Posted on 04/14/2022 12:37:40 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Get rid of the DH.
Most sports outside the US have some form of relegation. If you finish at the bottom of a league you drop down a level the next season and the top teams from the lower division get promoted up one level.
It probably wouldn’t work with the way that most sports leagues are structured in the US but it certainly prevents tanking.
Major League Baseball doesn't offer that option.
If you stop revenue sharing tanking would come to an abrupt end. Today a team can finish 52-110 and still making millions for its owners. Yes 4-6 teams would probably fold but it would make for a better product overall.
Are there too many teams?
The only way to end tanking in baseball is to fire a bunch of owners. There’s just way too many in the sport that don’t care what they put on the field, so long as it makes money.
What if teams were required to provide bonuses to players based on their personal performance and the performance of the team as a whole? The owners might try to lose by dumping great players but the players that remain will be incentified to play their best.
Why should the players care? MLBPA? Oh, you mean the VETERAN players. The ones left holding the bag while the farm system delivers the NEW players.
Frankly, if the fans put up with it why shouldn’t the players?
Are you looking at the Seattle Mariners?
I suffered for many years as a Mariner fan. Hubby would go with me to the couple of games I would attend; but, he was in it for the food.
One year, they had a team filled with "names". Older guys; but, still worthwhile. They ALMOST (yes, almost) made it into post-season. But, they didn't. Anyway, all the veterans that we had put on the team were picked up by other clubs, and we were left with Triple A Baseball at Major League prices; which, is pretty much what you get every season of Mariner's baseball.
When Hubby and I married and moved to Seattle (early 80's), the Mariners had a pretty good team, that would occasionally get into the playoffs. Not very far; but, occasionally they were there. Now, they are never there.
I stopped watching the Mariners after that season with the "names" that played for one season for us. I got tired of the way the guys in the office handled the team. Rotating managers, rotating players, rotating coaches. It is neverending with this team And, nothing ever works. Sigh. And, I am a baseball fan, I like the game; but, I couldn't take it anymore. I haven't watched any baseball for a while now. I miss it, but I don't miss the aggravation of watching The Mariners.
The Big 5 markets simply raid the small market teams when these rookie contracts expire. Pittburgh has been following the “Build thru the Farm System” strategy for quite some time. It’s to the point where the Pirates can only usually afford to re-sign a player every few years, and the rest leave or get traded while they still have time on their deals. Lot of ex-Pirates in the Big Leagues. But the only way the Pirates will ever win a pennant is if the get a cohort of young players that all gel early. That’s like waiting for the perfect wave.
Texas Rangers have been doing something like that for several years — trading away good players.
This year, they supposedly have spent $1/2 Billion during the off season to get spectacular players.
It is working great — they are at 1 and 4 on the new season.
It's a rebuilding year decade century
The newest CBA actually helped players in their first few years.
Not really. They make it look that way but these “small market” teams are really just committed to being run on the cheap. Sure the Pirates have one of the lowest revenues in the league. And their revenue in 2019 was $249 million, yet they only spent $47 million on salary (projected this year to be $37 million). Now I know that revenue has to pay for all kinds of stuff outside of players. But I doubt they had $202 million of other expenses. They’re just a cheap team, the only way they’re winning a pennant is if all the other teams in the league suffer massive catastrophic injuries.
And that’s the story for a lot of the league. These team owners just don’t care. MLB probably has the highest percentage of owners that aren’t actually fans of the sport. They aren’t jacked to own a baseball team, it’s just a business. Just look at what Castellini said Tuesday. Fans are complaining about how the team stinks and has forever and his retort is “what would you do with this team to have it more profitable?” No Phil, the fans aren’t complaining your dad doesn’t make enough money.
In Cincinnati many fans were in revolt. Opening day Joe Burrow and Zak Taylor had more reaction with chants of Who-Dey than the Reds did. Sorry state when you lose the home openers to the Cleveland Pronouns.
Maybe but the NFL has revenue sharing, salary cap and salary floor and teams still tank and are terrible, I live in Jacksonville and the Jaguars are laughing stock of the NFL, the have tanked built up draft picks, pursued free agents and change coaches all the time, regardless of how the game is structured having competent talent evaluaters is paramount
Are you John Fisher or someone who works for him? Because what you are saying is radically misleading. Forget the fact that A's owner could have already had a new stadium if they wanted to.
The A's had Olsen and Chapman under contract for two more years, and both players WANTED to stay. They A's were already ranked 25th or less in payroll last year. They could well afford to keep players like that and have a decent team this year. And still make a fortune for the ownership. (For reference, they were trying to put a minimum cap in the CBA, and the A's are 40% of the minimum, and will be less by the trading deadline.) Do you think Las Vegas wants to bring a team that has an ownership that doesn't care about making the playoffs, and just wants to have one of the lowest payrolls in baseball. (Last year, Fisher introduced himself to his employees on the A's for the first time, and [braggingly] referred himself as the "cheap owner," and it's not cheap as in, "cost effective."}
Fisher is actually a Giants fan, and for him, winning games is a bug, not a feature.
The DH in the National League was the final straw for me.
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