Is MLB in trouble?

[Spaceman213J]

I grew up a Red Sox fan in New England, and the offseason narrative was almost always about the Yankees and their spending and the Red Sox spending will always come up short.

Now we have a handful of teams, Yankees, Cubs, Rangers, Mets, looks like the Red Sox again, and of course the Dodgers who are spending like crazy. Other teams like the Braves, Padres and a few others spend money at times. It just seems the spending by the teams at the top is out of control and the luxury tax means nothing to them anymore.

Does/can baseball do more to help balance. Would penalizing teams heavier in the draft pick department and IA free agent money help. I would like to see a system (again if possible) where homegrown talent doesn't count toward the salary cap/threshold.

I live in VA now and look at a team like the Orioles who were pretty bad for a number of years and built a really good team, mostly from draft and development. I would think there would be more excitement down here, but it's more like they hold hope to win a World Series in the next few years, but also counting down the time until their group of young stars hit the free agent market and leave.

A few other teams are putting together a nice young nucleus and I just wonder if it feels the same there.

Kind of ironic that as I write this, my brother just informed me that Snell is signing with the Dodgers.

 

[Deepster]

I don’t know. You can pencil the Celtics in the last four teams. Same for the Chiefs. Rarely do you get cinderellas in any sport to actually contend for a title.

I think the short lived moneyball era found a loophole to allow small market teams to compete but those days are far gone.

Money talks. Big markets rule. Welcome to America.

 

[Scoe]

Less analytics and bring back steroids.

 

[mauconnfan]

Less analytics and bring back steroids.

Steroids is still there don’t you doubt that. But the Dodgers are making the yanks and others thrifty. It’s ridiculous honestly. Give them Soto too who cares.

 

[Excalibur]

Steroids is still there don’t you doubt that. But the Dodgers are making the yanks and others thrifty. It’s ridiculous honestly. Give them Soto too who cares.

If George was still alive he'd be spending right up there with LA.

 

[mauconnfan]

If George was still alive he'd be spending right up there with LA.

He’s not alive though and Hal’s cheap. Hence the difference. Sox spent as much as everyone when they won then they pull the reigns back to save for a while and no playoffs. They’ll spend this year after a couple years of holding back heck rumors are they’ve offered the most for Soto.

 

[Waquoit]

They need a salary floor. And the Red Sox are spending again? Yeah, right.

 

[Devland]

Not a baseball fan. But I would think it would hurt not having the local baseball networks (Yes, NESN) on most streaming services. Especially since the cable networks are going the way of newspapers and magazines.

 

[HCCForever]

I am a long time baseball fan in general and Sox in particular. I will always love the game even if the Sox are in the middle of the pack nowadays with spending money.

One thing the game doesn't need IMO is gimmicks like the proposed "golden at bat rule". Seems like a joke. I do like the pitching clock but I don't like putting runners on second in extra innings. I don't need gimmicks, but my attention span must be longer than younger fans.