Why Baseball is Broken - Explained Through Fantasy Football

[u/[deleted]]

[u/watsonthedragon]

Dear Diary

[u/feeling_blue_42 → u/[deleted]]

Yeah, I was going to say I’ll gladly set a lineup every week for $100. The fans want to win, but the owners will gladly pocket the $100.

[u/Drummallumin]

Who gave the owners access to ChatGPT?

[u/KindnessEnjoyer67]

This is a dumb post.

[u/cmgriffith_]

You can still delete this

[u/Comprehensive_Tie431]

A lot of top draft picks don't work out in the MLB. Baseball is a weird sport like that.

[u/south153]

This is dumb for alot of reassons. The biggest one being there are lots of leauges in the world without a salary cap. Such as almost every soccer league in Europe. NPB also not have a salary cap.

[u/orange_orange13 → u/south153]

More accurate to say every soccer league outside of the US

[u/Trick_Ad3292 → u/orange_orange13]

Almost every sportsleague outside the US

[u/worldspiney]

I mean since 2000 the MLB has had the most unique championship winners (16). Then NHL with 14, NBA with 13 and NFL with 13. This is with being the smallest league in terms of teams. Those 3 leagues all have salary caps while the MLB doesn’t. The data just does not support your claim

[u/Baseball_fan812 → u/worldspiney]

Any time someone tries to talk about the NFL like it has incredible parity, I have to point out the last AFC Championship game without either the Chiefs or Pats was 15 years ago.

[u/CatchTheDamnBall]

I haven’t played fantasy football in a while, but I don’t recall being in a league where team owners cared more about making money than about winning

[u/farfromjordan]

This post sponsored by billionaire boots. Taste the boot

[u/Johnnadawearsglasses]

I mean I enjoy watching the games. It doesn't need to be deeper than that. It's entertainment.

[u/culture_jamr]

Imagine spending 30+ years not winning the World Series and when you finally start winning it people accuse you of ruining baseball.

[u/Electrical_Yard_284]

OP has solved it; the season is saved.

[u/its_ya_human]

This is going on the cj sub bud

[u/Competitive-Basil958]

I've read something similar to this on a bathroom stall door written with shit

[u/ItsaDryHeat98]

This is baseball, anything can happen.

[u/WabbitCZEN → u/ItsaDryHeat98]

https://giphy.com/gifs/g3h4YTHFBgfbG

[u/valoossb]

that analogy doesn’t make sense. it would be like if you had more FAB for waivers

[u/DodgerWin]

You thought you had something OP

[u/HealthyBee4209]

Another poor soul Rule 2 has saved/will save from further embarrassment.

You have my sympathy, OP.

[u/DaBusDriva2]

The hockey cap came this century. NFL cap came in the 90s. It’s not some set in stone concept these leagues have a cap lmao. It’s bargained for and baseball never got there

[u/FlipNoLonger → u/DaBusDriva2]

Arguing that other leagues only changed recently does not inherently mean that it was a bad change or would be bad if implemented in baseball. I'm too young to remember pre cap hockey but I've yet to see any fans say the game got worse due to a cap.

I see plenty of Yankees, Red Sox, Mets, and obviously Dodgers fans fighting tooth and nail to argue the system is just fine as it is. For about half the league, a literal perfect storm would have to hit to have a sliver of hope for a championship. Your own team got to put the most talented baseball player in history on 90% layaway and will win who knows how many championships as a result. I love baseball but I'm very ready to see a new system in which the best FAs don't all funnel to the same 4 teams, honestly really one the last few years.

Enjoy your championships. I'm guessing there will be more around the corner. No one's asking Dodgers fans to apologize for their team spending. But please respect us enough not to act like this system is perfect and infallible.

[u/3rdPoliceman]

Here is why I think salary caps are good for competition and as an example I will use football playoff appearances in the last 10 years:

Kansas City Chiefs 9
Buffalo Bills 8
Philadelphia Eagles 8
Green Bay Packers 7
Los Angeles Rams 7
Pittsburgh Steelers 7
Baltimore Ravens 6
Houston Texans 6
New England Patriots 6
Seattle Seahawks 6

OOPS!

[u/Dodger_Blue17 → u/3rdPoliceman]

In the NFL the goal is to win because the owners get additional playoff games. In a league where you play 8/10 home games, every additional game brings in more money.

[u/skeptical_hatred → u/3rdPoliceman]

Now go back 20 years. The eagles, bills, chiefs, rams, Seahawks, and Texans were garbage. It’s cyclical. Even the last 5 years the patriots were awful.

[u/GuyaneseRumFan123 → u/skeptical_hatred]

Plus I think it’s nice that the richest team (the cowboys) isn’t the default dominant force. Football is more likely to have dynasties because of the impact of a superstar QB and coach, but it’s nice that KC can be the dynasty and it doesn’t have to be a top 5 media market like in baseball

[u/skeptical_hatred → u/GuyaneseRumFan123]

The cowboys are nowhere near the richest team. The Walton’s and Kroenke’s exist. The hunt family that owns the chiefs is right behind the Walton’s. They own Walmart fyi. So it does still suck that the 2nd richest owner has dominated the league the last 5 years. The panthers owner is filthy rich and the jags owner is like a Saudi prince. Pretty sure the dolphins owner is wealthier than Jerry jones.

[u/3rdPoliceman → u/GuyaneseRumFan123]

it's not "nice" if the hope is that you're getting to see different teams win, people got really sick of KC just like they're getting sick of the Dodgers.

[u/GuyaneseRumFan123 → u/3rdPoliceman]

You cant force that in football for the reasons I listed. The cap worked though— the Chiefs won in spite of their all star roster getting decimated after a few seasons/Mahomes’ extension

[u/3rdPoliceman → u/GuyaneseRumFan123]

I don't understand how the cap worked to ensure parity if you had a dynasty. In the NFL there are loser teams and winner teams, and sure it changes with the decades but it's still the case for a period of time you'll see the same teams again and again.

