The Baseball Salary Cap

Clearly, from all the comments, my readers are clamoring for my idea for a baseball salary cap. One reader I don’t have yet, which I wish I did was Bude Selig, because this will be a good post for him. Since I suspect he’s the type of guy who sits alone in his Jockeys, Googling himself at night, Bud Selig Bud Selig Bud Selig Bud Selig Bud Selig Bud Selig Bud Selig Bud Selig Bud Selig Bud Selig Bud Selig Bud Selig Bud Selig Bud Selig Bud Selig Bud Selig Bud Selig Bud Selig Bud Selig Bud Selig. There. Now he should stumble across my humble little blog. In any case, here’s the plan I have for a baseball salary cap.
First off, I felt I needed to take into account a few things. For example, baseball, more than most sports, is steeped in tradition and applauds loyalty. Secondly, there will still be teams that can’t afford to pay as much. It’s simple economics. Those are the two mitigating factors we need to take into account as we delve into this proposal.
The first point is that this would only be a partial salary cap. There would be a fixed number, but it would be a more complex formula to arrive at the cap number than the other majore sports legues institute. The key to the formula, is that it takes into account player loyalty.
Lets say, for example, that it’s a contract year for hypothetical player Rico Gomez. Rico plays for the Devil Rays and has for 5 years. So, the 5 years, in theory, would take 50% of his salary off the books against the salary cap. The Devil Rays could offer him 2 million, knowing that only a million would count against their cap number. The Yankees, if they wished to steal Mr. Gomez, would take a 2 million dollar hit to create an equitable salary. That would definitely deter the Yankees from grabbing any player they fancy.
This would lead to a couple of things. First, it would mean entire franchises down to the minors could be evaluated better, since players wouldn’t be as apt to switch teams. Also, players that switched teams of their own volition would be doing so for the right reasons, because they would very often be forced to take salary cuts to switch teams.
So I think this is a sound plan. Please feel free to let me know what you think of it, and we can debate this plan in the comments. If I have time to read all of them. – Ryan