As a Yankee fan, it's hard for me to hate the Dodgers because I would be a hypocrite. Part of me actually likes what the Dodgers are doing because they expose many of these owners.
Dodgers fan here. You’re never getting a salary cap approved by MLBPA. Negotiate a deferral cap per year, set a salary floor. It will address teams being able to sign any player to their hearts content, and force cheap owners to do more for their fanbases.
Exactly. the deferred money. That is what needs to be addressed. the Dodgers have drastically abused it this off season, grant it theirs no rules saying any team can't do it but their needs to be a cap on the deferral process
You cannot have a floor without a cap. All the floor does is pay mid and low-tier players more so that teams reach the floor. It does not address the top teams taking all of the players. You have to have a cap to LIMIT TEAMS LIKE THE DODGERS FROM BUYING ALL OF THE PLAYERS.
@@PGO_Gaming while I agree (to an extent), players will never agree because they want all the money they can get. MLBPA will never agree to it unless the lack of parity outweighs players’ desire for max $
@@PGO_Gaming Theirs already punishments for teams that spend a lot of money, it's called spending tiers losing cash and draft picks. the only reason the Dodgers are getting all these guys is because they defer a shit load of money from these contracts for 10,20,30 years down the road after the contract ends instead of all the players AAV being spent that year
I don't have a team but if I were a dodger fan it would still ruin the game for me. You must have little decency or ethics, but that's par for the course with dodger fans. Worst pieces of shit on Earth
I kinda wanted a salary cap 5 minutes ago, but now thanks to Ken, I (finally) get it, and also for explaining an alternative to a cap. Well done. Thanks guys for another great show.
If owners cant afford to put up a competitive payroll annually then don’t buy a team. It’s no different from buying a house. if you can’t afford a million dollar house (or you’re sinking over 50% of your annual earnings into the mortgage and tax) then don’t buy it cause you can’t afford it
They can afford it. Many just look at how to generate profits differently. The majority cut corners and gouge their fan bases and skim on player contracts. While an group a investment bankers run the Dodgers organization like an actual business and see the value in spending because there is huge upside in winning.
Everybody that’s upset needs to blame the Astros, MLB and other fan bases. MLB didn't want to do anything about the Astros cheating, so Friedman has to make this team cheat proof. Other fan bases want to discredit the 2020 WS even though every team played the season without protest, other fan bases kept saying the Dodgers choke every year. Well here is your answer. Keep talking. I wouldn't be surprised to see Skenes, Elly, etc in a Dodger uniform in the future. Shouldn't have been talking shit. Games still have to be played and there are no guarantees in baseball, but from the looks of it, everybody is going to get hit in the mouth. I respect it. All fun and games until shit gets real. He's taking what's owed to them..... with interest
Manfred actually went out of his way to grant immunity to the people responsible for the cheating, and now the only guy who really did anything about it (Hinch) got fired, while Alex Cora and Carlos Beltran both got cushy jobs as management or front office. You'll get punished way more for making fun of the cheaters, just ask Joe Kelly.
100% on everything you said. It's funny....ALL fan bases were cheering their team on, hoping & praying their team won the 2020 WS. As soon as your team loses, you discredit the title? That is hilarious. Be a real baseball fan and give credit where credit is due.
@ Yes. The Dodgers will do fine. The rest of the league won’t (for the most part). The Dodgers can only play one team per day. More than 1/2 of their games are played in their home state.
Yes, there a bug culture problem with owner just not caring to build a winner for there fans, and when fans of those teams see what the dodgers are doing, they want to get mad at us instead of there owner not willing to spending a little more then the small amount they already put in the books.
@@K-Ruler94I think James was talking about the culture in the Dodger clubhouse. For example the Dodgers could have payed Soto but I think everyone who watches baseball that he along with Tatis and Machado are the cancer of team baseball. They care only about themselves and are extremely nonprofessional on the field.
The MLB never expected they'd ever get a player the level of Shohei Ohtani who will at the same time defer 90% of his money for 10 years with no interest on his own suggestion and then be such a shining beacon that it invites other players of varying high caliber to come do the same.
