Phillies Nation

Baseball needs a salary cap, pure and simple.

Hey Don M, Howard was MVP on his team this year and nearly won his 2nd NL MVP award. No one came close to Howard in HRs and RBIs in the NL. I wonder if Teixiera won an MVP?

As Don noted: Teixiera averages .290, 37 HRs, 123 RBIs and…..
Howard averages .279, 50 HR, 143 RBIs. No contest. I want Howard. And reading what Teixiera’s agent is demanding for his client, Howard would have been cheaper to sign to a multi-year contract last year and still this year.

MVP is award that is voted on by baseball writers.. you can look at the stats and call them “MVP” type numbers, but that is like saying a player is better because he has more All-Star game appearances… it just doesn’t matter that much.

Tex would be a swtich-hitting power hitter, and while not quite the league-leader that Howard is, he still ranks 6th in RBIs with 121, and tied for 14th in HRs with 33

all while hitting .308, and he’s a Gold Glove 1b…

I’m just saying if they were both Free Agents, and you could get them both for the same price.. I’d go after Teixiera over Howard

One of things that plagues this team every single year is the same thing that many claimed plagued our farm system RISK-REWARD players..

I think that you add a David Wright, Ryan Bruan, Mark Teixeira to our team insteaf of Howard, and maybe you don’t get as many HRs, but you also don’t get the side retired on K’s in the 8th innings of a close game, etc..

That said, I can’t wrap my head around the fact that a team might give Tex the 3rd highest contract in baseball history, behind the 1st, and then the 2nd ARod contract..

My point is that we’ve had the talent for a few years now, and its tough to pull away in the NL East when you can’t sustain long win streaks.. the Phillies have made it harder on themselves than it needed to be in the past few years, and you have to blame that on inconsistent offense..

The Phillies had a great September because of Howard.. who didn’t do much in the playoffs.. If it wasn’t for Ruiz, Werth we don’t win the World Series last season.

I understand the arguement for both players between Tex and Howard.. what I can’t understand is that some consider Howard such a better player, as though its not even close.. There are numerous 1b that would probably improve our team with their better defense, and ability to make contact, which moves baserunners along… maybe not driving in as many runs as Howard, but doing much more all-around..

Pujols, Teixiera, Berkmann would probably make us a better all-around TEAM than we are with Howard hitting 4th

Tex is a better player than Howard, sure when you compare the numbers as above Howard comes up on top but he isn’t a player you can rely on. Tex is a very professional player dedicated to improving and though he doesn’t have Howards upside and it’s undeniable Howards ceiling when he’s on a streak as Don points out we’d win more games with a Tex and we’d be up there with Boston year on year if we had Pujols.

Again there’s no doubting Howards ability but there is doubt over his commitment to the game and becoming a better player, he seems content to be a swing for the fences slugger and his fundementals at the plate are nothing short of aweful.

Tex has done himself a dis-service, you can understand why a player puts Boras on his team but the guy is hurting his clients names. Aparently it went un-noticed until today that only 1 Boras client has signed this off-season, I swear the guy could literally screw himself without even realising.

Wow I’m usually pretty repsectful of the Yankees and I don’t believe the game should have a salary cap but the Yankees are screwing with the rules this year. The Brewers now loose that 1st round pick and the league office should really be interceeding because although unlikely they could go sign Manny, Sheets and leave the teams with players they’ve signed with almost worthless draft picks. Suddenly the Brewers look like they’ve been taken to the cleaners for Sabathia.

The Yankees have to get hit by the luxury tax more than they are now irrelevant of setting a new high. The compensation system needs to be reviewed by the league to stop this kind of abuse of the system.

I agree…theyve gone too far this time…it goes without saying that these contract will probably all backfire on them though…except maybe texeira. the ptichers will become black hole contracts by the time their finished in NY. burnett is almost guaranteed to do that.

and this is THE main reason why baseball should have a salary cap. it prevents teams from becoming totally and compeltely irresponsible like the yankees are. ALL THREE of these signings are HORRIBLE signings. absolutely stupid.

i know its the steinbrenners but cashman could quit…or try and say no…

anybody remember the galactico plan by real madrid in the spanish soccer league? where they signed ALL the premier mercenary soccer players to contracts like this? beckham, ronaldo, etc? well they did not win a single championship with any of those players…the last time they won they had a compeltely different squad….

same goes with the yankees…

They willingly overpaid by MILLIONS of dollars on each of these contracts..

