[spazmatastic]

They like the money it creates at the the end of the season and during the playoffs. I'd like to see this:

No inter-league play
Just the two leagues, no divisions....old school baseball.
Top two teams play in the world series, no playoffs unless teams are tied at the top of their league.
Salary Cap plus profit sharing so every team has the ability to get any player.
Front office people will only win if they know what they are doing, not because they have deep pockets.

How would the Yankees finish if this were the case?

What???
The Yankees would have faced the Nationals in the WS (in your scenario) AND lost anyway. If the old school rules were in place, the Nats would not have sat Strasburg and he would've gotten 2 starts against NYY, IF they could hang in for more than 4 games.

I do disagree with most of what you are saying here. Interleague games add the chance for 2 teams in the same area (but different leagues) to face each other from time to time and helps to buffer each division. If every NL team ONLY faced NL teams, they have no contrast as to how they should handle an AL team that doesn't make the Pitcher bat. If AL teams don't face NL teams during the season, they don't get a chance for pitchers to have at-bats against opposing teams. How an AL pitcher handles himself at the plate can be very important in the WS!

Also, I like seeing more than 2 teams have a chance at the WS title. How can you have 30 teams and only 2 get a chance at the title after playing 162 games? That would eliminate lots of viewers (and advertising revenues) for the World Series games. The Divisional Series and League Championship Series add to the intrigue and help build interest towards the World Series.

Plus, the Houston Astros are moving to the AL next year and there was a pretty good rivalry b/t the NL Central teams and the Astros for several years. I still don't know why the Astros are moving over there instead of the Brewers moving BACK to the AL. I guess it's just b/c Houston makes a better fit in the AL West than Milwaukee does.
I do agree with this line though, "Salary Cap plus profit sharing so every team has the ability to get any player."

[fulltritty]

What???
The Yankees would have faced the Nationals in the WS (in your scenario) AND lost anyway. If the old school rules were in place, the Nats would not have sat Strasburg and he would've gotten 2 starts against NYY, IF they could hang in for more than 4 games.

Your logic doesn't work here as the Yankees were not playing bad down the stretch and were actually hitting and winning games. It was in the long playoffs with multiple rain delays and long series with little to no off days that the Yankees collapsed. During the regular season matchup, the Yankees swept the Nats including the game Strasburg pitched; he wound up with a no decision. The Nats also don't have any historical Yankee killers like the Tigers with Young. I think the Yankees would have won that World Series against the Nats in that scenario; especially the way Gio reverted back to his Oakland ways and imploded.

[DrMitchJ]

They like the money it creates at the the end of the season and during the playoffs. I'd like to see this:

No inter-league play
Just the two leagues, no divisions....old school baseball.
Top two teams play in the world series, no playoffs unless teams are tied at the top of their league.
Salary Cap plus profit sharing so every team has the ability to get any player.
Front office people will only win if they know what they are doing, not because they have deep pockets.

How would the Yankees finish if this were the case?

Inter-league play sucks and it dilutes the importance/uniqueness of the All-Star game and the World Series itself. Getting to see Mantle vs. Gibson or Koufax for the first time ... Wow, it was special.

Having 3 divisions per league isn't that bad. It keeps teams from having a "fire sale" before July. But the team with the best record in each league should get to play against the winner between the 2 weaker teams in the other divisions thus assuring that the "best" team gets to play for the League pennant. No more wild cards, IMO.

I never liked a salary cap or profit sharing component to any team. I am a little more radical about player payment. I think all players should have a base salary of 1 million dollars. Done! The rest of the pay comes from incentives. Hit 10 home runs get a 500k bonus, 20 home runs an extra million. win 10 games? Here's a million, win 20 here's another 2 million. Steal 10 bases, etc etc, etc. I think players should have incentives for remaining on their team when their contracts are up .. To reward fan loyalty and support. Likewise there should be some team incentive for bringing up Farm system players instead of trading for a quick fix. I prefer teams that bring up and keep their farm team prospects .... Build teams with more Franchise players, like Jeter for example.

I'll never convert a Yankee-hater into seeing "the light" but .... News flash ... EVERY team buys players and spends money, the Yankees aren't all that unique. Boston didn't buy their World Series (Ortiz, manny, josh, Lowell)?!?! The Cards and Phillies and Texas didn't go pitcher-shopping during the winter? C'mon! Actually, you can't argue that when Steinbrenner was alive, he was the best owner. Why? Because, He took his profits and re-invested into his team, unlike other owners who took their's into their pockets and gave back nothing to their supportive fan-base (can I say .... Cubs?)
Btw. .... I'm in awe with the A's this year! Even a team with a strick budget can acquire a key pick up like Cespedes ! Brilliant organization, making trades and bringing up talent, keeping salaries low and competing for a great rookie signing!

[spazmatastic]

Your logic doesn't work here as the Yankees were not playing bad down the stretch and were actually hitting and winning games. It was in the long playoffs with multiple rain delays and long series with little to no off days that the Yankees collapsed. During the regular season matchup, the Yankees swept the Nats including the game Strasburg pitched; he wound up with a no decision. The Nats also don't have any historical Yankee killers like the Tigers with Young. I think the Yankees would have won that World Series against the Nats in that scenario; especially the way Gio reverted back to his Oakland ways and imploded.