I'm just pissed that my favorite team the rangers still haven't gone out and gotten a legitimate closer to fill out the roster to be as competitive as possible
If the Dodgers had sign Snell, Scott, Yates, and Teoscar in the first week of free agency by outbidding every other team, then the financial might of the Dodgers could be seen as being unfair. However, more than 2/3 of the teams have pretty much declared flat out that they can't "afford" these players. So, do you want players who have worked their butts off for years to reach a point where they can demand a lucrative contract or do you want to punish owners who purchase a baseball club and don't want to invest in the product? I'm sure many of these cheap owners are ecstatic that the hate that should be directed toward them are being diverted to the Dodgers at the moment. Many players are willing to come and play for the Dodger at a lower salary and much higher state tax. Why is that?
Yep, and the hometown stadiums will sellout because fans will show up to watch this Dodgers team play. They are must see live. Last year it was the same. Love or hate them, fans will flock to watch. I will.
@@ronmexico7256 Yes, but the whole team was better than your team. Ohtani is the headliner but he didn’t do it by himself. Now, this 2025 team, on paper is better than last year’s team.
@@ronmexico7256 I just took a sec to look at MLB road attendance figures. 4 of the last 5 years (not counting Covid of course) the Dodgers were number one in road attendance. The one year they weren’t first, they only missed out by 300-500 attendees (average). Not sure your point about Ohtani stands at all.
If you sign better players more people will come out to the ball park. You have to spend money to make money. And no owners are going to open their books.
Ken and the team bring up some GREAT points that need to be addressed by MLB and MLBPA. If teams are just trying to break even what other revenue streams do they have besides TV revenue and Revenue sharing. I know the giants and cubs have real estate developments near the ball park that they make money off of. The cubs and giants sign some players and continue to raise prices of parking and other amenities. The owners have created the facade that they are cash poor. Some teams clearly are but they are competing. Others like the Pirates A’s Cubs and Giants are not. That should be addressed
The press conference with Roki Sasaki, he said the front office was the main reason he signed with the Dodgers. Granted, having a deep pocket owner definitely helps. Some cities will always be at a disadvantage. Think crime, weather, stadium condition, locker room, clubhouse personalities, etc. Dodgers scouted Roki from high school. I am sure they kept in touch over the years. Dodgers almost lost to SD. Won WS with a slumping Ohtani. Other players stepped up.
I don't think salary cap is what people are moaning about now. I think they've gone completely nuts and want a cap on how many free agents dodgers are allowed to sign. Is what it seems to have morphed into.
I can see the points being made. However, we’ve never seen 14+ All-Stars on one roster. This isn’t a Dodgers problem. It’s the owners colluding to allow this to happen to force a salary cap (without a salary floor) in the next CBA. To expect a roster of current All-Stars to all forget how to play baseball at the same time is illogical. The Dodgers have chalked the 2025 season in the minds of many fans.
@@BKDBut I disagree for one reason: Many of the players didn’t sign with the LAyaway Dodgers in the first week of Free Agency. Only Sasaki can be speculated as not having truly considered other teams. Even Teoscar signed later after looking at other teams. With the exception of Sasaki, all the other players could have been signed by other teams. The teams are shoving their hands in their pockets purposely. I call it a “soft lockout”.
@Dr_Evil_Genius I'm not sure what the timing has to do with it though. That's assuming that LA made offers immediately and didn't wait and play their hands also. And LA has every reason to wait a bit and see the market start to unfold before undercutting it a bit because they know the players will still accept Teoscar could have gotten more money, none deferred Yamamoto had 2 better deals in NY and took less money to go to LA Roki was never going anywhere else. All of those meetings were a total farce from the get go. As were all of the lines being fed. I don't believe Ohtani was going anywhere else. Maybe he would have stayed with the Angels had they made the same offer, but I don't believe outside of LA affiliated team
@@BKDBut I’m speaking to this offseason specifically. The Japanese players will go where they want to go. I don’t think that’s collusion. Sasaki could have had friendly Japanese teammates in San Diego and New York. He went where he wanted to go. That’s not the Dodgers’ fault. The two All-Star relievers were signed within the last 4 days. It’s the middle of January for goodness sake. Any of these other teams could have signed Scott and Yates. Hernandez took similar money, with more years. Mets offered him the same AAV for less years. If they really wanted him bad enough, they’d have offered more money, not the same money with less years. Look at how they’re low-balling Pete Alonso. With the exception of the Japanese players, I don’t think the players on their roster signed this year wouldn’t have agreed to terms with other teams if they made better offers.
