Ennder

That is 100% opinion and one that I disagree with. Ratings are down because the number of choices of what to watch are up. The reason super bowl ratings stay strong is because it is now a party type event that people watch even if they could care less about football. I'm sure if baseball cut the season in half and had 1 game playoffs the ratings for each game would go up too, the game wouldn't be as good of course.

At the very least I'd like to see an extra compensation pick in cases like this with the yankees losing their 2nd round pick instead of us getting what really amounts to a 3rd round pick (since compensation picks are really '2nd round' to me). If instead of their 2nd round pick we got the first compensation pick we would only be sliding down something like 15 picks instead of 40 or whatever it is.

Two years from now Mauer will likely be a high OBP, lower power 1B and the Red Sox will pay too much to get him.

It isn't really about competing financially though, it is about competing on the field and it isn't just about the Yankees. You don't put a salary cap on the entire league because of one team. The Angels have been one of the best teams in baseball over the last 10 years, they aren't struggling to compete in any way shape or form. A salary cap is the quick and dirty way to make things a little better and give the illusion of equality to the fans. There are much better ways for them to fix the issues including things like revenue sharing. A straight up flat salary cap like football has would destroy baseball in my personal opinion, it wouldn't improve it one bit. A more fluid cap that tries to keep the bottom teams at a certainly floor and the top teams at a cap and leaves the middle teams alone could work though.

Rivera is as much a product of that park as anything though, hard to really knock someone for losing what is a pretty average RP. Looking deeper at his numbers he is pretty much completely a product of a fluky HR/FB%, something that happens constantly over 200 IP samples. Below average walk rates and on adequate K rate for a RP combined with a decent GB% makes him a pretty mediocre RP who had a little luck with his ERA. Here is an article I found today about 2008 FAs. http://www.mlbtraderumors...8/12/2008-free-agent.html Melvin came out +$20M in value between Cameron, Branyan and Kendall last year and Cameron was the 2nd best value FA.

The players the teams build around do stay somewhat but you can't really 'build' a team around a single position in baseball so it is just an apples to oranges comparison. A salary cap wouldn't have kept Sabathia with the Brewers and probably wouldn't have kept Sheets either. Sabathia would have still gone to a team with better endorsement opportunities and Sheets still would have been looking for a longer term deal and we don't seem to want to offer one. Baseball and Football have very different setups so pretty hard to do straight up comparisons of the two. Most good baseball players get one big payday when they hit free agency and sign a long term large contract, players with long careers or players who aren't good enough to get a long deal get more.

Every single year dozens of players leave their teams because there just wasn't cap room. There is way more financial movement of players in football than baseball, it isn't comperable at all. It is a different system with the same basic result. The Yankees have to overpay to get people to play for them because the players know if the yankees want them they'll pay 10-20% more than any other team. The Patriots do it the opposite way, a premium FA will sign with the patriots for 20-30% less than for a team like the Lions. To use two cities as an example, there is more balance between the Tigers and Red Sox than between the Lions and Patriots. It isn't just about the amount of money a team spends, a lot more goes into the equation. As for ratings, you can't compare the two. One sport has 16 games and they play almost all of their games on weekends. Plus what are ratings to do with anything in the first place, Hannah Montana is a highly rated singer and she still can't sing worth a crap. Football ratings are high because it is fast paced, fun to watch and people have short attention spans these days, it doesn't have anything to do with the salary cap. I mean fine if you like a salary cap you like it, I won't convince you otherwise, but if you honestly believe that every team in the NFL is on an even playing field you are just being naive, some teams most certainly still have an advantage. NFL balance is more because the season is so short that 2-3 lucky bounces and being healthier than other teams puts you in the playoffs than the salary cap. If baseball were to set a cap on the highest payroll teams I'd be ok with it. Something like no team can have a salary more than 20% higher than the 4th highest salaried team from the previous year or something like that. But a cap put in place where every team sits at the same cap and thus are forced to lose players they want to keep every single year is just not a system I'd enjoy at all.

