Gotta love the American League..

[sq764]

KC/Cleveland tonight..

KC scores 10 in the first inning to go up 10-1.. As of midnight, they are in the 10th inning and Cleveland is up 15-13... And they've left 18 on base between them to boot..

I'll take this over a 1-0 shutout in the NL any day..

[kenwoodallpromos]

have to pay attention in a game like that!

[njcurveball]

If you like high scoring, then we probably should just give out HGH to all the players and have a bottle of the "clear" and the "cream" handy for the middle of the lineup.

The fact that a major league pitching staff cannot hold a 9 run lead is an embarrasment to baseball. The starting pitcher's ERA in this game was well over 7 and by the time he coughed up 6 more runs it went over 8.

The closer for KC also has an ERA over 7. I am surprised every time that team wins a game. If you like offense, you should get MLB TV and tune into KC each night.

You have better odds of hitting a Superfecta than seeing them be part of a 1-0 pitchers duel.

[sq764]

If you like high scoring, then we probably should just give out HGH to all the players and have a bottle of the "clear" and the "cream" handy for the middle of the lineup.

The fact that a major league pitching staff cannot hold a 9 run lead is an embarrasment to baseball. The starting pitcher's ERA in this game was well over 7 and by the time he coughed up 6 more runs it went over 8.

The closer for KC also has an ERA over 7. I am surprised every time that team wins a game. If you like offense, you should get MLB TV and tune into KC each night.

You have better odds of hitting a Superfecta than seeing them be part of a 1-0 pitchers duel.
No one has ever accused KC of being a major league team :-)

I think baseball needs a salary cap. Teams like this are embarrassing to the league.

[njcurveball]

A salary cap to me is pretty much a socialist theory of taking from the rich and giving to the poor.

Since this is a racing board, do you also think there should be a cap on how much is spent for a horse? The Marlins continually find gems and put together a team that makes a run every 5 years or so. Then they lose them because they don't want to pay and go back to rebuilding.

The Royals are not even in the AL East and haven't made a dent in the last 20 years. I doubt a salary cap will help with their management. What are they doing with their share of the "yankees tax"?

And how high would you make the cap? The Royals would need to "grow a set" to get close to 100 million. The contending teams are well over that and the Yankees may be paying that much to people who are not even on the bench.

I don't like parity, but I do like players who can last most of their career in one town. Something just seems right when Cal Ripken stays with the Orioles for 20 years.

Short of going back to the pre-Flood slavery days, I dont know how baseball can do this now.

You are right about KC. They would have trouble winning the college world series.:D

Jim

[banacek]

And then there is the Blue Jay game on Monday where they also blow the huge lead and end up losing 12-10. And as a special added bonus: a tilt between the manager and starting pitcher!

[OTM Al]

There are now and always have been teams in baseball that have been horrible for long periods of time. KC was once a good competitive team and even recently they put together a team that was competitive for much of the year. A salary cap will not fix this problem. For example, football has a cap, but I sure haven't seen much out of New Orleans ever. It is entirely up to owners of these teams for what they want to put on the field. Many owners out there are quite happy with losing seasons because they still finish ahead. The Cubs are a prime example of this. They have no incentive to try to do any better than they are because people will still follow them and money will be made. Besides, it is moot to argue for a cap because there is no way the players would ever agree nor should they.

[sq764]

You don't think a luxury tax and revenue sharing is taking from the rich and giving to the poor? Yankmes have to share revenue money with the Marlins and Devilrays and Royals.. That's not fair under your theory..

I don't think a cap can force teams into trying to reach the cap, but it might bring more parity into the league and make the best teams not so far and above the worst teams..

Personally, I think there should be a minimum.. MLB should have to right to say if you want to own a franchise, you need to have a payroll of at least $40 million (or whatever other arbitrary amount)



A salary cap to me is pretty much a socialist theory of taking from the rich and giving to the poor.

Since this is a racing board, do you also think there should be a cap on how much is spent for a horse? The Marlins continually find gems and put together a team that makes a run every 5 years or so. Then they lose them because they don't want to pay and go back to rebuilding.

The Royals are not even in the AL East and haven't made a dent in the last 20 years. I doubt a salary cap will help with their management. What are they doing with their share of the "yankees tax"?

And how high would you make the cap? The Royals would need to "grow a set" to get close to 100 million. The contending teams are well over that and the Yankees may be paying that much to people who are not even on the bench.

I don't like parity, but I do like players who can last most of their career in one town. Something just seems right when Cal Ripken stays with the Orioles for 20 years.

Short of going back to the pre-Flood slavery days, I dont know how baseball can do this now.

