bobby jr

Good luck to the Sox from this Orioles fan. Who wants to see a Cleveland-Rockies series? THat would be a real snoozer. Benching Crisp seems to be a good move, he looks absolutely lost at the plate. I hope Schilling can come back and have a good game tonight.

It seems some fans and writiers up in Toronto are getting fed up too, and want a salary cap sooner rather than later. Toronto attendance has gone from averaging over 50000 per game, to the low 20's at present. Here is the link and some excerpts. http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Baseball/MLB/2006/08/24/1773391-sun.html Luxury Tax Not Working "....To take it even further, what ails the Blue Jays is not just Toronto's problem, but baseball's problem. The Jays jacked up their payroll by nearly 40% this year, from $50 million US to more than $71 million. It was a big step up for this team's ownership, which has lost a ton of money over the years. Unfortunately, in the pursuit of competitive balance within the American League East, that increased spending by Toronto is only a drop in the bucket. This is a division in which the two biggest spenders in baseball -- the Yankees and the Red Sox -- reside and, until Major League Baseball is able to figure out a way to put a punitive muzzle on the free-spending ways of those two rich franchises, the other teams that exist in the AL East have no real possibility of rewarding or growing their fan base. And any team that has no way of rewarding its fans, even occasionally, is courting disaster..."

The Yankees may not have won since 2000 but they are in the playoffs every year, and Giambi, A-Rod and Mussina have helped put them there. If they keep getting an automatic tickets to the playoffs they will win their share of World Series in the future. Plus it isn't fair for the other teams in the AL East, or their fans, to see the Damn Yankees buy their way into the post season for decades at a time.

So much for his chances of winning 20 games. Still has never done it, along with no perfect games, no no-hitters, no World Series rings, no Cy Young award...Funny how the Yankees stopped winning the World Series when he arrived. The Mussina jinx?

And getting back to the original point of this thread, the Yankees did very poorly when there was a level playing field during the years 1966-75. I believe their organization is so used to having huge advantages that they could not compete if the playing field were leveled with the other teams. At least not for several years. I believe that if there is a salary cap imposed, it is quite possible the Yankees would replace the D Rays in the basement of the AL East.

Your points are well taken. The Yankees not only can buy free agents, they have enough money to keep almost all of their own players from becoming free agents. (Plus they can buy the international stars too under the current system). Imagine the team the Oakland A's would have if they could have kept their home grown talent. They would have been the dominant team of the last decade, not the Yankees.

I beg to differ, the Sox would be greatly helped by a cap because it would create fair competition in the AL East, as it is the Sox generally have to hope for a wild card at best. Before free agency started, the Sox were better than the Yankees for a 10 year period. This is impossible under the current system, even if the Sox did somehow beat the Yankees for 1 year the Yankees would win the AL East the next 9. I don't see how the Yankees being guaranteed a playoff berth every year is All-American. If anything it seems to me like a monopoly like Standard Oil. Anyway it makes baseball into a joke when a team can buy their way into the playoffs for eternity.

Due to the addition of an additional round of playoffs, MLB will continue to have different teams win the World Series. This is simply because in baseball, a team with inferior talent can easily win a short post season series. The more relevant question is whether it is fair for the Yankees to buy their way into the playoffs for eternity, and the rest of the AL East teams to be at a competitive disadvantage for eternity. 12 years in a row of seeing the New York Yankees in the playoffs is more than enough. The Red Sox are not hurt as much as some other smaller market teams are. The Red Sox can afford a relatively big payroll. However under the present system the Red Sox will always be at a huge competitive disadvantage to they Yankees, because their revenues will never equal those of the Yankees. The Red Sox fared far better before free agency. I am old enough to remember The Impossible Dream team of 1967, the great AL East pennant race of 1974 involving the Red Sox, and the great World Series of 1975 when Carlon Fisk hit that dramatic home run. The Orioles also had great years before free agency, the great O's teams of Frank and Brooks Robinson, Palmer, Cuellar, McNally, 3 World Series appearences in a row, 69-71. Baseball was great in those years, before free agency and Yankee domination ruined it, for me at least. I no longer attend any Orioles games at all. The system is broken but as long as fans continue to support a corrupt and bankrupt system which so favors the biggest revenue teams, the Yankees (and now the Mets too) MLB has little financial incentive to change the ridiculous system which exists. If enough fans from the smaller market teams simply stop attending games, MLB will be forced to change the system to give all teams a fair chance.

