Tampa Bay Rays: All that is wrong with MLB

Perhaps the title of this post is a tad misleading. I love the Rays: I love their team, I love the way they play, I love the way their front office runs the team. They are hypothetically set up to be not just good, but great, for a long, long time. Their dominant, young pitching and cadre of young star position players means the Rays are built for a theoretical dynasty that would be able to compete with baseball's fat cats, the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees, in the brutal AL East for years.

So what's the problem? This imaginary dynasty will not come to be in Tampa Bay, nor could it anywhere in the league outside of Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Boston. Major League Baseball's lack of a salary cap means that teams in smaller markets, like Tampa Bay, can never truly compete. New York fans and traditionalists will cry, "What are you talking about!? Look at all the small market teams in the mix this year: Minnesota, Tampa Bay, San Diego! You just have to run the team the right way! You're just crying sour milk because Doug Melvin has run a promising Brewers team into the ground."

Well, that's true. It's not fair, and I'm mad, but you fail to see the point. Sure, if a small market team makes all the right moves, gets good value in the draft consistently, doesn't make any mistakes on big free agents signings and trades (Jeff Suppan, Trevor Hoffman, Doug Davis, Carlos Gomez: we're looking at you, big guys), and has the right coach, it can makes waves for a year of two, like the Rays have. But due to the way the league is set up, it can't last for more than that with out a long and substantial string of luck. Teams like Tampa Bay become glorified farm teams for the big boys, getting a nice pat on the head before being sent back to the bottom of standings, with their pockets picked of their best talent.

After this year, the Rays will almost certainly lose three big components of their success this year: speedy outfielder Carl Crawford, slugging first baseman Carlos Pena and shutdown closer Rafael Soriano. Due to a lack of attendance (the Rays draw about 20,000 fans per game) and low revenues from television, Rays owner Stuart Sternberg has already stated that next year's team will have a salary of about $60 million, dropping $13 million off of a payroll that already ranks just 19th in the league (the Brewers, for the record, are 18th, with approximately 2/3 of a Jeff Suppan separating the two teams).

Can the Rays still compete next year? Sure they can, but don't count on it. They'll still have their dominant starting pitching and a bonafide superstar in Evan Longoria. But they'll be forced to replace two big cogs of their offense with something out of their farm system, and the drop in both talent and experience will be significant. On the flip side, perennial contenders New York and Boston will have plenty of cash to sign big free agents (Crawford to New York, Pena to Boston anyone?) to fill any holes that they may have, and money to burn if it doesn't work out. There is a reason the NFL is king in America these days: fans (that don't live in New York) like parity. They want to know that their team has a shot every year. Bud Selig and the MLBPA need to compromise and make MLB fair for every team.