Well the Yankees have done it again. Busted open the check book and paid over $400 million on 3 free agents this year. People all over the baseball world are crying for a salary cap. Baseball as we know it is over!
This is what I think about the players NY brought in. CC is good, better in the NL. He had a horrible start last season. It'd be interesting to see how New York handles him if he does the same. AJ Burnett. Whoopee! He's a Ben Sheets, he'll be hurt in a week. Mark Texiera... I guess this guy's incredible? I don't know, I just don't see these three players as some dominating force that's gonna march the Yankees right to the world series. To watch them fail this year would be hilarious. It'd be a hell of a side story. The past few years I could of cared less about the Yankees but now I have a reason to hate them again, and that makes the sport more entertaining to me. A salary cap is not needed. Free agents aren't the only thing that makes baseball teams win. It's sad that small market teams have trouble keeping their favorite players around but so be it. Small market teams have found a lot of success while the big spenders -- NY, Boston, Anaheim, Cubs fail. People can whine about how teams like the pirates and royals will never have a shot but hell, lets look at football. We got the Lions and the Raiders. Poorly managed teams are just that... poorly managed teams. Throwing money at the problem won't fix it.
Another point. I love baseball because of the amount of strategy involved. Before every pitch, there are a million scenarios going on in managers heads. It's fun as a fan to second guess their decisions. The same holds true for building a team. The art of building a small market team is fascinating to me. It's no fun knowing that you can just go ahead and buy the best 3 guys in the market and maybe bring your city a world series. I love the hope that the minor league brings. It's also fun knowing that you built a team "legitimately." Our team is made up of true Milwaukee brewers. Most of them know nothing else, and I love that.
So free agency aside, what do we have to look forward to next year? I think we got a good team. Everyone was optimistic at the beginning of last season and the only significant player we're missing is Sheets. We lose Sheets every year, who cares. I think a ton our players underperformed -- especially during the second half. Weeks, Hart, Hall, and Fielder are better hitters than they showed us last season. Braun obviously was hampered by that rib cage injury during the second half. Maybe the new manager can get the best out of these bats. If that happens, look out. I'm excited to watch Brewer baseball next year and you should be too. GO BREWERS!
3 comments:
a salary cap is not needed??? really??
the red sox have won 2 world series in the last 5 years. and yes the yankees haven't won since 2000 but they still won the world series 4 times since '96...so the team that spends major dough on free agents doesn't ALWAYS win the title, but they do often enough and are competitive enough every year that it makes MLB in dire need of a salary cap.
What's wrong with a team being competitive every year?
you have big market teams like the yanks/red sox atop the divisions every year and teams like the royals nearer to the bottom. it's true that the organizations still need to be well run to succeed regardless of payroll, but when you have (unlimited) payroll flexibility like the red sox & yankees, you can afford to make big mistakes spending money (and they do), so they take these chances, such as the 3 deals we just saw. however, with small market teams, you simply cannot afford to make mistakes like that and be competitive, so they don't take nearly as many chances. introducing a salary cap will restrict the yankees from overbidding on any player they want which will allow more teams to be competitive every year.
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