MLB to Contract 4 Teams?!?!?!

[vance_the_cubs_fan]

From a Peter Gammons blog,

 

One National League owner is telling employees that MLB has a plan to contract four teams, with a contraction draft already drafted.

 

Link.

[goonys evil twin]

Awesome, negotiations for the next CBA are already appearing in the press. The real test for MLB will be if they can keep the contraction threat on the table in the same year they expand to 32 teams.

[USSoccer]

They should just relegate teams to the minors and promote minor league/indy league teams to the majors a la soccer. Then you'd see an improvement in some of the more terrible organizations.

[Bull]

They should just relegate teams to the minors and promote minor league/indy league teams to the majors a la soccer. Then you'd see an improvement in some of the more terrible organizations.

 

Kind of like the first division/second division system. I like it!

 

Newark Bears up, Kansas City Royals Down!

[rocket]

Florida, Tampa Bay, Minnesota, who else?

[tgk]

Awesome, negotiations for the next CBA are already appearing in the press. The real test for MLB will be if they can keep the contraction threat on the table in the same year they expand to 32 teams.

 

If I'm not mistaken. Part of the agreement in the last deal was that the owner's would agree not to contract that time and the player's agreed not to oppose it in the future.

 

Anyone else remeber that or am I nuts?

[USSoccer]

They should just relegate teams to the minors and promote minor league/indy league teams to the majors a la soccer. Then you'd see an improvement in some of the more terrible organizations.

 

Kind of like the first division/second division system. I like it!

 

Newark Bears up, Kansas City Royals Down!

 

Exactly. Have a salary floor and cap, and the bottom 2 teams in each leage get demoted every season. If you're demoted, you don't get any revenue sharing money, TV money, or other MLB money, and have to finish in the top 4 of the indy/AAA league to be promoted.

 

That would give owners more incentive to field a winning team, and to hold incompetent GM's accountable.

[goonys evil twin]

They should just relegate teams to the minors and promote minor league/indy league teams to the majors a la soccer. Then you'd see an improvement in some of the more terrible organizations.

 

Kind of like the first division/second division system. I like it!

 

Newark Bears up, Kansas City Royals Down!

 

Exactly. Have a salary floor and cap, and the bottom 2 teams in each leage get demoted every season. If you're demoted, you don't get any revenue sharing money, TV money, or other MLB money, and have to finish in the top 4 of the indy/AAA league to be promoted.

 

That would give owners more incentive to field a winning team, and to hold incompetent GM's accountable.

 

You'd have to get rid of all AAA affiliations, which would leave all those AAA teams with no players, which would make AAA as crappy as the Indy leagues and probably kill off several teams.

[Bull]

AAA is mostly spare parts anyway. Obviously there are way too many variables too make this work...ever. But weve joked for years that Pittsburgh is the Cubs' AAAA team. THere's little difference these days between spare parts from Pittsburgh and spare parts from Iowa.

[USSoccer]

They should just relegate teams to the minors and promote minor league/indy league teams to the majors a la soccer. Then you'd see an improvement in some of the more terrible organizations.

 

Kind of like the first division/second division system. I like it!

 

Newark Bears up, Kansas City Royals Down!

 

Exactly. Have a salary floor and cap, and the bottom 2 teams in each leage get demoted every season. If you're demoted, you don't get any revenue sharing money, TV money, or other MLB money, and have to finish in the top 4 of the indy/AAA league to be promoted.

 

That would give owners more incentive to field a winning team, and to hold incompetent GM's accountable.

 

You'd have to get rid of all AAA affiliations, which would leave all those AAA teams with no players, which would make AAA as crappy as the Indy leagues and probably kill off several teams.

 

How many Indy league teams are there? Maybe forget the AAA issue (affiliations and option clocks would make that really hard to manage), but if there are 15-20 Indy league teams, it coudl work...

[Balsa]

AAA is mostly spare parts anyway. Obviously there are way too many variables too make this work...ever. But weve joked for years that Pittsburgh is the Cubs' AAAA team. THere's little difference these days between spare parts from Pittsburgh and spare parts from Iowa.

