Playoff baseball vs. regular-season NFL

There was no genuine free agency in the NFL before the cap, buckdub, so the NFL already had a system in place that guaranteed equal opportunity before the cap was instituted. It also had a much better revenue sharing plan in place for all those years as it passed baseball in popularity.

spnited, you are correct that baseball could not copy the NFL's system exactly because of the NFL's national TV contracts. I didn't say that it could. I just said that is one reason the NFL's system is better.

But that doesn't mean baseball can't do a better job of sharing revenue. It also makes the need for a salary cap and a salary floor more important to baseball, not less.

 

Salary floor, yes...so chaep ass owners don't just pocket the revenue sharing money.
Salary cap, NO. If you want to cry poverty and intenionally not compete (hello, Pirates!), get out of the business.

 

And the Pirates aren't being rewarded with profits every year for being arguably the worst ownership group in professional sports?

 

I said baseball needs a salary floor.

 

You ask me to be realistic when comparing revenue sharing in the NFL and MLB, yet you throw reason out the window right there. There is no chance of a salary floor in baseball without a cap. None. The small markets are at a disadvantage as it is. No way a floor passes without a cap.

It is very easy for a New York sports fan to say that the small markets can just get bent. It also shows a certain amount of selfishness rather than concern for what is best for the game overall.

And to be clear, I'm directing that one only at spnited. I know there are baseball fans of small-market teams who disagree with me on this (Hi TSP!)

 

You're so dull.

The AL Central is the shittiest division in baseball every year?

Fucking please.

Try harder. And if you're already trying, just quit.

 

He's bat-shit crazy

 

Can definitely make the case it is the worst division in baseball.

 

No, you really can't.

Not unless, I don't know, you've magically done away with the National League and the AL West.

 

Interleague play records (since 1997)

Minnesota Twins 132 96 .579
Chicago White Sox 127 101 .557
Detroit Tigers 123 106 .537
Cleveland Indians 113 116 .493
Kansas City Royals 107 130 .467

Total = 602-549

(2009)

Minnesota Twins 12-6
Chicago White Sox 11-6
Detroit Tigers 10-8
Kansas City Royals 8-10
Cleveland Indians 5-13

 

Wake me when the Twins get to add a key component or two to get them over the top rather than having to choose which pieces to keep (Morneau, Mauer and Nathan) and which to let go (Santana and Hunter).