Bud Selig is an idiot

[Menudo]

The biggest problem with baseball is disparity among the large market teams and small market teams, so, what does this idiot do, he takes the one thing that small market teams can do and he takes that away from them as well. This article was written by a poster named "Kipper" on a Pirates forum, and he hits the nail right on the head. Way to go Selig, you made what was already tough for small market teams even tougher.

 

 

MLB Is The Most Backwards Economic Sports Leagues. New CBA Screws Small Market Teams

 

Let's hand it to Bud Selig, he really knows how to screw the small market teams. Since he's been commisioner of MLB he has overseen the biggest economic disparity amongst sports markets in the history of Baseball along with ridiculous competitive advantages for Large Market teams to have the upper hand at being able to annually compete for the Playoffs while Small and Lower mid Market teams have to hope for that 1 rare magical season where the planets align perfectly. It's those types of seasons that crooks like Bud Selig, other large market owners and the MLBPA point towards as claims for the existence of competitive balance in MLB. Never mind that large market teams like the New York Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies and Boston Red Sox compete annually for the playoffs while teams like the Arizona Diamondbacks see a window of opportunity every 4-5 seasons.

 

MLB has been broken for decades as a fair and competitive economic league. Bud Selig can continuously point towards the revenue the league brings in but those revenues aren't don't address the lucrative television and regional population advantages that large market and upper middle market teams have to use on Payroll. Revenue that smaller market teams will never have unless MLB started to have all revenue directly related to the sport added into one gigantic pool, something that Bud Selig and the powerful larger market owners will never allow to happen.

 

There wasn't a single person in North America that believed that this new CBA was going to bring MLB the much needed Salary Cap. There were rumors floating around about a potential Salary Floor that would have imposed similar luxury type taxes to teams who spent below a specific figure ($50 million was the number being floated around)

 

The deal hinged largely on an agreement between the sides on compensation for draft choices. MLB will institute a luxury tax on teams that cross a specific threshold while spending on signing bonuses in the draft. Teams may still hand out massive bonuses, like the ones the Nationals gave to Bryce Harper, Stephen Strasburg, Anthony Rendon, Matt Purke, A.J. Cole and many others. But they will now be penalized, severely. If teams spend 5 percent over their allotted “slot” amount, they must pay a 75 percent tax. Teams that go over slot by 5 to 10 percent must pay a 75 percent tax and lose a first-round pick. Teams that go over slot by 10 to 15 percent must pay a 100 percent tax and lose a first- and second-round pick. Teams that spend more than slot by 15 percent or more must pay a 100 percent tax and lose two first-round picks.

 

In effect, owners will pay less on the draft, and baseball will likely get its wish that the best players are taken in order and help competitive balance. Also, teams may no longer sign drafted players to major league contracts, like the contracts the Nationals gave Strasburg, Harper, Rendon and Purke.

Bending the Pittsburgh Pirates over and raping them of the only competitive advantage that they could have against Large and Upper mid market teams. Teams that have effectively used the Draft as a tool to rebuild and be their hope and prayer of competing in a Free Agent market controlled by large market teams will have to find a new way to survive. ...

 

There's a lot of rightful concern that attaching luxury taxes to signing draft picks will severely kneecap a small market team's ability to build through the draft by attempting to amass as much young talent as possible. Though it won't eliminate that method completely, it will give them a much smaller margin for error as poorer teams will have to budget as carefully as they do with their major-league roster. It'll also give them a smaller pool of talent to draft from as some high school athletes may choose to play baseball in college — or opt for another sport entirely (think Bubba Starling) — if their potential payday is being limited by some sort of slotted value.

 

To give you some idea of what these teams are facing, the Pittsburgh Pirates spent a record $17 million to sign their 2011 draft picks and beef up their farm system. But Maury Brown from Biz of Baseball reports that each team will have a signing bonus pool between $4.5 and $11.5 million — depending on their draft position —to sign their picks. There's no way the Pirates could do something similar in 2012 as it took an estimated $13 million just to sign their top two draft picks in Gerrit Cole and Josh Bell(notes).

