Aaaannnd the Yankees... win

[Mad Mark]

It works for my wife..

It works for all of our wives, partners, girlfriends...

[geschinger]

We want what the Yankees have, let's be honest. We wanted Tex. We want a large payroll. We want to be a desirable place for high priced free agents.

Some of us do, personally I don't. What I want is a system where we don't have to talk about payrolls and finance and instead we can focus on the players in the game. I want what the Yankees had in the mid/late 90s and I think the O's are capable of that. I don't want a large payroll (in the short run) I don't care if Baltimore is a desireable place for high priced free agents. I want to see the Orioles develop star players and keep the star players they develop.

The NFL system and is superior to MLB and I'd like to see MLB get to the point where baseballl moves could be the thing we talk about in the offseason rather than discussions dominated by finance. I'm a fan of one of the smallest market football teams and they can have the best player in the game and there is no fear of the team having to trade him because they can't afford him or because a larger market can offer him the moon, Mars and Jupiter. Baseball needs to get to that point.

[ledzepp8]

Easily, I'm sure.

I wouldn't call him ugly, just annoying as hell to watch talk. He's got one of those faces that just drives me nuts.

Yeah I kind of thought better about that after I posted. I suppose he's not ugly but he's just got that annoying Papelbon type face...you just wanna like crush him in the face.

[DrungoHazewood]

Some of us do, personally I don't. What I want is a system where we don't have to talk about payrolls and finance and instead we can focus on the players in the game. I want what the Yankees had in the mid/late 90s and I think the O's are capable of that. I don't want a large payroll (in the short run) I don't care if Baltimore is a desireable place for high priced free agents. I want to see the Orioles develop star players and keep the star players they develop.

The NFL system and is superior to MLB and I'd like to see MLB get to the point where baseballl moves could be the thing we talk about in the offseason rather than discussions dominated by finance. I'm a fan of one of the smallest market football teams and they can have the best player in the game and there is no fear of the team having to trade him because they can't afford him or because a larger market can offer him the moon, Mars and Jupiter. Baseball needs to get to that point.

I'll admit not having any great knowledge of the NFL or its financial system, but isn't it common to have to release players to fit under the salary cap? And isn't it also common for small-market teams to have trouble meeting the salary minimums, since they're based on average revenues and teams like the Redskins and Cowboys have much higher revenues than, say, the Chargers? Isn't that one of the reasons the league is considering going capless when the current CBA runs out?

And you can't compare the NFL to MLB when they have a broken, ineffective union, while baseball has the strongest, most cohesive union in sports because of a century of ownership abuse.

It's also apples-to-oranges when the NFL doesn't have a minor league system. You can have a completely different model when the last guy cut in training camp is a free agent, while every MLB team has 200+ extra players under contract. There are dozens of guys in AAA who're good as lots of major leaguers, but they all belong to somebody. In the NFL it's possible to cut your kicker today, and by Thursday you have a better one for free. It's fine to argue that the NFL system is "better" but that's like saying Taiwan has a better health system than the US. It's probably true, but it's mostly irrelevant. One system simply can't be implemented in the other organization.

[geschinger]

I'll admit not having any great knowledge of the NFL or its financial system, but isn't it common to have to release players to fit under the salary cap? And isn't it also common for small-market teams to have trouble meeting the salary minimums, since they're based on average revenues and teams like the Redskins and Cowboys have much higher revenues than, say, the Chargers? Isn't that one of the reasons the league is considering going capless when the current CBA runs out?

That may be happening and may be a reason there is CBA issues for the league going forward. I think the smaller market owners may start to be hurt if they don't implement revenue sharing on some of the new streams of income coming into the league. But from a revenue perspective today, a team like the Colts can afford, keep and win with players like Peyton Manning. If a team like the Pirates or Royals developed a baseball equivalent there is no way they'd be able to keep him strictly due to payroll.

And you can't compare the NFL to MLB when they have a broken, ineffective union, while baseball has the strongest, most cohesive union in sports because of a century of ownership abuse..

The Goldilocks situation. The MLBPA is way too powerful, the NFL union is broken. Both sports might be better served if the power of the respective unions drifted towards more of an equilibrium.

It's also apples-to-oranges when the NFL doesn't have a minor league system. You can have a completely different model when the last guy cut in training camp is a free agent, while every MLB team has 200+ extra players under contract. There are dozens of guys in AAA who're good as lots of major leaguers, but they all belong to somebody. In the NFL it's possible to cut your kicker today, and by Thursday you have a better one for free. It's fine to argue that the NFL system is "better" but that's like saying Taiwan has a better health system than the US. It's probably true, but it's mostly irrelevant. One system simply can't be implemented in the other organization.

All those points are correct and I probably was way to broad. When I say the NFL system I'm really refering to their revenue sharing scheme. It is apples and oranges in that the NFL doesn't have local media but I do think a large percentage of the issue w/MLB could be solved if MLB applied and NFL style revenue sharing policy that applied to all media revenues leaguewide.

[RShack]

The MLBPA is way too powerful...

There is no reason to believe this claim. None. This is just your bias. You could just as well say the owners are way too powerful.

Frankly, there's more reason to believe the latter statement.

If the union is too powerful, how come we have a Commissioner who pimps for the owners and fails to factor in union concerns?

If the union is too powerful, how come rosters don't have room for 27 or 28 guys?

If the union is too powerful, how come there's not more revenue sharing to permit more teams to have mega-payroll?

If the union is too powerful, how come they haven't lifted a finger to expand their rights, instead of just holding on to the ones they have?

[DrungoHazewood]

The MLBPA is way too powerful, the NFL union is broken. Both sports might be better served if the power of the respective unions drifted towards more of an equilibrium.

As shack said, or implied, this is a matter of perspective and preference. There's no objective standard to measure how powerful a union or a group of owners should be. When there are long lines of players, owners, and fans waiting to get into the game I think that's some kind of proof there's a decent balance.

This is another case where I think that competition might fix most of the issues at hand. If there were multiple high-level baseball leagues in the world (or the country) nobody could have too much power. And maybe the international baseball federation would have some teeth, like FIFA. And could look out for the interests of the game and the fans. The one thing I am sure of is that Major League Baseball has too much power.