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If the Yankees aren't able to keep Matsui and Damon, do you know why it will be? The Yankees won't be willing to pay the $$$$$$. The Yankees appear to want short term (maybe 1 year) contracts (and to get younger) while those two may very well expect longer term contracts and, more $$$$$. That means some team may sign the World Series MVP for more than the Yanks were willing to commit. What if that team is yours? Hmm, interesting.
If the Yankees aren't able to keep Matsui and Damon, do you know why it will be? The Yankees won't be willing to pay the $$$$$$. The Yankees appear to want short term (maybe 1 year) contracts (and to get younger) while those two may very well expect longer term contracts and, more $$$$$. That means some team may sign the World Series MVP for more than the Yanks were willing to commit. What if that team is yours? Hmm, interesting.
Matsui would not get all that much. He still swings a good bat, but he's aging and has horrible knees....its been said that he may be at a point in his career where he's physically not even up to being a full-time DH. I'll bet the Yanks keep Damon, and let Matsui walk...and then he'll probably retire.
Well if they did what Minnesota does and kept some of their players around instead of trading them at the deadline then maybe they'd be competitive.In the last few years the Pirates got rid of Nady,Marte,Jason Bay and others.If they kept them and signed a few role players they might be in the playoffs.The fact is that they are not well run organizations and every year they give up and pocket the revenue $$$ instead of developing a team like the Marlins,Twins, or even the Rays!
You're right about that....there are a few small-market teams that are very well-run and that's why they're able to be respectable without dropping a ton of cash...but still, those team's shot at winning it all is very slim. The Rays caught lightning in a bottle last year, with a good group of young guys, and it happened to be in a down year for the Yankees. I was rooting for the Rays this year, they're a likeable team, but unless they're moved to the AL Central, they don't have much of a chance at the postseason. What will be sad is when the young Rays are eligible for free agency, a lot of those guys like Longoria, Crawford, Upton, Zobrist, Bartlett, Garza, etc will probably be bought up by richer teams.
Matsui would not get all that much. He still swings a good bat, but he's aging and has horrible knees....its been said that he may be at a point in his career where he's physically not even up to being a full-time DH. I'll bet the Yanks keep Damon, and let Matsui walk...and then he'll probably retire.
We'll see. I think Matsui will be playing for somebody next year and unfortunately for me, I think it will be elsewhere because of the contract/cash situation. He's been an incredible teammate.
You're right about that....there are a few small-market teams that are very well-run and that's why they're able to be respectable without dropping a ton of cash...but still, those team's shot at winning it all is very slim. The Rays caught lightning in a bottle last year, with a good group of young guys, and it happened to be in a down year for the Yankees. I was rooting for the Rays this year, they're a likeable team, but unless they're moved to the AL Central, they don't have much of a chance at the postseason. What will be sad is when the young Rays are eligible for free agency, a lot of those guys like Longoria, Crawford, Upton, Zobrist, Bartlett, Garza, etc will probably be bought up by richer teams.
Quick, meaningless (other than it being kinda cool) story about Zobrist and a foul ball play in Tampa I think? Doesn't matter. He chased a fly ball to the wall in left field that drifted into the stands. He jumped up on the wall as the ball flew above the first few rows, even though he knew he had no chance at it. A kid, maybe 6, was sitting in the first row and was looking up, watching the ball go deeper into the stands...basically turning away from Zobrist, not even knowing he was there. As the kid turned back toward the field, Zobrist was still hanging over the wall, leaning into the kid's face, surprised the kid with a "Boo!" and smiled/laughed, shocking the kid whose face went . It was awesome.
To some extent, salary will increase the odds of a team doing well. It can't be prevented. Salary will draw players. Even in sports with a salary cap, there are teams with double the payroll of other teams.
Salary caps in most sports were not instituted for the sake of "fairness." It was instituted by the owners to control costs. The phantom of fairness was a red herring.
Yes, it does mean that some higher quality players fall off the top teams and play for other teams... but:
- as long as players are human and want money
- teams can spend much more than other teams
there will be those bottom-rung teams like the Pirates, Memphis Grizzlies, Chiefs and Islanders (and those teams that are grossly overpaid like the Mets, Knicks, and Raiders).
Apparently, Upton is trying to start a movement towards communism in sports.
Quick, meaningless (other than it being kinda cool) story about Zobrist and a foul ball play in Tampa I think? Doesn't matter. He chased a fly ball to the wall in left field that drifted into the stands. He jumped up on the wall as the ball flew above the first few rows, even though he knew he had no chance at it. A kid, maybe 6, was sitting in the first row and was looking up, watching the ball go deeper into the stands...basically turning away from Zobrist, not even knowing he was there. As the kid turned back toward the field, Zobrist was still hanging over the wall, leaning into the kid's face, surprised the kid with a "Boo!" and smiled/laughed, shocking the kid whose face went . It was awesome.
To some extent, salary will increase the odds of a team doing well. It can't be prevented. Salary will draw players. Even in sports with a salary cap, there are teams with double the payroll of other teams.
Salary caps in most sports were not instituted for the sake of "fairness." It was instituted by the owners to control costs. The phantom of fairness was a red herring.
Yes, it does mean that some higher quality players fall off the top teams and play for other teams... but:
- as long as players are human and want money
- teams can spend much more than other teams
there will be those bottom-rung teams like the Pirates, Memphis Grizzlies, Chiefs and Islanders (and those teams that are grossly overpaid like the Mets, Knicks, and Raiders).
Apparently, Upton is trying to start a movement towards communism in sports.
Yeah, okay Joe McCarthy, but the NFL, NBA, and NHL all have salary caps.
Is it too much to ask for baseball to follow suit and at least make a REAL attempt at leveling the playing field? As MLB exists now, the small market teams have little or no chance, while the playoffs are dominated by the big spenders.
Yeah, okay Joe McCarthy, but the NFL, NBA, and NHL all have salary caps.
Is it too much to ask for baseball to follow suit and at least make a REAL attempt at leveling the playing field? As MLB exists now, the small market teams have little or no chance, while the playoffs are dominated by the big spenders.
Look, what you're asking for... dozens of times each day here... is not going to happen. Nevermind the part where about 90% of the "facts" you use to make your case are just plain wrong... It's never going to happen because MLB is a business and business is good. They're not going to change anything to accomodate you. While I can't tell you what to post, and you can do this here over and over again for the rest of your life, you really are wasting your time. You would be better off bringing something to the table that might actually get done in this game, or if the current state of the game offends you so much, maybe you should consider giving it up for a while.
It should be noted that MLB was even more lopsided in terms of competitiveness for most of the first half of the 20th Century than it is now. The Yankees won 29 AL pennants in 44 years between 1921 and 1964 (and 20 World Series in 40 years between 1923 and 1962) and a much higher number of teams won 100+ games per season. By contrast, the Philadelphia Phillies had 30 losing seasons in 31 years between 1918 and 1948 (and only made 2 playoff appearances in their history prior to 1976), the St. Louis Browns won 1 AL pennant (and I believe finished as high as second only 1 other time) between 1902 and 1953 (after which they moved to Baltimore and became the Orioles), and the Boston Braves only won 2 pennants and 1 World Series (and like the Phillies, were usually an also-ran) up through 1952, after which they moved from Boston to Milwaukee. Baseball has always had haves and have nots, and that has often been determined by how much money was put into the team.
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. It was awesome.
