Quote:
Originally Posted by suzzer99
Because the variance of any given baseball game is so high that the playoffs are a crapshoot. And the perennial playoff teams like the Yanks, Sox and Dodgers haven't performed very well over the small sample size of the playoff lottery since 2000 or so, when the disparity in local revenue really went nuts.
Look at winning seasons instead of World Series winners.
In the NFL the haves and have nots are the teams with top 10 QBs vs. the teams with Kirk Cousins. It's not fair either, but at least if a team like KC or GB lands a generational QB talent, they don't automatically lose him to the Giants or Rams after his rookie deal. The Royals could never keep a Mike Trout or a George Brett in 2020. That sucks for the fans.
Also most mid and small market teams tank so they can be good for a short 4-5 year window (like the Royals did and are doing now). So you get a lot of variety. But that doesn't mean the Royals and Pirates have the same chance to be competitive year in/year out like the Dodgers and Yankees.
Most national baseball writers seem to think it's better for the game if the Dodgers and Yanks are in the playoffs every year. Small market teams should be happy with taking their shot once a decade or so. But they won't come out and say that, so instead they do all this sleight of hand stuff trying to claim that one team having $400M in revenue more than another doesn't matter to competitive advantage.
|
The guaranteed contracts offset some of that because many of these teams inevitably get saddled with really bad contracts. The dodgers run is pretty recent. The Yankees have been a bubble playoff team at best for a while. Mets are a great example of how badly spending unwisely can hurt.
I agree it creates competitive advantage. But as you pointed out it also happens to be a league where small to mid market teams can put together big runs. Hard to do that in the nfl without an elite qb. Hard to do that in the nba if you’re not in a major media market.
So I don’t think the advantage is nearly as big as some claim. Now, where I think payroll becomes a huge issue is when the league manipulates baseball by creating offense. Like juicing balls and looking the other way on PEDs. There’s a reason the royals and Indians had great runs when defense was up and offense was down. Big offense favors pay payrolls.