@Dr_Evil_Genius Well I said players. I'm not blaming the Dodgers for the part about players all just saying, "I'm not going to take the best deal available or take the best opportunity for me and instead go to the Dodgers." And I'm talking about for multiple years Scott wanted 4/80 from teams, took 4/72 from Dodgers, with 21 deferred, so it's 4/even less than 72. Another case of a player taking less from Dodgers while playing hardball with others Mets made a passive pass at Teoscar. But they weren't even a team expected to be in on him. There are other teams that would have offered more, Jays, Sox, maybe O's, but the 27th out was barely recorded and Teoscar was saying, "I'll come back for anything" Yes. The Japanese players will go only to LA as long as LA wants them. And for some reason we don't have an IFA draft and the Dodgers win the WS and then basically get the #1 overall pick also
Besides a salary cap & floor, MLB also needs an international draft. All the best Japanese players choosing the west coast teams because of proximity to Japan is just ridiculous.
Around $120-125 would work best! Presently 10 teams are under the $120 threshold… that’s a 1/3 of the league but it would force teams to fairly compete rather than just making a buck. As a lifelong Pirates fan ( since 1973) I know that the Pirates could win the WS if this was implemented. Presently they are at $79 and would have to spend another $41 which is 2-3 solid players. We need a floor with serious penalties if missed
The work stoppage is already baked in the cake. It's true that the Dodgers may not win the World Series. It's also true that it is very unlikely that a small- to middle-market team is going to win it all. There is no competitive bargaining power, which is the real issue for the owners who will shut it down.
The Rich are getting richer, so we don't have to change. The LaD have been going to the playoffs since 2012, so it is the same top ten markets competing at the end of the year. Fan interest and youth involvement is down from 30 years, baseball used to be America's sport, make baseball great again.
There is multiple problems, owners are cheap and need to compete more, and the revenue sharing needs to happen, 350 million tv deal while other teams lose their mightt 50 millipn tv deals, both are problems. Stop attacking fans, who make this sport actually succesful.
Through all of this manufactured outrage against the Dodgers one simple fact remains: the Mets have spent nearly 3x more this offseason. But, but, but...evil empire. 😂
Salary cap works, nba lvl the playing field where Cleveland and OKC has the best team, not necessary big market team. Go back to draft and develop, and allow salary increase for resigning with team. If Soto has that with yanks, he might not have left
Guardians put up a good fight against the Yankees. Maybe if Rocchio doesn't commit an error or Clase doesn't throw pitches down the middle, they would have won.
Question no one is asking is how many World Series do the Dodgers have to win to justify current roster. 3 out of next 9? More? Other teams are going to beat the Dodgers and/or win the series in some or most of the next 9 years. And whoever knocks out the dodgers in those years will probably get rings for doing so. The league loves this and you all know this.
Honestly, if I'm an owner of a team pumping millions of dollars into the revenue sharing stream, I'd prefer if the cheap owners pocket the money. It's a sunk cost. I've already spent the money, so there's no changing that. It serves me and my interests more if that money isn't used to bid *against me* in the next free agent negotiations. As long as OAK, PIT, CLE, FLA, etc all put that money under their mattress, it means they aren't using my own money to make my goal of winning that much harder.
I would have no problem with what the Dodgers are doing if they didn't have half thier roster on differed payments and were paying the proper luxury tax each year.