Well of course it is possible to spend money unwisely. There are occassionally exceptions to the general rule that money = winning in baseball. This does not change the fact that there is a strong correlation between payroll and winning percentage in MLB. And the economics have changed since 2000,, payroll is even more important now than 8 years ago. I would be for a salary floor in addition to the salary cap. However the salary cap is much more important. Or else the NY Yankees will make the playoffs 50 years in row. And the Mets are now starting to dominate too, as money becomes ever more important in winning.

Now some of you may think this is ancient history. But as an Oriole fan, I am sick of seeing the New York Yankees in the playoffs every year, based upon an unfair and biased system which now exists, and which existed before 1965 too. The Yankees domination is based upon their economic advantages. When they didn't have the advantages, when there was a fair playing field, both the Red Sox and Orioles were superior to the Yankees. Now baseball needs to fix the system and return to a balanced playing field. I believe a salary cap is absolutely necessary, to return to the days when every team, even the smaller market teams, had a fair chance. Like they did in 1966-75.

Most baseball fans realize that today, the NY Yankees enjoy a huge competitive advantage because of their superior revenues. Starting with the advent of free agency in 1976, the Yankees have bought their choice of free agents starting with Catfish Hunter and ending with Johnny D. The economics of baseball are such that there is no end in sight of the Yankees domination of the AL East. This will be their 12th consecutive year in the playoffs. Today, it is more important than ever to have a huge payroll to win on the field, even more today than 10 years ago. However many fans do not realize that prior to 1965, the Yankees enjoyed a similar advantage, because prior to the free agent draft, they used their superior revenues and signed the best prospects. The Yankees fought against the draft, as the following references will show, the draft was instituted to level the playing field. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MLB_Draft "The draft started in 1965. Prior to this, teams were free to sign any amateur player to a professional contract; this system favored large budget, perrenially successful clubs in the scramble for the best talent among, usually, graduating high school players. After a system wherein teams paying large signing bonuses to draftees were compelled to keep the draftees on major league rosters for a certain amount of time (one to two years) proved unsuccessful, Major League Baseball instituted the draft over the strong objections of many historically successful clubs, in particular the New York Yankees. " http://baseball.about.com/od/newsnot...raftprimer.htm "Baseball held its first Draft in June 1965. The original name was Amateur Free-Agent Draft, but it was changed in 1998 to First-Year Draft. Before the Draft was instituted, any team could sign any amateur player. Needless to say, big-budget franchises like the Yankees had an advantage, and baseball wanted to level the playing field" (End of quotations) So now let's look at the brief period when true, fair competition existed in MLB. I took the year after the draft started, 1966, and ended with 1975, as free agency started in 1976. During the 10 year period 1966-1976, the Boston Red Sox had 862 wins, and the New York Yankees had 811 wins. Therefore the Red Sox averaged 86.2 wins per year and the Yankees averaged 81.1 wins per season. The Red Sox finished an average of more than five games per season ahead of the Yankees during the 1966-75 period of fair competition in the AL East.

I've always liked the Red Sox, I'd much rather see them win than the Yankees. But it does bother me that the Sox payroll is now second behind the Yankees. As for the logistics of it, I'd leave that up to the experts, I'd like to see it modeled after the NFL salary cap system which has been a success. I do think there should be a salary floor too, to keep owners from just pocketing the revenue sharing money as I have heard the Royal's owner has done.

