A-Rod is red-hot

Like a hard cap for each team?

Baseball really needs this. This would help teams like the KC Royals to actually be competitive.

The Royals have no one to blame but themselves. Their ineptitude on the field is due more to poor decision making than any salary cap concerns. Only the Royals would foolishly give Gil Meche a 5 year, $55 million contract.

Due to revenue sharing, the Royals received about $50 million in 2005 (as best I recall, it was somewhere around this number). Add to that local ticket sales (usually derived from top teams like the Yankees coming to town) plus local tv revenue and you're looking at at least $65 million (conservative estimate) in revenue coming into KC. Yet their payroll in 2005 was under $30 million.

So where is the rest of that money going? And why are small market teams like Oakland and Minnesota able to compete? And even teams like Milwaukee, and Cincinnati have gotten stronger.

The Royals are essentially being funded by the Yankees, Red Sox, Orioles and Dodgers of MLB yet I have no idea what they're doing with it. Beyond Alex Gordon, I don't even know what sort of future they have

The Royals have no one to blame but themselves. Their ineptitude on the field is due more to poor decision making than any salary cap concerns. Only the Royals would foolishly give Gil Meche a 5 year, $55 million contract.

Due to revenue sharing, the Royals received about $50 million in 2005 (as best I recall, it was somewhere around this number). Add to that local ticket sales (usually derived from top teams like the Yankees coming to town) plus local tv revenue and you're looking at at least $65 million (conservative estimate) in revenue coming into KC. Yet their payroll in 2005 was under $30 million.

So where is the rest of that money going? And why are small market teams like Oakland and Minnesota able to compete? And even teams like Milwaukee, and Cincinnati have gotten stronger.

The Royals are essentially being funded by the Yankees, Red Sox, Orioles and Dodgers of MLB yet I have no idea what they're doing with it. Beyond Alex Gordon, I don't even know what sort of future they have

I was using the Royals as an example...there are over 15 other teams that fall into this trap as well.
Oakland would have a dynasty if they had the money to keep their top notch talented players, but they don't. They are the farm team for MLB. It's not right. Imagine Giambi, Zito, Mulder, Hudson, Tejada all on the same team at the top of their games...not a single player is still on the team.

Yeah, SS dont you think there should be some kind of change? How is the current system fair?

Yeah, SS dont you think there should be some kind of change? How is the current system fair?

FYI- I don't believe that revenue sharing is fair...don't take away money from teams that earned it. Make your team earn it. A salary cap would be the right answer, that way everyone plays under the same rules. Every sport does it but baseball.
Hockey - cap
Basketball - cap
Football - complicated cap
NASCAR - restrictions on cars to equal the playing field.

Why not baseball?

The general argument made against the cap is that it should be a free market and they're should be no minimum or maximum a team should be allowed to spend.

Maybe so, but that makes a lot more sense to me than revenue sharing where-as jsarno points out-you're punishing teams that have earned it. A lot of teams with lower payrolls keep their payrolls low not because they have no choice but because they know if they don't they'll no longer get money funneled down to them to the top teams.

This was a huge reason the Expos were dissolved and ulimately resurrected as the Washington Nationals. Top paying teams realized they were essentially covering the entire payroll of another team instead of spending money on their own teams.

The general argument made against the cap is that it should be a free market and they're should be no minimum or maximum a team should be allowed to spend.

Maybe so, but that makes a lot more sense to me than revenue sharing where-as jsarno points out-you're punishing teams that have earned it. A lot of teams with lower payrolls keep their payrolls low not because they have no choice but because they know if they don't they'll no longer get money funneled down to them to the top teams.

This was a huge reason the Expos were dissolved and ulimately resurrected as the Washington Nationals. Top paying teams realized they were essentially covering the entire payroll of another team instead of spending money on their own teams.

But you hold the other teams accountable if there is a cap in place. If the royals made poor decisions, then so be it if there was a cap. If not...how can a team with say a 30 mil income and team salary compete with the likes of the Yankees that can spend 300 mil without losing a dime?

But you hold the other teams accountable if there is a cap in place. If the royals made poor decisions, then so be it if there was a cap. If not...how can a team with say a 30 mil income and team salary compete with the likes of the Yankees that can spend 300 mil without losing a dime?

But teams like the Yankees do lose money while the Royals run a profit

But teams like the Yankees do lose money while the Royals run a profit

I don't mean to sound rude, but you are incorrect. The Yankees have not been in the red for a REALLY long time. Part of that has to do with the YES network, but last year they made about 50 mil profit. FYI- they have made THE most profit every year for the past 6 years.

I don't mean to sound rude, but you are incorrect. The Yankees have not been in the red for a REALLY long time. Part of that has to do with the YES network, but last year they made about 50 mil profit. FYI- they have made THE most profit every year for the past 6 years.

Forbes: Yankees top franchise, but lost money - The Honolulu Advertiser - Hawaii's Newspaper (http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2007/Apr/19/br/br6203579481.html)

New York Yankees, Baseball Team Valuations - Forbes.com (http://www.forbes.com/lists/2006/33/334613.html)