OnlyBucs

mouse wrote: ↑Mon Oct 14, 2024 5:10 pm Here's an interesting article we might all agree with - https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/mlb/do ... 1995&ei=46

The author suggests penalizing small market teams for sitting on funds rather than spending them on payroll. The Pirates make an appearance.

The author is exactly right: the small market teams, Nutting being the prime culprit here, are using the larger markets to make their profits. The big market teams are willing to trade that money for two reasons: the small market teams make for easy competition in the race to make the playoffs, and the small market teams serve as schedule fillers for the big market teams. All 30 owners win with this arrangement, but fans in almost half of the markets rarely have the chance to see their team reach the postseason.

The author suggested that a salary floor be within 10% of the luxury tax ($213 million this year). It might be asking too much of a handful of franchises to meet that obligation. But more importantly, the floor shouldn’t be that high. Rather, make the floor lower, like $150 million because it would take away the ability of the larger markets to sign all of the best players. This would allow all the franchise to compete for players because the players would have to spread themselves out. They all couldn’t play in NY, Boston, Philly, Atlanta, Chicago, and LA. This would help to insure competitive balance and still allow for all the teams to make a profit.

It kills me that Nutting can collect all this money and never have to do anything with it in order to be competitive.

I can't see MLB doing it, but it would be nice to see a system where the owner profits by number of fans attending (as opposed to the MLB handout). Give a lot more incentive to put a good product on the field.

Just watched the American League Playoff game, and that excitement in Cleveland was something. It is a darn shame that our owner is such a penny pincher that we cannot have that excitement in Pittsburgh. I have mentioned it before, and I will say it again I think his ultimate goal is to move the team from Pittsburgh when the lease is up at PNC Park in 2030. What a rotten individual if that is his future plan.