The Salary Cap

[White Sox GM (Michael)]

Since this league's inception before the 2011 season, the salary cap has always been $100m. However, there has been a huge market change in the MLB. With new TV deals for teams and natural inflation, salaries are quickly rising.

I'm suggesting that we bump up the salary cap. It's too tight right now, I think, but I really want this done after the 2013 season. $120M sounds like a good round number, but I could be convinced at as low as $110M or $115M.

This doesn't seem at all crazy to me, since the Dodgers are currently over $220M and rising.

This isn't an urgent issue, but more often than not I like to toss out ideas before I forget about them.

[Deleted]

I'm in favor of this idea and it would kick in if accepted after the 2013 season allow everyone to adjust to the new system.Exactly for the same reasons you've stated as we've stayed the same MLB has no salary cap and has increasingly got more out of our region even the smaller market teams are in our area.Most leagues I've seen are 125M or 130M no issue so I think the modest bump of even 110 or 115 but 120 as well are all good ideas.I'd suggest 120 but I would be just as fine with 115.

[Deleted]

i am not in favor of this idea, because of the fact that the only guys getting huge contracts in real life are players decently far out of their first 6 years. This means that even though the payrolls in the mlb are rising, it doesnt affect the league because the players after years 1-6 hit FA, and the bidding remains in our 100mil budget so therefore none of the huge real life contracts are being used in this league. Also implementing this new system starting next year would insure that there is a wider range of the contracts of top level FA's that have hit the market. For example Pujols last year went for like 35mil and now a lesser player such as cano will prob rocket to 40mil when he hits FA this year. Also if this new system is implemented and is planned to start next year, then people will overpay this years FA class players in preperation for the extended cap they will b given in '14. Lastly, i feel this gives teams who are projected to be over cap next year a huge break because the now dont need to adjust their roster for next year to get under cap, which they shud have been doing all along. I just think even though the caps would be more realistic to the MLB, it gives teams alot of breaks, and is unfair to those teams that have planned out their future years payroll. I hope u understand my points

[Deleted]

Did he just say Cano is worse than Pujols?

[Deleted]

i meant at the moment, as in pujols was better coming into FA last year then cano will be next year, yet cano will prob go for the same or more

[Astros GM (Max)]

I dont see the point in Jeff's arguement... Makes 0 sense to me

Max

[Deleted]

I don't think you and Jeff will agree on anything

[Deleted]

^^^^^ we arent fond of eachother

[Royals GM (BigRussi)]

Pass.

[Brewers GM (Marty)]

Wouldn't the real life salaries only apply to players who get bought out of free agency years while they're in their Arb/pre-Arb years? It's not that often that a player will allow more than their first 2 FA years to be bought out. Because not many allow their FA years to be bought out, I feel like it's a small percentage of the player pool that will be affected by the rising MLB salaries from TV contracts, etc. If they don't get extended before year 7 in real life, they're subject to our salary rules which is a 100M budget.

I don't know that a rule change to adjust the max cap is necessary until it becomes a situation where the majority of the league is really struggling to get under cap, and those situations can't be blamed on poor cap management.

[White Sox GM (Michael)]

More and more teams are extending their players long-term. Longo, Wright, Tulo, Votto, Kemp come to mind.

[White Sox GM (Michael)]

I think a good idea would be for us to see how this free agency plays out before we make any real headway in this discussion. We wouldn't be close to a decision anyway until at least Spring Training.

[Deleted]

My take:

If you can't manage a team with the salary cap given, thats your fault. Maybe trades involving teams "over the cap" should be monitored more closely. And FA bidding should also be monitored more closely.

Teams like the Dodgers, that are over the cap, should be more active in trading and working to get cap down. Increasing the salary cap will only cause matters to get worse, with overblown contracts, and other teams getting into similar financial situations.

If you want to increase the salary cap that is your choice. I say if you do that, do it by bonuses of wins- like .25m a win and other incentives- like a playoff bonus, WS bonus.