I think we're headed to a very bad situation 2026 (lock-out/strike). Owner shennanigans aside, the majority of teams cannot realistically compete. The problem is real. Brace yourself.
The owners letting the Dodgers sign all available All-Stars is what I call a “Soft Lockout”. The real one is on the horizon when the players balk at a salary cap.
In Football a quarterback is able to change the outcome of the games on bad teams. Fran Tarkenton. In baseball one man can't change the outcome and win a world series even he's one of the best that ever played, Barry Bonds. Ken Rosenthal, false equivalency, do better.
A Salary cap will never happen because then there will be a floor. That Limits the Dodgers spending and the Dodgers luxury tax money that gets spread around to the other teams goes down significantly and these other teams who don't spend and want to spend payrolls go up a ton and way less money comes in than before
All a salary cap does is allow for owners to pocket money. There is an international cap for Roki and he went to the Dodgers because he's only 6.5 million. Remove that cap and he probably get 300+ million which probably prices the Dodgers out. A salary floor increases competition for free agents driving the price up on the Dodgers. How about all teams ELIGIBLE for receiving revenue sharing dollars must have a .500 record to collect any money. That would make those bottom spending teams invest first, just like any other business in the United States. How often will you see "bullpen games" or "position players pitching" if losing a game in April may cost the owner 100 million. This is America we shouldn't be encouraging handouts, earn it.
Why do all of these pundits say that all teams should spend much more on player salaries? If they do, they will have to charge more for tickets and broadcast rights? I have not attended a game in person since before the Pandemic because tickets cost too much. I'm not saying I can't afford it. I'm saying that I refuse to pay the exorbitant prices. MLB should force the teams to make their financial records public. Why no discussion on the impact of the higher salaries on fans?
Look I don’t blame the Dodgers for doing it because it’s legal, but having permanent franchises basically serve as poverty franchises that develop players for the have’s isn’t ideal. I mean, I’m a Mets fan, so we have decent money to spend, but I really like the Pirates as well and there’s no way for them to compete
MLB is the only pro sport league in the country that doesn’t have a Salary cap. There needs to be a salry cap and a floor. Otherwise interest in MLB will decrease to a point of no return. Do it now before its too late.
Why not institute a "cheapskate tax" to mirror the "luxury tax" to force teams to spend??? Spending less than 80 mil will get you a penalty of 10% tax, less than 70 mil 15% and then 65 mil 25%......... so on and so forth???????????????????👎👎👎👎
Fans should be cursing their owners for not spending money on their teams. When you look at the revenue That even the lowest team has, it's appalling how greedy those owners are in hoarding money. These are billionaires. They all have local revenue streams and communal national revenue streams such as TV money. They also have the cba tax revenues. The Dodgers are being heavily penalized in taxes and that tax money is going to all the other teams in the league and all those teams are just putting that money into their billionaire owners' pockets. There is no reason why they can't make their teams better. The Dodgers are spending bc they know the window to win is finite. You can't be a cheap team and spend on one player and hope you win. Fans should demand that their team owners make an effort beyond just making buckets of money. I know what some of those fans are feeling. When the Dodgers were sold to the McCourts, Dodgers fans suffered mightily. The McCourts had money, but they weren't really rich. They just used the moneymaking machine that all baseball teams are to fund their lifestyles. They depended on their farm system to produce rookie of the years. They paid for 1 or 2 big contracts. And then just watch money roll in from baseball. In fact, the Dodgers benefitted from the richer teams like the Yankees giving them penalty money. The biggest reason for the change for the Dodgers was when the McCourts had to sell them to owners who were baseball fans too. In fact, the McCourts are still sucking money from the Dodgers because they kept the Dodgers parking. If you want to know why Dodgers parking is so expensive, look at the McCourts! I feel for the Padres because they are going to be the modern day McCourts. The brothers that inherited Peter Seidler's Padres are rich but not super rich and they're going to use the moneymaking machine that is the Padres as their piggybank. People blame the widow. But the brothers have not managed Peter's assets well. They have not run the trust well. They are not running the Padres well.
