Posted: Wednesday, December 24, 2008, 12:08 PM | 50 comments |
 

Does baseball need a salary cap?
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First and foremost, Merry Christmas to everyone out there. Thought I'd throw one more thought out there for those of you still slaving away on this Christmas Eve.

Does baseball need a salary cap?

I ask this because Brewers owner Mark Attanasio pondered the idea in an interview with the Bloomberg News last night. The impetus for all this talk, of course, is the Yankees, who yesterday came from nowhere to sign free agent slugger Mark Texeira to an eight-year, $180 million deal, despite the fact that they had traded for first baseman Nick Swisher earlier in the offseason and had already locked up C.C. Sabathia and A.J. Burnett to long-term deals.

"At the rate the Yankees are going, I'm not sure anyone can compete with them," Attanasio told said via e-mail. "Frankly, the sport might need a salary cap."

It's an interesting thought, one that has always been a topic of conversation in baseball. I don't really have a personal opinion on it one way or the other, but I'd be interested to hear yours.
Posted by David Murphy @ 12:08 PM  Permalink | 50 comments
50
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  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 12:29 PM, 12/24/2008
    I would change baseball; there should be a salary cap with exceptions.  Teams should have a salary cap - like the most a player could make is 7 million a year.  But each team should be allowed a certain amount of players, let’s say 6, that are exempt from that salary cap and can sign for any amount of money.  That way star players can still get paid but would be on different teams throughout the league.  It would also bring in strategy, do you use 4 of your 6 players that make over the 7 million cap on pitching or everyday players?  This system would still allow the major markets to have good teams since they could afford to pay more players the 7 mil a year than a smaller market would but would stop the over signing of star athletes to one team.  Thank You.
    — Beef69
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 12:48 PM, 12/24/2008
    There should be both a salary cap and a minimum salary base.
    — palmyra21
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 12:53 PM, 12/24/2008
    don't need a cap in teh game. I'd raise teh penalty for going over the agreed upon limit, however and add draft picks into that equation. Since it is clear that signing FAs at crazy salaries DOESN"T equal a championship--notice this years champs and the last time the Yuckies won one) I'm happy to let NYY NYM Boston and LAD spend money freely. If the team with the lowest salary can be in the division race as long as the yanks are then money isn't what brings home the championship in this game.
    — jeff gross
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 12:56 PM, 12/24/2008
    Murph- Here is what i wrote on my blog(http://shayroddy.wordpress.com/) last night: "Of course baseball has no salary cap. Is Bud Selig prepared to allow the Yankees to buy a championship? If he doesn’t do something soon the Yankees will buy another ring and leave everyone else in their wake." I stand by my words. In order to be fair to the Yanks or Red Sox or whatever maybe they could have a higher cap then say, the royals. The cities like KC and FLA dont deserve to be able to spend the amount as the Yankees. Right now Bud Selig is standing by watching the Yankees try to buy a championship. Will they, no, because you can't buy a team, but the fact that he is willing to let them try is disgraceful.
    — shayrod
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 12:56 PM, 12/24/2008
    Good question. I'd be more in favor of increasing the luxury tax on a geometrically sliding scale so that excess dollars spent by the Yankees cost more and more the higher the payroll goes. If the Yankees want to spend 10 times as much as small market teams like the Royals then they should to have to give 4 out of every 5 dollars back to the pool. At a certain point the excess spending will cease to have a positive effect vis a vis their competitors. You have to internalize the externalities, which is what the luxury tax was supposed to do. Problem is it's not enough, the gap between the haves and have-nots keeps growing. I may be in the minority but I don't think the Yankees are ruining baseball. In fact I think it adds drama to the season. I expect a backlash effect in New York in terms of pressure and expectations. Opponents are going to bond together to beat them. How great would it be for the Phillies to repeat against the Bronx Bombers? It can't be sweeter than this year was but it would come close. Even Mets fans might find themselves cheering for the Phillies in a World Series against the Yankees. How sweet would that be?
    — xfactor
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 12:56 PM, 12/24/2008
    easy answer to an easy question -- YES. Merry Xmas DMurph, nice job this year, WS title, you couldn't ask for anything more, I know I couldn't. Thanks again.
    — phairmount
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 1:13 PM, 12/24/2008
    What needs to be changed, however, is how the large market teams get revenue from merchendise, TV, Cable etc. There is no reason why all of this revenue shouldn't be pooled and evenly distributed to all teh teams. Just because teh Yankees have a great cable deal, etc, doesn't mean they deserve all that revenue. This is the way to even the playing field a bit.
    — jeff gross
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 1:20 PM, 12/24/2008
    1
    — jeff gross
  • Comment removed.
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 1:56 PM, 12/24/2008
    why should yankees generated revenue be pooled and distributed if it's their money? why does that make sense? the sox, the dodgers, the mets, and the yanks were out last year. where is the need for a cap? if anything, they need better officials.
    — dreinterests
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 2:08 PM, 12/24/2008
    Baseball doesn't need a salary cap. Executive pay and ridiculous bonuses at corporations, at the expense of the shareholders and dividends, need to be capped. Or heavily taxed. People pay thousands and thousands of dollars to see a baseball game in an executive suite. That's how out of whack things are. It's trickling up.
    — NiceToBeHere
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 2:15 PM, 12/24/2008
    The Yanks generated revenue is based on TV, merchandise etc. Without the other teams tehre is no tv or merchandise as there are no games to watch or players to follow. Just because NY has a better media market and therefore even an average player in NY gets more publicity then a star in a small market town and his shirt etc is more in demand, doesn't mean they should get to keep all the money. I'm not saying that revenue generated by owned property should be pooled, but revenue generated because your in a larger market or have better known players. This will not result in higher salaries as the luxery tax will result in more money being spent above that salary. I agree that the yax needs to be higher to have any affect, however
    — jeff gross
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 2:29 PM, 12/24/2008
    Obvious answer is No. Until someone can show that having a high payroll guarantees winning and a low payroll, like Florida or Tampa, prevents teams from winning, it's just a cry for help from teams that don't spend wisely. There are many ways to field a consistently good baseball team, spending on the right free agents is just one of them. If the Brewers spend the $20M per year on what they would have paid CC on 2-3 other players, the overall effect could be much greater than CC, as long as that money is spent wisely.
    — D-Egg
  • Comment removed.
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 3:16 PM, 12/24/2008
    blackacre, there's no need to guarantee spending will be used on payroll. If an owner wants to milk it that's their right, same as always. Most will use the money on players but those that don't will have to convince their fans to keep buying tickets, same as now. And salaries wouldn't endlessly increase, they would max out at what the Yankees are willing to pay, only they wouldn't be willing to pay as much with a scaled luxury tax. This would cause all salaries to be set at lower highs and allow small market teams the chance to compete. If you're the Royals, you take your Yankee tax dollars and spend lavishly on the draft; eventually competitive balance would return. Of course MLB has to fix the draft slotting "system", too. Maybe in addition to a luxury tax there could be enforceable scaled reductions in the Yankees' draft spending, another way to internalize the externalities. If they want all the top established talent it would come at the expense of new talent AND put money in their competitor's pockets. At some point the Yankees would reach diminishing returns in spending and stop.
    — xfactor


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About David Murphy
David Murphy joined the Daily News as its Phillies beat writer in February of 2008. Born in Upper Merion and raised in the Poconos, he attended college at La Salle University before taking jobs with the Myrtle Beach (S.C.) Sun-News and the St. Petersburg ( Fla. ) Times. E-mail Dave at dmurphy@phillynews.com.

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