Hard salary cap. Hard salary floor. Problem solved.
It’ll never happen. :(
From an interview with Dave Duncan that’ll air on STL radio tomorrow (quotes from Twitter via Tim McKernan, who did the interview):
- Duncan says, regarding any chance TLR changes his mind, “Tony has managed his last game in Major League Baseball.”
- The only way Duncan does not come back next year is if the new manager doesn’t want him, or if his wife’s health, which is improving…takes a turn for the worse
- Duncan knows Francona well, because they both lived in Tucson. Sounds like he likes him.
- Regarding Maddon, “He has another year on his contract, and I’d be surprised if the Rays let him go.”
- Thinks the whole idea of Jose Oquendo being hired so as to help keep Albert is stupid, and it would be unfair to Oquendo.
- Thinks the fact that McGwire has so many young children would keep him from really wanting to pursue the job as it’s a year-round job.
- Really respects Mike Matheny…but thinks the fact that he doesn’t have any coaching/managing experience would work against him.
- Very confident Adam Wainwright will be 100% at the start of 2012.
- Duncan’s excited about the rotation in 2012, but he’s even more fired up about the development and depth of the bullpen.
- Says Game Six is the most exciting game he’s ever been a part of…or even seen. He can’t believe it happened.
- Most importantly…his wife is doing much better. Dave sounded like he was in great spirits. Good to spend that much time with him.
Regarding questions about Duncan wanting to manage, he joked he’d be happy to, “as long as he doesn’t have to deal with the media everyday.”
I think Maddon is off the board–he’s a Cardinals fan, but fiercely loyal to the folks in Tampa who gave him his shot. Therefore, your Cardinals manager choices:
- Francona
- Pendleton
- Oquendo
- Riggleman
- Sandberg
- Dave Martinez (which is really funny if he gets the job vs. Sandberg…you Cub fans get it.)
I think in that order of likeliness.
Adam B:
How is that a solution?
If the top end teams bring in substantially more revenue than the bottom end teams (even after revenue transfers), then you either have to spread the ceiling and the floor far enough apart such that they have little impact, or place them close together and risk a situation that puts the health of the small market teams in jeopardy, or has an arguably too low salary cap, etc. One way or another, there are likely to be problems.
If you want roughly equal competition in a sports league, then the teams in that league need roughly equal resources. That’s not easy to pull off, and even unequal leagues can be entertaining.
I’d be surprised if Francona manages next season. I think the things that came out of that Boston Globe report (marital issues and pain killers) might be enough for teams to pass on him for a year.
When a Jon Lester, a pitcher Francona treated like a son when Lester battled cancer, throws him under a bus, you know you’ve lost a team/
That only works if the revenue is evenly divided. Teams like the Yankees make so much more in TV money and radio money than teams like Pittsburgh. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Yankees bring in at least $150M more in revenue than the Pirates.
I liked the idea floated at one time of having the high end teams in one division and the low end teams in their own division.
That wouldn’t do anything but ruin the playoffs. So you’ll have the Oakland A’s, Pirates, etc in one, and the Yankees, Red Sox, Cubs in another? That wouldn’t work either since eventually the team from the high spending division will crush whoever comes out of the low end one. There is no solution that would satisfy everybody. The disparity between the high end and low end teams is too great, and the MLB draft is more of a crapshoot than any of the other pro draft as it already is.
I would be more in favor of the hard salary cap/floor but that’ll never happen and would probably just anger more people. Some of these low end teams don’t want to spend and they’re perfectly happy with the system as it is, even if the fans aren’t.
Francona is now being talked about as the next Cubs manager.
I know he’s being talked about for the Cards job, but I’ve seen nothing to indicate he might end up back with Theo.
The problem with the hard salary cap without teams pooling revenue is that the players will get screwed. The big market teams will have owners pocketing a huge amount of money that should probably be going to the players.
Let’s say you make the salary cap $100M. The Yankees ownership then gets to pocket the extra $102M in salary they spent this year under the current system. How is this fair to the players?
