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[weekend_warrior]

I just don't know that I care to continue following MLB until something changes, whether it's a salary cap to bring some parity to the league, balls and strikes no longer being determined by humans, or the league office actually letting the A's leave their raw sewage filled dual-use ballpark in the bankrupt crime-ridden ghetto that is Oakland for the bigger and wealthier city in the same metropolitan area that already has land set aside downtown for a new ballpark.

I'm not familiar with west coast geography, are you suggest moving another team to San Francisco?

 

[Sanjuro]

I'm not familiar with west coast geography, or you suggest moving another team to San Francisco?

...San Jose.

 

[Dominican Power]

How can you cry about lack of parity when you have teams like The Marlins and Astros making bank?

 

[Corran Horn]

I'm not familiar with west coast geography, are you suggest moving another team to San Francisco?

As would like to move to San Jose but Giants been blackballing that

 

[evil solrac v3.0]

Just like last year, all the teams with smaller payrolls and interesting stories are out of the playoffs by the LCS, and once again the rich get richer.

I've been to every A's home playoff game from 2000-2014, there were some great wins in that stretch (against the Yanks and Sox in the early years my favorite was the Ramon Hernandez walk-off bunt, Marco Scutaro beating the Twins in 06 the only time the A's advanced, amazing comebacks in game 162 and game 4 last year, the walk-off in game 2 this year), but a hell of a lot of elimination game losses.

I stopped following the NBA in the Shaq/Kobe era after I could no longer convince myself that the league and their refs (even before Tim Donaghy) would give every team a fair chance. I'm not delusional enough to believe that the A's should have won this series if not for a few calls or because they were the better team (they should have won if their bullpen had been managed better in game 4 but that's on them), facing Scherzer and Verlander in a five game series is pretty difficult. When everything breaks right for them and they somehow get beyond the big spenders in their division, they're still going to be exposed in the playoffs as they have to rely on flawed players like Colon and Moss whereas the opposing team has Verlander and Cabrera, on top of simply being far better the umpires will consistently give the close calls to the big name players.

I just don't know that I care to continue following MLB until something changes, whether it's a salary cap to bring some parity to the league, balls and strikes no longer being determined by humans, or the league office actually letting the A's leave their raw sewage filled dual-use ballpark in the bankrupt crime-ridden ghetto that is Oakland for the bigger and wealthier city in the same metropolitan area that already has land set aside downtown for a new ballpark. I'm a big fan of capitalism, but sports is about entertainment, and parity is more entertaining than seeing how many championships the big payroll teams can accumulate. Give me capitalism where the A's can move to a bigger market where they will make more money and be competitive, or a socialist salary cap so there's more to being successful than simply buying up all the best players.

so you're going to stop following baseball because you're butthurt that the A's can't get past the first round. never mind the fact that they compete every single year. yeah.....

 

[turnbuckle]

Man that was a hell of a series. Interesting to see how JV does against the Red Sox. That team scares me, but the Tigers are the team of destiny.

 

[cashman]

Just like last year, all the teams with smaller payrolls and interesting stories are out of the playoffs by the LCS, and once again the rich get richer.

I've been to every A's home playoff game from 2000-2014, there were some great wins in that stretch (against the Yanks and Sox in the early years my favorite was the Ramon Hernandez walk-off bunt, Marco Scutaro beating the Twins in 06 the only time the A's advanced, amazing comebacks in game 162 and game 4 last year, the walk-off in game 2 this year), but a hell of a lot of elimination game losses.

I stopped following the NBA in the Shaq/Kobe era after I could no longer convince myself that the league and their refs (even before Tim Donaghy) would give every team a fair chance. I'm not delusional enough to believe that the A's should have won this series if not for a few calls or because they were the better team (they should have won if their bullpen had been managed better in game 4 but that's on them), facing Scherzer and Verlander in a five game series is pretty difficult. When everything breaks right for them and they somehow get beyond the big spenders in their division, they're still going to be exposed in the playoffs as they have to rely on flawed players like Colon and Moss whereas the opposing team has Verlander and Cabrera, on top of simply being far better the umpires will consistently give the close calls to the big name players.