Again... WHAT???
How can the Nats have any 'historical' anything against the Yankees? They have only existed for 7 years and had a losing record EVERY year until now. Before that, they were the Expos and had nearly the same situation. You can't compare an AL team to an NL team when you add the words 'Yankee Killer'. It's just not possible for an NL team to have a 'Yankee Killer' unless it is a player on the same NL team for his career constantly beating the Yankees in the WS or in Interleague play.
Also, the Cardinals and Nats played a game that 'officially' lasted 3 hrs. and 7 minutes, but took over 7 hrs. to complete!

---

Inter-league play sucks and it dilutes the importance/uniqueness of the All-Star game and the World Series itself. Getting to see Mantle vs. Gibson or Koufax for the first time ... Wow, it was special.

Having 3 divisions per league isn't that bad. It keeps teams from having a "fire sale" before July. But the team with the best record in each league should get to play against the winner between the 2 weaker teams in the other divisions thus assuring that the "best" team gets to play for the League pennant. No more wild cards, IMO.

I never liked a salary cap or profit sharing component to any team. I am a little more radical about player payment. I think all players should have a base salary of 1 million dollars. Done! The rest of the pay comes from incentives. Hit 10 home runs get a 500k bonus, 20 home runs an extra million. win 10 games? Here's a million, win 20 here's another 2 million. Steal 10 bases, etc etc, etc. I think players should have incentives for remaining on their team when their contracts are up .. To reward fan loyalty and support. Likewise there should be some team incentive for bringing up Farm system players instead of trading for a quick fix. I prefer teams that bring up and keep their farm team prospects .... Build teams with more Franchise players, like Jeter for example.

I'll never convert a Yankee-hater into seeing "the light" but .... News flash ... EVERY team buys players and spends money, the Yankees aren't all that unique. Boston didn't buy their World Series (Ortiz, manny, josh, Lowell)?!?! The Cards and Phillies and Texas didn't go pitcher-shopping during the winter? C'mon! Actually, you can't argue that when Steinbrenner was alive, he was the best owner. Why? Because, He took his profits and re-invested into his team, unlike other owners who took their's into their pockets and gave back nothing to their supportive fan-base (can I say .... Cubs?)
Btw. .... I'm in awe with the A's this year! Even a team with a strick budget can acquire a key pick up like Cespedes ! Brilliant organization, making trades and bringing up talent, keeping salaries low and competing for a great rookie signing!

There are so many things you said that I agree or disagree with but I have limited time. I need to go to bed so I can go to work in about 6 hours. I may come back to talk about the rest of your post but I really wanted to post about one thing.
Of the Cardinals post-season lineup, most of them are 'farm team' players. They 'hired' Beltran to replace Pujols who was raised in the Cardinals 'farm'. They got Berkman b/c he was frustrated with being stuck in Houston who has a 'fire sale' EVERY July. They traded for Holliday a few years ago b/c he wasn't happy in Oakland and STL needed his bat. STL's entire infield (C, 1B, 2B, SS, 3B) are ALL farm team players and many of their pitchers are also farm-raised. Jon Jay in CF is a farm-raised player too. If you check it out, most of the Cardinals' postseason team were drafted by STL. Some of the Starting Pitchers weren't, but nearly the entire bullpen AND their closer were all trained in the Cardinals farm system.

[DrMitchJ]

There are so many things you said that I agree or disagree with but I have limited time. I need to go to bed so I can go to work in about 6 hours. I may come back to talk about the rest of your post but I really wanted to post about one thing.
Of the Cardinals post-season lineup, most of them are 'farm team' players. They 'hired' Beltran to replace Pujols who was raised in the Cardinals 'farm'. They got Berkman b/c he was frustrated with being stuck in Houston who has a 'fire sale' EVERY July. They traded for Holliday a few years ago b/c he wasn't happy in Oakland and STL needed his bat. STL's entire infield (C, 1B, 2B, SS, 3B) are ALL farm team players and many of their pitchers are also farm-raised. Jon Jay in CF is a farm-raised player too. If you check it out, most of the Cardinals' postseason team were drafted by STL. Some of the Starting Pitchers weren't, but nearly the entire bullpen AND their closer were all trained in the Cardinals farm system.

I look forward to hearing the rest of your thoughts to my post.
I'm not about to argue with you about the Cards. You are correct in everything you said. I admire that they brought up so much talent from their Farm system, which obviously is a well run system, and I really expect no less than that from a class A organization such as The Cards. That being said, when a farm raised player, let's say Jon Jay, is ready to hit the free market, would you frown at the Cards paying him "fair market" to keep him and lock him down for a few more years? Of course not. The Yankees did that over the past several years with Jeter, Rivera, Posada etc. Hell, if you remove Arod's obscene salary from their payroll, they're not too bad compared to the top 10 organization in the league. My biggest question is why did they ever re-sign him, and why at that inflated rate of pay? Did he have pictures of George with farm animals or something?!?!?! Sheesh!
Anyway,I digress .... the Cards "paid" Beltran, Berkman, Holiday, Carpenter, .., and paid Them well. They should have never let Pujols leave (IMO) and could have afforded to lock him in a few years ago. It might have made the difference this
post - season!