MLB:$733,333.33

[John Corn]

That's approximately how much money each of the "have-not" teams will receive from the luxury tax the Yanks had to pay due to their $180 million payroll. So this new luxury tax policy is supposed to bring about equality amongst all the teams in Major League Baseball. :nono2:

[Dgenx321]

Being a Pirates and seeing them have a fire sale every year makes me hate MLB more and more.

I'm about to give up on it.

[bills976]

I know I'll take fire for this, but here it goes....

Up until recently I somewhat bought into the theory of small market teams being shut out of any sort of hope at a World Series. As I've thought about it and studied it more, I think the whole thing is bunk. While money does indeed play a factor, there are far more important determining factors which can determine the relative success of a team.

Let's look at the standings this season, and start with the AL central. I'm a Yankees fan so I remember this particular stunt. Two years ago during a game in Kansas City a radio station pulled a stunt where fans in the bleachers at Kauffman turned their backs to the field when the Yanks were at bat and threw fake money on the field whenever they hit a home run. This was in protest to the vast difference in payroll between the Yankees and Royals. They said at the time that there was no chance they'd ever win the AL central, let alone the world series. Right now KC is atop the central with a 4 game lead over the White Sox and a 5.5 game lead over the Twins. Is a low payroll preventing that team from competing? No. Good use of their minor league system is finally paying dividends for this team. The Twins are yet another example of this. Eric Milton and Christian Guzman both came over in the Knoblauch trade from the Yankees. Who's getting the better end of that trade now?

The NL wild card race is also quite good this year. At quick glance, Philadelphia, Florida, Montreal, St. Louis, Arizona, LA, and Colorado are separated by at most 5.5 games for the wild card spot. The Expos and Marlins are certainly no big spenders. Neither are the Phillies even though they live in the fourth largest media market.

No, baseball can not and will not offer the parity that football can. And yes, the salary cap has something to do with that. However, I detest the fact that a team is forced by a pseudo-communist system to share the wealth amongst the other teams by giving up players that have formed the core of a championship team. That aside, the whole notion that small market teams can't comepete is hogwash. While there will be teams such as the Yankees and Braves that will always compete, no team is completely shut out of reaching the playoffs by the system.

[John Corn]

The NBA Has an effective luxury tax - you go one dollar over, you pay one dollar in tax.

MLB is a BS 17% rate. So basically Georgie has to buy 5.85M for every $5m player he adds. Make it $10M instead of $5.85M, and maybe George will flinch.

George goes to sleep every night laughing at people who suggest that the luxury tax is affecting any of their roster decision.