Why I pay little attention to MLB

[Bill E. 703]

This may have been posted already.  People talk about it every year but it never changes.  The top five payrolls are all in the playoffs. Nine teams in the playoffs are teams with the top twelve total payrolls.   Only three teams of the bottom 18 payrolls are in it.   Sure anything can happen in the post season but if you are a fan of a bottom 18 team watching all year to hope your team might be one of the lucky three is not really worth it.  If you watch just to see great players and good games without caring if your team wins  than that is fine but I am not into that.  I used to buy the MLB Extra Innings package every year now I watch 4-5 games a year and probably will watch less than half of the WS . 

Payroll numbers are from   https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/payroll/

1    New York Mets             $282,709,066
2    Los Angeles Dodgers     $275,629,360
3    New York Yankees     $264,934,200
4    Philadelphia Phillies     $255,775,881
5    San Diego Padres     $236,684,494
8    Atlanta Braves             $200,067,952
9    Houston Astros             $192,931,925
11    Toronto Blue Jays     $188,895,270
12    St. Louis Cardinals     $170,122,625
21   Seattle Mariners             $128,709,021
25    Tampa Bay Rays             $104,313,773
28    Cleveland Guardians     $82,057,492

 

[craftsman 1,045]

9 minutes ago, Bill E. said:

This may have been posted already.  People talk about it every year but it never changes.  Nine teams in the playoffs are teams with the top twelve total payrolls.   Only three teams of the bottom 18 payrolls are in it.   I used to buy the MLB Extra Innings package every year now I watch 4-5 games a year and probably will watch less than half of the WS . 

Payroll numbers are from   https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/payroll/

1    New York Mets             $282,709,066
2    Los Angeles Dodgers     $275,629,360
3    New York Yankees     $264,934,200
4    Philadelphia Phillies     $255,775,881
5    San Diego Padres     $236,684,494
8    Atlanta Braves             $200,067,952
9    Houston Astros             $192,931,925
11    Toronto Blue Jays     $188,895,270
12    St. Louis Cardinals     $170,122,625
25    Tampa Bay Rays             $104,313,773
26    Miami Marlins             $96,342,822
28    Cleveland Guardians     $82,057,492

 

Yeah. Yankees are almost always at the top. And their fans boast like they have really achieved something super special. 

It's like a multi millionaire boasting about his Bentley to a person who makes $75,000 a year and drives a used Toyota. Except, the Yankee fans who are doing the boasting are also driving used Toyotas. 

Salary cap leagues are way better. 

[Voltaire 5,317]

Maybe this is what I should have told Justin in  the other thread.

OK, point taken. It sucks that the Dodgers closer and a bunch of other players are injured. But even if half of them are hurt, I still have another $140 Million worth of players to work with who can pick up the slack.

[craftsman 1,045]

3 minutes ago, Voltaire said:

Maybe this is what I should have told Justin in  the other thread.

OK, point taken. It sucks that the Dodgers closer and a bunch of other players are injured. But even if half of them are hurt, I still have another $140 Million worth of players to work with who can pick up the slack.

But football has a salary cap. You lose a high paid stud pass rusher, a high paid stud QB, or a high paid stud left tackle and you can't replace them. 

[JustinCharge 2,397]

they will never change this because it would damage the Yankees brand if they were just mortal.  And the Yankees are quite possibly the #1 brand in sports.  

[supermike80 1,927]

I clearly don't pay attention cause I didn't know the Mets were even in it.

[TimmySmith 2,782]

2 hours ago, JustinCharge said:

they will never change this because it would damage the Yankees brand if they were just mortal.  And the Yankees are quite possibly the #1 brand in sports.  

This is true. Plus the Yankees get more than 500M annually from their own TV network so it's in their best interest to field the best team. If the Yankees and Dodgers didn't spend money, then baseball would have a problem.

[BeenHereBefore 1,535]

59 minutes ago, supermike80 said:

I clearly don't pay attention cause I didn't know the Mets were even in it.

I lost $5 on them last night.

[Bill E. 703]

8 hours ago, craftsman said:

But football has a salary cap. You lose a high paid stud pass rusher, a high paid stud QB, or a high paid stud left tackle and you can't replace them. 

