey doesn’t have a salary cap and for good reason The MLBPA. unlike the other professional sports the baseball players union has a backbone hence the reason they routinely go on strike and to court and WIN and I unlike so many others say BRAVO, after all who should be getting the money the greedy ass owners? No the people who we pay to see play should get it. But Tampa proved this year as other teams have in the past you can win if you play smart spend money in the right area’s and yes get a little lucky. It’s that getting a little lucky part that is so hard to come by. What is a lot harder is to keep those players you were lucky enough to draft or trade for once they reach arbitration and free agent status. All the while it gets more and more expensive to go see a ball game. The average cost for a MLB ticket last year was $25.40. Arizona had the lowest average at 15.96 Boston as we all know had the highest prices in the league an average ticket to get into Fenway was, I mean is ( thanks for freezing prices fella’s) $48.80! But have no fear next season when the yank-me’s open their new Taj-ma-Taxpayer we will drop back to number 2 on that list. That brings me to my second point. The average salary for a MLB player last year was a mind-boggling 3,154,845 dollars not yen or pesos DOLLARS. With 25 players making 15 million or more a year. A-Roid leading the way at 28 million per. Sure you all think I’m going to blame free agency well no its arbitration. As long as the yankme’s of the world are overpaying for talent to get them to play in ny arbitration will continue to screw up pay scales for the rest of the league. Because you see arbitrators are STUPID and go along with agents who say well my player hit half as many home runs and drove in half as many runs won half as many games or had half as many saves as this over paid all star so he deserves half that pay ! Well sorry but the last 25 dinger’s 75 RBI 10 wins or 15 saves are worth a lot more than the first. As we are all seeing this year the stars are getting theirs and the owners are smart enough not to pay the second tier guys what their blood suckers I mean agents are asking. But in arbitration its just some lawyer saying ok that sounds right.. That’s why I propose doing away with arbitration all together and lowering the years needed to get to free agency to even that point with the union. Secondly ticket prices need to be set so everyone is playing on an even stage. A sliding scale that uses capacity luxury box prices and individual teams TV revenue can be used to help set average ticket prices for every team. I know these two ideas wont fix everything but it’s a great start. And then maybe just maybe a man can afford to take his family to a game again. And maybe these guys can get by on half of what they made in 08
1.
Alex Rodriguez, NYY
$28,000,000
2.
Jason Giambi, NYY
$23,428,571
3.
Derek Jeter, NYY
$21,600,000
4.
Manny Ramirez, BOS
$18,929,923
5.
Carlos Beltran, NYM
$18,622,810
6.
Ichiro Suzuki, SEA
$17,102,149
7.
Johan Santana, NYM
$16,984,216
8.
Todd Helton, COL
$16,600,000
9.
Torii Hunter, ANA
$16,500,000
10t.
Bobby Abreu, NYY
$16,000,000
10t.
Carlos Delgado, NYM
$16,000,000
10t.
Andy Pettitte, NYY
16,000,000
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