It's days like this that make you realize how flawed MLB is... how bleak the future might be

[Punchandjudy]

I don't know if they "had" to as much as it was a business decision to kick the can down the road.  Maybe they read the tea leaves and see that inflation is coming?  That is to say that there is no inflation now when I go to the pump and pay $1 more for gas than I did a few months ago...

[Mondo Trasho]

I have not seen any compelling evidence that salary caps make for more competitive leagues. The NBA has a salary cap, yet the past four NBA Finals have featured the same two teams.

[sportsfan8703]

46 minutes ago, Punchandjudy said:

The little room for error financially, I have a bit of a problem with that statement.  Obviously, the team has made money especially the last few years owning a network that has the broadcasting rights for not only the organization's team, but another team as well.  Also, since ownership bought the club for approximately $260 million (if memory serves me) 25 years ago, the value of the club has at least quadrupled if not gone up 5 or 6 times.  Not often you see returns in an investment even over time of 400-600%.  How does that not impact a team's operating budget?  Finally, spending money directly corresponds to making money in a business like baseball as spending money impacts wins and losses.  So the margin for error seems to be whatever a team is willing to make it.   Double finally, Angelos has done well himself financially.  He could easily step outside of the operating budget, not tap into the team's inherent equity, and still find room to pay some rather large salaries. 

 

With all that being said, I've never seen an operating budget for the team but neither has anyone else on this board.  I simply don't buy that they have tight margins financially. 

You’re sounding like one of those typical “fans”.

[Machado13]

Baseball needs a salary cap for competitive balance. Every other North American sport has a salary cap.

MLB wonders why viewership is down and why baseball is being labeled as a regional sport.

If they don’t want to get with the modern/current times, then just relegate every team to AAA and have MLB comprised of the Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers and Cubs.

Im sure the ratings in those cities will mask the underlying problem.

[O-Arm36]

4 hours ago, theocean said:

MLB has pretty good parity for the most part. The O's issues over the last twenty years have been related more to poor management than anything. MLB isn't like the Premier League of English Football or something where only the top teams have a shot and something like Leicester City's win is incredibly rare.

I take solace in the fact that the worst team in baseball has a much clearer path to title contention than maybe the 5th best team in the NBA. 

[Punchandjudy]

4 hours ago, sportsfan8703 said:

You’re sounding like one of those typical “fans”.

Um okay...I explained my position so I guess I’m a “typical fan.”

[ORIOLE33]

4 hours ago, Mondo Trasho said:

I have not seen any compelling evidence that salary caps make for more competitive leagues. The NBA has a salary cap, yet the past four NBA Finals have featured the same two teams.

The NBA has a soft salary cap. Plus comparing the NBA to MLB is comparing apples to oranges. 

[Machado13]

59 minutes ago, ORIOLE33 said:

The NBA has a soft salary cap. Plus comparing the NBA to MLB is comparing apples to oranges. 

Yup. If you have 2 of the top 8 players, you basically are a conference final team at a minimum and most likely a championship team. 

Mike Trout being the best player in baseball doesn’t even sniff the playoffs.

[crawjo]

I think the Orioles pretty clearly botched the Machado situation. They could have been aggressive and tried to extend him early in his career, but they didn't. They could have traded him a year ago and got a bigger return. They could have avoided giving away more than $20 million a season to the worst player in baseball. They screwed it up. As it is, given everything that has happened, I am glad the trade was made and hope the rest of the team is dealt so that we can move on to a new era and see new players. IMO, this team has not been fun to watch the last two years or so, not even when they got the second wild card in 2016.

[Chavez Ravine]

9 hours ago, TINSTAAPP said:

They could have locked up Manny for a Mike Trout-like deal (6 years, $144 million) after the 2015 season. Instead, the Orioles ended up giving that money to Chris Davis. That's not a MLB problem. That's a bad ownership/front office problem. 

The Angels were gifted with both a generational player and one with a slightly off kilter mindset. And even then they may have screwed the pooch:

 

• Quote

  [Trout] broached an extreme mega deal in talks (14 or 15 years, according to people familiar with those talks) before word came back that Angels owner Arte Moreno decided not to go for the lifetime deal for the two-year superstar, but hardly anyone's repeating that strategy. It's no certainty they would have been able to work it out the super mega deal, anyway, as Trout seemed pleased at the middle ground of six. But it was quite an interesting thought put forth by Trout's side.

  https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/mike-trout-reportedly-sought-a-lifetime-deal-with-angels-before-signing-extension/

[ORIOLE33]

Speaking of Trout. Why don’t we ever hear rumors of the Angels trading him?

[Mondo Trasho]

12 hours ago, ORIOLE33 said:

The NBA has a soft salary cap. Plus comparing the NBA to MLB is comparing apples to oranges. 

We can compare the NFL too if we want. The NFL has been no more competitive than the MLB over the past 15 years.

[ORIOLE33]

Oh yes it has. The NFL has a hard salary cap and small markets can compete AND keep their stars long term. 

[Mondo Trasho]

1 hour ago, ORIOLE33 said:

Oh yes it has. The NFL has a hard salary cap and small markets can compete AND keep their stars long term. 

No it hasn't. Over the past 15 seasons the NFL has had 10 teams win a Super Bowl (Patriots, Steelers, Colts, Giants, Saints, Packers, Ravens, Seahawks, Broncos, and Eagles). The MLB has had 10 different teams win a WS in the same number of seasons (Marlins, Red Sox, White Sox, Cardinals, Phillies, Yankees, Giants, Royals, Cubs, and Astros).

You can't compare playoff appearances, especially when the NFL plays 16 games (smaller sample size leads to randomness playing a bigger role in outcomes), has single elimination playoffs, four divisions instead of three in each conference, and up until 2012 the MLB only had 8 teams in the playoffs.

[Mondo Trasho]

Also, from 2003-2017 (15 seasons), 15 NFL franchises made it to the Super Bowl, while 17 MLB franchises made it to the WS.

Looking at a salary cap and saying "the NFL is more competitive" is not accurate. It ignores the role of roster management, sample size, guaranteed vs non-guaranteed contracts, etc.

For example, it's a lot easier for an average team to find a way to win 10 or 11 games out of 16, than it is for an average team to win 90+ games out of 162. This is just reality.