You are right about KC. They would have trouble winning the college world series.:D

Jim

[sq764]

There are now and always have been teams in baseball that have been horrible for long periods of time. KC was once a good competitive team and even recently they put together a team that was competitive for much of the year. A salary cap will not fix this problem. For example, football has a cap, but I sure haven't seen much out of New Orleans ever. It is entirely up to owners of these teams for what they want to put on the field. Many owners out there are quite happy with losing seasons because they still finish ahead. The Cubs are a prime example of this. They have no incentive to try to do any better than they are because people will still follow them and money will be made. Besides, it is moot to argue for a cap because there is no way the players would ever agree nor should they.
But at least a salary cap will make teams make smarter deals and work with a budget, not just go out and buy who they want whenever they want.

In the NFL, if you mismanage your payroll, you are totally screwed.. In MLB if you do it and you have money, you can buy players to cover up your mistakes (Yankees, Red Sox)..

Why do you think teams will spend in the NFL? The salary cap this year is around $105 million and the lowest team payroll will be around $85 million..

[OTM Al]

I don't think it makes them be anymore smart. Football teams have done some pretty dumb things with their money. Ryan Leaf. Brian Bosworth. Just to name two biggies.

The idea of a salary cap of course is to give "competitive balance". Football is supposed to have it and baseball is not. Yet.....take the last 20 Superbowls and World Series. Exactly 20 teams have played in those superbowls and exactly 20 teams have played in those World Series. Tops for each catagory is 6 appearances by the Yanks in WS and 5 by the Denver Broncos in SB. 6 teams have appeared 3 or more times in the SB yet only 4 teams have appeared 3 or more times in the WS. Frankly the distributions are pretty similar.

So what exactly has a salary cap done for competitive balance? Very little in my book at least as far as who is making it to that big game.

[Valuist]

I'd love to see MLB and the NBA do away with guaranteed contracts and make everything incentive laden. I think its one of the keys to the NFL and why its been successful. I have no problem with a guy making big money who produces....how often have we seen players go into the toilet after they hit the jackpot?

[Valuist]

I don't think it makes them be anymore smart. Football teams have done some pretty dumb things with their money. Ryan Leaf. Brian Bosworth. Just to name two biggies.

The idea of a salary cap of course is to give "competitive balance". Football is supposed to have it and baseball is not. Yet.....take the last 20 Superbowls and World Series. Exactly 20 teams have played in those superbowls and exactly 20 teams have played in those World Series. Tops for each catagory is 6 appearances by the Yanks in WS and 5 by the Denver Broncos in SB. 6 teams have appeared 3 or more times in the SB yet only 4 teams have appeared 3 or more times in the WS. Frankly the distributions are pretty similar.

So what exactly has a salary cap done for competitive balance? Very little in my book at least as far as who is making it to that big game.

I'm not totally sure we can define "competitive balance" strictly by who makes it to the championship. I would say playoffs is more realistic, and in the NFL, almost any team is capable of turning things around in a year or two. Look at the 2004 Bears. 4-12. One year later? Divisional title. How about the 1998 Rams? 4-12. One year later? A Super Bowl win. Other than the Twins and Braves in 1991, I can't think of too many last to firsts in baseball.

[OTM Al]

That's why I left a bit of a qualifier on my last statement. However, it is going to be tough to compare on movement within divisions from year to year because the NFL gives weaker teams weaker schedules. You just as often see a team jump way up off a weak schedule one year and then go plummitting right back down when they have to face real competition the next. I thought about doing just a who makes the playoffs thing, but there are more teams making it in football because of the structure. Maybe who makes it to division playoff round in NFL vs who makes playoffs in baseball would be better, but then its only been that way in baseball for 11 years now.

I just think artificial things like caps really do little to truely level the playing field. If all owners wanted to win like say George Steinbrenner does, then maybe it would, but cap or no cap that simply isn't true. Also, the idea of a floor seems compelling to some people, but I think that is even a worse idea. It will further inflate salaries and be an incentive for teams to throw their money away to be in compliance.

[dav4463]

I like to see pitching duels myself. I prefer the 2-1 or 3-2 type games over those softball-looking scores!

[kenwoodallpromos]

And then there is the Blue Jay game on Monday where they also blow the huge lead and end up losing 12-10. And as a special added bonus: a tilt between the manager and starting pitcher!
I think PA will excuse me for going off topic- what's up with the avarat? And can you blow it up? Who are they?

[banacek]

I think PA will excuse me for going off topic- what's up with the avarat? And can you blow it up? Who are they?

Sorry, you must be missing my pciture of Banacek (George Peppard):D .

Not quite the Beulah twins, just my three girlfriends: Bobby Joe, Billy Joe, and Betty Joe ;) . Actually just a picture I got off a website. It is a tiny picture on the website, so when you try to blow it up, it gets blurry, but good for an avatar, I thought.