They outbid themselves on each one.. the RedSox are said to be targeting Joe Mauer when he becomes a Free Agent..

This makes baseball suck when the best players leave for the most money, and the most money always comes from 1 of 6 teams.

“The real losers are the taxpayers of New York”

I agree completely and as one of those taxpayers, I am disgusted, but not surprised. I was beginning to lose a little hatred towards the Yankee$ since they haven’t won in 8 years, but now the burning hatred is back. I despise them.

yeah this system has totally fallen apart…

Wow… unfathomable. The Yankees paid almost $30 million in luxury tax last season. What will that number look like this year?

I don’t get how the Jays, Brewers picks get pushed back… how does that happen?

Chuck P, the Jays lost Burnett so they were going to receive some team’s first round pick. Since the Yankee$ also signed Sabathia and Teixeira, the Blue Jays will now receive the Yanks 3rd round pick, the Brewers will get their 1st rounder and the Angels their 2nd rounder.
So the Blue Jays lost A.J. Burnett and now all they’ll get out of it is the Yankees’s 3rd rounder (since the arbitration system has Sabathia and Tex ranked higher than Burnett).

they need to make them pay like an insane amount of luxury tax and then GIVE it to the teams that lost those players, or give them to the lowest payroll teams or to teh THOUSANDS of americans starving everyday because they have no job and no food…

i dont even liek socialism, but you have to punish monopilies because that destroys competition and the industry as a whole, which costs people their jobs and livelihoods as an effect of that…its baseball, yeah, but the people that will suffer are the marginal players who never made much money anyway…

I have a problem blaming the owners… it’s their business plan and their money that is at risk. I do hate the Yankees… I don’t know how they can afford it… they’re obviously making bank. Baseball needs to make sure that the structure is the best that it can be… it stinks to end up with a third round pick for a Type A… you want the penalties/taxes to make it difficult for a team to buy a championship but you don’t want to kill a franchise. It’s a difficult balance. In the end, buying a championship hasn’t worked recently so we just have to hope that it doesn’t work this year.

50% of CBP was financed with taxpayer dollars (just like Yankee stadium) but their stadium cost 5x as much as CBP… if you are a taxpayer, you have a right to be upset but it’s not uncommon to build stadiums with taxpayer dollars.

Aparently due to their own player losses the only time Yankees don’t pick in the coming draft will be the third round, the system is broken… Forget the spending spree the compensation for the 4th highest paid player in basball cannot be a sandwich and a 2nd.

That contract is absolutely absurd. Sooner or later, the salaries in the game have to hit a ceiling. It’s just a shame that if that ceiling doesn’t come voluntarily, it may mean the death of the game. Because when the salaries become too high, and people get sick of the salaries, and nobody can afford to pay anything, the game dies

Actually, the NHL is the most competetively balanced league right now. Plenty of teams in the mix, and plenty of good hockey to watch. I love baseball, but there are some teams that are unwatchable when you have no rooting interest. A lot of teams actually.

remember, this is baseball, not the government. msot of the time, when the government does something it ends up being really really bad. in baseball or pro sports, its ok to impose regulations from time to time…

I don’t think that the game will die… I think that baseball has made a huge resurgence since the strike year. It took a lot to win back the fans but they have done it. It doesn’t appeal as much to the older generations… baseball purists… but I love it. It starts with the park. The ballpark is a place where I can take my family and friends for a good time… win or lose, we’re having fun.

You can have parity and salary caps if you want but I like these storylines. If the Yankees are spending this much they must be making much more. If that’s the case, why not spend it on top tier players? I mean, where else would you expect them to spend it? They could take that money and head to the bank but instead they’re investing it in winning. Again, the system has to make sure that teams can’t buy championships and every team can be competitive regardless of market size but judging by the results, the system is not that far off.

Is there a place online to protest the Yankees or the lack of salary caps in baseball? Sure there’s been a new World Series champion each year, but small market teams like Kansas City, Pittsburg, Baltimore, etc. haven’t been good for decades! When’s that gonna change Bud?