Tell the Jays, Giants, or Padres to play with more passion. They are trying as hard as they can but what do you expect them to do? So you're telling me the Pirates, Rays, or Guardians are going to try harder after seeing what the Dodgers did? Gtfo
It's funny....ALL fan bases were cheering their team on, hoping & praying their team won the 2020 WS. As soon as your team loses, you discredit the title? That is hilarious. Be a real baseball fan and give credit where credit is due.
Actually maybe its just me but I’d hate to be a Dodgers fan. You’re literally just buying off a championship. If you win it, you’ll do nothing great but if you lose, its a major embarrassment.
I don't care if you are a dodgers fan or hater or niether it is bad for baseball when one team is outspending everyone 4-1. MLB needs a new economic system or fans are just going to walk away. You can't have one team with everyone. If you don't want a hard cap at least what the NBA does and equally share all the TV money local and national in one big pot.
@@allelujah1210 Let me clarify. I don't mean MLB talking head as in the MLB organization. I mean MLB talking heads as in someone talking about professional baseball in a professional manner Yes, you are correct, and you agree with what I said. Content creators are part of the talking heads, the only demographic besides Dodgers fans who think it's good The "villain" is tiring. It's just a bad line people throw out to defend what's obviously bad for the game. There are already hated teams. Teams don't even need to be good to be vehemently hated.
Baseball is a business!! they're all playing by the rules!! And if it's a business, you invest in your business and put the best product out there for your consumer the fans!! This is the beauty of capitalism if you don't like it, Get pissed at your owners!! And take a playbook from the Dodgers front office... while others are playing checkers. The Dodgers are playing chess!!
I wantva mandatory floor. If it's a cap, then they can get away with a 80 million dollar payroll and say" We are under the cap, what's the problem?". I want a 55-60% of revenue put in payroll. Penalty is loss of first 2 draft picks and cut revenue. Only way to make owners spend
God I wish revenue sharing wasn’t a thing. A lot of owners are prob super happy dodgers are raking in money. Discrepancy between the owners and fans of those teams is not something any other sport has. Makes online discourse about baseball a clown show.
I see lots of talk of “cheap owners”, but what do you want? Every team should be owned by tech billionaires and suck the life of game. I thought you liked baseball Ken?
Shrink the amount of teams? Or sell them to other nations a team from Japan? MEXICO, SOUTH AMERICA, AUSTRALIA, EUROPE? ONLY THE CRAPPY BOTTOM 3RD. Money lossing teams
@@Dodger_dogged72 If the hopes of all non-Dodgers fans are extinguished before spring training, revenues will fall across the sport. Some “premium” tickets will be sold when the Dodgers go on the road, but you’ll see this will be bad for the sport. Once the illusion of competition is gone, people who aren’t fans of the superior team quickly turn their interests elsewhere.
I think they should raise the cap to 300 million so teams that are close to the cap now don’t have to sell players to keep from being penalized in the teams that go over the cap should be penalized a lot more than they are now because it has no meaning to the team like the Dodgers who their TV contract covers everything
I WANT A SALARY CAP WITH A FLOOR. Who cares about losing a season of baseball when the players don't care about competitive balance and the vast majority of owners won't compete? Why carry on with an antiquated system if the alternative is what is fair and just in sports? If this stuff continues, the only baseball fans are going reside in LA, NY and Boston. Good luck selling that.
As a Yankee fan, it's hard for me to hate the Dodgers because I would be a hypocrite. Part of me actually likes what the Dodgers are doing because they expose many of these owners.
Buddy do your homework dodgers are flexing Hollywood's $ $ $ its not dodgers $ $ so relax buddy
Dodgers fan here. You’re never getting a salary cap approved by MLBPA. Negotiate a deferral cap per year, set a salary floor. It will address teams being able to sign any player to their hearts content, and force cheap owners to do more for their fanbases.