Just a fancy way of saying that if the teams keep playing at their present rate, that will be their record at the end of the year. It amazes me that MLB fans can accept the reality of the Yankees being in the playoffs every year with the top payroll. The Orioles (I'm from Baltimore) have little chance of ever making the playoffs with the Yankees and Red Sox being two of the top spenders. What would work would be a NFL type of system, with each team limited to a set payroll amount. What isn't working is the Yankees buying their way into the playoffs for 12 straight years and no end in sight.

To illustrate why I think a cap is absolutely necessary, I pulled up the following stats. To show the strong correlation between payroll and on the field performance. From the statistics which follow, it is obvious that there is a lack of fair competiton in baseball. (And the argument that certain owners don't pump money into their teams isn't really valid. Even if KC and Pittsburgh owners' went bankrupt trying to up their payroll, they could not compete with the Yankees, the Red Sox, ,or the Mets.) First I looked at the payroll of the top five teams, and the bottom five teams, in terms of their total team payroll: http://asp.usatoday.com/sports/baseb...aspx?year=2006 New York Yankees $ 194,663,079 Boston Red Sox $ 120,099,824 Los Angeles Angels $ 103,472,000 Chicago White Sox $ 102,750,667 New York Mets $ 101,084,963 And now, the bottom five Kansas City Royals $ 47,294,000 Pittsburgh Pirates $ 46,717,750 Colorado Rockies $ 41,233,000 Tampa Bay Devil Rays $ 35,417,967 Florida Marlins $ 14,998,500 Then I extrapolated each team's current winning percentage to a 162 game season. NYY .606 98-64 Bost .586 95-67 LAA .522 85-77 CWS .595 96-66 NYM .604 98-64 Now the bottom 5 KC .348 56-106 PIT .372 60-102 CO .485 78-84 TB .412 66-96 FL .464 75-87 The top 5 teams in payroll are going at a pace to win an average of 94 games each. The bottom 5 teams in payroll are at a pace to average 67 wins each. At the current pace, the top 5 teams will finish an average of 27 games ahead.

My theory is that Mussina's attitude and presence brought down the rest of the Orioles (and the Yankees after he joined them). It isn't that he didn't try his hardest, he tried too hard. And he brought down his teammates, they were less loose, less able to respond well to extreme pressure situations. Such as the 9th inning of game 7 in 2001, or being unable to put Boston away two years ago even when they had a 3-0 lead.

True but with Texas the teams were so lousy that you can't really blame him for their losing. Their pitching staff was so bad they didn't come close to making the playoffs. He has not done well in the post season, so it could be that he does choke, but it is a little too soon to tell for sure.

I think it is possible that Mussina's uptight attitude and his highly analytical approach are the very opposite of what is needed in big games. And that having such a player on a team, well his teammates absorb some of his attitude, just by observation. It's the opposite of having a happy go lucky guy like Kirby Puckett who helped the Twins rise to the moment. Now when Mussina was with the O's we never could win the big playoff games. We lost crucial 1-0 and 2-1 games. When we did score runs we would lose 9-7. And when Mussina pitched a shutout the O's would not score any runs and end up losing 1-0 in extra innings. It is just too much of a coincidence that when he went to the Yanks they stopped winning. What had they won, 3 of 4 World Series the year he arrived? And Steinbrenner keeps buying the best players, yet they still cannot win in the postseason.

Perhaps the Mussina jinx has ended the Yankee dynasty. The Orioles had some great teams but lost in the playoffs with him on the team. And he goes to the Yankees and they immediately stop winning. You have to admit that is very strange, perhaps more than a coincidence. He is so uptight, too analytical, and chokes in big moments so often that it spreads to his teammates. Look at what he did last year against the Angels. He was the starting pitcher in the deciding game 5 and he did, no way could he take that kind of pressure. He just doesn't have the psychological makeup to win a deciding game.

That is a shame, too young to pass away. He could not resist his addictions that was his downfall in his career and may have even cost him his life. Reminds me of Billy Martin.

