Does Baseball need a CAP ?

Does baseball need a salary cap? Would a salary cap as we currently know it work in MLB considering how the farm systems are intertwined into the mix ? Is the Luxury Tax the way to go, but simply not stiff enough ? Along with a hard top, should there also be a firm bottom that teams must remain above ?

Per the CBA

The Tax Threshold shall be $148 Million in the 2007 Contract Year, $155 Million in the 2008 Contract Year, $162 Million in the 2009 Contract Year, $170m in the 2010 Contract Year and $178m in the 2011 Contract Year

Top 10 team Payrolls in 2009 From CBS

2009 Team Payrolls
No.	Team	Payroll	Average
1.	New York Yankees	$201,449,289	$7,748,050
2.	New York Mets	$135,773,988	$4,849,071
3.	Chicago Cubs	$135,050,000	$5,402,000
4.	Boston Red Sox	$122,696,000	$4,089,867
5.	Detroit Tigers	$115,085,145	$4,110,184
6.	Los Angeles Angels	$113,709,000	$4,061,036
7.	Philadelphia Phillies	$113,004,048	$4,185,335
8.	Houston Astros	$102,996,415	$3,814,682
9.	Los Angeles Dodgers	$100,458,101	$4,018,324
10.	Seattle Mariners	$98,904,167	$3,532,292

Only one team has eclipsed the Luxury Tax, and they blew past it. Is there any shock that it's also the team that just won the World Series? It may sound like sour grapes, but how can small-mid market teams hope to compete with this kind of spending ? Is greater revenue sharing the answer? Should there be stiffer penalties such as loss of draft picks, or forfeiting your right to mid-season trades to go with it ?

One thing is certain, and that is that MLB is broken when ONE team can spend almost as much as the bottom 5 teams combined, and that needs to be fixed !

Play Ball !!!

Moorad says AGon not being shopped

Moorad 1090am Interview today

Moorad this am on 1090 was asked about all the rumors swirling regarding their franchise player Adrian Gonzalez. Below is paraphrasing of course, but should give the flavor of how that conversation went.......

" Padres are NOT shopping AGon......"

" but it is policy to listen to any offer for any player, and has been here even during KT's reign....."

Moorad asked Jed if he thought Epstein was going to make a run at AGon.......Hoyer responded that he thinks Theo has cooled to that idea, is going another direction, and doesn't have the "inventory" to get it done anyway

Kevin Towers says AGon is on his way out

KT speaks out on Adrian Gonzalez's future with the Padres

NY Daily News

Sadly, the Padres must deal Gonzalez.

Revenue-sharing money simply isn't enough right now in their market, where a bad local TV package reaps only about $2million and they have $18 million a year in stadium debt. In addition, nobody knows how much it's costing new owner Jeff Moorad to complete his buyout of John Moores. "They're going to have a $40 million payroll for the foreseeable future," said recently fired Padres GM Kevin Towers, "and there's just no way they can devote half of that to one player. It's just a matter of when they decide to trade (Gonzalez)."

Rotoworlds spin on the same subject siting the same source

Former Padres general manager Kevin Towers says Adrian Gonzalez will be traded.

"They're going to have a $40 million payroll for the foreseeable future," said Towers in reference to his former team. "And there's just no way they can devote half of that to one player. It's just a matter of when they decide to trade (Gonzalez)." Gonzalez is set to make just $4.75 million in 2010 with a $5.5 million club option for 2011 before hitting the open market in 2012, so new Padres general manager Jed Hoyer could make out like a bandit in a potential trade. The Red Sox, Hoyer's former club, are rumored to have interest in the 27-year-old first baseman.

Well all I can say is that Hoyer better have one helluva return if he doesn't want the Padre fans to riot at Petco.

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The Hoyer Era has arrived

Jed Hoyer is the man for the job

By Thomas Harding / MLB.com

10/25/09 12:48 AM ET

Red Sox assistant general manager Jed Hoyer has been chosen the next general manager of the Padres, a club source told MLB.com on Saturday.

The Padres were not prepared to make a formal announcement during the weekend. But Hoyer, 35, is set to replace Kevin Towers, who was GM for 14 seasons before new Padres chief executive Jeff Moorad informed him near the end of the season that he would not be retained for 2010.

Hoyer will take over a young squad that went 33-25 during the last two months of the season, before finishing with a 75-87 record to take fourth place in the National League West in 2009.

Hoyer has spent his entire front-office career with the Red Sox, starting in 2002 as a baseball operations intern and becoming a baseball operations assistant the following year. Hoyer and Ben Cherington served briefly as co-GMs after the 2005 season when Theo Epstein was working through contract issues.

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Asst. GM of the Yanks --> Dogs to GM of the Pads?

Ng interviewed this weekend

By Jim Street / MLB.com

10/17/09 11:45 PM ET

Dodgers assistant general manager Kim Ng interviewed for the vacant general manger position with the Padres, a San Diego club official has confirmed to MLB.com.

Ng, who previously has interviewed for GM openings with the Dodgers and Mariners, was spotted having lunch with new Padres owner Jeff Moorad, and she was interviewed on Saturday.

Ng could be not reached by MLB.com for comment.

The Padres are looking for a replacement for Kevin Towers, who was dismissed after 14 seasons with the National League West franchise.

KT gone & Moorad wants a new GM by Nov. 1st

Moorad wants new GM by the end of Oct.

By Corey Brock / MLB.com

10/06/09 1:46 PM ET

The Padres' search for a new general manager pushes on, though that doesn't mean the team is uncovered in the front office in the interim.

Manager Bud Black, executive vice president Paul DePodesta and assistant GM Fred Uhlman Jr. have been asked by CEO Jeff Moorad to watch over the baseball-operations department until a replacement for Kevin Towers is found.

Towers, the longest-tenured GM in the Major Leagues, was dismissed on Saturday after spending the past 14 seasons as the Padres' GM. No interim GM was named.

"Between [Black, DePodesta and Uhlman], I am convinced there is ample experience and ability to react and respond to any baseball issues that occur during the interim period," Moorad said on Tuesday.

Moorad hopes to have a GM by the end of the World Series, though he qualified that by saying, "potentially sooner."

Play Ball !!!

Continuing to trim 40 roster down

4 more spots opened up on the 40man

By Adam McCalvy / MLB.com

10/13/09 2:05 PM ET

The Padres removed four players from the 40-man roster on Tuesday, including two -- catcher Eliezer Alfonzo and infielder Luis Rodriguez -- who elected free agency.

Alfonso, Rodriguez, pitcher Josh Geer and outfielder Drew Macias were all outrighted to Triple-A Portland. Alfonso and Rodriguez had the right to refuse the assignment.

Of the quartet, Rodriguez played the most for the Padres in 2009, batting .202 with two home runs and 16 RBIs in 93 games. Over parts of five Major League seasons with the Twins and Padres (2008-09), the 29-year-old is a .243 hitter.

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