Gammons on parity

[sonny]

Finished reading on ESPN an article by Peter Gammons how he and Bud Selig are claiming the equivalence in baseball to the NFL's success with parity. My question-when will the Orioles benifit from this so called parity? There's no parity in the AL East.

[OregonBird]

Gammons' idea of parity is when someone other than the Yankees wins the World Series.

He is, has been, and always will be a Red Sox homer.

[Cokeman]

Gammons' idea of parity is when someone other than the Yankees wins the World Series.

He is, has been, and always will be a Red Sox homer.

And a Hall of Famer...

[ledzepp8]

The only parity in MLB is the fact that there's usually a different team that wins the WS every year. And that's really only because the playoffs are such a crapshoot. BUt it's not parity when the same teams are the ones in the hunt for the playoffs every year.

AL East: Yankees and Red Sox

AL Central: Twins, Tigers(now), White Sox

AL West: A's and Angels

NL East: Mets, Marlins and Braves

NL Central: Cards and Astros

NL West: This is really the only division with any sort of parity because it's so crappy, especially when the division winner is usually barely over 500.

Again, I don't see this so called parity that Gammons and Selig see.

[Sports Guy]

The only parity in MLB is the fact that there's usually a different team that wins the WS every year. And that's really only because the playoffs are such a crapshoot. BUt it's not parity when the same teams are the ones in the hunt for the playoffs every year.

AL East: Yankees and Red Sox

AL Central: Twins, Tigers(now), White Sox

AL West: A's and Angels

NL East: Mets, Marlins and Braves

NL Central: Cards and Astros

NL West: This is really the only division with any sort of parity because it's so crappy, especially when the division winner is usually barely over 500.

Again, I don't see this so called parity that Gammons and Selig see.

You just listed half the teams in the league with a chance to make the playoffs...You also left off Cleveland who will be back..Texas and Seattle could make noise as well.

Toronto finished second in the AL East this year.

There is alot of parity in baseball.

[geschinger]

MLB wants people to think there is parity so it doesn't have to tackle the issue of revenue disparities. Barring sudden incompetence from a competent Brian Cashman, the Yankees will be in the playoffs ever year. Therefore "parity" is a myth.

[geschinger]

There is alot of parity in baseball.

Only if you exclude the AL East from the discussion.

[Sports Guy]

Only if you exclude the AL East from the discussion.

Whatever...3 teams in the East can contend with the Yanks(Boston always has and Toronto and us could, if things are done correctly) and really, who cares if you wint he division or not? 8 WC teams have now made the WS.

I am so tired of this "we can't beat NY" mentality...It is a joke.

[geschinger]

Whatever...3 teams in the East can contend with the Yanks(Boston always has and Toronto and us could, if things are done correctly) and really, who cares if you wint he division or not? 8 WC teams have now made the WS.

I am so tired of this "we can't beat NY" mentality...It is a joke.

The wild card makes the situation far from hopeless. However if Steinbrenner realizes meddling is not the way to go and lets his front office allocate $200m a year in payroll the way they see fit they will always be in the playoffs.

[Cornbread]

There is plenty of parity in baseball....but if you make bads signings or no signings and depend on the Rodrigo Lopezes and Bruce Chens, then there's no way you're going to benefit. That said, I think if the front office make some smart moves over the next offseason or two and the young pitching develops as we hope, they could benefit from the parity. I can only hope.

[xKHx]

Baseball is the only sport pariety hurts money. For instance, there are more yankee fans in every state then any other club because they market thier team and the history. So if you knock them out of the playoffs a portion of there fans won't rush to watch it. Same with the Red Sox. Baseball will see a down trend of watchers of the world series if it is the tigers vs St louis, because of the teams. Now if it happens to pan out where this is the most watched world series because one of the same two teams is not in it then maybe baseball will look closer at the matter.

[2632]

Yes, we are at a geographical/divisional disadvantage, but we can't blame 9 years of losing only on that. We suck because we have had a bad owner and bad GM/FO for years. If we had Billy Beane as our GM or John Henry as our owner, we'd be able to make noise in this division. 10 years ago, we were not considered a small budget team. We had money, we just spent it on guys like Albert Belle.

I don't care how much money you have, if you really have the right people in charge of the team, you can compete.

[Say O!]

Yes there is parity. But look at the payrolls of the playoff teams.

Gammons quote:

These are different times. Of the top 13 payrolls, only the Mets (fifth, $101M) have more than one postseason win; the Yankees (first, $199M) have one. The Tigers were 14th at $82M, Oakland 21st at $62M, the Cardinals 13th at $87M, which means that four of the top 17 payrolls made it to the postseason, three of the top 10, and only one of those, the Mets, are in the final four.

Revenue sharing has also given some more $$$ to the mid-tier teams who vow increased spending this offseason. For the O's to be middle of the pack next season, they need at least a $85-90 million payroll.

[scrubs83]

smarter/better decisions equals parity in the AL East

[ledzepp8]

You just listed half the teams in the league with a chance to make the playoffs...You also left off Cleveland who will be back..Texas and Seattle could make noise as well.

Toronto finished second in the AL East this year.

There is alot of parity in baseball.

Sorry I don't see the parity. In the AL since 2002, the A's, Angels, BoSox, Tigers, Twins, WSox and Yankees have been the only teams in the playoffs.

The Yankees have won ten straight division titles.

The Twins have won four of the last 5 AL Central titles, the Red Sox have won three of the last 5 WCs.

Up until this year the Braves won 15 straight division titles. The A's have been to the playoffs five of the last seven years.

The Angels have been to the playoffs three of the last five years. The

Cardinals have been to the playoffs six of the last seven years.

Where's the parity? It's the same teams in the playoffs every year.