[White Sox GM (Michael)]

You all bring up good points. And it's true, not many teams are struggling at the moment to stay under. However, if it comes a time that many of the league's owners can't stay under, I think we have to make a change.

This will come after 2013 at earliest, but I think it's inevitable that it'll happen at some point.

About incentives; that's an interesting idea, though I'm not sure I'd love it. Maybe I do. But to me, it seems like a hard cap should be equal across-the-board.

[Deleted]

Bonuses are a silly way to do that.Dodgers dont have cap as the real MLB is unlimited spending. And i agree that teams not managing with the cap given is their fault but that doesnt really answer the ? of the real MLB contracts consistently getting more expensive under the current rules it doesn't take much talent to reach the cap.Even the most middle of the pack type players are receiving 10-13M extensions and salaries so we need to try and keep up with the times.Common sense would let you know that combined with inflation and the nature of market once 1 guy gets a silly salary the rest follow as precedent so the entire league is on a boom.We also btw have 1 of the lowest caps I've seen in a Fantasy league.

I think the real issue is people are turned off by change and I can understand that point but in my mind I'm one of those teams perfectly prepared to deal with the 100M cap and even I think its a good idea.

[Rangers GM (Bill)]

I'm totally against increasing the salary cap. This league is the most realistic of all the leagues I'm in because the cap is the most realistic. Increasing the cap only inflates salaries across the board, because teams have so much money to spend that they say "what the hell" when the bidding gets to $30M on Jeff Francouer.

Greinke just signed for about $25M in real life. I'll bet he goes for that or more here in FA. If you increase the cap you get more Cliff Lee madness.

The average payroll in Major League Baseball in 2012 was $97.9M, which is remarkably close to the salary cap in this league. Sure they'll be anomolies due to us not being real GMs and you'll get the crazy contracts, but for the most part, across the board you have as realistic an environment as you can get.

More cap = inflated prices for contract because of simple math. The aggregate contract dollars in MLB ($97.9M in total) is the sum of all of the real life contracts. Simple math. Bumping the league cap by 15% will result in average salary inflation of 15%. It's like playing poker with dueces and one-eyed jacks wild.

I think this league has an excellent formula going right now. I'm not arguing against change, but I am if it's change just for change's sake.

If we're really determined to increase salaries, then I would suggest we peg the cap to the average of the combined payrolls of MLB. So if the $97.9M per team in 2012 goes up to $110M in 2014, then I have no problem with increasing our cap accordingly.

Phew. Got that off my chest. Sorry about the rant.

..this message was paid for by the committee to curb fantasy baseball salary inflation. The Rangers approve this message....

[Deleted]

I agree with Bill and a few others the info he provided makes me think we are perfect just where we are cap wise. I think the lower the cap the more of a challenge it is on owners to make tough decisions on players and work within their budget. I personally like the challenge. Not opposed to raising cap in the future but at the present time I don't see the need.

[Tigers GM (Alex)]

I'd be fine increasing the salary cap slowly over the years, but I think a $20M jump like that is too much. Maybe something like increase the cap $5M or $10M every 3 years.

[Brewers GM (Marty)]

Bill pretty much stated what I would have if I wasn't doing this stuff from a phone in the hospital. The 100m cap forces budget planning and also places some emphasis on having infusions of young, cheap talent from the farm. While it is big names that are getting extended in real life, it's not a large number of guys. I also have a hard time believing that the elite guys listed above would go for the same or less money in here than real life, especially if the cap were raised. Personally, I enjoy leagues like this because of the roster decisions it forces you to make. Raising the cap just makes decision making easier and creates less challenge. More planning and tougher decisions means more fun, IMO.

[Deleted]

I would also be against an increase in the salary cap. The current cap of 100M makes things somewhat realistic. There will always be GMs that overspend on FAs, but increasing the cap will only allow for more bad contracts that affect the whole league. Not too long ago members of this league were asking for an amnesty clause. Why? Because of terrible contracts. Now I understand most of those contracts were not signed by the GMs asking for help. But just the fact the contracts exist make things difficult to operate a team.
100M is plenty at this point in time and will be for years to come.