It’s probably good if Baseball doesn’t change for another 20 years.

An expansion probably wouldn’t be a smart move under current league circumstance, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it won’t happen. If the league gets desparate enough for short-term cash, they can charge massive expansion fees and grab the money (see also MLS). At least some (Fay Vincent) believe the 1993 and 1998 expansions were done solely as a means to pay off debts related to the collusion settlement (did someone say collusion? – Barry Bonds), so it’s not completely off the table.

But yeah, barring something unforeseen, it likely won’t happen any time soon. I forget it’s no longer 1999 and 2019 isn’t decades away any more; after considering practicality, ownership groups would need to be formed and vetted, potential suckers cities identified, stadiums financed, designed and built, etc. A lot of moving parts — even if it isn’t Havana or San Juan or Monterrey.

Maybe this was a joke, but it’s pretty interesting. Probably wouldn’t happen in Cuba, considering all of the bad blood, but Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory, and I’m sure they would go crazy down there to have a MLB team. I think they could add one team in PR, and another in Vegas/Salt Lake City/Albuquerque/ or some Texas city.

Though I do agree with you on most points the one I don’t is where you think I’m being flip about place in standings. If you are in 5th and 35 GB in late August (in today’s format) is that really much different from 7th and 35 GB. I would think the average fan knows when their team is in the basement and woefully out of contention. At least I did for the 5 years preceding 2008.

I agree the money motivators would discourage this idea, but this is a $5B dollar industry, surely something could be worked out. The only reason for interleague is so that MLB can parade around their gorgeous trophy wives. Every city wants the Yankees and Sox to play there because it is an instant boost to attendance (look no further than the Trop for confirmation on this).

I mention this idea, not as a Rays fan, but as a baseball fan. Before the Rays existed, back in the late 80’s-early 90’s I was a Yankee fan because that’s what you did in my family. I remember routinely coming in 5th-7th and not caring. I had everybody’s card on the team from the obvious like Mattingly and Roberto Kelly to Alavaro Espinoza and Matt Nokes. The point of this stultifying nostalgia is to say that it shouldn’t matter where your team finishes in the division. In fact one of the things that drew me to the Rays initially, besides moving to Tampa and then eventually Orlando, was their futility. Then Craw came along and Rocco and we traded for Kaz and you could see it starting to go the right way. If, as you suggest, we fall back off the table in the next few years I would not care if we were in 4th or 5th or 7th anyway because we weren’t in the playoffs. A wise man once said, “If you ain’t first, you’re last.” I agree.

I think the one thing you can predict is that you won’t be able to predict what this team looks like in 4 years. We have a good idea about the pieces coming up, those that are here, and those that may go, but as intelligent as our triumvirate is I fully expect to stay competitive for a long time. As for paying the players, perhaps someone knows better, but the revenue sharing figures should not have gone down at any point as the game further expands. If we were getting 30M+ a few seasons ago and not spending it on anything then by now the RS$ may be up into the 40-50M range. How much money do you think the Rays made in merch last year. Between a brand new design and a suddenly competitive team I would wager it was a truckload. That is basically free money since the markups are so high. As attendance increases and ::gasp:: sponsors come back and ::now I’m dreaming:: the TV money gets better we will have a substantially higher cash flow.

As for mid-market teams being competitive, Minnesota routinely knocks on the door, Oakland is usually hanging around, Toronto is not a big market, nor is Cleveland. I have very little sympathy for teams that place this card when the wins are for the taking. A quick example would be Seattle last year. Not a ginormous market, but big enough, and their payroll was huge, but it doesn’t matter thanks to the catastrofuck known as the Bavasi Era. Smart management is on an even keel with huge payrolls. Now the real problem is when you combine the two like in Boston, but I see them leaning more towards brains over brawn at this point. Time will tell.

This is completely 2ldr, but I thought you put so much time into yours to get back to me that I wanted to do likewise unto you. By the way I finished reading that Torre article in the new SI today, wow that’s a classy front office you got over there. Reminds me of the Enron front office or perhaps what happens when a Rottweiler has too many puppies so she’ll suck them down like they were lo mein noodles. Good luck, but remember pride goeth before the fall, good luck Joe Torre.

but their defense is lax and i’ve never even seen them get 1 RBI, not even 1