 

Except that all of our draft picks go into Iowa, and we own all the players there.

 

I mean, I can see where you're coming from, but that would require a massive restructering of the entire system of the game.

[LoneStarCubFan]

Awesome, negotiations for the next CBA are already appearing in the press. The real test for MLB will be if they can keep the contraction threat on the table in the same year they expand to 32 teams.

 

If I'm not mistaken. Part of the agreement in the last deal was that the owner's would agree not to contract that time and the player's agreed not to oppose it in the future.

 

Anyone else remeber that or am I nuts?

 

That's correct. I still expect the PA to raise hell about it though.

 

Florida, Tampa Bay, Minnesota and Washington are my guesses.

[J.R.]

They just signed the lease on a new DC park, so the Nationals appear to be safe.

 

The teams without viable parks are the ones liable to go: Twins, A's, Marlins, Devil Rays. Take four and move on.

[goonys evil twin]

How many Indy league teams are there? Maybe forget the AAA issue (affiliations and option clocks would make that really hard to manage), but if there are 15-20 Indy league teams, it coudl work...

 

No it couldn't. The Newark Bears, the Atlantic City Surf, the St. Paul Saints, the Sioux City Explorers, the Camden Something or others. Does anybody really think MLB would be better off if the Lancaster Barnstormers replaced the Pittsburgh Pirates next year?

 

The stadiums are far too small. The media markets are miniscule. The talent is almost non-existent.

[USSoccer]

How many Indy league teams are there? Maybe forget the AAA issue (affiliations and option clocks would make that really hard to manage), but if there are 15-20 Indy league teams, it coudl work...

 

No it couldn't. The Newark Bears, the Atlantic City Surf, the St. Paul Saints, the Sioux City Explorers, the Camden Something or others. Does anybody really think MLB would be better off if the Lancaster Barnstormers replaced the Pittsburgh Pirates next year?

 

The stadiums are far too small. The media markets are miniscule. The talent is almost non-existent.

 

well, keep in mind that i'm mostly kidding, but I'd still enjoy seeing certain MLB owners being demoted for being cheap/incompetent

[tgk]

They just signed the lease on a new DC park, so the Nationals appear to be safe.

 

The teams without viable parks are the ones liable to go: Twins, A's, Marlins, Devil Rays. Take four and move on.

 

Boy, wouldn't you like to have the first pick in that draft. You're talking about adding some very high quality players and prospects.

[LoneStarCubFan]

They just signed the lease on a new DC park, so the Nationals appear to be safe.

 

The teams without viable parks are the ones liable to go: Twins, A's, Marlins, Devil Rays. Take four and move on.

 

True, but given how screwed up DC politics can be I wouldn't be surprised if that deal blew up. Plus they still don't have an owner.

 

I know Pohlad has pretty much indicated he'd let MLB contract the Twins if they can't get a new stadium and I'm guessing the dirtbag who owns the Marlins would as well but Tampa was just sold, I don't see the new owner agreeing to be bought out. Haven't heard how the A's owners stand on it either.

[Guest]

Any plan to contract more than two teams is simply posturing and an attempt to gain leverage for the next CBA on the part of the owners. The current agreement only gives management the power to contract two teams for the 2007 season.

 

The Office of the Commissioner and/or the Clubs shall not undertake any centralized effort to reduce the number of Major League Clubs effective for a season covered by this Agreement. The Clubs shall, however, have the right, subject to the terms and conditions set forth in this Article XV(H), to reduce by as many as two (2) the number of Major League Clubs effective for the 2007 championship season.

Anything beyond that and the issue is open to collective bargaining and antitrust lawsuits, something I doubt the owners are too eager to get into.

 

Additionally, I've always thought a soccer-like promotion/demotion scheme was a terrible idea.