 

As Baseball America's Jim Callis notes, 20 teams outspent total slot recommendations by 16 percent or more this year, meaning two-thirds of MLB teams would have paid 100 percent overage penalties and forfeited two future first-round picks. Throw in a new provision that prevents teams from offering major league contracts to draftees, and these changes figure to dramatically alter the way teams do business.

Oh... we aren't done screwing the small market teams. There's more ..

 

Part of the agreement calls for a new "competitive balance lottery." The teams with the smallest revenues and least success will be entered in a drawing for six draft picks sandwiched between the second and third rounds. Teams will also only receive compensation for players lost to free agency — a pick at the end of the first round — if that player was with the team all season long. So the days of a rich contender gaining picks for a deadline pickup are gone.

 

But again, the additional picks do smaller market teams little good if they can't afford the taxes it'll take to sign them.

At this point the collective anuses of every small and lower mid market team has to be sore thanks to Bud Selig, the large market owners and MLBPA.

 

Let's not stop there ..

 

More super twos - More players than ever will be arbitration eligible before obtaining three years of MLB service. This won't stop the annual service time manipulations for top prospects, but it might delay them until later in the summer. The cutoff will now be earlier than ever, which means teams may wait until the end of June before calling top prospects up.

 

Union Head Michael Weiner also cited the change in the draft-pick-compensation structure, which will end the practice of stripping high draft picks from teams that sign free agents, except in the case of elite or near-elite players.

 

 

Listening to Bud Selig spew bull**** line after bull**** line about how this sport has become "great" because of Labor Peace and how bad the sport was in the 1970's and 1980's because of Labor unrest is enough to leave one violent. MLB in the 1970's and 1980's was competitive. You had small market teams like the Pittsburgh Pirates, Cincinnati Reds, Oakland A's, Baltimore Orioles, Minnesota Twins, Kansas City Royals have success and a lot of it along side the New York Yankees, New York Mets, Philadelphia Phillies, Boston Red Sox. It's impossible in today's day and age to ever witness another "Red Machine" or another decade where a small market team could be competitive annually like large market teams. To witness the sort of annual competitiveness that the Pittsburgh Pirates took part in during the 1970's is lost for these next 5 years of this putrid CBA Agreement. Small Market teams simply can't afford to compete, but teams like the New York Yankees have the ability to rip off consecutive Playoff visits by having very little to no restrictions on how much money they throw out to Free Agents. The Boston Red Sox and Philadelphia Phillies have the ability to rip off consecutive playoff visits the same way. Even with the addition of the new Wild Card format, the ability for small and large market competition as it was in the 1970's and 1980's is dead.

 

That's how Bud Selig wants it. That is how the leagues most powerful owners want it and have negotiated it. The MLBPA doesn't care one way or another as long as the revenues that come pouring in to MLB are dispersed to them in a way they view fairly and acceptable (something that the NFL and recently the NBA are and have battled with). Which leads the small market and lower mid market teams scrambling for new ideas and ways that they must perfect in order to have some chance to compete in an unbalanced and unfair economic sport.

 

Today, all of the stooges that worked together on this CBA Deal gathered for a Press Conference to throw out worthless taglines that they know sound good but do nothing to describe this CBA and in a lot of cases are bold face lies. Bud Selig's claim that baseball had problems in the 1970's and 1980's competitively because of Labor unrest was a lie. MLB had problems with regards to labor issues but not with competitiveness. EVP/Labor Relations & Human Resources head Rob Manfred threw out the usual bold faced lies that this agreement was all about "competitive balance" despite nothing being done to curb the disparity between Large and Small Market revenues for payroll while preventing small and lower mid market teams from spending on the Draft.

 

That's not competitive balance.