I hope something good comes from the commission which MLB has set up to study steroids, led by Mitchell. And what I am hoping for is that strict testing will be imposed immediately and that includes blood tests for HGH. However I have my doubts that MLB really wants to catch everyone who is taking steroids or HGH. Because home runs help attendance. And MLB may not want to expose the degree of steroid and HGH use in the sport.

Ken Rosenthal wrote an excellent article about Giambi in the Sporting News last September. The facts really have not changed that much since the article was written. Giambi is still hitting HR's at an astounding rate, and the legitimacy of his comeback is still in question. http://www.sportingnews.com/exclusives/20050914/647659.html "We also don't know whether he still might be using human growth hormone, which is detected only in blood tests, not in the urine samples conducted by Major League Baseball in its steroids testing..... Perhaps Giambi is simply a good guy proving that he can thrive without the juice. That would make his story a traditional baseball myth, nice and clean. .... Alas, Giambi is a confirmed liar. His BALCO testimony contradicted his previous comments; he knows that publicly admitting the use of performance enhancers could allow the Yankees to void the remainder of his seven-year, $120 million contract that will expire in 2008. The best comebacks inspire us. Giambi's makes us cringe. Do not vote for him for Comeback Player of the Year. "

Just out of curiosity I looked up Giambi on baseballreference.com and his page is sponsored with the message "Keith Oberman is right. Have you seen the size of his head? That's a big noggin " http://www.baseball-reference.com/g/giambja01.shtml Giambi was born 01/08/1971 and was 34 years old last season. He hit 32 HR's with 87 RBI. Funny how players today seem to last longer, Dimaggio retired at 36.

26 to 6, I tend to agree that a lot more players are on steroids than the general public believes. I read Canseco's book and he said that it was the general rule rather than an exception when a star players is on steroids. In other works most of them do it. However, this does not make it right, and I think baseball must clean house on this issue, not sweep it under the rug. HGH and designer steroids that can escape the weak testing procedures that currently exist, make it quite possible that many ML players are still "on the juice".

Well Jason Giambi jacked two HR's on Sunday to help the Yankees beat my Orioles. Now when you consider only a year ago he was almost sent to the minor leagues, this man has regained all of his skills even in his mid 30's and he is hitting HR's like he may win MVP again. Now I don't know if Giambi is "back on the juice" or not, but let's face it with his past history some serious questions remain to be answered. How can he be hitting HR's now like he was when he was presumably taking steroids according to leaked grand jury testimony? If he came clean, one would expect his HR totals to diminish. Does this mean the steroids were not helping him hit HR's? Or is there some other explanation? MLB still does not test for Human Growth hormone. I wish that they did. It is a shame that these questions remain, but pretending that they don't exist is not going to get anything solved. Here is an excerpt from a article about a new book the steroid scandal which mentions Giambi http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/03/23/sportsline/main1432306.shtml "Giambi, the 2000 American League MVP when he played with Oakland, developed a relationship with Anderson during a baseball exhibition trip to Japan in 2002, by which time he had signed with the Yankees, the authors wrote. The book said Giambi wanted to learn "what was Anderson doing to keep Bonds playing at so high a level. Could Anderson help Giambi, too?" Giambi later flew to Bay Area and met Anderson at a gym, and that the pair went to the hospital to have Giambi's blood drawn and take a blood and urine sample to BALCO. The book said Giambi tested positive for Deca-Durabolin, and that Anderson advised the slugger he would fail baseball's new drug test, which was starting in the upcoming season. Anderson then started Giambi on a cycle of testosterone, saying the hormone would clear his system before he was tested by the league. Calendars seized by government agents show Giambi took drugs similar to Bonds. " "I have nothing to say. I haven't seen it," Giambi said at New York Yankees camp in Tampa, Fla.

My prayers are with you Sox fan. I've lost a good friend to cancer recently and I'll always regret I put off contacting him one last time until it was too late. Don't give up.