2012 MLB Regular Season Running Thread

On Aug. 15, the Brewers were 12 games under .500, 15 1/2 out of the Wild Card, 12 behind Pittsburgh, and just five games ahead of the sad sack Cubs.

On Sept. 5, the Brewers are just two games under .500, 6 1/2 out of the Wild Card and just five games behind the Pirates and 16 ahead of the Cubs.

Holy living fuck ... I'm getting a bit pumped. If the Brewers can do anything with a three-game series against the Cardinals this weekend, this shit is about to get real.

 

Funny, the salary floor is what is killing small market teams in the NHL. I really believe a punitive luxury tax is the way to go. The salarycap in the NHL has been a god send to the average player who gets overpaid by teams to simply get to the floor. In reality it is the stars that are actually underpaid.

It is simply dishonest to say teams such as the Yankees don't have an advantage, of course they do, but I think the NFL is the only league that can truly have a proper cap. The Yankees pay a shitload in luxury tax and baseball is as healthy as it has been in decades.

The NFL is as close to the perfect storm as you can get, I don't think it translates to other sports.

 

No one gives a fuck about your fantasy team.

 

Well, nothing happened ... and I doubt anything will happen when they meet next. Why risk a suspension down the stretch, just to preserve "the code."

 

Why can't MLB have a real cap (and floor)? I get why MLB can't have revenue sharing like the NFL does, but that seems to make a floor and cap more important, not less.

I'm not saying you put the floor so high the small markets can't reach it, but we've seen examples of teams going insanely low because they can.

 

There's no reason to think the game needs an overhaul. The Royals and A's are owned by billionaires -- they have all the money they need to compete.

Go look up the economics lesson I gave you at the start of the year. MLB has plenty of revenue sharing. The Yankees pay roughly $150 million a year.

 

Jetes went 3-5 tonight to help move the Yankees back into first place. He is now only 11 points behind Trout for the AL batting title.

 

Wrong again, MankyJeterpeterslurp. Cabrera at .330156, Trout .329764. Jeter .318739.

 

So Trout's not even first anymore. Wasn't he batting .360 a month ago? Pretty steep drop. Cabrera has to be considered the favorite to win but if Jeter wins the batting title he will win the MVP.

 

And Cabrera is just three homers short of the Triple Crown right now.

 

Never really thought about it (or him) before, but it just dawned on me tonight that Miguel Cabrera's going to the Hall of Fame.

 

So you are comfortable with certain teams being able to buy a World Series while most can't and you don't care about a level playing field. Adrian Gonzalez became available after the trade deadline this year. All a team had to do was take on a ton of salary to have a shot. You think the Pirates or Rays had an equal shot there?

And spare me the crap about the "lesson." I was having trouble finding an article that included all of it and showed you one of the many examples I found that didn't. You twisted that to try to make a point rather than acknowledge that it STILL doesn't adequately deal with the built-in advantage the larger markets have or the problem of some franchises failing to even try for large stretches of time (The Marlins have done it for periods of time. The Pirates almost always do it).

The personal wealth of the owners is a terrible argument that the baseball apologists love. You act as if owners in small markets should be willing to lose money every year so they can spend with the bigger markets. That is an unfair and unrealistic expectation.

Edit: Forgot something. You still didn't answer the question I raised with JC. He insists that the NFL is the only major sport that can have a proper cap. You are simply arguing that it doesn't need one. That doesn't explain why it can't have one.

I'm not sure that a cap and floor would help baseball's overall financial health. I don't think those things would hurt, either. That isn't the point. They would provide a more level playing field in the actual games and improve the perception of competitive balance in the game, which I don't think matches the reality.