With the recent spending by the Dodgers and last year the Mets and Padres, it got me thinking. What’s worse for baseball? Owners who spend much more or owners who don’t spend even though they’re in the window like the Orioles and Mariners?
I’m a fuckin O’s fan. Tanking is by far the worst thing in baseball. Some steps have been made to reduce the benefit of just losing your ass off for draft picks. But, even worse than those hard tanking years, it hurts the most seeing a really great farm-raised team not getting supplemented with some good pitchers because of the refusal of Angelos (owner of the Orioles) to spend any real money.
There’s a rumor rolling around that maybe David Rubenstein is interested in buying the team, Baltimore native, hell of a lot of money… But unknown in the willingness to spend category. Owners that don’t spend are far worse for this great game, in my opinion.
Superstar teams usually don’t work either, mind you… But not putting money into a team with the talent level of the O’s in the past couple years? That’s just straight fucked.
Also an O’s fan here, and I definitely sympathize. However, up until last year’s unexpected success I don’t think it was worth to pour money into the team. I am disappointed in this offseason so far, definitely seems like this is the time to spend, but I honestly haven’t followed the FA market too well to even say if there is anyone worth getting.
In the past, I think Angelos did spend a lot and got bad results because they spent poorly. I finally feel like they have a GM who can spend wisely, but now they won’t. Somehow, the Angelos son running the team now is worse than his dad LOL.
Regardless, it’s great to see another O’s fan on Lemmy, we’re all in this together.
You’re right about not dumping dollars into the team when they were tanking. It would just have been an extreme waste. And with Chris Davis being the highest paid player on the team last year, I’m really so very glad that we didn’t go after Correa or any of the other big contracts. Save those damn dollars for Adley, Gunnar, Jackson is coming up soon; keep some money for those dudes. I think it’s smart. But we gotta gotta gotta fill those holes in the pitching. Till The Mountain comes back we’re gonna need somebody like Kimbrel. I dig that move and hope he hangs in there and gives em hell.
According to the Locked On Orioles podcast there may be a couple rumors going on surrounding Dylan Cease of the White Sox, which sounds good to me, but the thing is: I really hope they don’t fuck up the farm system… I’d rather see money spent than see a few of those dudes get traded. Some, I realize, are there only for trade pieces. But, not Jackson or Mayo, and so far I’m feeling that way about the centerfielder, although his name eludes my mind at the moment (Enrique? Something like that…?)
I’ve got good feelings about the leadership (Angelos aside, kinda) and I think they’ve done a hell of a job, shit we just won a hundred games! The next few years are gonna be absolutely phenomenal baseball. And I’m high on the O’s again!
I was definitely beginning to think I was only one here. Cheers!
Fuckin Go O’s!
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As a Pirates fan I second, third, and fourth this.
Hahaaaa! I know ya do!
100% under-spending. Can’t fault dodgers ownership for spending the money they make. Most ownership groups just pocket the money and put a sub-optimal lineup on the field.
The CBT should work both ways. Teams should give back their CBT money if they don’t field competitive teams. It’s one thing to try to do a lot on an efficient payroll, it’s something else entirely to be given over $100M by your competitors and just pocket most of it.
Worse for baseball: underspending. Eternally cheap, bad teams can turn whole swathes of potential fans and players off the game.
Overspending is definitely frustrating to watch from the fan base of a team that could, but won’t, spend, but putting more money into the sport isn’t worse for it than fielding farcical loss machines.