Baseball is as competitive as Football without a silly salary cap that creates so much player movement that it isn't even fun to follow the sport anymore. The yankees are obviously an issue as are the bottom 3 or 4 salary teams but then you could say the same of NE and the bottom teams in the NFL.

The same teams make the playoffs every year in most sports, every system has built in advantages. Baseballs is just easier to spot. Football as an example is setup such that bad teams have to overspend to get players and players will go to the best teams for less than market price. A team like the Lions while poorly run also has financial hurdles to jump over to ever get out of the gutter. 13 years and they missed the playoffs the previous 13 years before that. The braves made the playoffs 14 of 15 years back in the 90's and they didn't have some huge payroll. The Red Sox who do have a large payroll missed the playoffs 10 times since 2000. The Cubs who have a large payroll have made it 4 times since 1990. Yeah a large payroll helps but it is generally overstated. The Yankees are the one team with an overwhelming advantage.

The fact that the Rays and Rockies went to the world series the last two years would suggest that this isn't true. I said it in the other thread and I'll say it again, most likely a lot of this is dead money for the Yankees. There is almost no chance Sabathia and Burnett stay healthy over their entire contract and Teix will likely be overpaid for the downside of his career. For 2-3 years this is looking good for the Yanks but then a huge chunk of what is left is probably bad contracts.

The Yankees had a higher payroll last year than they have right now and missed the playoffs. Sabathia and Burnett could easily end up only a 1 win upgrade compared to what Mussina and Pettitte did last year. Teix/Cabrera isn't really a big upgrade over Giambi/Abreu. Much better defense and most likely worse hitting. This team right now still isn't a lock to take their division or even make the playoffs even with the signings.

For what it is worth if the season started today the Yankees payroll would have gone down this year by a significant amount. They still have at least one player coming.

Three years from now when Sabathia and Burnett have blown out their arms people will be wondering how the Yankees can have such a huge payroll and not be winning the world series every year. The point is big name free agents almost never earn what they are payed and I doubt in the long run these deals turn out anywhere near as good as the money involved. I guess I just can't get all upset about it other than it sucking that we get a 2nd round pick.

Trading Cameron, moving Hart to CF and playing Dunn in RF probably would have made the team worse and cost more. Glad that didn't pan out.

I don't disagree that the rotation could be a mess, I just think people are overreacting. If we add someone like Looper this rotation is as good as the one we had in 2007 most likely and that was an 83 win team. For this to turn into a 70 win team the pitching has to suffer a complete collapse. It is hard to only win 70 games with an average to above average offense.

As a 30 year fan of baseball and football I can say without a doubt in my mind that I'd quit watching baseball if they went with a salary cap. Football is so boring the way it is now that I don't even bother watching anymore. They have some work to do on revenue sharing etc but a hard salary cap isn't going to work. This does suck though getting a 2nd round pick for losing Sabathia. Now I bet Sheets signs with the Rangers (protected 1st rounder) and we get their 2nd round pick too.

Fielder and Braun were considered sure fire offensive starters in the majors, there were no doubts about either of them. All of the doubts were on whether or not they could stick defensively anywhere. I think Escobar is overrated on this site personally, I just don't think his bat is major league quality. His defense will get him a full time job I'm sure but I think the bat plays more like a Jack Wilson or Adam Everett which just doesn't excite me. Sickels gave Gamel a B+ and Escobar a B. Bpro gave the both 4 star ratings and listed them behind Braun, Fielder, Gallardo and said they have a nice group of prospects but not elite ones like the last few years. I don't think they are as highly thought of in general as the last crop.

The 92 team was more lucky than good though, just an entire pitching staff having career years at the same time. Kind of like the year the White Sox won the world series a few years back. They are very different situations.

