Ryan Hochgesang

Baseball should be next catch for salary cap system

he major league baseball season is now in full swing, but unfortunately for the 28 major league teams, the game is not on a level playing field.
Another winter of big-money free agents has shifted the balance of power in both leagues somewhat, but there continues to be one constant in the free agency game--the domination of the large markets.
Under baseball's current system, small market teams that have low attendance and meager television contracts, like Montreal and Pittsburgh, are at a serious disadvantage.
These teams will never reach the World Series until baseball owners do the right thing and agree on a better system of revenue-sharing with a salary cap.
When Gary Sheffield and Albert Belle are almost making more in one season than the Expos or Pirates total team payroll, something is wrong with baseball's economic system.
While the other three major sports leagues all have systems of revenue-sharing and a salary cap, baseball continues to let the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
Of course, free agency success doesn't always lead to success on the field.
Defenders of baseball's current system say that instead of signing free agents, small market teams can stay competitive with effective farm systems.
But this theory has been disproved in recent years. Montreal and Pittsburgh have two of the best minor league systems in baseball, but their top young players only play for them a few seasons before becoming free agents and moving on to teams with bigger payrolls.
Montreal has been especially burned by this in recent years, losing such players as Moises Alou, Wil Cordero, Marquis Grissom, Ken Hill and Larry Walker.
All either left as free agents or were traded because they were about to become free agents.
The only small market team to achieve consistent success recently has been Cleveland, but it is an exception. It has been able to maintain a high payroll because of the soaring attendance at its great new stadium, Jacobs Field.
But even the Indians felt somewhat of a money crunch in the off-season, losing Albert Belle to free agency and trading Kenny Lofton in the final year of his contract.
Perhaps they best prove that the current system doesn't make it impossible for small market teams to succeed, just a lot more difficult.
In fact, the whole American League central is a case study in baseball economics. Small market teams like Milwaukee and Minnesota just don't have the cash to compete with Chicago.
Until baseball adopts a system of greater revenue-sharing between the teams, small market franchises will continue to be disadvantaged.
And you can expect to see big budget teams like the Yankees, Orioles and White Sox have an unfair advantage in free agency--and on the playing field.