Sigh. That sucks. Stupid #*@$(&@ Twins.


http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/baseball/mlb/11/22/bc.bba.angels.hunter.ap/index.html

Baseball has got to come up with a cap. Unless you're the Yankees, Red Sox, Cubs, Mets, Dodgers, Angels, or Giants, you're at a huge disadvantage. Sure you'll get that Marlins or White Sox team who sneaks in and grabs a title every few years, but even when the smaller market teams do well, they get all their players stolen away by the big market teams and end up stinking again. It's an awful system.

DeROK wrote:

Agreed. I think it's a joke. I've really been getting turned off from baseball the past few years. I used to love it, but not near as much now. Oh well... can't wait to lose Santana soon as well! Hooray!

Sounds like he got more like 90 mil...no way would I ever sign a guy for that much money when he is an aging center fielder...he's already had injury problems...oh well, sad to see him go nonetheless...I woulda took the cash too...

TWolfTim22 wrote:

Yeah, I don't blame Hunter and wouldn't have given him that much either if I were the Twins GM. The Twins SHOULD have traded him last year, if not earlier. A three year deal would have been nice though so he could play in the new park...

No way the Twins should have offered Hunter $18 million per season. He is almost 33, and had his best year this past season. He'll probably only get worse, and he won't be worth it when he is 36.

DeROK wrote:
This is reality. It has nothing to do with the Twins. The fact of the matter is that the Twins do a better job than just about any small market club building contenders. Will they ever be able to put together a world series champion again under the current rules? Doubtfull. I like the NBA cap rules. There are a lot of what seem to be BS rules but they are all designed to create equality.

The NBA is better than MLB in some ways in that it keeps everyone on equal footing, but in other ways it's worse. The NBA's cap and guaranteed contracts mean that if you make a bad signing or two, it can kill your chances to compete for a title for years. Just look at how screwed up the Wolves are. The problem is that there's often no way to tell how a player will turn out. So as a GM, you can either take a gamble and risk trashing your franchise, or you can sit and do nothing until that miracle \"sure thing\" comes around. Sure some players are a safer bet than others, but there's just no way to tell. Even an injury in a great player could kill you for a couple season like Terrell Brandon. We all rag on McHale, but it was basically sign guys like Mike James and Trenton Hassell and risk getting burned by a bad contract, or not sign them and have people rag on you for not doing anything and letting them walk. It's lose-lose.

MLB's problem is that there is no cap so big market teams have a huge advantage. However, the fact that there is no cap lets teams possibly recover from a bad guaranteed deal, assuming that they have additional money they can spend. I guess if you're a poor team and you make a bad signing you're still screwed, but that's the minority.

The best way to do things is to have a cap and non-guaranteed contracts like the NFL. That keeps everyone on an even level and lets you stay competitive every year. The players in the MLB and NBA would strike in a heartbeat if they ever tried this, but it's the only prayer those two leagues have of ever catching up to the NFL.

DeROK wrote:
Agreed. See Troy Hudson.