EVIL~! alkeiper

I'm not tremendously concerned about MLB's system. First off, 25 of the 30 MLB clubs do not compete with the Red Sox and Yankees for playoff spots. Some clubs are perennial losers, but if they can't beat Central division clubs, teams with similar economic resources, what more can you do for them? There's only so far you can go to subsudize idiocy. Only a portion of the NFL's parity is due to the salary cap. There are also unguaranteed contracts that allow teams to cut dead weight every year. In addition, the 16 game schedule creates parity simply due to random chance. Two years ago, the KC Royals kicked off a season 13-3. In the NFL, that's a division title. Let me quote quick from a recent Jayson Stark blog... To close, let me say that I think about 20 of the 30 teams in MLB have a reasonable shot at a postseason berth. That's not counting dark horses like the Pittsburgh Pirates who could sneak in if their young pitchers develop quicker than expected. That's not bad at all.

It was amusing to hear Ken Singleton disagree with Kay on Friday's broadcast, albeit politely. Phillies won their fourth straight today. I don't know if Michael Bourn is a future starter, but he is damn fun to watch.

So far this tournament has shown how far behind some of these countries are in terms of baseball talent. There are ten nations capable of putting out competitive teams right now, maybe eleven. The WBC would be better served limiting the amount of teams next time. Put the lesser teams in a qualifying tournament and let a couple in.

Korea is an inning away from pulling off an upset win over Japan.

It's not. The main concern with the first days is getting work in. In a real game situation, Torre would not use Mike Myers in that manner.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/worldclassic...tory?id=2354461 There's a fine line between opposing a concept and being a jerk about it.

A little of each. The first round is tricky as most pools include two good teams and two bad teams. There is little incentive for the good teams to battle hard when both are assure of second round berths. There are some good games coming up though, notably Canada/Mexico and DR/Venezuela. The big question besides those games is how good exactly the Cuban team is. Once we reach the second round, you'll see some highly competitive matchups.

A handful, like team wins. It's unlikely, but it only takes one slugger sitting on 170 RBIs to stir the pot. Plus, you're effectively taking away home dates, and thus revenue, from each MLB club. If you think George Steinbrenner is mad now....

Haren's under contract until 2009 with a team option for 2010. Barton's not free agent eligible until 2012 at the earliest. Juan Cruz and Dan Meyer probably aren't good enough to star on an A's championship team. And of course, by the time 2010 comes around the best players will be different.

The problem is that there's really no "good" time to hold the event. MLB's maxed out the regular season, and the sanctity of records has gotten to the point where people will protest a shortened season. It would be extremely difficult to get a pitcher to play in a November tournament.

Oh sure free agency is advantagous towards the big spenders. I'm just saying it is not as big a factor as everyone assumes. Teams don't get to keep their drafted players, but they get six years of their careers. Oakland turned their players into five consecutive 90 win seasons. A good team, the Braves most notably, are continuously cycling fresh minor league talent.

Since the Offseason thread is 27 pages and it's clearly not quite the offseason.

NYC viewers can catch tonight's Korea/China game live on WWOR 9.

Baseball is more balanced now than it ever was. It's a historical trend. There are some teams that consistantly lose, but there have always been losing teams, and you don't see outright pathetic teams like you used to. You'll never see a team lose 100 games for five consecutive years. Jayson Stark noted in his column that baseball has had more variety in it's championship series than football has the last five years. The difference in baseball, and in all sports, is not a salary cap. It is the amateur draft. The advent of the draft in 1965 ended the Yankee dynasty, as it meant the Yankees could no longer outbid other teams for the top amateur talent. Free agency has given some advantage to the big clubs, but it is muted because it also allows bad clubs to patch black holes in their lineups. Plus, most good players have their best seasons before free agency.

China hung close for five innings, but the wheels are starting to come off here. 8-2 Japan in the 6th.

Talk about good timing. Baseball seriously challenges football in the northeast and is a solid #2 everywhere else.

I'm in. The league name is TSM Challenge, with a space. If you couldn't find it before, try again.

Now that's just ridiculous. The RIAA would remind you however that hearing the song stuck in your head DOES constitute a violation of copyright.

This is just an awesome album really. I'm actually headed to Philly on Saturday to watch Belle & Sebastian live.

I think this is wrong, respectfully. Salaries in pro football are held artificially low thanks to the salary cap. If there is a free agent who can mean the difference in reaching the Super Bowl, how much is that worth to a franchise? People are going to be stunned how much some of these players might make on the open market.

Pedro's not surprising. He's such a poor Spring pitcher that he probably wouldn't benefit the D.R. even if he did pitch. And Vlad Guerrero has a legitimate reason.

I would add that I am really looking forward to seeing the non-MLB players in this tournament.

I have a Taiwanese friend so we'll take some perverse pleasure in watching Taiwan smack China around. The real victims are South Africa though. I fear to see how badly their experience against the US team is.

Round One starts tomorrow night. I figured I'd give a little insight on the tournament. For the first three days, March 3-5, the tournament will see exclusively games from Pool A, consisting of the Asian entrants. Korea, Japan, Taiwan and China. http://www.worldbaseballclassic.com/2006/s...dex.jsp?sid=wbc The opening round consists of four separate round robin tournaments, with each team playing the others once each. The two top performers in each pool advance to the next round. The winners of pool A advance to play the winners of pool B in a second round robin, and the same goes for Pools C and D. The top two in those pools play in the semifinals, and then the final. Each semifinal and final is one game. Korea and Taiwan meet tomorrow night, and that game will essentially decide the round. Japan is clearly the strongest team, and China is the weakest team. China dropped an exhibition to a Japanese club 17-0 on Tuesday, and that sums up their relative chances. Korea is more highly regarded than Taiwan, but Taiwan could pull an upset. So why should you watch? The round will feature several MLB players and prospects. Korea's team will feature Chan Ho Park, Byung-Hyun Kim, Sunny Kim, Dae-Sung Koo, Jae Seo and Hee Seop Choi. Taiwan's team will see Dodgers' prospects Hong-Chih Kuo and Chin-lung Hu, and Mariners' prospect Yung-Chi Chen. Keep an eye out in particular for Hu's excellent glove work at shortstop. Japan will feature Ichiro plus its top stars. As for China, the fascination is to see how badly they lose. The China-Japan game may be a real test of character. The rest of the field kicks off on Tuesday.

The biggest attendance jump comes from Cleveland where they more than quadrupled their attendance. But they are a special case. Of course the largest attendance is going to come from the big markets. You would see that in the NFL if they played often enough. The thing is, it is not like they are pulling dead weight. There wasn't a single team in MLB that drew less than 1 million fans last season. Historically, the kinds of attendance MLB has pulled have only occured within the last 15 years or so. People forget that there used to be absolutely horrific markets for attendance, which we don't have anymore. Minor league attendance set a new record, and it isn't the big markets of NYC and LA boosting that. So how is MLB not regional? Sixteen affliliated minor leagues. Nine viable independent leagues, with teams playing in all 48 states of the Continental U.S. Another 250 teams playing Division I college baseball, with a nationally televised championship. Baseball is the only sport where it's youth tournament is viewed on national television. Several national television contracts. A satellite radio contract, broadcasting every game to over 5 million subscribers. That's how.