How to level the playing field in baseball
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Baseball is perfect as is.
The problem in Oakland is the stadium, the problem in Tampa is there is no interest.
Large market teams are at more of a disadvantage than any small or mid market teams, because they are now expected hand out awful free agent contracts to players around 30 years old for 7-10 years.
Small and mid market teams have successfully promoted the lie, that they have no money- and now every small, and every mid market fan believes it. Truth is they realize they can run the team at a small cost and make huge profits. Then they turn around and play the victim card to their fan base.
Every MLB team’s goal should be short term free agency deals around 2 years, possibly an option for guys 29 or older, and just buld through drafts and trades. Free agency is the worst thing for a team to use too much of. Small and mid market teams are fortunate to not have to spend in free agency like big markets are not expected to do.
The game is extremely competitive, and salary caps are overrated.
If small and mid market teams want equality, they should have to pay big market prices at the parks they (don’t) go to.
Baseball is fine. The only thing that could make it better, is contracting 2-4 teams.
The 2011 Over the Monster Gedman League Fantasy Baseball Champion
I hate free agency
by gizmosandy on Jan 1, 2012 7:32 PM EST reply actions 1 recs
And a salary floor, not a cap.
You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don't try to forget the mistakes, but you don't dwell on it. You don't let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space.
-Johnny Cash
A post from Sandy that I agree with?
Scary. You sir, deserve a rec.
Baseball Perfect As It Is?
Not even close. Congrats to the poster on a thought provoking piece. I agree that the A’s should get out of the Bay Area.San Jose is no panacea, and it has been proven that new stadiums don’t neccesarily mean the team will spend more. Charlie Finley’s biggest mistake was giving up on KC. With that team he had coming along, KC would have been wild in the early ’70’s and late ’80’s. The Giants should have the Bay to itself. I would contract the Royals just to put the A’s back to KC. The Royals have been a joke for 25 years. Off with their heads. Tampa too.
Baseball anywhere south of the Mason Dixon line is a tough sell. This is football country. You could say the Braves made a big mistake leaving Milwaukee, a proven baseball town. What if that string of pennants happenned in Milwaukee? The place would have rocked, and there would have been no tomahawk chop. That would have been reason enough alone. They couldn’t even sell out play off games in the ’90’s. Contract the Rays and Royals without hesitation,and improve the game with the distribution of players around the game. Before Dallas showed it would support a winner, I would have contracted the Nat’s and put the Rangers back in Washington as the Senators. You would have had the last two WS in DC. How awesome would that have been? Might have even inspired Peter Angelos to restore his once proud franchise.
Since we are being radical, here is the plan. The Royals, Mariners, and Rays get the Ax. If you needed a fouth team to make it more even, I wouldnt miss the D-Backs or the Rockies. But, as is, the A’s back to KC, the Brewers back to the AL as the Seattle Pilots, the Braves back to Milwaukee,leaving Atlanta to their AAA team. Houston remains in the NL where it belongs. No more interleague play except with intra city rivals. Either the DH in both leagues or not at all. No changing leagues for traditional teams like Cleveland. The New Jersey A’s? Just doesn’t sound right. Great job, though. Baseball is in need of some serious contraction and restructuring.
thats one way to make the playoffs...eliminate the team that's been better over the past 4 years
Fire Everyone
by billybeingbilly on Jan 5, 2012 12:42 AM EST up reply actions
Ha ha ha...
Galactus does as he pleases. Because Galactus is drunk.
@#$%ing Twit: @blogtard
OTM | Silver Seven
This is even dumber than the original post.
You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don't try to forget the mistakes, but you don't dwell on it. You don't let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space.
-Johnny Cash
I refuse to read the original post
until someone inserts some @#$%ing paragraphs.
And I don’t think Robert’s post is dumb, but I don’t agree with it.
Since we are being radical, here is the plan.
I don’t mind some radical thought. No way I would implement it, though.
Galactus does as he pleases. Because Galactus is drunk.
@#$%ing Twit: @blogtard
OTM | Silver Seven
Two things
First, I got maybe ten lines into your post before I started skimming it. You need to break up your posts into paragraphs, otherwise it’s just a pain to read through.
Second, why post this here? You didn’t really mention the Sox until your past point, and that was only to put them in a division, post this over on the A’s or Giants site.
You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don't try to forget the mistakes, but you don't dwell on it. You don't let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space.
-Johnny Cash
I disagree with alot of this but I'll just start with this weird A's relocation idea.
San Jose and Silicon Valley are an excellent market. There is a crap ton of money in the silicon valley and thousands of companies are headquarted there that can and would gladly provide big marketing sponsorships for the team. Not to mention thousands upon thousands of well-paid employees that work there that can afford to go to several major league games a year. So much about the game today is corporate sponsorship. The pool of companies they could pull from is sickening.
The fact that the Giants are holding the city hostage because of their Single-A team that draws approx. 2,500 per game is ludicrous. It would be great if they can get a stadium in Oakland, but San Jose would represent an equal and in my opinion superior market.
Moving to New Jersey has little chance of success…which is EXACTLY what a hail mary is by definition. It would cripple the A’s for the next decade and only POSSIBLY help them after that. They would go from competing with one team to three in a close vicinity without any major city that isn’t extremely close to those teams. The Phillies, Mets and Yankees have established fanbases that go back at least a generation or two. It would take 10 years for a New Jersey team to establish a fanbase, if not more…if they ever did.
