Loading ...MLB Owners Need To Play To Win
Baseball’s Winter Meetings are in full swing in Nashville, and trades are the hot topic. On Tuesday, the Detroit Tigers agreed to a deal for third-baseman Miguel Cabrera, one of the best young hitters in the game, along with pitcher Dontrelle Willis, who won 22 games just two years ago, from the Florida Marlins for a bunch of prospects. And that was probably just the start.
It seems like the whole baseball world is waiting to see who wins the Johan Santana sweepstakes being conducted by the Minnesota Twins. Dan Haren, the ace for the Oakland A’s, is on the block. And so is Erik Bedard, the jewel of the Baltimore Orioles staff.
Pitching talent is scarce these days, and teams looking to deal arms are making big demands. But why are teams offering up, in many cases, young pitchers or pitchers in the prime of their careers, who might give them a chance to make the playoffs and win the World Series? Money, of course.
The gap between the haves and the have-nots in baseball continues to grow, or so the “small market” teams will tell you. Depending on how it all shakes out, it looks like the Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees or New York Mets will acquire Santana. The teams that don’t get him will then probably “end up with” Haren or Bedard. This is supposedly because those “big market” teams are the only ones that can afford the big time stars, while the other organizations have to try and compete each year with their prospects, who they can afford until they become stars.
Yes, some clubs have much larger revenue streams than others. They may have their own tv networks and can charge top dollar for sponsorships and tickets. But baseball is a $6,000,000,000 business according to Commissioner Bud Selig. Money is shared from tv contracts and a number of other ways that help the teams with smaller revenue streams.
More importantly, there is no salary cap, so nobody is stopping any other team from buying the players they want or bidding for their services. For goodness sakes, ALL THE OWNERS ARE MULTI-MILLIONAIRES IF NOT BILLIONAIRES, AS THAT’S THE REQUIREMENT TO BE PART OF THIS EXCLUSIVE CLUB. They just don’t want to spend their money, instead falling back on the “it’s a business” excuse.
So let’s stop all the “big market” vs “small market” talk and demand better from the owners. If they want in, they need to play to win, not to ensure they make millions more.
Agree with me? Disagree with me? Post your comments here, email me at thereitisjake@gmail.com or call in to the show at 661 631-1230 or (866 319-1230 if you’re outside the local area) and voice your opinions for all to hear. If you can’t tune in to the show on the All-New KGEO AM 1230 in Bakersfield or the surrounding area, use the Listen Online link on the top right of the homepage and catch There It Is! as it streams live on the ‘net.
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Well put, Jake. Ball clubs are not the main business for almost every owner of any team in a major sport. They are essentially hobbies so why not put the necessary money into them?
Three words to say about your position on this….. wrong, wrong, wrong.
I love ya, Jakey, but numbers don’t lie.
Check this out and we’ll talk.
http://www.onestopbaseball.com/TeamValue.asp
“Market size” (inc. revenue streams) alone is not the right way to look at it. Not all owners are willing to lose money. Look at the Royals under Kauffman, they spent money (and won which brought in more money) and drew well. Once he stopped spending, the team started lowing and the fan base eroded. Maybe the current owners would be better off spending more (and winning and gettting a new stadium, etc) but I can understand why they would not want. Sure, your team is a hobby but you don’t spend more than you want on your hobby because people you don’t know want you to do so. You do it because you want and every owner has a different sum that they are willing to pull out of their pocket. For the Twins, A’s, and Giants, they haven’t had owners that want to have higher payrolls in decades (if ever).
In Seattle, about 50% of the team is owned by a guy who has never seen the team play and lives on the other side of the planet. While the M’s usually have a comparatively high payroll (often driven by Japanese players salaries), expecting their ownership to want to toss another 20 million or 50 million or 120 million to catch the Yankees payroll just isn’t very realistic.
So, it may not be the just market or the revenue streams but every team does have different resources to compete with. If Bill Gates bought the M’s and his sole ambition was to win, the Steinbrenner boys would be calling the actors in Major League 3 to see if they wanted try-outs because they couldn’t afford anyone else. That is not the case, unfortunately for M’s fans.
BTW – the M’s are supposed to be a front-runner for Bedard but with a weak roster and a fairly barren farm system. If they have to give up Jones, Morrow, and another propect, I don’t think it is a good move. A healthy Bedard in Safeco would be tough to beat but the team would be an old, fragile 88 win team with little future. The M’s could afford the salry but can’t afford for it to be a mistake.