If baseball had a salary cap, the Marlins would be the new Yankees

[MaraMoose]

If baseball had a salary cap, the Marlins would constantly be in the playoffs each year and probably have a rivarly with the Twins if they made it to the World Series. In my opinion, they have the best scouting system in the league. They go after "Hidden Gems" like Dontrelle Willis when he was with the Cubs. The players there actually go out and play and they have a top-notch minor league system which can make talent better. Plus in a salary cap situation, salaries are forced to be lowered and the Marlins can now keep their players. Finally, the Marlins made the biggest recovery ever in professional sports when after the mother of all firesales after the 1997 season, they decided to focus on homegrown talent like Luis Castillo (remember he had a 35 game hit streak in 2002) and finding hidden gems even making a great steal from the Yankees by trading for Mike Lowell. Overall, even though I posted "How can you be a fan", this organization has the best scouting system and if I still played baseball and I was drafted by them, I would be honored.

[Silver Blaze]

Not to nitpick, but I think "the new Braves" would be a better analogy. The Yankees system is beginning to produce again, but it's not what they've been known for in the last 8 years. Their approach of throwing money at everything is ironically something that couldn't be done under a salary cap system.

[Mex4Prez]

But without the firesales they would never have had all the talent at the same time. They recieved AJ Burnett/Derrick Lee/Looper in the first firesale. They used players they got from other deal to get to get Mike Lowell and Juan Pierre, draft pick compensation to get Beckett. Then in the 04 firesale they got Mike Jacobs, Hanley Ramirez, Anibal Sanchez, Sergio Mitre, Ricky Nolasco and Renyel Pinto. Also a little before that Willis was acquired in a deal fo Lee.

What also should be noted is when they make the one year run for the world series they often sign free agents to one year or backloaded deals and then trade them after just 1 season....Pudge/Delgado/Alou. They have no intentions on keeping these players for more then one year.

Right or wrong, the strategy has worked twice. Not many teams have won more then one world series in the last 10 years. There are no rules against it so they are doing it again. Stock piling young talent and keeping the money in the bank so that in 09 or 10 they are going to go after top free agents at a position of need and make another run. The only thing that is really wrong is that the fans don't show up to support the team unless the team is good.

[Yankeebiscuitfan]

No matter what team the Marlins would look like, I think that a salary cap would make baseball more interesting. I think that more teams would be able to compete.

Just my :twocents:

[Imgran]

Plenty of teams are competing right now YBF. And we just had one of the 2 world series teams come out of absolutely nowhere with nearly evey key position manned by a homegrown player, so competitive balance is a lot better than it used to be. The relative weakness of recent free agent markets has really done a lot to restore competitive balance and with traditionally weak teams being able and willing to resign their aces and star hitters that trend might continue for awhile.

[Marliner435]

Good point.

[Yankeebiscuitfan]

Plenty of teams are competing right now YBF. And we just had one of the 2 world series teams come out of absolutely nowhere with nearly evey key position manned by a homegrown player, so competitive balance is a lot better than it used to be. The relative weakness of recent free agent markets has really done a lot to restore competitive balance and with traditionally weak teams being able and willing to resign their aces and star hitters that trend might continue for awhile.

Maybe you are right about the fact that there is more competition. But what bothers me is that small market teams are still not able to keep their talented players (in contradiction of what you say). Of course there will always be Scrooges among owners. Owners like Pohlad and Loria simply refuse to spend money on the salary of players.

[gojays]

If baseball had a salary cap, the Yankees would've been run into the ground 30 years ago.