And George Springer appears to have taken a nasty pitch right on the kneecap and is out of the game. Wonder what effect that will have on things.
Domination is looking at how a team fares over the years. Not just who wins the World Series in a single season.
Since we’re having this discussion, here’s my ideas to avoid a strike:
- Hard Salary Cap of X .
- Salary FLOOR of X - (X x .25) - Teams must pay players this or they take x2 the penalty of teams exceeding the cap.
- Rookie contracts capped at a hard 3 years. No more gamesmanship with playing time. If you’re drafted at 18, you’re unrestricted at 21.
X becomes the negotiating point.
How about eliminate any talk of salary cap and have the owners share 100% of all revenues equally among all their teams.
The eighth inning has not been good.
Wow, the game turned around in a hurry.
Nicely understated. Way to go, Suarez.
Meanwhile to the South, Ohtani (HR on 1st at-bat!) & the Dodgers getting started quickly to try and get it done with.
Dang. First, Cal’s crazy self-made double play in the 4th, then the HR in the 8th to tie it up. What a freaking monster of a player.
And then Geno, with his two HRs, one of which is a grand slam.
The Mariners needed that so badly.
That’s a wrap. 3-2 series lead for Mariners as they head back to Toronto.
According to this - since 1995, 48% of the champions and 38% of the contestants in the World Series have had top 5 payrolls.
So 52% weren’t in the top five when they won the world series.
Baseball’s biggest spender has won the World Series just three times in the last 23 seasons: the 2009 New York Yankees, 2018 Boston Red Sox and 2020 Los Angeles Dodgers. Going back to the start of the Wild Card Era in 1995, the highest roller has just six championships, with the Yankees also winning in 1996, 1999 and 2000.
Link to AP March 2024 article.
It’s a great question, this article covers it pretty well.
The very top has won 5 times since 1998, but with rare exceptions you need to at least be in the top ten to even have a chance.
Only twice in that span has someone outside of the top ten won, and the lowest was the 25th in salary out of 30. There’s a clear correlation between spending and winning.
But spending the most is absolutely not a guarantee of winning the championship, I totally agree.
If the Brewers managed to win the World Series, they’d be the second-lowest salary (by rank) to win since 1998. But it’s looking like they’re being swept by the team with the first or second highest payroll (depending on whose numbers you go by).
The Mariners, who I’m rooting for (as they’re my home team) is 16th from what I can tell. If they win it all they would only be the 3rd team not in the top ten to win since '98.
In case anyone was wondering if Shohei Ohtani is good at baseball, I can report that Shohei Ohtani is good at baseball.
Yeah, but it seems like every time he bats, they lose the ball.
K k K k K k K k K k
Beyond the arguments on whether baseball has less parity then other sports, there is also the question of whether dominant teams are actually bad for a sport. Anyone want to argue that baseball would be better if Ohtani was playing golf in Anaheim right now?
Ohtani now with as many runs in this game as the Brewers have this series.
Guaranteed Hall of Famer for sure.
The crazy thing is that if the Dodgers win in a shutout, Ohtani technically won the game singlehandedly by himself, since he kept the Brewers from scoring any runs and his home run in the 1st inning provided all the runs the Dodgers needed to win.
Edit: never mind.
Mind. Boggled.