Mauer remains a Twin

What if it is like Kendall and he plays, but is never the same after the injury? Mauer is a catcher, one who has had a number of injuries.

I love how you set this up. One small market team signs one star player under a unique set of circumstances and you think that says something about the financial state of baseball, but if I point to the Yankees buying a World Series, that shouldn't count.

It's one thing to have a ridiculous big-market bias, which you do, but your current bit of hypocrisy drifts into the realm of intellectual dishonesty. You can do better than that, spnited.

 

Easy on Bush, your senseofhumorectomy was obviously covered during his tenure.

 

No, it does not saying anything about the financial state of baseball ...it says a small market team can spend to retain its superstar if it is so incllined, regardless of the cost.

You're the one who always has to make it about the MLB financial system.

 

i love how the blue jays, owned by a major corporation and in the continent's third (?) biggest city and with the currencies now on par, are still considered a "small market" club.

 

Fifth, but your point is a good one

 

"Small market" has always been kind of a variable term.

 

Rogers basically stole a building that cost the public half a billion dollars (a building that was once a marvel of ingenuity), and then blames the public for not buying enough tickets to support the shit product they put into it, all while playing in a division dominated by the equivalencies of the '80s Lakers and Celtics. An $80M payroll in the ALE relegates them to baseball's third world (i.e., 'small-market.')

 

No, it says that one small market spent big money for the one player it could not afford to lose just as it moved into a new ballpark. A unique set of circumstances that in no way applies to all small markets.

 

Risk works both ways. Mauer wants to win, too. He took a discounted contract to play in his hometown. He gave up more money as well as the higher likelihood of winning a championship that goes with a larger market club. It seems like a sensible deal for both sides. Glad they got it done.

 

Couldn't agree more, Clueless.

I remember a few years back when someone tried to paint the Phillies as a small-market team -- the same team that calls Philadelphia, then the sixth-largest city in the U.S., home.

 

"Small" or "large" market is almost totally a matter of ownership attitude. The Royals ownership could take all the Yankees, give them a 100 percent pay raise, and still be awash in billions of dollars. A major league team is a public trust, and MLB should make any prospective new owners aware that they better have deep pockets, and that they are not expected to operate their teams on the cheap.

 

Can we please keep the salary-related MLB arguments where they belong -- the weekly NFL threads?