RealGM

lol @ Juan Rivera being paid the 2nd highest on the team

yeah but wouldn't this look worse?

Hopefully next year we see Pujols on the top of our payroll list..

Im in before you know who starts to complain. As expected they have a ton of cap space in the future. Lot of flexibility to make moves when they re close.

With a low payroll, their game tickets and concessions should be dirt cheap to encourage a full stadium.

Ticket prices aren't based on salary, they're based on what people are willing to pay. Obviously better team = can charge more for tickets, but they're mutually exclusive. If it was a crappy team with a bunch of Vernon Wells and Lyle Overbay types then I don't think people would be any more willing to pony up the dough than if it was a young exciting team with Drabek/Romero/Lawrie types.

I don't think that there's any doubt that we'll be trying to spend a fair amount of money next off-season...we have quite a bit of salary coming off the books (even if Hill's options are picked up), and I can't imagine that they'll roll with a $60m payroll, for optics as much as anything. The question is this: if we go after a few of the bigger names and strike out, will we still spend it?

Skin Blues wrote:Ticket prices aren't based on salary, they're based on what people are willing to pay. Obviously better team = can charge more for tickets, but they're mutually exclusive. If it was a crappy team with a bunch of Vernon Wells and Lyle Overbay types then I don't think people would be any more willing to pony up the dough than if it was a young exciting team with Drabek/Romero/Lawrie types.

The thing about cheap tickets is you get more companies getting involves with season's tickets, then they give away ticket to employees, clients.

But that's an interesting thought you have there, that the cost of going to a game doesn't affect how many people are interested to show up. Like when I want to go to a movie, I go, not because of the price.

Sign Pujols. That is all.

Schadenfreude wrote:I don't think that there's any doubt that we'll be trying to spend a fair amount of money next off-season...we have quite a bit of salary coming off the books (even if Hill's options are picked up), and I can't imagine that they'll roll with a $60m payroll, for optics as much as anything. The question is this: if we go after a few of the bigger names and strike out, will we still spend it?

That's a good point, and it's why I thought Bautista's deal had to be seen not only on baseball or even ticket-selling merit, but on the statement it makes to potential future free agents. You don't necessarily become a hot destination FA overnight, and will almost certainly involve overpaying to get a big/biggish name. I am kind of sad we didn't make a better attempt to keep Scott Downs. Maybe he would have left anyways, but looking at last night's collapse in SEA made me all the more appreciate his eighth inning dominance. Yes, I know all the arguments about his age, the draft picks he fetched, yadda, yadda, but keeping him would have been a relatively cheap statement to make, given our payroll this year and next.

Scott Downs has blown plenty of games in his blue jay career, i'd be happy to pull the boxscores from last year where he failed to hold the lead. That's the nature of relief pitchers, even the really good ones will blow up and there's really nothing you can do about it and there are days when two or more of them blow up at the same time and well, you saw the results last night

Well Downs vs. Dotel or Rauch seems like a pretty good idea without considering any kind of clutchness in the 8th. Not a fan of the extra years for relievers and picks are always nice, but Downs and Janssen over Dotel/Rauch and Purcey is a much better 'pen and the yearly cost wasn't all that different. Not sure how to evaluate the picks in that equation though.

Also, should Hech count to the MLB payroll? That's just nitpicking, but IMO that's amateur signing money rather than mlb payroll, at least until he's with the actual big club.

J-Roc wrote:

Skin Blues wrote:Ticket prices aren't based on salary, they're based on what people are willing to pay. Obviously better team = can charge more for tickets, but they're mutually exclusive. If it was a crappy team with a bunch of Vernon Wells and Lyle Overbay types then I don't think people would be any more willing to pony up the dough than if it was a young exciting team with Drabek/Romero/Lawrie types.

The thing about cheap tickets is you get more companies getting involves with season's tickets, then they give away ticket to employees, clients.

But that's an interesting thought you have there, that the cost of going to a game doesn't affect how many people are interested to show up. Like when I want to go to a movie, I go, not because of the price.

I think you have a reading comprehension issue, J-Roc.

Michael Bradley wrote:Sign Pujols. That is all.

or Fielder, let's get a real DH for once please. no more McCoy at DH'ing 9th, what a waste of a DH spot.

Fielder is the perfect guy. only 27, bats left. and and! born in ONTARIO, CA

darth_federer wrote:Im in before you know who starts to complain. As expected they have a ton of cap space in the future. Lot of flexibility to make moves when they re close.

There's no such thing as "cap space" in major league baseball. Rich owners like Rogers can pay as much as they want on their team in any given season.

Randle McMurphy wrote:There's no such thing as "cap space" in major league baseball. Rich owners like Rogers can pay as much as they want on their team in any given season.

While that theoretically might be true, to think that a corporation is going to spend until they're bankrupt is ridiculous (or even an individual).

Unless you think Rogers is willing to spend $200M every year on the team, having a lower payroll can only mean good things for future flexibility. Answer me this: would you rather have the current players but a $120M payroll?

hyper316 wrote:

Michael Bradley wrote:Sign Pujols. That is all.

or Fielder, let's get a real DH for once please. no more McCoy at DH'ing 9th, what a waste of a DH spot.

Fielder is the perfect guy. only 27, bats left. and and! born in ONTARIO, CA

Put your Maple Bonner away I used to think fielder was a great idea as well until I started thinking about how that body is going to age, Do you really want him for 8 years when 4 of them are going to be useless?