Exactly. the deferred money. That is what needs to be addressed. the Dodgers have drastically abused it this off season, grant it theirs no rules saying any team can't do it but their needs to be a cap on the deferral process
You cannot have a floor without a cap. All the floor does is pay mid and low-tier players more so that teams reach the floor. It does not address the top teams taking all of the players. You have to have a cap to LIMIT TEAMS LIKE THE DODGERS FROM BUYING ALL OF THE PLAYERS.
@@PGO_Gaming while I agree (to an extent), players will never agree because they want all the money they can get. MLBPA will never agree to it unless the lack of parity outweighs players’ desire for max $
@@PGO_Gaming Theirs already punishments for teams that spend a lot of money, it's called spending tiers losing cash and draft picks. the only reason the Dodgers are getting all these guys is because they defer a shit load of money from these contracts for 10,20,30 years down the road after the contract ends instead of all the players AAV being spent that year
I don't have a team but if I were a dodger fan it would still ruin the game for me. You must have little decency or ethics, but that's par for the course with dodger fans. Worst pieces of shit on Earth
I kinda wanted a salary cap 5 minutes ago, but now thanks to Ken, I (finally) get it, and also for explaining an alternative to a cap. Well done. Thanks guys for another great show.
You must follow the cap.sports?
If owners cant afford to put up a competitive payroll annually then don’t buy a team. It’s no different from buying a house. if you can’t afford a million dollar house (or you’re sinking over 50% of your annual earnings into the mortgage and tax) then don’t buy it cause you can’t afford it
Even the small teams in the MLB have billionaire owners. They are just busy pocketing the luxury tax payout for themselves
They can afford it. Many just look at how to generate profits differently. The majority cut corners and gouge their fan bases and skim on player contracts. While an group a investment bankers run the Dodgers organization like an actual business and see the value in spending because there is huge upside in winning.
Everybody that’s upset needs to blame the Astros, MLB and other fan bases. MLB didn't want to do anything about the Astros cheating, so Friedman has to make this team cheat proof. Other fan bases want to discredit the 2020 WS even though every team played the season without protest, other fan bases kept saying the Dodgers choke every year. Well here is your answer. Keep talking. I wouldn't be surprised to see Skenes, Elly, etc in a Dodger uniform in the future. Shouldn't have been talking shit. Games still have to be played and there are no guarantees in baseball, but from the looks of it, everybody is going to get hit in the mouth. I respect it. All fun and games until shit gets real. He's taking what's owed to them..... with interest
Manfred actually went out of his way to grant immunity to the people responsible for the cheating, and now the only guy who really did anything about it (Hinch) got fired, while Alex Cora and Carlos Beltran both got cushy jobs as management or front office. You'll get punished way more for making fun of the cheaters, just ask Joe Kelly.
100% on everything you said. It's funny....ALL fan bases were cheering their team on, hoping & praying their team won the 2020 WS. As soon as your team loses, you discredit the title? That is hilarious. Be a real baseball fan and give credit where credit is due.
Owners say why bother as long as fans pack the ballpark
When the illusion of competition is removed, non-Dodgers fans will not visit the ballpark the same as before.
Unless ur a stupid cowboys fan who continue showing up and buying their shit while the owner just sits back and laughs all the way to the bank
Dodger fans had the best road attendance again , Japanese money will also follow them to put advertising in their ballpark 😂
@ Yes. The Dodgers will do fine. The rest of the league won’t (for the most part). The Dodgers can only play one team per day. More than 1/2 of their games are played in their home state.
It's not just about the money, but the culture.
Yes, there a bug culture problem with owner just not caring to build a winner for there fans, and when fans of those teams see what the dodgers are doing, they want to get mad at us instead of there owner not willing to spending a little more then the small amount they already put in the books.
@@JamesDuckettAuthor the culture? Dude you'd be robbed and shot if you hung out at dodger stadium
@@K-Ruler94I think James was talking about the culture in the Dodger clubhouse. For example the Dodgers could have payed Soto but I think everyone who watches baseball that he along with Tatis and Machado are the cancer of team baseball. They care only about themselves and are extremely nonprofessional on the field.
