God I hope they can pull a package together to get him

as if the money factory needs to buy someone else...what a pathetic excuse for a sports franchise. Its like playing little league and one team stacking themselves with all the good players.

What a joke baseball is getting to be and if the NFL goes no cap then Im done with them too because it will be the same thing, the small markets will get killed and the big markets will mostly be on top and eventually people lose interest when that happens.

God I hope this doesn't happen.

Yeah, that is why no one watches baseball anymore. Salary cap will never happen, so there will never be a level playing field.

Can't blame the Yankees for it.

Is this really news?

Who wouldn't accept a deal to NY?

Why doesn't baseball retract all the teams except the yankees and then they can continue to stock pile titles.

Baseball is in serious trouble

The rich keep getting richer.

if you have a favorite team and if your team has a chance to get a good player you go for it.

Say you back Cincinnati and they had the most money and they did what the Yankees do, you would be behind Cincinnati all the way.

Yeah, baseball needs a cap. The Yankees are just exploiting this pathetic system. Other teams do so in a different way...they don't spend much and their owners bank the luxury tax cash they get from teams like the Yankees so they can make a profit.

Capitalism at its finest.

I would be all for the players to strike and major league baseball replace them all with minor league players. Let these guys who only care about the money all go away and let the young guys have their shot. It may be watered down for a couple years, but it can't suck any worse than watching the big market teams play each other in the playoffs year after year.

First of all, this isn't going to come to the Yankees for free if it happens. They're going to pay a hefty price for him through MLB ready players/top prospects. Toronto's not going to give him away.

2nd, the system is what it is. The Luxury tax was instituted to give those small market teams a chance to compete. Half of those owners don't put that money back into the product on the field. blame them.

I love everyone hating on the Yankees...don't hate the player, hate the game boys.

Hesston wrote: Why doesn't baseball retract all the teams except the yankees and then they can continue to stock pile titles.

Baseball is in serious trouble

They've won one this decade.

^LOL, exactly.

Bingo.

"They've won one this decade."

How misleading is that?
They've made the playoffs 19 of the past 20 years.
The luxury tax is a payoff...it does nothing to level the playing field.

It's pretty clear. They've won one title this decade. They can pay players more than anybody. So what? Doesn't mean that you'll win. If anybody is a computer/sport geek, check this research-- how many times in the MLB, NFL, and NBA has the team with the highest payroll that year won the championship this decade.

Look at who has won the titles and where they stand with payroll figures. It's no coincidence. Those who spend money will have more talent and more depth than any of the competitors.

It's not impossible to win against money, but it's sure as hell tough to do. It's simply unfair.

Baseball needs a cap, for sure.

A cap isn't necessarily going to make things any easier for those smaller market teams. You can't tell me even with a cap if you were somebody like Joe Mauer you wouldn't want to make the max in New York or Boston than in Minnesota

Except Mauer's from Minnesota.

From the independent Commissioners' Blue Ribbon Panel (circa 2000)

I. Summary of Findings, Conclusions and Recommendations
I.1. Overall Conclusions
The Commissioner's Blue Ribbon Panel on Baseball Economics, representing the
interests of baseball fans, was formed to study whether revenue disparities among
clubs are seriously damaging competitive balance, and, if so, to recommend
structural reforms to ameliorate the problem. After 18 months of extensive
investigation, we conclude:
a. Large and growing revenue disparities exist and are causing problems of
chronic competitive imbalance.
b. These problems have become substantially worse during the five complete
seasons since the strike-shortened season of 1994, and seem likely to remain
severe unless Major League Baseball (“MLB”) undertakes remedial actions
proportional to the problem.
c. The limited revenue sharing and payroll tax that were approved as part of
MLB's 1996 Collective Bargaining Agreement with the Major League Baseball
Players Association (“MLBPA”) have produced neither the intended
moderating of payroll disparities nor improved competitive balance. Some
low-revenue clubs, believing the amount of their proceeds from revenue
sharing insufficient to enable them to become competitive, used those proceeds
to become modestly profitable.
d. In a majority of MLB markets, the cost to clubs of trying to be competitive is
causing escalation of ticket and concession prices, jeopardizing MLB's
traditional position as the affordable family spectator sport.

Last year in the NFL the Browns had a higher payroll than 11 of the 12 playoffs teams--Vikings were the only one. The Yankees have won ONE title since their 3 peat and it took them 8 years to do it. The Angels, Diamondbacks, MARLINS all won one during that Yankee hiatus. The Yankees have won 7 since 1975, including 4 during a 5 year dynasty stretch. In the capped NFL the Steelers have won 6 in that time span. The Lakers have won 9 titles since '75 in the NBA--the Celtics 5.

You morons are right, Major League Baseball is dooooooooomed!