 

It's furthering the competitive unbalance that MLB has been promoting as they reeap the benefits economically of the large markets. That is preventing small and lower mid market teams, teams that have troubles competing on the field against their larger market counterparts consistently from having similar advantages by way of the draft.

 

I saw this quote and it perfectly described the outcome of this CBA Agreement.

 

Smart teams in non-elite markets could fall further behind

If a team like the Pittsburgh Pirates are unable to draft all of the best talent because some of it were Highschoolers who will now stay out of the Draft or choose another sport. If a team like the Pittsburgh Pirates is penalized for paying premiums for talent that they don't have to compete against the larger markets for, competition that they would never be able to compete in to begin with, then how does a team like the Pittsburgh Pirates survive?

 

Sure, the draft is a crapshoot, but it was the lone crapshoot that some of these teams have. Performed well, the Draft itself has produced playoff competitng and Super Bowl winning teams for decades with regards to the Pittsburgh Steelers. the Pittsburgh Penguins built a young core of talent through the draft in the NHL before and after the the NHL CBA but the NHL hard slotted at the same time they imposed a Salary Cap. The MLB didn't. The NFL has imposed a sort of Cap on the draft but again they have a league wide salary cap. MLB doesn't.

 

The Pittsburgh Pirates at this point need to hope that whoever they do draft become studs, which doesn't happen with regularity too much after the 1st round. It's going to be much more difficult now as 2nd round talent like Josh Bell will simply not exist for the Pittsburgh Pirates anymore. All of the Pittsburgh Pirates left over money can be spent on Free Agents but the reality still remains that smal amrket teams like the Pittsburgh Pirates cannot compete with larger market teams for the best Free Agents. The Pittsburgh Pirates cannot have such a large percentage of their payroll go towards 1 or 2 players. That dooms a team in an uncapped league.

 

So, thank you MLB. As a Pittsburgh Pirates fan, there's generally such small amount of hope in seeing the Pittsburgh Pirates compete. For the next 5-10 years what was once hope will become just some wild form of an imagination.

[godtomsatan]

Bending the Pittsburgh Pirates over and raping them of the only competitive advantage that they could have against Large and Upper mid market teams.

 

Is that really an appropriate analogy to be drawing in Western Pennsylvania these days?

 

I'm not a fan of a large market team whatsoever, but I know when BS is BS. Someday, you will need to to admit to yourself that you are a fan of a poorly run organization that chose to pocket its revenue sharing dough instead of reinvest it into its players. I don't whine about competitive imbalance when I know my team makes a lot of bad decisions with how they spend their money.

[Menudo]

Is that really an appropriate analogy to be drawing in Western Pennsylvania these days?

 

I'm not a fan of a large market team whatsoever, but I know when BS is BS. Someday, you will need to to admit to yourself that you are a fan of a poorly run organization that chose to pocket its revenue sharing dough instead of reinvest it into its players. I don't whine about competitive imbalance when I know my team makes a lot of bad decisions with how they spend their money.

 

True, for a long time, the Pirates were a poorly run organization who refused to spend money on their product. That has not been true with the group that has been there the last three years. The Pirates have spent more money on draft picks than any other team, by a significant amount. Also, if you think ownership for the Pirates are pocketing a lot of money, you are kidding yourself. They are simply a small market team that doesn't have the ability to keep up with the large market teams. They could spend a bit more, to get themselves out of the "lowest spenders" category, but, they would never be able to spend even half of what the Yankees spend. Not having a salary cap (minimum & maximum) simply isn't fair, and hurts the game. This has nothing to do with being a Pirates fan, it has to do with being a baseball fan.