If they move to San Jose, alot of the fans on the Oakland side of the bay who don’t LIVE in San Jose can still go to games. Actual Oakland natives (who are still less than an hour away) who are bitter might not go on principle, but folks south of the city will. None are going to cross the country. They lose their entire fanbase in the snap of a finger by going to Jersey. It’s one thing for the Rays to move, because they don’t really have much of a fanbase yet. Not the fault of the team or it’s current fans, just the way it is with a young team and a population that is alot of people who move there at an older age.
Also, out of curiosity how have the A"s hurt the cash flow of the Giants, but the Angels haven’t hurt the Dodgers cash flow?
by The Name is Dalton on Jan 1, 2012 9:14 PM EST reply actions
Nevermind.
Your a Giants fan which completely explains this terrible idea. You hate the A’s, and have no reason to want to see them succeed. Which is why you want them to move from your area. It benefits your team.
by The Name is Dalton on Jan 1, 2012 9:34 PM EST up reply actions
David
Give the guy credit with coming up with some interesting ideas instead of crapping all over him.
Force of habit.
Galactus does as he pleases. Because Galactus is drunk.
@#$%ing Twit: @blogtard
OTM | Silver Seven
That was actually a well-reasoned response.
Punctuated by the context of the Giants/Oakland dynamic.
Galactus does as he pleases. Because Galactus is drunk.
@#$%ing Twit: @blogtard
OTM | Silver Seven
Where did I crap on him specifically?
I said it was a terrible idea. In my opinion, it is. He tries to show why it would help “baseball” when really the idea comes from a desire to help his own team. I don’t have a problem with him wanting the A’s out of town and it isn’t a dig against him personally.
Seriously, you constantly shit all over other people’s ideas and preferences. I say an idea is terrible and then give very clear reasons why…and I’m some asshole just crapping on a guy for no reason? Get over yourself.
by The Name is Dalton on Jan 6, 2012 5:38 PM EST up reply actions
Well
Saying you do it “constantly” is an unfair over exaggeration.
by The Name is Dalton on Jan 6, 2012 7:11 PM EST up reply actions
the real truth is that the reason the Giants want to hold San Jose hostage
is because they have a lot of endorsement deals that lose a ton of value if that isn’t the team of the region- nothing to actually do with the Single A team.
Interesting.
Good to know. I’m sure they’ve got some of the companies I’m referring to as sponsors. Still, I don’t really see how they’ve been allowed to go against it this easily. I don’t remember this much backlash when the Nationals moved to Washington…was this the case there too?
by The Name is Dalton on Jan 2, 2012 2:53 PM EST up reply actions
Baltimore put up a stink, if I remember correctly.
Galactus does as he pleases. Because Galactus is drunk.
@#$%ing Twit: @blogtard
OTM | Silver Seven
Also
Nice little dig here:
ESPN says the Yankees and Red Sox have the best rivalry in sports (because both teams are able to spend so much)
This undermines your whole post by showing your true bias. I am sick of the “ESPN has a Sox-Yankees bias and it’s because of their money” bullshit. It is an old, tired and incorrect argument.
The two teams have had an intense rivalry for over a century. The two CITIES have had a rivalry since the fricking American Revolution for crying out loud…it isn’t just Sox-Yankees. It’s all NY-Bos sports, really. Saying it is because of ESPN is one of the most asinine arguments I’ve read on this site.
by The Name is Dalton on Jan 1, 2012 9:23 PM EST reply actions
Is it worse than "Playoffs every year... WE NEED RINGS!"
Or “Tell Carl Crawford play hard always?”
You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don't try to forget the mistakes, but you don't dwell on it. You don't let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space.
-Johnny Cash
You're confusing "asinine"...
…with sublime.
by Sologub on Jan 1, 2012 10:15 PM EST via mobile up reply actions
Moving the Rays to Alabama?
I had to do a spit-take! Take it from me, there is no city in Alabama capable of supporting a MLB team at this time.
When the As do move to Oakland
they need to change their name. “San Jose A’s” doesn’t sound right.
You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don't try to forget the mistakes, but you don't dwell on it. You don't let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space.
-Johnny Cash
Big block of words
Galactus does as he pleases. Because Galactus is drunk.
@#$%ing Twit: @blogtard
OTM | Silver Seven
Loud Noises

The Year of Extreme Opinions
I apologize if this post has offended you in any way. Please retroactively ignore it. Thank you for your consideration.
by nuthinboutnuthin on Jan 3, 2012 4:20 PM EST up reply actions
I dont agree
San Francisco has almost 7.5 million residents
San Jose has 1 million residents making it the 10th largest city in the US.
Sacramento is another 500,000.
That’s 9 Million in just those 3 cities.
There are plenty of people to justify the move to San Jose. San Jose has triple the amount of residents as Anaheim and they have both a MLB franchise and a NHL franchise and there is talk of putting the new LA NFL team in Anaheim as well.
I have no idea why the A’s are moving, what their rational is for the move, but lack of interest from the San Jose public or a not enough fans to go around is not the reason.
Plus there are also rumors about the Raiders moving back to LA. So moving the A’s to NJ is just not a valid option when they have a solid chance of owning the southern part of the San Francisco/San Jose/Sacramento metropolis region.
From what I understand
Is that the A’s Stadium sucks, one of the worst in the majors. So they could legitimately be looking to get to a more lucrative market or they’re trying to leverage this into a new stadium deal in Oakland.
All we know for sure is that their stadium is crap, and they want to get into a better one. Whether they want it to be in Oakland, San Jose or elsewhere we don’t know.
by The Name is Dalton on Jan 6, 2012 5:42 PM EST up reply actions
I mean, part of it is also
Oakland sucks. It’s a tough place to get people to come to from out of town. Easier to get fans from Oakland to make a trip to San Jose than it is to get fans from San Jose to come to Oakland

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