[goonys evil twin]

well, keep in mind that i'm mostly kidding, but I'd still enjoy seeing certain MLB owners being demoted for being cheap/incompetent

 

I would find it amusing to demote the previous year's worst team in each league to AAA, leaving you 28 teams for the regular season. They would automatically get promoted the following season, to be replaced by two worst from that year. But you can't fix the small market problem by replacing Tampa with Sioux Falls.

 

But then the demoted teams would almost be forced to reduce ticket prices, while the union would refuse to allow owners to reduce contracts. The local team would lose most advertising revenue for the year. They might get a chance to win a lot more games, which could draw a crowd eventually.

[Guest]

How many Indy league teams are there? Maybe forget the AAA issue (affiliations and option clocks would make that really hard to manage), but if there are 15-20 Indy league teams, it coudl work...

 

No it couldn't. The Newark Bears, the Atlantic City Surf, the St. Paul Saints, the Sioux City Explorers, the Camden Something or others. Does anybody really think MLB would be better off if the Lancaster Barnstormers replaced the Pittsburgh Pirates next year?

 

The stadiums are far too small. The media markets are miniscule. The talent is almost non-existent.

Yep. And if/when a struggling team is cast down the food chain and cut off from MLB revenues how is it supposed to get better?

[OleMissCub]

They just signed the lease on a new DC park, so the Nationals appear to be safe.

 

The teams without viable parks are the ones liable to go: Twins, A's, Marlins, Devil Rays. Take four and move on.

 

I can't see them taking such a historic franchise as the Athletics. Maybe Twins, Marlins, Devil Rays, Royals.

[erik316wttn]

They just signed the lease on a new DC park, so the Nationals appear to be safe.

 

The teams without viable parks are the ones liable to go: Twins, A's, Marlins, Devil Rays. Take four and move on.

 

I can't see them taking such a historic franchise as the Athletics. Maybe Twins, Marlins, Devil Rays, Royals.

 

The Twins are a historic franchise, too. They were an original American League franchise when they were the Washington Senators.

 

Two teams I can see getting cut. Four? No way.

[goonys evil twin]

They just signed the lease on a new DC park, so the Nationals appear to be safe.

 

The teams without viable parks are the ones liable to go: Twins, A's, Marlins, Devil Rays. Take four and move on.

 

I can't see them taking such a historic franchise as the Athletics. Maybe Twins, Marlins, Devil Rays, Royals.

 

The Twins are a historic franchise, too. They were an original American League franchise when they were the Washington Senators.

 

Two teams I can see getting cut. Four? No way.

 

No teams will be cut. Moved maybe, but not cut. And they'll probably expand in 5-10 years.

[Guest]

They just signed the lease on a new DC park, so the Nationals appear to be safe.

 

The teams without viable parks are the ones liable to go: Twins, A's, Marlins, Devil Rays. Take four and move on.

 

I can't see them taking such a historic franchise as the Athletics. Maybe Twins, Marlins, Devil Rays, Royals.

Preserving the league's history isn't very high on the list of considerations when they're picking who might get the axe. It's mostly just a Sword of Damocles the league can use to bully markets into giving them plush new stadiums and/or some leverage to use against the MLBPA in labor negotiations. The Royals actually have a pretty good stadium and a decent fan base when the team is run competently. I'd wager KC is pretty safe.

 

Besides, as I posted earlier, I sincerely doubt owners make a serious effort to contract four teams. If they do they might as well contract them all, because there won't be baseball in 2007. The union will not stand by and let owners drop $100-$150 million in player salaries without some serious concessions in return.

[Tim]

Hmm...contraction after this season? It would be a good year to suck, in that case. Let's just assume the two florida teams get nailed. You'd have:

 

Miggy

Willis

Hermida

 

Young

Upton

 

 

as top of the line talent available at very cheap prices. Both systems are also stocked with next tier young talent, too. Miggy's an easy #1 pick for a team that has enough cash to pay him over the next several years. But any of the top five picks (especially the top 4) would be very nice to have. Pairing a guy like Miggy up with Bay, as an example, would improve the Pirates in a huge hurry.

 

 

(yes, I left Crawford off the top-tier talent on purpose)