Is it that you’re missing a link on the Weiner sentence, Craig, or making a joke that he’s like a list of Young Republicans without trust funds?

On revenue sharing:  I often hear these arguments about some small market teams pocketing the money.  But I wonder why it’s automatically assumed that’s what is done, just because it’s not seen in salary increases for their players.  Isn’t it possible that some of those teams have opted to spend that money, or just more money in general, on things that aren’t so readily apparent, such as international scouting and development?  Or even things that ARE more readily apparent, like signing bonuses for draft choices?  Can we really determine exactly where the exact dollars currently received through revenue sharing goes?  Certainly I know some teams definitely don’t spend it (see the Florida Marlins), but I’m not 100% sure that’s always the case.

That’s the thing - you’d have to allow for the money to be spent on scouting and development, but that would probably require teams to open up their books.  Somehow, I don’t see that happening.

On revenue sharing:  I often hear these arguments about some small market teams pocketing the money.  But I wonder why it’s automatically assumed that’s what is done, just because it’s not seen in salary increases for their players.

As a fan of the big bad Yankees, I think most large market fans don’t mind if the money isn’t being spent directly on the players, because as others have mentioned, as long as it’s being put back into the team to make the team more competitive which is the ultimate goal of everyone.

However, it seems to me that there have been some cases of teams pocketing large amounts of revenue sharing + luxury tax money AND cutting payroll.  If you are getting all this money for doing nothing, why do you need to cut payroll as well?

“As a fan of the big bad Yankees, I think most large market fans don’t mind if the money isn’t being spent directly on the players, because as others have mentioned, as long as it’s being put back into the team to make the team more competitive which is the ultimate goal of everyone.”

@MJ:  My point is that it seems to me that everybody automatically assumes that the money is being pocketed when it’s not obviously being spent directly on salary.  So I guess I’ll ask you this:  As a Yankee fan, what small market / small salary team out there do you see that you KNOW (not just suspect based on level of success on the field) is spending its luxury tax / revenue sharing money on the team?

As a Yankee fan, what small market / small salary team out there do you see that you KNOW (not just suspect based on level of success on the field) is spending its luxury tax / revenue sharing money on the team?

That I KNOW, only one team for sure seems to come up, ‘06 Marlins with a whopping <$15M in total payroll.  There’s been a few teams here and there with <$30M for a year, but surprisingly (according to COT’s website), a lot of teams seem to have spent in the $50-$80M range this year (in fact, the royals spent more than the twins!).

iirc it’s also a concern for at least one owner, when the last CBA was being discussed and some owners wanted to institute a hard cap, one owner voted against it because there was no salary floor, leading to the problem we are discussing.  3 guesses who that sole owner was.

“Some of the revenue sharing coming from the Universe has allowed us to put the Pirates on layaway.”
YankeesfanLen: You might be on to something here.  In the past, we’ve already discussed how I’d like to buy a team if I ever hit the lottery. You suggested the Pirates. Ya think I could get the franchise to let me put it on layaway?

RE Michael Weiner-I looked at the Elias rankings about a year ago and it’s absurd. It certainly burdens the free agent market when utility players can be (and are) ranked higher than all-stars. This results in nominal compensation to a team that couldn’t come to terms with one of its better players and can obviously price a utility guy out of the market if the compensation (draft pick) is too high.  It’s hard to imagine any of the smaller market teams really loving this contract provision. If I can get the Pirates on layaway, I’d vote to change it.