Quote:
Originally Posted by REDREAD
I guess I disagree.
The Cardinals' market is roughly the size of Cincinnati.
Sure, they are in an area of the country where their only close competition is the Royals, but they don't have a lot of large cities like Louisville, Columbus, Dayton, Lexington, etc to draw from (as far as I know, not an expert on the area).
Cincinnati has a potentially HUGE population base to draw from. In Marge's heydey, the Reds had one of the top 10 payrolls in all of baseball. No one ever said the Reds were a large market back then.
The Cardinals leveraged their new stadium and Mark McGwire and took their franchise to the next level. The Reds had a similiar opportunity (Jr and the GAB) and basically flushed it down the toilet with their short term thinking.
Honestly, the Cards are a model for how small markets should be run.
I admire them greatly.I don't think they should be penalized for having a successful business plan (although I think team payroll might impact the lottery?? Not sure on that detail).
The owners agreed the 13 smallest markets get into this lotto. St Louis qualifies.
Honestly though, this competive balance draft is really going to do nothing to improve competitive balance. This is just another bone thrown out, mainly for PR. So these teams can expect to get an extra draft pick roughly every other year.. that's not enough to really make a huge impact... Realistically.. if the club is smart, maybe they get another decent player out of their farm every 5 years or so?
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I've lived in both cities, and I can tell you that St. Louis is a significantly bigger city and baseball market than Cincinnati.
First off, St. Louis is at least a third bigger in population of the immediate metro area. It also is a much wealthier city. St. Louis is the home to 8 world headquarters, including Anheuser-Busch, McDonald Douglass, Monsanto, and Emerson Electric. Cincinnati has P&G.
As for the fan base outside of the cities, much of the Midwest was Cardinal country for most of the past century. Adding Atlanta, the Texas teams, the Twins cut into that a bit, but go to any small town in the midwest, southwest, and even the south, and you'll find plenty of Cardinal fans.
Like I said, Saint Louis is around the fifth largest baseball market in baseball and always has been. It has little to do with how smart they are run, but mostly to do with logistics.
Regardless, how can any team justify getting MLB welfare when it has offered a 9 year $200M contract, when it already has another player signed to 7 year $120M contract?
Beyond absurd.