The Sad State of “Small Market” Baseball

Yesterday was a great day for A’s fans as the ”small market” Athletics beat up on the “small market” Twins 16-1 in another offensive exhibition that made you wonder, “who are these guys?” And, while I don’t mean to be a downer, that isn’t what I want to talk about today because something else went down yesterday that got my blood boiling and that was the fleecing of another major league franchise because they are a “small market” club.

The Boston Red Sox traded a couple of marginal prospects for Adam LaRoche yesterday in a move that can only be described as a salary dump from the Pirates. The Pirates have now dealt Xavier Nady, Jason Bay, Adam LaRoche, and Jason McLouth in the last year and have not netted any prospects in return that justified any of those deals, with all due respect to Andy LaRoche or any other players that were in those deals. My colleague, Ted Carlson, discusses it further in his blog here. My understanding of a deal that involves major leaguers for prospects is that the team getting the prospects should be getting guys that at least have the ceiling and ability to replace the players that are dealt or to at least become contributing major leaguers. These kinder, gentler Pirates just aren’t doing that and are giving the booty away for pennies on the dollar because they can’t afford their own players.

These trades aren’t only bad for baseball, but honestly, they are bad for fellow small market teams like the Athletics. If the Pirates are more than willing to give away their best players or even players that are considered credible major leaguers for lower level prospects to save a few bucks, it really hurts a ball club like that Athletics from trying to obtain higher level prospects with their own players in future trades, see Matt Holliday, Orlando Cabrera, Adam Kennedy, etc.. Not to say that Adam LaRoche is a superstar, but by allowing Boston to shore up their bench at a minimal cost, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. It’s a system that appears broken at the major league level.

Tonight was a prime example of some of the problems that currently exist as the “small market” A’s took on the Goliath that is the New York Yankees. The game was your “ho-hum” type of defeat with the A’s falling 6-3. The Yankees sent C.C. Sabathia out there and he threw seven decent innings, allowing three runs and striking out four. Mark Teixeira hit a home run and drove in three on the night. Alex Rodriguez finished 0-for-3, but stole a base and scored a run after walking in the fourth.

The problem is this: the Athletics payroll is just over 62 million dollars with the Yankees coming in at over a staggering 200 million. The three Yankees players that I just mentioned above will combine to make over $68 million dollars this season, more than the entire Athletics payroll. How are teams, not only the Athletics, supposed to compete with that?

I know that I’m not telling you anything new and I apologize if I sound like sour grapes, but these are problems that baseball must address at the next collective bargaining agreement. I’ve watched the A’s slip into some type of “small market” hell where their window to compete is minimal and they are in a perpetual rebuilding phase. They are more of a farm system for the other big market clubs at this point than a legitimate title threat. The entire baseball product is linked up, so please spare me the talk about the free market. It’s not a free market as they are offering a linked product which is major league baseball. I get that the A’s have a small fanbase and that the Yankees make a lot of money, but they are still linked together as the same product whether fans would like to admit it or not. When one franchise starts to plummet like the A’s or, in the case of the initial rant, the Pirates, then all of baseball suffers. The poor teams continue to be poor and the rich get richer. It’s an unfortunate state for baseball to be in for all of us “small market” fans.

There is no easy solution.  Perhaps a salary cap on all teams, but it must also come with a salary floor to prevent the truly cheap owners from trying to pocket the profits as well. The entire product is linked up and baseball would do well to make sure that all of it’s franchises are healthy. The Athletics will never be the Yankees, but it would appear that they are also no longer the Athletics that were a continual title threat throughout the 1970’s, the late 80’s, and the early 90’s either. If baseball doesn’t do something soon, they may not even be the “Oakland” Athletics and that would just be a sad development for the fans that bleed the yellow and green and have supported their franchise through thick and thin in the Oakland area. At least the Pirates have something we don’t in a beautiful new stadium, even if we seem to share the same financial capabilities. It just remains to be seen if people will fill that stadium if they know that they are just a glorified Triple-A club for the larger teams. Hopefully something changes soon.