But at least that is fair for everyone.  Another problem a lot of people do not see is the teams in baseball like the Pirates do not even try to field a decent team.  They scrape by and trade people for nothing when their salary goes up.  The owner makes millions and the fans that are dumb enough to support their crappy team get screwed. 

With a salary cap they could stipulate that every team has to spend at least 90-110% of the cap.  So if it was $150 Million every would have to shell out $135M minimum and the total spent in the league would not be that much lower.  That site in my op says the average is $163M.  So make it $160 and everyone spends $145-$175.  If the owners do not like it sell the team to someone that will do it. 

[Engorgeous George 2,331]

3 hours ago, JustinCharge said:

they will never change this because it would damage the Yankees brand if they were just mortal.  And the Yankees are quite possibly the #1 brand in sports.  

I'm going to guess the number #1 brand in sports belongs to some soccer team.  After that i would guess it is followed by an NFL team or teams and then an NBA team or teams.  With baseball having long faded from being our national passtime to third place in sporting relevance I doubt the Yankees hold sway.  Maybe they do, I just doubt it.

 

I live far from SEC football country but I see their jerseys.  I live far from ACC basketball country, but I see their jerseys.  I see many more NFL jerseys than Yankee jerseys.  In fact I see more Cubs, Dodgers, and Red Sox jerseys than Yankee jerseys and I live no where near either franchise. 

[BeenHereBefore 1,535]

2 minutes ago, Bill E. said:

But at least that is fair for everyone.  Another problem a lot of people do not see is the teams in baseball like the Pirates do not even try to field a decent team.  They scrape by and trade people for nothing when their salary goes up.  The owner makes millions and the fans that are dumb enough to support their crappy team get screwed. 

With a salary cap they could stipulate that every team has to spend at least 90-110% of the cap.  So if it was $150 Million every would have to shell out $135M minimum and the total spent in the league would not be that much lower.  That site in my op says the average is $163M.  So make it $160 and everyone spends $145-$175.  If the owners do not like it sell the team to someone that will do it. 

 I said it for years and hear Pirate fans year after year complaining about the owner being cheap and the team never been any good. Most of these fans are the problem and go to the games and buy the merchandise. The owner makes buck every year and could care less and knows he will get their money.

[Mike Honcho 5,294]

8 hours ago, Bill E. said:

This may have been posted already.  People talk about it every year but it never changes.  The top five payrolls are all in the playoffs. Nine teams in the playoffs are teams with the top twelve total payrolls.   Only three teams of the bottom 18 payrolls are in it.   Sure anything can happen in the post season but if you are a fan of a bottom 18 team watching all year to hope your team might be one of the lucky three is not really worth it.  If you watch just to see great players and good games without caring if your team wins  than that is fine but I am not into that.  I used to buy the MLB Extra Innings package every year now I watch 4-5 games a year and probably will watch less than half of the WS . 

Payroll numbers are from   https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/payroll/

1    New York Mets             $282,709,066
2    Los Angeles Dodgers     $275,629,360
3    New York Yankees     $264,934,200
4    Philadelphia Phillies     $255,775,881
5    San Diego Padres     $236,684,494
8    Atlanta Braves             $200,067,952
9    Houston Astros             $192,931,925
11    Toronto Blue Jays     $188,895,270
12    St. Louis Cardinals     $170,122,625
21   Seattle Mariners             $128,709,021
25    Tampa Bay Rays             $104,313,773
28    Cleveland Guardians     $82,057,492

 

I've argued this point before and the response usually is "look at all the different teams that win the WS---see it's fair".  Baseball is fairly random lottery when it comes to winning it all, but it's not at all random that some teams can buy a heck of a lot more tickets than others.

[lod001 1,344]

MLB is a total joke.

[Bill E. 703]

4 hours ago, BeenHereBefore said:

 I said it for years and hear Pirate fans year after year complaining about the owner being cheap and the team never been any good. Most of these fans are the problem and go to the games and buy the merchandise. The owner makes buck every year and could care less and knows he will get their money.

Yes the local newspaper writers say this as well.   

[Bill E. 703]

4 hours ago, Mike Honcho said:

I've argued this point before and the response usually is "look at all the different teams that win the WS---see it's fair".  Baseball is fairly random lottery when it comes to winning it all, but it's not at all random that some teams can buy a heck of a lot more tickets than others.

