Cliff Lee to the Phillies


Any team East of the Appalachian Mountains and North of Potomac River are ruining baseball. Our beloved Twins play the game the right, have finally spent some money to improve the team and those complete and total ^@&%@%^*%^!#%^*((%&@$*$^@$%%&#&($^$%$@ out East, just &$%%@#$%@$%&*!$%*#$^!#$&$%&*$%(!. I'm so pissed right now.

F you Bud Selig you spineless, no brained, no talent @$$ clown. You let the great professional sport go to hell, F you!!!
 



The sordid history of Major League Baseball makes me think you are being dramatic by say this is 'ruining' baseball.

And lets be honest about the Twins, our owners don't pony up like others. That is the fault of the Twins, not the other owners who are willing to invest more heavily. The Twins operate like a business, which is to say that decisions are made through a 'how do we maximize our profitability' perspective. They will spend just enough to keep TF full of people, not more, not less. Other teams operate from a 'what do we have to do to win' perspective. I wish our owners operated under the latter mindset.
 


The sordid history of Major League Baseball makes me think you are being dramatic by say this is 'ruining' baseball.

And lets be honest about the Twins, our owners don't pony up like others. That is the fault of the Twins, not the other owners who are willing to invest more heavily. The Twins operate like a business, which is to say that decisions are made through a 'how do we maximize our profitability' perspective. They will spend just enough to keep TF full of people, not more, not less. Other teams operate from a 'what do we have to do to win' perspective. I wish our owners operated under the latter mindset.

Larger market teams spend more than the Twins, but they also have more resources available. The operating income of the Yankees is almost the same as the Twins. They just have way more money coming in from their tv deal, ability to sell tickets at a higher price, and other things that are affected by the market size.

http://www.forbes.com/lists/2010/33/baseball-valuations-10_The-Business-Of-Baseball_Income.html

Look at the difference in revenue. The Twins have almost always been at the bottom. Target Field will help but they will never be close to the top.
 

Larger market teams spend more than the Twins, but they also have more resources available. The operating income of the Yankees is almost the same as the Twins. They just have way more money coming in from their tv deal, ability to sell tickets at a higher price, and other things that are affected by the market size.

http://www.forbes.com/lists/2010/33/baseball-valuations-10_The-Business-Of-Baseball_Income.html

Look at the difference in revenue. The Twins have almost always been at the bottom. Target Field will help but they will never be close to the top.

The Yankees will always be the exception, which is why this deal is GOOD for baseball, not the end of baseball like mnboiler is suggesting. A player turned down the big money to be with a franchise that he felt connected to. The Phillies, which is the team in question here, had $10mil less in operating income. That number is after a WS win for them and before TF for us (april 2010). The Phillies are choosing to try to win, the Twins are trying to maximize revenues.
 

The Yankees will always be the exception, which is why this deal is GOOD for baseball, not the end of baseball like mnboiler is suggesting. A player turned down the big money to be with a franchise that he felt connected to. The Phillies, which is the team in question here, had $10mil less in operating income. That number is after a WS win for them and before TF for us (april 2010). The Phillies are choosing to try to win, the Twins are trying to maximize revenues.

But even if we were to spend so we have the same operating income as the Phillies, we would still be no where close to their payroll.

I understand what you're saying and I agree to some extend, but virtually every team is close to breaking even or profiting. The only way the Twins could come even close to spending like the Phillies, Red Sox, Mets, Dodgers, and Cubs is if they lose a ton of money.

I'm not one to shout "it's so unfair" or anything. The Twins and other middle or small market teams can have success. But it's ridiculous to think that the Twins will ever be able to spend like the teams in the larger markets do. It's ridiculous to expect the owners to be ok with losing millions of dollars every year.
 

You make good points, and as I am prone to do, I've gone off subject to lead us down this path. But except for the Yankees high priced FA that lead to inflated payrolls are a huge risk for teams even without a salary cap because there is a limit for most of them.
 



The question here is, will they have the winninest season in MLB history? With a rotation of Lee, Hamels, Halladay, and Oswalt to go with players like Howard, Utley, Victorino, and Rollins; its hard to see them losing very often

The Phillies won't come close to 116 wins.

IMO, they would've been better served spending the Cliff Lee money on a bat (Adrian Beltre) to help offset the loss of Jayson Werth and steep decline of Raul Ibanez in an offense that was already remarkably inconsistent last year. Take the savings in salary and apply it to the back end of the bullpen (Rafael Soriano), unless you think Brad Lidge can stay healthy, or Jose Contreras can repeat his 2010.
 

You make good points, and as I am prone to do, I've gone off subject to lead us down this path. But except for the Yankees high priced FA that lead to inflated payrolls are a huge risk for teams even without a salary cap because there is a limit for most of them.

Yeah, I don't know if a salary cap is a good idea or not. I think a salary floor is just as important as a salary cap.
 




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