But those NL central teams aren’t complaining when we fill their empty ballparks and buy their beer and hotdogs at incredible rates.

Yes, the Rays have a very talented team right now. But it took incredibly fortunate moves and the fact that they’ve had an inordinate run of high draft picks over the years for them to succeed. And it didn’t hurt that the Yankees had a down year. And I doubt they’ll have a long shelf life, because when their cheap players stop being cheap they won’t be able to keep them.

But, that’s just the reality of baseball. The small market teams have to hope for better success in the draft and to get lucky from year to year.

The real concern should be the Red Sox. They have unlimited payroll AND a good farm system. At least with the Cubs and Yankees, they can be countered by a mediocre/poor farm system. The Rad Sox are the type of team that is a nightmare to the idea of competitive balance.

The Brewers had every right, every opportunity and every chance to find the money to sign Sabathia. The Yankees made a better offer.

Them’s the breaks.

And here’s something else to consider:

Since 2000, only one team, the Red Sox, has won more than one championship. Only two other times — Cards in 04 and 06 and Yanks in 00, 01 and 03, have teams made it to more than one World Series.

More teams have a chance than they did in the 1990s.

Don’t cry for the “small markets”, they have their own competitive options. The mainstream would never accuse Milwaukee of “buying” themselves a trip the playoffs last year but by acquiring Sabathia, did they do anything that the Yankees aren’t doing right now? Sure, the currency involved was young players instead of dollars but the net result is that both teams are trying to better their clubs at the expense of some of their resources be it players or dollars. Yes, the Yankees have more of the latter than nearly eveyrone else, but I would argue that the don’t have more of the former. They do business one way, other teams do business another way. Either way, nothing is guaranteed whether you acquire your assets through players or through cash.

is it because we’re big market Cub fans and we’re biased? I’m sure you don’t hear New York baseball fans complaining about this…but I bet it’s different on Brew Crew ball, for instance.
Again, of course spending money guarantees nothing, but there’s no denying that doing so DRAMATICALLY improves your chances. The small market teams will rise temporarily, then fall to earth after a year or two once that window shuts. Not so for the big market teams. I know it’s been a problem in baseball for a long time- but I love it how in the NFL, for instance, you have no idea when the year starts who will contend for a Super Bowl. For many MLB teams, the season is over before it starts. In many cases, they have themselves to blame- but in some cases, I don’t think so. I heard the YES network, when combined with the Yankees, is worth 4 Billion. No wonder the Yanks never run out of money. You can’t tell me the Brewers, for instance, could pay Sabathia $160 million but simply choose not to. They just don’t have that kind of cash. It’s just not a level playing field, period, without a salary cap.

This should make it like the old days, once your establish a connection with a young kid during the drafting/scouting period, he becomes part of the city and the fans have a real connection as they see the young kid turn into an old man and retires with the same team he came up with. Why do you think all those old time New Yorkers go crazy when they talk about “The Mick” or “Joltin Joe” and the old timer sawx fans talking about “Fisk” or “Ted Williams”

These salaries are out of control thus making it way too expensive for us common folks to go to games and buy team gear. Damn Jersey’s are close to a 100 bucks now. DAMN!

Limit teams to $10 million max for 3 players and $5-9 million for 5 players and then the rest of the team for the league minimum to 5 million or so. That would really change things, and the players would still have more money then they could spend in a lifetime for playing a childs game.

Something needs to be done, so many hard working Americans are busting their butts everyday and barely surviving and then guys like Manny Ramirez are upset because teams aren’t making offers to him so he threatens to retire. Come on, something is really wrong with this system