The Yankees are the richest team in baseball if not in all sports. No discussion of excessive spending can be limited anymore to the Yankees.... one must include Boston and the Mets as well. Of course, and this is the annual disclaimer I am forced to restate several times per year, none of these teams are breaking any rules. One could argue that any franchise in this day and age that can only afford a payroll of $20 mil peryear is undercapitalized and quite possibly mismanaged and should not be in the baseball business to begin with. A little dose of reality in sea of emotion :wink:
I have a question for you guys. Is there a left handed 2nd baseman, shortstop or 3rd baseman in MLB? I assume that there might not be if for no other reason than they would take a fraction longer to get their throws off to 1st base, right?
Nice avatar, Joel. I am a lefty who began my organized baseball career as an 8 yr. old SS on my Cub Scout softball team. I don't believe that there is a lefty SS, 2B, or 3B in professional baseball. If there was, in this age of internet news travel, I'm sure we would have heard about it. Perhaps someone can prove me wrong, but I doubt it.
Just catching up on a few posts in this thread. Terry, I did see that article on Leyland last weekend. I'm sure that it didnt' make any Wolverweasle or Spartan fans happy. As to the Marlins having the best pitching staff in baseball, we'll see. The Tigers have a glut of good young arms. This lanky lefty Miller reminds me of the Big Unit. With Bonderman, Verlander and Rogers you got some tough starting staff.
I had a jar of the Peter Pan with the 21111 on the top...hadn't been opened either!! Lucky I guess. I'm going to stick with JIF!!
Sorry for the late reply, but to help put things in perspective, the average team salary on opening day last season was $80MM. The Yankees' team salary was $200MM. The Sox were next closest at $120MM. The difference between the two was the average team salary, so lumping the five teams with payrolls of $100MM and higher with the Yankees is specious. Not surprisingly, of these big spenders - Yankees, Red Sox, Angels, White Sox, Mets - three have won a World Series title in the last five years. Personally, I would like to see a cap set, beyond which no team may go. Set one threshold for revenue sharing, and another that is the final limit.
It's not me that needs to do it, George. The commissioner and owners need to, and the MLBPA needs to agree to it, for the long-term good of baseball.