The Baltimore Orioles have a problem.
Currently, they have a good nucleus of a team, but the sorely need a front line pitcher (or 2), and a slugging first baseman and outfielder to be able to compete with the Yankees and Red Sox if they hope to make the playoffs.
This time of year is critical to the Orioles since it is the time that free agents are signing contracts with their new teams. This is the time to add those missing pieces.
Until last year, the O’s had a terrible time getting front line talent to come and play for them – the problem is that the Yankess and Red Sox seem to have a contending team every year and the most money to spend, so they tend to get the best players to sign with them. The problem was so bad in the past, that a former general manager of the Birds said he felt like they were offering “confederate money.”
In the past few years, the O’s have moved their team from terrible to one that is viewed as a few players (the pitchers, first baseman and outfielder I mentioned above) from being a contending team in the toughest division in Major League Baseball. The best players are now willing to take a look at Baltimore as a place to play, but the O’s are in a position that they need to probably “overpay” to get the best talent.
This is risky, since the O’s don’t have the resources (pronounced $) that the Yankees and Red Sox do. If the O’s overpay for a few players that don’t live up to the expectations, they are stuck. If the Yankees or Red Sox overpay, they just write it off and start looking for the replacement.
This uneven distribution of resources is at the heart of one of the biggest problems with Major League Baseball. The same teams are winning year after year, while teams with less resources are forced to search high and low for young players to develop into the stars that later use free agency to move to the Yankees and Red Sox and the big dollars. In effect, all the teams with modest or low resources become “player developers” for the teams with the most money.
Baseball is fun to watch, but I admit it is much more fun when you have a good team to root for. If a team doesn’t win, they don’t fill the seats, they don’t get the good TV contracts to broadcast the games, and they don’t get consideration by the best free agent players. So, the Yankees and Red Sox have a strangle hold on the league which makes it hard for everyone else to break out of.
What is the solution? I think one option is a salary cap similar to the one used in the NFL. This gives each team “x” amount of dollars to spend each year to field a team – it levels the playing field.
Of course, players hate such and idea – under a salary cap, no team can afford to give too many players the $10 million a year contracts if they hope to be successful, because they would not have money left to get quality players to fill out the rest of the team.
But the result is clear – look at the NFL. There are a few teams that do well year after year, like the Patriots, but I think the consensus is that they have the best coaching staff and get the most out of their players – they have not simply paid a lot for all the best players.
The best thing about the NFL is that a team can be terrible one year, and a contender the next – this is mainly because of the balance of resources. I believe this also helps generate fan support because your team can turn it all around quickly. This is hardly possible in baseball – small market teams like the Pittsburgh Pirates are going to lose year after year because they have 10% of the resources available to them that the Yankees have. The Pirate fans are also ones that are resigned to the fact that their team will not be good this year, or the next, or the year after that.
Not a good situation – like I said, baseball is fun to watch, but it’s a lot more fun if your team is winning, or at least has a chance to.