A loyal (?) reader wants Picasner to state his position on large market vs. small market teams and how to level the playing field. He feels the large market teams have more cash and can out bid the small market teams, who then have to rely on draft picks succeeding. How would the 'Commish' handle this?
***PICASNER'S RESPONSE***
Well Mr. Reader, the wheels of justice are already in place for this situation with only one minor bit of tweaking needed.
Hoping your draft picks work out? Well, when you lose a class A or B player to free agency, you get extra picks, usually first or second round plus 'sandwich' picks (that's a bonus pick between the 1st & 2nd round). So you get twice as many picks from the cream of the crop which increases your odds of some of them working out.
There is a salary cap and teams that exceed it pay a luxury tax to help the small market teams compete.
Now, here's the tweak I mentioned: Most of the small market teams POCKET the tax instead of using it. In Picasner's realm, the base would be the teams current salary, say, for purposes of argument, $90 million. If you receive $25 million in tax, the next years team salary must be at least $115 million or you give back the difference and you lose next years tax all together.
THAT is what is needed to help level the playing field. If we find, after a couple of years, that it's not working, we will address it again.
One final argument: How level do you want it to be? Who was in the World Series this year? Break up the Tampa Bay Rays!
Wow, two posts in one day.
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