If you want to pick on a team to root against due to incompetent ownership, look no further than the Colorado Rockies.

I don't really buy into this very shallow analysis. The Rays are the 29th-most-valuable of 30 MLB franchises. Their payroll is in the 20s, but it's higher than 29th. Asking them to spend more money because they have a wealthy owner isn't really fair or realistic. I don't think MLB players are underpaid as a group, and I don't think any objective analysis suggests the Rays are underspending relative to their revenues or team valuation. If we're going to live with a league that has no salary cap and fairly minimal revenue sharing, we have to expect small-market teams to spend less money. That doesn't make them unreasonably cheap.

Put another way, if the Rays spending is in line with their revenue and value, the only way you can reasonably believe they are being unfair in their treatment of players is if you also believe the league as a whole is unfair in its treatment of players. Which, again, I do not.

Have MLB owners finally opened their books to the public? Because I'm wondering what information you're basing these comments on.

Simple question it is asking is,
Is it good for baseball or not?
Maybe more questions should be asked.
Should an owner be allowed to make as much money as he possibly can? (This doesn't apply to just baseball).
If so, is it good for baseball?
Should players be allowed to make as much money as they can? (How many workers in factories get to negotiate their pay? Very few).
If so, is it good for baseball?
Are the high Salaries that go to the very best players good for baseball?
Are the newest players that play at any level of pro baseball (Low A ,High A, AA, AAA) getting paid enough?
Do you like paying high ticket prices to attend games? What about high prices for beer and hotdogs at the game? Or paying that subscription fee to watch games on TV. Are those prices high enough or would you pay more? Maybe $30 for a hotdog and $50 for a beer is fine with you.
Which would you rather watch and cheer for, a guy getting paid $2 million a year hitting .300 and helping his team win or a guy getting paid $25 million a year hitting .210 helping his team win?
Sorry, I can't despise the Rays for being good at being frugal. I think most MLB players are over-paid. If a few million is not enough to live comfortably on then something is wrong. Maybe instead of teams making the playoffs based solely on Wins they should base it on Total Team Salary divided by wins. The Dodgers and Yankees would never make the playoffs then. One can argue that high salaries have ruined baseball just as much or more then what the Rays owner is doing. If you want all of the owners to make the same amount of money each year and all of the players to make what they are worth based on performance so everything is perfect then you'll need to change just about everything in baseball. Good Luck.

I vote we add dynamic pricing in MLB

I don’t necessarily agree that players are overpaid as a whole. Players are the product and should make money based on that. The players are more deserving than the owners IMO - but the players also get to bargain their CBA, and if they feel the Rays (and every other small market team) are taking advantage of players, then they can negotiate for better terms.

I agree with most of what bheid said above - and to answer one of the questions, I think winning with small budget teams is great for baseball. I think proving you don’t have to be the Yankees or Dodgers is great for baseball, just as much as I think players getting their $ by signing with whomever they for for however much they want is also good for baseball

Part of the problem is that both owners and players have gotten greedy. I remember quite a few years ago, to when both Kirby Puckett and Rickey Henderson had their contracts expiring the same year. The so called experts at the time expected both players to get about the same amount of money in their new contracts. Kirby loved Minnesota and loved playing for the Twins so he accepted an offer of $3 million a year to stay even though he knew he could have gotten more had he went elsewhere. Rickey was only concerned about Rickey and took the best offer he could get which was somewhat more than what Kirby got. I don't blame Rickey for what he did since we all have to look out for ourselves, but Kirby didn't just think of himself, he thought about the fans that loved watching him play and was happy playing in Minnesota. He was a TEAM player. Rickey wasn't. On the flip side of that, how many players end their careers playing for a different organization only because the owner won't resign them to a contract that would keep them until they retire? A lot. In today's baseball, loyalty has been replaced with greed on both sides.

Posted by chargingryno on 10/8/2021 10:53:00 AM (view original):
I vote we add dynamic pricing in MLB

Charlie O' was on to something when he suggested every player is a free agent after each season. Then they would get paid their true market value.

Crazystengel, have you ever read Jonah Keri’s book about the Rays? It might be a little dated now, but it’s a Moneyball style breakdown of how Sternburg and the Rays brought Wall Street strategies into baseball. Digs into the Naimoli era and the origins of the franchise too.

Do you like paying high ticket prices to attend games? What about high prices for beer and hotdogs at the game? Or paying that subscription fee to watch games on TV. Are those prices high enough or would you pay more? Maybe $30 for a hotdog and $50 for a beer is fine with you.

You think those prices are based on player salaries? Did the cost of a hot dog in Fenway go way down after the Red Sox dumped Mookie Betts' salary?

Posted by xfl outlaw on 10/8/2021 2:31:00 PM (view original):
Crazystengel, have you ever read Jonah Keri’s book about the Rays? It might be a little dated now, but it’s a Moneyball style breakdown of how Sternburg and the Rays brought Wall Street strategies into baseball. Digs into the Naimoli era and the origins of the franchise too.

No, haven't read it. I'll look it up. Did it have a section on Sternburg or any other owner extorting local governments for cash? I wonder sometimes why baseball fans aren't outraged by that but get angry over Mike Trout's salary.

Posted by crazystengel on 10/8/2021 5:37:00 PM (view original):
Do you like paying high ticket prices to attend games? What about high prices for beer and hotdogs at the game? Or paying that subscription fee to watch games on TV. Are those prices high enough or would you pay more? Maybe $30 for a hotdog and $50 for a beer is fine with you.

You think those prices are based on player salaries? Did the cost of a hot dog in Fenway go way down after the Red Sox dumped Mookie Betts' salary?

it did not. in fact, they raised ticket prices the same off-season they salary dumped him.

Posted by 06gsp on 10/8/2021 6:32:00 PM (view original):

Posted by crazystengel on 10/8/2021 5:37:00 PM (view original):
Do you like paying high ticket prices to attend games? What about high prices for beer and hotdogs at the game? Or paying that subscription fee to watch games on TV. Are those prices high enough or would you pay more? Maybe $30 for a hotdog and $50 for a beer is fine with you.

You think those prices are based on player salaries? Did the cost of a hot dog in Fenway go way down after the Red Sox dumped Mookie Betts' salary?

it did not. in fact, they raised ticket prices the same off-season they salary dumped him.

I mean, it's not like they traded Betts and all of a sudden became a small market ballclub. In 2020, after accounting for Price and Betts, Bostion was still 3-4 times the payroll of Tampa. So yes, they still raised prices on hot dogs and beers and tickets because this is capitalism and they know the fans will pay even when prices go up (not to mention that they raised prices due to covid shutting down all spring training sales and limiting occupancy in stadiums.

Also - fun fact that the author failed to mention (or I at least failed to read):

Tampa nearly tripled their total payroll from 2020 to 2021 and doubled their active payroll: from $28m total payroll to $70m total payroll - $21m active roster vs. $44m active roster. Doesn't strike me as the stingy, hard ***, everything before the players and fans monster the article paints.