It's true that anything can happen once you get to the playoffs. The problem is getting there for most teams is very difficult. And for the top 12 teams it's pretty easy.. that's why I stopped going to the games and buying Sunday Ticket or having anything to do with MLB.

[JustinCharge 2,397]

honestly i think if major league baseball completely collapsed, the yankee brand would still be worth godless amounts of money.  they wouldnt even need to play baseball.  yankee caps and shirts would sell just because its the image of new york city.

[IGotWorms 4,058]

Pretty wild win for the Mariners  

[shorepatrol 1,870]

9 hours ago, lod001 said:

MLB is a total joke.

Yup 

[Bill E. 703]

12 hours ago, JustinCharge said:

honestly i think if major league baseball completely collapsed, the yankee brand would still be worth godless amounts of money.  they wouldnt even need to play baseball.  yankee caps and shirts would sell just because its the image of new york city.

I used to root for the Yankees to win every year.  Their payroll was insane.  My hope was if they won 5 years in a row people would figure their team had no chance and stop watching.   Then MLB would have to change.  All that happened is about 10 other teams got bought up by owners that could spend the same amount of money.  Owners like the ones in PIT decided that with the subsidies they got from the rich owners, TV revenues and whatever money  they could get from the local people they could make lots of money with losers.    They do not want to fix it because to them it is not broken. 

[Cloaca du jour 2,150]

22 hours ago, Bill E. said:

But at least that is fair for everyone.  Another problem a lot of people do not see is the teams in baseball like the Pirates do not even try to field a decent team.  They scrape by and trade people for nothing when their salary goes up.  The owner makes millions and the fans that are dumb enough to support their crappy team get screwed. 

With a salary cap they could stipulate that every team has to spend at least 90-110% of the cap.  So if it was $150 Million every would have to shell out $135M minimum and the total spent in the league would not be that much lower.  That site in my op says the average is $163M.  So make it $160 and everyone spends $145-$175.  If the owners do not like it sell the team to someone that will do it. 

Bring in relegation...like soccer.  Elevate some minor league team and boot the pirates to the minors.

 

[iam90sbaby 2,620]

Even Formula 1 has a salary cap now, pretty sad baseball doesn't.

[craftsman 1,045]

4 hours ago, Cloaca du jour said:

Bring in relegation...like soccer.  Elevate some minor league team and boot the pirates to the minors.

 

It's a good thought but MLB is not even close to being set up to work like that. 

I just say they put in a salary cap and when the players union cries about it, tell them to fock off. 

The NFL would suck if they had no salary cap. 

[iam90sbaby 2,620]

3 minutes ago, craftsman said:

It's a good thought but MLB is not even close to being set up to work like that. 

I just say they put in a salary cap and when the players union cries about it, tell them to fock off. 

The NFL would suck if they had no salary cap. 

In this timeline Green Bay loses their franchise 30+ years ago

[edjr 6,608]

The Mets deserve to lose for spending 280 million and having Fat Bastard from Austin Powers in their lineup. 

[supermike80 1,927]

1 hour ago, edjr said:

The Mets deserve to lose for spending 280 million and having Fat Bastard from Austin Powers in their lineup. 

And they did.

And that reminds me of Rick Reuschel

[TBayXXXVII 2,552]

On 10/8/2022 at 9:34 AM, BeenHereBefore said:

 I said it for years and hear Pirate fans year after year complaining about the owner being cheap and the team never been any good. Most of these fans are the problem and go to the games and buy the merchandise. The owner makes buck every year and could care less and knows he will get their money.

 

On 10/8/2022 at 1:53 PM, Bill E. said:

Yes the local newspaper writers say this as well.   

I believe Pirates fans ARE making a statement.  The Buccos only draw 15k per game, it's not like they're packing the building... it's about one-third full.  Considering that ticket costs are so low, they get a LOT of visiting teams' fans.  Listen or watch one of their games against the Phillies, Mets, Angels (a ton of NJ people travel to go see Mike Trout), Red Sox, and Yankees.  If you didn't know that they were in Pittsburgh, you'd bet that the Pirates were the road team.  If only Pittsburgh fans were allowed in the stadium, their average attendance would well be under 10k.

 

Attendance isn't the problem with baseball.  The problem is the financial model of the MLB.

[RaiderHaters Revenge 4,356]

Mets get owned….wahhhh he’s cheating

[craftsman 1,045]

Greatest moment in baseball history. NSFW