What are the chances of....

[raptorsfan29]

A salary cap in MLB next season

just some FYI,  the labor agreement is ending at the end of the 2006 season. so we all know the luxury tax sucks and i think it will come down to mlb having a salary cap or not. what do you think.

[Fau Teixeira]

they will strike before accepting an nfl style cap

[MaineDolFan]

I would be VERY shocked to see a cap put in place.  What we have a better chance of seeing is a minimum budget to be spent on players.  One of the largest gripes from larger teams is that the revenue sharing is going to teams bottom lines and not towards team enhancement.  Teams like Kansas City stopped trying years ago.  One year Tampa Bay's payroll was under 20 million dollars.  

I would love a cap, along with a Larry Bird rule for players drafted and groomed.  I also think Vet expections can be made, it would be terrible to see someone like Derek Jeter finish his career anywhere other than NYY because of cap reasons.

I know you are concerned about a lock out in '07, but most of the issues are actually owner to owner and not so much player union to owner.  I think MLB will be okay.

[TonyB0D]

^^^

whats the larry bird rule?

[MaineDolFan]

LARRY BIRD EXCEPTION --  Players who qualify for this exception are called "Qualifying Veteran Free Agents" in the CBA, and this exception is a component of the Veteran Free Agent exception.  This exception allows teams to exceed the salary cap to re-sign their own free agents, up to the player's maximum salary. The player must have played for three seasons without being waived or changing teams as a free agent.

This means a player can obtain "Bird rights" by playing under three one-year contracts, a single contract of at least three years, or any combination. It also means that when a player is traded, his Bird rights are traded with him, and his new team can use the Bird exception to re-sign him.  These contracts can be up to six years in length.  A player can receive raises up to 10.5% of the salary in the first season of the contract.  This exception is known as the Larry Bird exception because the Celtics were the first team allowed to exceed the cap to keep their own free agent, and the player happened to be Bird.

[EDGECRUSHER]

I would be VERY shocked to see a cap put in place.  What we have a better chance of seeing is a minimum budget to be spent on players.  One of the largest gripes from larger teams is that the revenue sharing is going to teams bottom lines and not towards team enhancement.  Teams like Kansas City stopped trying years ago.  One year Tampa Bay's payroll was under 20 million dollars. 

I would love a cap, along with a Larry Bird rule for players drafted and groomed.  I also think Vet expections can be made, it would be terrible to see someone like Derek Jeter finish his career anywhere other than NYY because of cap reasons.

I know you are concerned about a lock out in '07, but most of the issues are actually owner to owner and not so much player union to owner.  I think MLB will be okay.

Exactly. The money the Yankees and Red Sox gave last year in revenue sharing to the Royals or Reds shoudl've been enough for them to be able to go after AJ Burnett. Instead, they cut payroll almost every year.

I don't have a big problem with a salary cap, but you can't make it retroactive like they did with the luxury tax. By the time the rules were in place, the Yankees already broke the law. Not that it would've stopped them from spending, but you can't change the rules during the game. This isn't a Patriots playoff game.

There won't be a lockout. They know how bad the first one hurt the game and this time no amount of juiced balls or juiced athletes can give them an instant revival.