I read this article over at MVN:

http://mvn.com/thelastpage/2007/11/30/is-the-lack-of-a-salary-cap-the-problem-in-baseball/

The problem with comparing football and baseball is that they're so different.  One player having an excellent, or even career day in football will rarely change the balance of the game unless the teams are quite evenly matched.  One player having a great/career day makes a baseball game.  And don't get me wrong, I wouldn't have it any other way, but the fact is that a short series, although generally correct, is not infallible when it comes to telling the best teams.

He keep using the World Series as an example of competitive balance, and don't get me wrong, I like to see turnover there, but I think making the playoffs is a better example.  And the fact is that the Yankees and Red Sox are the only two teams in their division to make it for 12 years. That's half my life, and, much as a dynasty is fun for the fans of the home team, it's not exactly the way that you draw new fans to other teams.

I'm a die-hard Rockies fan since '93, so I'm not the target audience.  I'll see a bunch games a year in person, the limits of what I can generally afford, and listen to the rest on the radio, even if we're losing 95 of them.  The target audience is what the Rockies brought in this year with their run.  The margin fans who want to see good, winning baseball came back in Denver.  And they will probably stay for 2-3 years if the Rockies are at least competitive, which they should be for that long at least.  What I want to see is every team, within reason, being able to enjoy that.  

The Blue Jays are the perfect example here.  We all know the Rays are a two or three years out from making their attempt, and the Orioles are about as horribly managed as you can be, but the Jays are a really solid team with a good young nucleus and great pitching (they were number 2 in the AL in runs allowed), and they really have no place to go.  And the worst part is that they can't hold on to their top quality players into their primes.  The Blue Jays are like the Rockies in that they've got to bet on one or two of their top prospects to make into franchise players, and hope to get good trade returns on the rest of them. The Jays are at a salary of ~80mil in 2007, right where the Montforts say the Rockies will be able to support. The Rockies got lucky that Todd Helton (the prospect we bet on) was the player that he was, but imagine if he had "Hamptoned" out as well.  That would have crippled the franchise again.  The mid-market teams face this challenge with every great player that comes through.  The small market teams have to be the Marlins, and they have their own set of worries that I won't address here, but the mid-markets are the major problem, honestly.

Any team where you are sure that most of your best players will be in the uniform of an "evil empire" when they hit their prime. I don't just mean the Yankees, Boston is quickly becoming one of their own, and the two LA teams, should the Dodgers learn to GM.  Frankly, the two Chicago teams spend like them, they're just The only things that are saving baseball are that players are grossly underpaid during their controlled years, and that controlled years are the early prime of a career.

The Rockies right now have only one major player in a contract that isn't in the controlled years, and that is Helton.  And make no mistake, Helton is still our second best hitter, and second best defender as well.  That is the only way we can go.  At the limit of our ability to pay salary, we might be able to get one more top quality Helton/Holliday caliber player, and one more mid-level Francis type player. The rest of our team is going to be made up of players like Herges and Torrealba, and players like Tulowitzki and Jimenez.

The thing that a salary cap would do is limit every team to the same number of franchise players, and lower the risk of losing yours to the "Empires".  Is that something that baseball wants? The empires bring in a huge amount of revenue, so that's not the first thing that the MLB wants to dump.  Perhaps a good first step compromise would be lowering the luxury tax ceiling, or increasing the tax itself.

Regardless, discussion of how to fix the system is needed.  Just because the broken system hasn't utterly failed yet doesn't mean it isn't broken, and doesn't mean it doesn't need looking into.