I just don't know that I care to continue following MLB until something changes, whether it's a salary cap to bring some parity to the league, balls and strikes no longer being determined by humans, or the league office actually letting the A's leave their raw sewage filled dual-use ballpark in the bankrupt crime-ridden ghetto that is Oakland for the bigger and wealthier city in the same metropolitan area that already has land set aside downtown for a new ballpark. I'm a big fan of capitalism, but sports is about entertainment, and parity is more entertaining than seeing how many championships the big payroll teams can accumulate. Give me capitalism where the A's can move to a bigger market where they will make more money and be competitive, or a socialist salary cap so there's more to being successful than simply buying up all the best players.

lulz invest in scouting and start finding real players instead of nobodies like Josh Donaldson and Bartolo Colon.

All you can hope to do is that your guys like Sonny Gray, Addison Russell, Michael Choice, Billy Mckinney, etc pan out.

 

[soundahfekz]

Man that was a hell of a series. Interesting to see how JV does against the Red Sox. That team scares me, but the Tigers are the team of destiny.

Indeed. I think we win that series. Benoit channeling the corpse of Valverde had me shitting bricks last night

 

[eznark]

Money can in fact buy championships.

 

[Rafa=FedKilla]

That makes no sense. For an ownership group that doesn't care about wins, they field a pretty competitive baseball team that wins quite a few games. They made the best decision they could to win games, re-signing Billy Beane to a contract that makes him the only GM with an ownership stake. On top of that, they are willing to privately fund their own ballpark in downtown San Jose instead of stealing public money like many other sports team owners.
The Coliseum is falling apart, attendance is awful even when they win, Oakland is no longer nationally relevant and even there they are stuck in the middle of an industrial wasteland that's barely connected to the rest of the city. How much revenue is coming in compared to what they're spending, and how does that compare to other owners? They're running a business, not a money-losing charity.

We are going to San Jose brah. MLB can't handle two lawsuits at once, Selig will surrender this one while continuing to fight Arod from becoming a live Centaur. Als the Expos will comeback.

 

[BFIB]

Money can in fact buy championships.

No doubt it betters your chances to get to the playoff dance, but those teams still have to win the games played. Just ask Boston fans about the Red Sox of 2010, or the Yankees fans this year.

The only thing that really pisses me off is when one of those teams decide to blow everyone else out of the water on the FA market to get a player (I'm looking at you John Lackey), which then completely fucks up the ability for other teams with lesser payrolls to get the same level of player on the open market.

 

[eznark]

No doubt it betters your chances to get to the playoff dance, but those teams still have to win the games played. Just ask Boston fans about the Red Sox of 2010, or the Yankees fans this year.

The only thing that really pisses me off is when one of those teams decide to blow everyone else out of the water on the FA market to get a player (I'm looking at you John Lackey), which then completely fucks up the ability for other teams with lesser payrolls to get the same level of player on the open market.

Teams with $117m payrolls don't get to cry about free agency.

 

[BFIB]

Teams with $117m payrolls don't get to cry about free agency.

Cards do tend to be in the top 10, but they also don't go "crazy" on the FA market either. Usually its by extending players they already have, or if they do go on the market, its one or two year deals (Beltran and Berkman type deals).

Obviously, the last time they went out and spent big, was on Holliday. But compared to what other players were making at the time, his deal pretty much fell in line.

 

[eznark]

Extending players impacts the market as much as free agent signings. If you have a problem with money in baseball (I don't) then being in the top ten in spending every year is something to abhor (to me it isn't).

Go Dodgers.

 

[BFIB]

Extending players impacts the market as much as free agent signings. If you have a problem with money in baseball (I don't) then being in the top ten in spending every year is something to abhor (to me it isn't).

Go Dodgers.

I see your point. I don't have an issue with the money involved either. Do I wish there was competitive balance across the board? Of course, but it is what it is.

Question though, when the Brewers had an offer in for CC to stay in Milwaukee, and the Yankees came in and blew that offer out of the water to where the Brewers never had a legit shot, did that at least leave a sour taste? That's the issue w/ the market I'm referring to.

 

[eznark]

I see your point. I don't have an issue with the money involved either. Do I wish there was competitive balance across the board? Of course, but it is what it is.

