Comments on: Aroldis Chapman Reportedly Defects

By: d

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 13:56:23 +0000

maybe before stating that, level the playing field by converting all winning payrolls into equivalent USD for today, then see where everything falls out.

By: Jon

Jon — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 12:01:48 +0000

The red sox are the only team in baseball to win a WS with a payroll of 100m+

By: PS

PS — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 18:44:43 +0000

Why do the Sox get thrown into the same sentence as that Yankees? Yes, they’re a big market and the Yankees’ biggest rival, yet they’re not even #2 in payroll anymore. They now sit at #4 with $122 million behind the Yankees, Mets, and Cubs and are one of 9 teams with a payroll over $100 million (Tigers, Angels, Phillies, Astros, and Dodgers). Don’t claim that the only reason the Sox win is because of outspending people – yes it helps, but it’s not everything.

By: KJOK

KJOK — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:57:48 +0000

Chapman was 11-4 with a 4.03 ERA in the Cuban League. He did strike out 130 in 118 innings, but opposing batter still hit .252 against him, and he walked 62 batters. Given his age he’s certainly a good prospect, but I don’t believe this stuff about him being ready to step into a major league rotation as an ace pitcher.

By: David

David — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 08:04:26 +0000

I disagree. I don’t think you can settle an arbitrary number of teams in a city as the population permits. Even without territorial rights, I can’t really see a third team succeeding in New York or a fourth in SoCal. People are already psychologically invested in their teams. Sure the Mets have succeeded in NY, but that had a lot to do with former Dodgers and Giants fans who weren’t going to root for the Yankees in a million years.

I also really don’t have a problem with a system that makes a team with several the fans of anyone else be more likely to win it all. Especially when it’s not a sure thing by a long shot, ever, and especially when some good small market teams can’t even fill the stands*

* I’m staring at you Tampa Bay

By: andy

andy — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 07:56:38 +0000

My point is that because we don’t see much of the cuban players, and because there’s the certain aura about cuban baseball players, just like cigars, they become overrated. Contreras was seen as a certain ace. The yanks and sox spent a ton of money on him based on this certainty. But he was never the ace. It’s not that they’re from the same country. The same hype was said about Dice-K. He was supposed to be the best baseball player ever from Japan by far. He is not.

By: Will

Will — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 04:47:28 +0000

This.

Well said.

By: Diaz

Diaz — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 04:37:44 +0000

Anyways back to the conversation at hand about Chapman, I as a Cuban American and a fan of the evil big markt Red Sox hope this guy ends up landing in Portland. He has incredible stuff but from what I have read and seen of him (extremely sss and an untrained eye) he is far from being polished enough to be successful in the Bigs out of the gate. I really do believe that Boston is one of the few teams if not the only team in the position to give the kid a boat load of money and then stash him in the minors for a few years as he figures out how to get professional baseball players out. 5 -25 or 6-30 I hope, though I may be wildly optimistic and naive.

By: Nick

Nick — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 04:06:27 +0000

If the Yankees get this guy I bet you a million dollars he’ll be the next Pavano/Contreras/Vasquez/Brown and if the Red Sox get him, he’ll be an ace-level starter.

By: james

james — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 01:04:08 +0000

Except for the fact that baseball’s territorial rights agreements (which all the teams have to agree to) necessarily create a gap in revenue for the teams. New York (and LA, as well as other large markets) realistically can support several more teams then they currently do, but this is simply not possible due to the territorial rights.

What this creates is a marketplace where risk taking for the yankees (as well as other large market teams) is relatively non-existent due to the guaranteed return for the ridiculously large fanbase, whereas the kansas city’s of the world have a much larger risk with awarding big contracts to players (with lots of money committed and no increase in attendance, the loss is quite huge). So these poor billionare owners are much less willing to invest in the team because the return is lower and the risk is higher.

So you have a system in place which necessarily creates a unequal playing field that is slanted towards large markets.
So the reaosn we hate yankees/red sox fans is because you have a system that completely privileges your team to make/spend more money and there is nothing that is going to be done to change it and then act like the only reason why your team spends money is because you have generous owners.