Thursday, July 30, 2009

The Salary System and the Trade Deadline

For most baseball fans, the trade deadline is an exciting time. Sure was yesterday for the Phillies faithful, as they got last year's American League Cy Young Award winner, Cliff Lee, and a good young outfielder Ben Francisco to bolster their major league squad toward another World Series run. Same thing for Boston when they got Adam LaRoche. Will likely be for some other well-heeled club when they trade for Roy Halladay. But folks, is this REALLY good for baseball. As many as there are excited fans, there are other teams who have to trade their best talent for the hopes of catching lightning in the barrel with other team's prospects. And while we like to think of this as just another way to make a contending team, and it has worked in the past (i.e. the Florida Marlin strategy), it is that vagary known as the baseball salary structure that is causing all this consternation, whether all good, all bad, or somewhere in between. Geez, are the Pittsburgh Pirates trying to get rid of everybody who can play? Wasn't it just a couple minutes ago that most thought the Cleveland Indians were on the verge of making a big playoff push? And didn't even those Toronto Blue Jays start off this season with a bang, only to be hurt by injuries, and now to be dismantled due to payroll problems?

Of course, the main problem is contracts that some teams can not afford, but we're not going to complain about the top numbers. We all know that those top flight Free Agents, such as Santana, Teixera, CC Sabathia, and coming soon to a Free Agent pool near you, Roy Halladay, are going to end up on a New York or New England or left coast team with money to burn. Guess we should all get used to that. But that doesn't come until a player has six years of service time. But what we're getting now is pushing well below that, talk from the Super Two level through the rest of those arbitration years. Oakland got rid of Blanton and Haren when they had several years left until free agency. Pittsburgh is going that route with (yes the LaRoche's, Bay's, and Sanchez's with impending free agency on the horizon), but also with those like a McLouth. What that now means is you have to start worrying about whether you can afford to keep a player at Super Two time, meaning 1/3 of those players with more than 2 years of major league service time, but less than three, are on the clock.

Is this anyway to run an airline?

But it's not going to change. The players and owners have become comfortable with a system that causes the consternation, which leads to discussion, and we all know that it's that adage about no bad publicity that runs part of the show. Now not most of the show, I realize, that's still called money. Free agents will get theirs, even if the economy slows down the top numbers slightly. Arbitration eligibles will get theirs, although it would be nice if those arbitrators backed up a bit. Was there really a great reason to push Ryan Howard to the stratosphere that early? I know, special player, special arbitration award. So maybe that makes sense. But it does exacerbate the problem.

Geez, maybe it all makes sense. It's the new world order, don't you know. More than half the people in the USA work for the government now, too. So what if over half the free agents end up on a half dozen teams. It'll make for one great trading deadline for those six towns anyway. Just don't count the tears for the others as being eco-friendly.

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