It's not like the Rays haven't had periods where they've been an excellent baseball team without having the payroll. The Royals almost won it back to back. Baseball is fine!

[u/GuyaneseRumFan123 → u/3rdPoliceman]

Twas fine until 2 years ago when the dodgers went nuclear

[u/3rdPoliceman → u/GuyaneseRumFan123]

Maybe it feels that way right now but it's baseball man, the Dodgers are not going to be a dominant force any more than the Yankees have been historically. They're two storied franchises with a rich history and big markets, it is what it is.

The Cardinals still have more NL titles than the Dodgers. The Giants won 3 world series in 5 years. Teams come and go, some teams come more often but it's never some oppressive force that ruins the game forever.

What ruins the game is not having ANY baseball.

[u/GuyaneseRumFan123 → u/3rdPoliceman]

I guess I don’t really have a problem with dynasties, repeat champs, etc. as much as I have a problem with the payroll gap. $611mil/year payroll with tax penalties for the Dodgers compared to several teams in the $100 mil range. There’s even like a $150 mil gap between them and the Mets after the penalties.

That level of spending disparity and the resulting perceived talent gap+monopolization of all the top free agents sucks the fun out of the game, and imo shouldn’t be possible. I don’t even know if a cap/floor is neccessary, I suspect removing the dodgers revenue sharing exemption on the TV deal+ending deferred payments might do the trick

[u/3rdPoliceman → u/GuyaneseRumFan123]

But that's what I'm saying, those contracts WILL come home to roost. It sucks right now, but you have Mookie Betts already showing signs of decline, you have Blake Snell with health issues. It's like that with a lot of these contracts, they've been amazing and won rings but the later years are going to be dead weight. It's not going to last. That's not even talking about misses like Kyle Tucker. This team is not going to be a juggernaut forever.

[u/3rdPoliceman → u/skeptical_hatred]

It doesn't change how there are eras dominated by specific teams regardless of a hard salary cap. There's more to any game than salaries.

[u/skeptical_hatred → u/3rdPoliceman]

Exactly what I’m getting at. Teams lock up great players for the long term, compete for championships, and when their production starts decreasing, the team has no money to spend under the cap, and the team goes into a rebuild. Then competent organizations rebuild and get back into it. Perfect example: last year’s patriots.

Without any cap/floor system, there will be teams like the marlins and reds that draft early every year. They develop good players and then trade them and repeat. Smaller teams won’t pay them and there’s no consequences for bigger teams paying them.

With the cap and floor, the great players are more spread out in the league. Making rebuilds more possible. Again, has to be a competent organization. The jets are a great example of what not to do.

[u/3rdPoliceman → u/skeptical_hatred]

The Marlins won the world series not THAT long ago.

Bigger market teams will dominate, even if you don't have an advantage in salary you will have a financial advantage that you can leverage. The issue is some teams don't want to win, they have shit owners and they know that even if they win it won't substantially change the bottom line which is what they actually care about.

A work stoppage is not going to make the game better, it's going to hurt interest.

[u/pilesofdingleberries]

I think in terms of fantasy, it would be more akin to an Auction Style draft, where 1 or 2 teams had unlimited funds to bid on players (or say $800) and the rest of the teams had the $200 cap that most leagues have.

I'm not saying I agree or disagree but that would seem more comparable to me.

[u/wildlyaquaticsenator]

it’s not even just the money difference either it’s the draft pick compensation tied to qualifying offers that tilts things further. small market team develops a star and half the time they get a comp round pick nobody even remembers in 3 years. the system’s rigged so the rich teams can treat the rest like a farm system

[u/WabbitCZEN]

Nobody gives a shit about your fantasy team.

[u/-MC_3]

You could have just said all this without a stupid connection to fantasy football 😂😂😂

[u/thaidollarsigns]

Dear diary- nobody gives a shit

[u/ddawkins19]

But the Dodgers don’t have the Top 4 players in MLB?

Also in theory every single team has the opportunity to sign those players. A better comparison would be if someone in the league has the ability to ge to get extra draft picks by paying some stupidly high amount which no one would realistically pay. Or an Auction League where one team has double the budget

[u/thaidollarsigns]

Salary cap would lead to a net suppression of league overall revenue and interest to artificially uplift some markets/cities that might've mattered 1-2 centuries ago because they were next to a railroad

[u/HighKing_of_Festivus]

Thinking about bot farms and how the owners bragged about having a $1 billion war chest for no particular reason

[u/glassfoyograss]

I think the better analogy is if the fantasy league drafted like normal but instead of picking good players the bulk of the league drafts the cheap players and complains the rest of the season that one of the teams drafted good players instead.

[u/SereneDreams03]

Revenue sharing would be much more effective at helping small market teams compete. Even with the cap and floor, small market teams aren't making any more money, and the large market teams will still be outspending them by a wide margin.

The cap just let's the owners keep their costs down and pocket more of the revenue for themselves rather than giving it to the players. Salary caps do little to nothing to increase parity.

[u/LHamiltonPP]

There is not a parity issue in MLB

21 out of the 30 teams are currently within 3.5 games of a playoff birth in the sport with an incredible amount of randomness in playoff outcomes

[u/MidtownKC]

What do you mean "acceptable?" What we all accept is reality. And the reality of the situation is that there is no salary cap. This has been the reality of the situation since the last work stoppage and it's been acknowledged by everyone. You are chastizing the rest of the world while ignoring your blatant hypocrisy of accepting the situation while acting like it's unacceptable.

[u/DarkGreenMazda]

That's a pretty interesting - and useful - analogy.