So losing Sheets and Sabathia is going to cost us 20 games? There is no way that we have a 70 win team right now and to add 10 wins from pitchers we would basically have to sign Sheets and Sabathia again, very few pitchers are worth 5 wins a year. I'm sorry but the extreme pessimism on this site is just getting to me lately. Last year we had the same basic team plus Sheets going into the year and people thought 85-90 wins. We lose Sheets and now we are a 70 win team. I just don't get it.

Obviously I can't see into the future to know what will ultimately be true but the majority of people who spend their time looking at minor league players classify them in the B to B+ range and not the A or A- range. Neither Gamel or Escobar are sure fire major league starting quality players according to the 'experts' right now. Escobar very well could be the next Adam Everett and Gamel could end being a Lyle Overbay type, good average, ok pop but can only play 1B or corner OF. Weeks is a league average 2B btw, he just gets ragged on because he was an early pick in a pretty bad drafting class. He was also rushed to the majors somewhat and suffered finger and wrist injuries that can cripple a players career. Not exactly the best person to try to use to illustrate anything.

1) Parra should have been on a pretty strict innings limit and many people said he would break down after about 120 innings. You always pick out the goofiest stats when trying to defend or attack someone, QS is about the 30th most useful stat to discuss a pitcher. I'm not saying you are wrong though, he has to go deeper into games but that is normal for any developing pticher. He wore down after about 120 IP as expected, he had a sub 4 ERA at that point with pretty good peripherals and had a very strong stretch after a shaky start to the season. 2) Parra has 192.3 major league innings which makes him young from an experience standpoint. Injury issues obviously slowed down his development as he pitched 545 minor league innings in 6 years as a starter or less than 100 IP a year. Lefties also generally mature slower as pitchers. There really is no extra reason to be worried about Parra. He would have been in the majors going through the learning curve 2 years earlier without the injuries. Parra is acceptable as a #2, he isn't a strong #2 largely because he will struggle to go 200 IP this year. That is my largest concern with the rotation as a whole. Bush is the only pitcher I expect 200 IP out of in the entire rotation which means we need at least 6 starters if not 7. We have 4 starters and McClung and that won't cut it. If nothing else we need at least one above replacement level arm that is a safe bet to throw 180+ IP. Thing is a team with 5 pitchers of #3 quality is as good as one with a #1, #2 and a bunch of #5's. Good pitching is about depth not about top of the rotation guys. Top of the rotation guys are just a nice bonus.

Escobar/Gamel are more in the Hardy/Hart class of prospects is the issue. Gamel is not a sure thing with the bat and is miserable in the field and Escobar could very well be below replacement level with the bat and if he is he will struggle to add value to the team with just the glove. Neither has played in AAA either so I don't see why we are considering them help for this season. Those guys are fill ins for injuries or for roster moves made in the next offseason, not starters for this season.

We don't have a single arm that we can trust to come up and fill in a rotation spot. Gallardo and Parra most likely are good for around 175 IP, Suppan might struggle to reach 200 and I highly doubt McClung can go more than 150-175. This team needs at least 100-200 IP of SP still and this is one way to do it at above replacement level. There are other ways that I probably like better than this but signing someone like this is still 10 billion times better than going into the season signing nobody.

Matt Cain had a 2.04 K/BB last year and everyone wants us to trade for him~. Moyer had a 1.98, Parra a 1.95, Joe Saunders a 1.95, Zambrano a 1.81. 2.00 isn't terrible for a starter, but it isn't great either.

Also of note is that Suppan actually was about what was expected until his DL trip last year. He had 52 starts with a 4.65 ERA. After the DL trip he had 13 starts with a 5.31 ERA and combined he has given the Brewers 65 starts of 4.78 ERA over two years. That is a pretty league average pitcher which puts him at around 1-2 wins over replacement. Most people thought Suppan got overpaid a little but he hasn't really done anything except what most people expected out of him so far as a Brewer other than maybe the fact he missed 3 or 4 starts last year.