Question though, when the Brewers had an offer in for CC to stay in Milwaukee, and the Yankees came in and blew that offer out of the water to where the Brewers never had a legit shot, did that at least leave a sour taste? That's the issue w/ the market I'm referring to.

Not at all. Melvin made the trade knowing they wouldn't be able to keep him and if they had kept him it would've doomed the franchise. The only shitty thing about it was the Yankees signing so many free agents that year that CC didn't even net any draft compensation. That fucking sucked.

 

[turnbuckle]

Jackson and Fielder should have kept their asses in the dugout during the team celebration.

 

[Sanjuro]

Do I wish there was competitive balance across the board? Of course

That's foolish.

 

[beast786]

lol nice

 

[sf2fanatic]

As would like to move to San Jose but Giants been blackballing that

Why dont the Giants just make them move to Modesto or Stockton if they trying to do that..lol

 

[otapnam]

Why dont the Giants just make them move to Modesto or Stockton if they trying to do that..lol

Giants are lucky the haas family saved them from florida.

 

[Little Green Yoda]

Teams with $117m payrolls don't get to cry about free agency.

The difference between the Tigers' and the Cards' payrolls is roughly the same difference as the one between the Cards' and the Royals'. Using a number like 117M or 100M as an arbitrary benchmark doesn't accurately represent the reality of the market. The Cards are closer to being a mid-market team than a top-market team by payroll standards. The top 5 teams are on a different payroll tier than teams 6-10.

 

[Sanjuro]

Seems like there is a "tier" for every major league team to keep things fair.

If we are going to be realistic, St. Louis is a top spending team in MLB. There is no debate.

 

[BFIB]

Seems like there is a "tier" for every major league team to keep things fair.

If we are going to be realistic, St. Louis is a top spending team in MLB. There is no debate.

I'm reminded every time I pay $9.00 for a beer.

 

[otapnam]

St louis has also been run really well for a long long long time. Great organizations + spending usually means championships

 

[Little Green Yoda]

Seems like there is a "tier" for every major league team to keep things fair.

If we are going to be realistic, St. Louis is a top spending team in MLB. There is no debate.

Meh, I don't want to get into a semantics argument about what constitutes top-spending

Spoiler

I just think grouping a 115M payroll with 150M, 157M, and 214M payrolls is a little bit disingenuous

- sorry for opening that can of worms.

In other news, Volquez and Marmol are on the NLCS roster!

 

[RumblingRosco]

St louis has also been run really well for a long long long time. Great organizations + spending usually means championships

Along these lines, I like looking at cost-per-win for teams. In this case (bottom graph) STL spent the 13th most of any team per win. That is still less than any team still in the playoffs by ~$478,488 (Tigers) per win all the way up to $2,483,573 per win (Dodgers).

Of the 10 teams that were in the playoffs this year, Boston, the Dodgers, and Detroit spent more per win than STL. The Reds spent almost exactly the same amount per win as STL (the Reds spent $1,188,200 per win, or around $135 less per win than STL. The Braves, Pirates, Indians, Rays, and Athletics all spent less per win than STL by anywhere from $207,244 less (Braves) to $500,188 less (Oakland).

My point? Well, I'm not sure. The teams that spent the most per win also are the only teams left in the playoffs, although the difference between the Reds (who are obviously long since eliminated) and STL is negligible. St. Louis tends to be in the upper third of all team salaries year-to-year but never seems to dish out for insane individual contracts, so I'm relatively happy with this situation overall. I do hate the way it works out though as far as the low-budget teams getting screwed year-to-year, but I'm not sure what can be done about it and I'm not sure I like the idea of salary caps.

 

[Sanjuro]

Meh, I don't want to get into a semantics argument about what constitutes top-spending

Spoiler

I just think grouping a 115M payroll with 150M, 157M, and 214M payrolls is a little bit disingenuous

- sorry for opening that can of worms.

In other news, Volquez and Marmol are on the NLCS roster!

The only "tier" that contains a single team is the New York Yankees, and that is not a bad thing.

Dodgers are throwing money around and seeing what sticks.

