Boycott For Baseball Parity?

[Calibret]

Our Minnesota Twins were just swept by the New York Yankees again.
I believe this is the 4th time in the past ten years that the Twins have
lost to the Yankees in the 1st round of the playoffs.

The Twins have one of the lowest payrolls in baseball and the Yankees
are at or near the top, so what do you expect?
What baseball needs is a equal payroll for all teams in order to achieve
some type of parity. Why should the rich teams keep winning year
after year? It kind of makes the whole thing boring and predictable.
However, under the current system this cannot happen because the
owners would have to approve it and the richest ones aren't going
to vote for it. So nothing changes.

So perhaps what we need is a grassroots uprising here to encourage
a change of the system, perhaps a boycott of the rich teams.
So what do people think of this idea? Would it work?

[Gabber]

totally agree. Baseball needs a valid salary cap. If you go over the cap you can't field a team...end of story. No fines or warnings as they are hopeless.

Yankees, Boston, Phillies all have ridiculous payrolls but...

Minnesota is 11th overall so your argument doesn't fly for them

Texas is very near the bottom of the pack in salaries and are in the playoffs

Only 4 of the top ten highest payrolls made the playoffs unlike last year when 6 of the top ten made it

[Sveta's Hero]

It works for the Yankees, but look at some other teams with very high payrolls. The Mets are a great example. They are in the top 5 highest payroll list year after year, but not even close to being as succesful as the Twins.

I do agree that baseball needs a cap though. We have it in other sports and it seems that it keeps things fair. If you have good team ownership, and good management, you can still win.

[Voobrazheniye]

Yes! A salary cap is needed in baseball. The evil empire that is the Yankees must be brought to its knees! :stopit:

(did I mention that I grew up as a Red Sox fan?)

[Calibret]

I guess the Twins are higher than last I heard but it still seems
the big market teams are there at the finish year in and out.
How is this going to change when the very owners who would
have to OK it are the ones that need to be hobbled?
Won't ever happen unless we start a boycott against them and
it starts to cost them money.

[Sveta's Hero]

Here is a list of the payrolls for 2010.
Notice that only three teams in the top ten made the playoffs?
Tampa and Texas are proof that you don't need a huge payroll to win. But still, I would boycott just to get the Yankees down some:becky:


Baseball total payroll, 2010. The second number is the average salary per player.

N.Y. Yankees $206,333,389 - $8,253,336

Boston 162,747,333 - 5,611,977

Chicago Cubs 146,859,000 - 5,439,222

Philadelphia 141,927,381 - 5,068,835

New York Mets 132,701,445 - 5,103,902

Detroit 122,864,929 - 4,550,553

Chicago White Sox 108,273,197 - 4,164,354

Los Angeles Angels 105,013,667 - 3,621,161

Seattle 98,376,667 - 3,513,452

San Francisco 97,828,833 - 3,493,887

Minnesota 97,559,167 - 3,484,256

Los Angeles Dodgers 94,945,517 -3,651,751

St. Louis 93,540,753 - 3,741,630

Houston 92,355,500 - 3,298,411

Atlanta 84,423,667 - 3,126,802

Colorado 84,227,000 - 2,904,379

Baltimore 81,612,500 - 3,138,942

Milwaukee 81,108,279 - 2,796,837

Cincinnati 72,386,544 - 2,784,098

Kansas City 72,267,710 - 2,491,990

Tampa Bay 71,923,471 - 2,663,832

Toronto 62,689,357 - 2,089,645

Washington 61,425,000 - 2,047,500

Cleveland 61,203,967 - 2,110,482

Arizona 60,718,167 - 2,335,314

Florida 55,641,500 - 2,060,796

Texas 55,250,545 - 1,905,191

Oakland 51,654,900 - 1,666,287

San Diego 37,799,300 - 1,453,819

Pittsburgh 34,943,000 - 1,294,185

[Calibret]

totally agree. Baseball needs a valid salary cap. If you go over the cap you can't field a team...end of story. No fines or warnings as they are hopeless.

Yankees, Boston, Phillies all have ridiculous payrolls but...

Minnesota is 11th overall so your argument doesn't fly for them

Texas is very near the bottom of the pack in salaries and are in the playoffs

Only 4 of the top ten highest payrolls made the playoffs unlike last year when 6 of the top ten made it


You motivated me to do some checking of the stats instead of
just repeating hearsay and I think I overreacted, it's not as bad
as what I had thought.

I checked the World Series winners from 1986 through 2006 and
then looked up the payrolls of those teams and I was a bit
surprised. I haven't found stats for the last 3 years yet.
During this 20 year period 13 World Series championships were in
the top 10 in payrolls. Not too bad.
During this time there were 14 different teams that won the Series.
Only 4 teams have more than 1 Series win, they are the NY Yankees
with 4, Toronto Blue Jays with 2, Minnesota Twins with 2 and the
Florida Marlins with 2.

It's really been primarily the NY Yankees that have given the credence
to the idea of the Series being bought and somewhat deservedly.
They were #1 or #2 in payroll for all 4 of their wins.

So, I'm calling off the boycott for now, except for the Yankees,
boycott them.:peace:

[Gabber]

wow, if the Jays and the Red Sox joined forces we would still have a smaller payroll than the Yanks