2019 MLB postseason thread

MLB Salaries - MLB Baseball - USA TODAY

For those who like to talk payroll only when it is about a team with a low one making the playoffs, I will take this moment to point out that all four teams in the league championship series were among the top 10 in payroll this year. The World Series will be the No. 3 Nationals against the No. 8 Astros.

The Rays were a nice anomaly. They also found themselves undermanned against the Astros.

 

If you want good players, you have to, you know, pay them. At this point, how many teams are playing in stadiums that weren't supported by tons of taxpayer dollars, or owned by billionaires? I don't think the system is inherently impossible, and I'm not sure how to make it more "fair" unless you just want small markets to not have teams. They already get revenue sharing money (that most of the shitty owners just pocket).

 

Was watching end of game at outdoor bar in financial district of NYC last night. I was good and lubed and definitely whooped a bit too loud when Altuve went yard. Decided after many death stares that it was high time to leave. Hate the Yankees

 

If you can draft well and get those guys to the majors quickly with relatively low salaries, you can definitely compete. Hell, the Yankees were paying Jeter a pretty small salary for years before they gave him the huge contract. That allowed them to spend elsewhere.

 

For all the Dodgers payroll, their core is on minimal salaries. Bellinger, Seager, Muncy, Pederson, Buehler and their key role guys are still under team control, although arbitration will get some paid next season.

 

Case in point

 

That is why I've been calling for a floor for a long time.

 

Their extremely-high revenue stream allowed them to spend elsewhere. The Yankees can always spend what they want. The lower revenue teams can certainly spend more, too, but they would be losing money if they try to spend with the big boys.

Revenue sharing has made things much better, but the system still heavily favors the high-revenue franchises.

 

Not as much as people think. Five of the 10 playoff teams this year had payrolls that were below the league average, including three between 21 and 32: Atlanta, Oakland and Tampa Bay.

Major League Baseball Team Payrolls 1998-2019

 

Having drafted well and having their core under team control has allowed to Dodgers to take on dead money to get other pieces. Taking Homer Bailey’s contract allowed them to move Kemp’s and get two prospects.

Smaller market teams can’t afford those types of deals.

 

You remember when all these teams built new stadiums with the promise that once they were built, THEN the teams would have the revenue to compete with the big boys.
A total con job. It would be nice if local governments included language in their contracts that required the team to fork over a million after any season they don't win 40 percent of their games. Give it local youth sports groups or something.

 

They absolutely can, but the billionaire owner doesn't want to. Like for all of this shit now, the TV contracts and revenue sharing basically insulate the owners from ever really losing money. And the problem of teams being not competitive year after year? It almost always stems from the owner, and not the money. Like the Rays weren't competitive for years, until they had a change in ownership group, the Red Sox only had brief bits of success until they changed owners in the late 90s, the Dodgers improved once they moved on from FOX and McCourt, and so on. Being in a bigger market and making more money can help a team, but it's not a guarantee.