The problem is that teams like the Pirates and Marlins just soak up their revenue-sharing cash as profits instead of reinvesting it into the product on the field. Salary floor solves that.
The other problem is that the Yankees (and it’s pretty much just the Yankees) get to spend so damn much more than everyone else they’re playing an entirely different game than the rest of the league. Hard salary cap: problem solved.
If we need a more aggressive revenue-sharing program to make this happen, that’s more of a feature than a bug. Fuck the Yankees crying about having to share the wealth; how much would the franchise be worth, exactly, without the rest of the league?
In my deepest, darkest fantasies, you’d give each team 100 (or whatever) points to sign players with. How much a point is worth in dollars would be dependent on the CBA (i.e. “players get P percent of revenues, and each point is worth (dollar value of P/300) dollars”).
That’s a level playing field, and owners still get to make money by improving their revenue intake.
Here are the team salaries.
http://content.usatoday.com/sportsdata/baseball/mlb/salaries/team
There’s a huge gap in salaries. To put in a cap and a floor would involve a lot of redistribution of wealth between teams.
BTW, RIP to Matty Alou, who passed last night from complications of diabetes at age 72 in the DR.
Yup. And the rising tide of better competition would raise all ships.
…and less than a week after throwing out the first pitch in Game 7 of the World Series, Cardinals icon/hero Bob Forsch dies suddenly in his home of a heart attack.
Love Bob Forsch. My first favorite player.
I would absolutely argue that the Cardinals wouldn’t have beaten the Giants in the 1987 NLCS had Forsch not absolutely and without conscience drilled a showboating Jeffrey Leonard in the ribs in the 4th inning of game 3 of that series. Cards were trailing 4-0 at the time and came back to win 6-5 after that.
ESPN radio was talking about this yesterday. Apparently Theo and Francona have been in contact.
The Cubs and Red Sox have also both received permission to speak to Cleveland’s recently promoted bench coach Sandy Alomar Jr. about their managing gigs. Sandy was one of the core guys here in the 90s and I’d hate to see him go, but with Acta just given an extension there isn’t the opportunity for him in Cleveland.
The problem is that the better off MLB teams are never going to agree to that level of wealth redistribution. It happened in the NBA because the league was about to fail. It happened in the NFL because they had a very smart commish and the league at the time was no where near as big as it is today. So you would probably need a crisis to convince the MLB owners that sharing the money makes the most sense.
Small steps like the limited stuff we have right now is probably the best we can hope for, though I do think they need to do a better job of making sure the money is actually spent on improving the team. But its also hard to make the argument that the league needs to massively re-do its economic model when you look at Marks salary link and see just as many playoff teams and competitors in the bottom six as in the top six. And lets not forget that the difference between a “big market” and a “small market” in baseball is not so much demographics and population as it is attendance. The Rays would have plenty of money to spend on players if their fans bothered to show up in any numbers.
I’m a bit surprised about the interest in Sandy. He’s popular in Cleveland, but I never got the sense that he was great management material. In particular, the Red Sox job is one of the prestigious in baseball with high expectations and extra “challenges” stemming from the collapse. Sandy was a mere 1st base coach last season. To grab him over Manny Acta after the “mere” Indians chose Acta (and picked up his 2013 option) seems like the tail wagging the dog sort of thing.
However, apparently there is a rule that requires clubs to interview at least one minority candidate for managerial positions. I wonder if that is what is spurring interest in Sandy. Regardless, I like the guy, would like for him to stay in Cleveland, but I wish him the best where ever he ends up. I will still hate Boston regardless.
Thome signed a one year contract with the Phillies. Makes sense for both sides, especially given the Ryan Howard playoff injury that means he will presumably miss some time next season. And Thome’s interest in Philly was discussed before he was traded to Cleveland last year.
Oh, I totally agree about the reality of the situation. But a man can dream, can’t he?
And Florida is a bullshit state for non-NCAA sports. So screw them anyway :p