Billy

Billy Beane has once again reinvented himself. Ten years ago people thought that baseball had been figured out. Stat geeks became infatuated with statistics such as on base percentage and WHIP. This year the Oakland Athletics won with a lineup that lead the majors in strikeouts and collected very few walks. Billy proved once again that there is no right or wrong way to build a baseball team. The question I have is success from a small market team such as the Oakland Athletics really good for baseball? I think if we take a deeper look it is not. Bud Selig has defended MLBs revenue sharing for years and has pointed to the success of small market teams such as the A’s as to how baseball has competitive balance. The problem is Bud is wrong. There are plenty of teams in baseball who are at a huge competitive disadvantage due to the fact that they are unable to spend as much money. The NFL has become the most popular game in the United States because every team is on a level playing field when it comes to money. The bottom line is teams like the A’s are prolonging the road to a salary cap in baseball by having success with a small payroll.

Garrick