So Fox Sports posts this bewildering, and nonsensical item written by long time MLB Scribe (and Fox Schill) Ken Rosenthal discussing the possibility of realignment. Aside from posting a map that has the Cubs in Indiana, the Twins in Winnipeg, and the Indians in Youngstown among other errors, Ken proposes a self described "modest" and "radical" possibilities for realignment to take place during the next collective bargaining period. Why does realignment need to take place in Ken's world? Well he feels that the competitive balance is not where it needs to be, and a dramatic shift of this nature would help jump start it again. (Ed Note: I'm not going to touch his "Revenue Realignment" proposal since it involves moving the A's to New Jersey-ridiculous). His "modest" proposal would involve sending the Boston Red Sox to the AL Central, the Detroit Tigers to the AL East, and the Houston Astros move to the AL West, so that each league would have 15 teams. Besides being geographically challenged, this move doesn't make any sense. The Beard is all for minimizing the number of times the Yankees and Red Sox play each other during the season, but unfortunately breaking them up would leave too much money on the table for the owners to pass up.
His "Radical" proposal has 11 teams switching leagues, the divisions switching names, the Cubs and White Sox in the same division-a National League Division at that, and just an overall middle finger to the history and tradition of over 100 years of Major League Baseball identity. His argument for this realignment would be an increased emphasis on the rivalries between teams in the same city, and the Red Sox and Yankees would get two more teams to play that have similar high revenues in the Mets and Phillies. First of all, I can barely stand it when the Cubs and White Sox play each other 6 times a season, let alone 19. Secondly, I fail to see how the Yankees and Red Sox playing the Mets and Phillies is going to do anything for competitive balance? The Mets do have high revenues and payrolls, but that hasn't stopped them from producing absolutely awful teams over the years. Which leads me to my main argument against this...
The competitive balance in Major League Baseball isn't held back by a lack of inter-city rivalry games, or divisions lacking teams with similar payrolls, or teams not spending the same amount of money as the Yankees, Mets, Red Sox, and Cubs. After all, only three teams have won the World Series after spending over $100 million on their payrolls (2004 Red Sox, 2007 Red Sox, 2009 Yankees). It's held back by a combination of a diluted talent pool, some terrible front offices that are allowed to remain in place (I'm looking at you Pittsburgh Pirates and Kansas City Royals), and an unwillingness by Major League Baseball to cover any other teams as ferociously as the Yankees and Red Sox.
All of that aside though, the key to competitive balance is already in place, and it's called revenue sharing through the luxury tax. Through revenue sharing, small market teams are given resources to be able to compete, and it's paid off with teams like the Minnesota Twins being perennial playoff contenders each year. There just needs to be more accountability for the teams that take the revenue sharing money, and don't spend it like say...the Florida Marlins. They were accused of exactly this by MLB, and immediately threw money at Josh Johnson within 3 days of the accusation. Perhaps the owners explore a minimum salary cap like the NBA? Maybe.
One thing that is certain with The Beard however, is that teams hands being forced to spend money on players would be way more productive in restoring more competitive balance in baseball, rather than mutilating and deforming it with modest or radical division and league realignments.
No comments:
Post a Comment