Bustin' the Cap: Why a Salary Cap Would Do Nothing for Baseball

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It has been brought up countless times, By owners and fans alike, "The MLB needs a salary cap."  

Every year the argument is renewed, and with five of the eight teams that made the playoffs this year having payrolls over $100 million and of course with the much maligned New York Yankees money machine taking home the Commisioner's Trophy the cries of foul play seem as loud as ever.

But would a salary cap actually help baseball to become more competitive?  The chances of one ever really becoming reality is remote at best but even if one was set in place what would the real consequences be?

Never Gonna Happen

Many owners claim that a salary cap is needed in baseball to get small market teams back in the hunt for October.  But when you consider the logistics of a salary cap and how it would effect salaries, it is more likely to effect owner's wallet sizes more than anything else.  

But all of that is really moot when you look at what entity is really holding all the cards in the debate over a cap: The Players' Union .

For years, owners squeezed players for all they could.  In fact, the Yankees of the 40's and 50's were probably the most underpaid team in baseball for the level of success they achieved.

Then, in the early 60s, things started to change.  Gradually the power shifted over to the players and they never looked back.

Many from the era were not thrilled over the inflated salaries but were convinced that owners had nothing to blame but their own greed.

The last thing players would want today is to give all of that power back to the league and take massive pay cuts just so owners can get richer.

It is true that the minimum salary would increase, but the players would also lose out on the chance to have the five mansions and 15 cars that they've always dreamed of owning.

It may only be a shoving match between the super rich to see who can sit on the higher mountain of gold, but The Players' Union is the much bigger kid in this fight.

It's Not The NFL

Let's get something straight: What works for football, isn't necessarily going to work for baseball.  To make an easy analogy; Baseball is Reagan's U.S.A., Football is Lenin's U.S.S.R.

In the NFL, the league has all the power.  Every team has regulated salaries and T.V. deals (Television deals are how other big sports clubs make most of their money).  In fact, teams legally are identified as one large company rather than 32 separate entities.

The players are almost completely at the mercy of the league.  If a team doesn't want to pay someone, they can just cut them.  The union has to fight tooth and nail to get anything out of the league.  The only real leverage a player has is to not play at all.

In the MLB, it is every team for themselves.  This really gives teams the opportunity to make as much money as they can and spend it however they want.  

Of course, it also doesn't do anything to save clubs from bad owners who run the team into the ground competitively and financially.  It also cripples teams with weak fan bases.  

If owners like the Steinbrenners want to put $200 million plus into their line up no one is going to stop them, but the same goes for the team with the owner who'd rather put that 200 million into buying his next mansion.

It is a much more competitive business model, but it also allows players to control their own destiny to a much greater extent than in the NFL.  

Neither is really good or bad but they are undeniably different.

Let's Make Believe

Okay, so even though it is more likely that Ghandi is playing centerfield for the Reds next season than it is that we'll see a salary cap in baseball, let's just suppose.  What would be the result?

First, we'd need to decide which type of cap baseball will use.  There are two kinds, hard caps and soft caps .  Hard caps strictly enforce the limit and under almost no circumstances can a team breach them.

Soft caps set a spending limit but allow for teams to pass it on special circumstances. In fact, in the soft cap NBA, nearly every team comes in over the salary cap every year.

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