[Chief Dick]

True, for a long time, the Pirates were a poorly run organization who refused to spend money on their product. That has not been true with the group that has been there the last three years. The Pirates have spent more money on draft picks than any other team, by a significant amount. Also, if you think ownership for the Pirates are pocketing a lot of money, you are kidding yourself. They are simply a small market team that doesn't have the ability to keep up with the large market teams. They could spend a bit more, to get themselves out of the "lowest spenders" category, but, they would never be able to spend even half of what the Yankees spend. Not having a salary cap (minimum & maximum) simply isn't fair, and hurts the game. This has nothing to do with being a Pirates fan, it has to do with being a baseball fan.

 

 

Yeah, the Royals have invested heavily in the draft the last 5 years to be able to stockpile the minors.

 

Looks like those days are over.

[godtomsatan]

True, for a long time, the Pirates were a poorly run organization who refused to spend money on their product. That has not been true with the group that has been there the last three years. The Pirates have spent more money on draft picks than any other team, by a significant amount. Also, if you think ownership for the Pirates are pocketing a lot of money, you are kidding yourself. They are simply a small market team that doesn't have the ability to keep up with the large market teams. They could spend a bit more, to get themselves out of the "lowest spenders" category, but, they would never be able to spend even half of what the Yankees spend. Not having a salary cap (minimum & maximum) simply isn't fair, and hurts the game. This has nothing to do with being a Pirates fan, it has to do with being a baseball fan.

 

First off, Forbes values the Pirates at $302 million. They were purchased for $92 million 15 years ago. The Astros, in that same "Business of Baseball" issue, were valued at something like $484 million, and recently sold for over $600 million. Just for some perspective on how accurate that number is. So, maybe Pirate ownership isn't pocketing the money per se, but they ain't dumping loads of capital into the team and getting zero cash flow in return either.

 

Secondly, of course they're not going to spend what the Yankees spend, few team ever have even come close to trying, but they could probably try and develop a player that the Yankees would give $100 million to sign away from them once in a while, right? Have the Pirates developed a player of note since Barry Bonds? I'm serious, we're talking like Freddy Sanchez or Jason Bay, right?

 

I'm not trying to rain down on the Pirates, but there is a system in place in which MLB operates, and instead of railing against the system, try playing within that system the way Tampa does, or Milwaukee does, or the way Kansas City and Oakland try and do, THEN start complaining about the system.

[detlef]

True, for a long time, the Pirates were a poorly run organization who refused to spend money on their product. That has not been true with the group that has been there the last three years. The Pirates have spent more money on draft picks than any other team, by a significant amount. Also, if you think ownership for the Pirates are pocketing a lot of money, you are kidding yourself. They are simply a small market team that doesn't have the ability to keep up with the large market teams. They could spend a bit more, to get themselves out of the "lowest spenders" category, but, they would never be able to spend even half of what the Yankees spend. Not having a salary cap (minimum & maximum) simply isn't fair, and hurts the game. This has nothing to do with being a Pirates fan, it has to do with being a baseball fan.

The Cards spent about half as much as the Yankees did, in fact, 6 of the 8 teams in the play-offs spent about half what the Yankees did or less.

[Menudo]

The Cards spent about half as much as the Yankees did, in fact, 6 of the 8 teams in the play-offs spent about half what the Yankees did or less.

 

O.k., but, that is because the Yankees spend so damn much compared to anyone other than the Phillies and Red Sox. The Cardinals had 8th highest payroll, so, it's not as if they didn't spend any money. As I've said before, anything can happen in 5 & 7 game playoffs, but, over 162 games, if you spend as much as the Yankees, Phillies & Red Sox, you pretty much guarantee a spot in the playoffs, unless you completely choke it away like the Red Sox did. Any sport where you could buy your way into the playoffs each year is broken. It makes me laugh that Yankees fans are so arrogant, when they should be embarrassed. Their team should win the world series every year, as they have the receipt.

[Scooby's Hubby]

Bud Selig has been an idiot for a long time. He was originally supposed to be a temporary Commissioner (b/c he was an owner). Now he has finagled his way into a lifetime commissioner, like a supreme court judge.