 

[HarryDemeanor]

In other news, Volquez and Marmol are on the NLCS roster!

Well it was nice to make it this far. See you guys next year!

 

[The Real Napsta]

Why is everyone complaining about the Tigers being in the playoffs? They were like almost the worst team ever ten years ago.

 

[shwimpy]

Dodgers only have one lefty out of the bullpen... don't understand that move.

 

[Little Green Yoda]

The only "tier" that contains a single team is the New York Yankees, and that is not a bad thing.

Dodgers are throwing money around and seeing what sticks.

Depending on how the Cano contract shakes out (as well as the ARod situation), the Dodgers have a chance of passing the Yankees in the payroll department.

 

[Tenumi]

Why is everyone complaining about the Tigers being in the playoffs? They were like almost the worst team ever ten years ago.

Because spending money, I suppose.

I would just like to say, though, that these last two ALDS series with the Tigers and A's have been enjoyable. A's are great, and the teams are pushing each other to the limit. That sounds like good baseball to me (Well, the casual fan that I am).

 

[HarryDemeanor]

Dodgers only have one lefty out of the bullpen... don't understand that move.

Who knows what the hell they're thinking.

 

[Mr. Enigma]

Chris Capuano and Paco Rodriguez are out. Edinson Volquez and Carlos Marmol are in.

 

[shwimpy]

Chris Capuano and Paco Rodriguez are out. Edinson Volquez and Carlos Marmol are in.

Is Mattingly trying to throw the series?

 

[Mr. Enigma]

I don't get taking off Capuano unless he's hurt. He saved the Dodgers in Game 3. If the Braves had gotten to face Volquez instead of Capuano, that might have been a much different story.

 

[Sanjuro]

Depending on how the Cano contract shakes out (as well as the ARod situation), the Dodgers have a chance of passing the Yankees in the payroll department.

Because those LA markets have been trying for years to turn their franchises into the Lakers model unsuccessfully.

 

[jbug617]

Buchholz says he starting Game 2. Means Lackey is Game 3.

 

[HarryDemeanor]

I don't get taking off Capuano unless he's hurt. He saved the Dodgers in Game 3. If the Braves had gotten to face Volquez instead of Capuano, that might have been a much different story.

The Cardinals have hit pretty well against him during the regular season. That was when he was starting but I would have kept him on instead of Marmol.

 

[Malo]

Depending on how the Cano contract shakes out (as well as the ARod situation), the Dodgers have a chance of passing the Yankees in the payroll department.

Dodgers will definitely have a higher payroll than the Yankees next season.

 

[weekend_warrior]

Dodgers will definitely have a higher payroll than the Yankees next season.

I expect the Dodgers to break $300 million within the next few seasons.

 

[brianjones]

marmol has only given up 2 ER since august 2

paco gave up 3 just in the last series

tough break for capuono.. he was great, but that was jekyll.. you never know when hyde is gonna come out

i didnt realize just how many lefty hitters cards have tho

all their RHP should favor ethier

 

[HarryDemeanor]

Andre Ethier is starting tonight.

Excite.

 

[Sanjuro]

I'm more curious what the Yankees do with the Jeter situation over the other two.

 

[darkside31337]

My guess is Jeter doesn't opt out and announces its his last year so he can get his own farewell tour.

 

[BFIB]

My guess is Jeter doesn't opt out and announces its his last year so he can get his own farewell tour.

That's a pretty safe assumption. Yankees are coming to St.L next year, gotta go to those games to honor my personal favorite player of all time. #2!

 

[weekend_warrior]

I'm more curious what the Yankees do with the Jeter situation over the other two.

What's to wonder? Jetes will be back to playing at an all-star level next year.

 

[Sanjuro]

That's a pretty safe assumption. Yankees are coming to St.L next year, gotta go to those games to honor my personal favorite player of all time. #2!

...if he is still playing.

 

[Sanjuro]

What's to wonder? Jetes will be back to playing at an all-star level next year.

It's a scary thought when the primary focus of your organization is to trot him around, ballpark to stadium, when he is a broken player. Combine him with A-Rod, Cash is going to need to do something about the left side of the infield.

If the solution is still Nunez...LOL.