The MLB never expected they'd ever get a player the level of Shohei Ohtani who will at the same time defer 90% of his money for 10 years with no interest on his own suggestion and then be such a shining beacon that it invites other players of varying high caliber to come do the same.
We will probably never another one like him in our lifetime again
SALARY MINIMUM! I BOUGHT A 5 DOLLAR STARBUCKS THIS MORNING... I SPENT 5 DOLLAR MORE THEN HALF THE TEAMS DID ALL YEAR 😅😅😅
if you are a fan of baseball and you hate the dodgers for signing all these players, give me a freaking break. go blame your gm for doing NOTHING.
Ok, boomer
I'm just pissed that my favorite team the rangers still haven't gone out and gotten a legitimate closer to fill out the roster to be as competitive as possible
The Dodgers are building a DYNASTY 🎉
No doubt about it 😅
Not building, BUYING
@@thomasjones7918 players are taking paycuts to join the Dodgers
Is'nt that the point of winning? Every team buys players but the dodgers do it better and now it's buying lol. Yea cry me river 😂👊🏼@@thomasjones7918
@@thomasjones7918 Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!! 😭😭😭
If the Dodgers had sign Snell, Scott, Yates, and Teoscar in the first week of free agency by outbidding every other team, then the financial might of the Dodgers could be seen as being unfair. However, more than 2/3 of the teams have pretty much declared flat out that they can't "afford" these players. So, do you want players who have worked their butts off for years to reach a point where they can demand a lucrative contract or do you want to punish owners who purchase a baseball club and don't want to invest in the product? I'm sure many of these cheap owners are ecstatic that the hate that should be directed toward them are being diverted to the Dodgers at the moment. Many players are willing to come and play for the Dodger at a lower salary and much higher state tax. Why is that?
Give up? Ruth and Gehrig played together for 12 years and were World Champions 4 times. 8 times, they got beat!
Team owners, why not give it a shot?
Baseball isn't the "haves vs have nots" its the "spender vs the spend not"
clickbait headlines are bad for baseball, The Dodgers are SAVING major league baseball
Yep, and the hometown stadiums will sellout because fans will show up to watch this Dodgers team play. They are must see live. Last year it was the same. Love or hate them, fans will flock to watch.
I will.
Let’s be real they’re showing up for Ohtani
They weren’t drawing those away crowds before he got there
@@ronmexico7256 Yes, but the whole team was better than your team. Ohtani is the headliner but he didn’t do it by himself.
Now, this 2025 team, on paper is better than last year’s team.
@@johnnyboyjohns2930 My team is the Dodgers 🤦♀️
Stop making us look bad with this crybaby nonsense, it’s just sad.
@@ronmexico7256 I just took a sec to look at MLB road attendance figures. 4 of the last 5 years (not counting Covid of course) the Dodgers were number one in road attendance. The one year they weren’t first, they only missed out by 300-500 attendees (average).
Not sure your point about Ohtani stands at all.
Baltimore Orioles fans can't be happy as a Yankees fan I love what the Dodgers are doing don't hate keep up 🙂
You can't keep up when all the best fruit is already picked ya numbskull
If you sign better players more people will come out to the ball park. You have to spend money to make money. And no owners are going to open their books.
Ken and the team bring up some GREAT points that need to be addressed by MLB and MLBPA. If teams are just trying to break even what other revenue streams do they have besides TV revenue and Revenue sharing. I know the giants and cubs have real estate developments near the ball park that they make money off of. The cubs and giants sign some players and continue to raise prices of parking and other amenities.
The owners have created the facade that they are cash poor. Some teams clearly are but they are competing. Others like the Pirates A’s Cubs and Giants are not. That should be addressed
The press conference with Roki Sasaki, he said the front office was the main reason he signed with the Dodgers.
Granted, having a deep pocket owner definitely helps. Some cities will always be at a disadvantage. Think crime, weather, stadium condition, locker room, clubhouse personalities, etc. Dodgers scouted Roki from high school. I am sure they kept in touch over the years. Dodgers almost lost to SD. Won WS with a slumping Ohtani. Other players stepped up.
AJ the type of dude to share the secret about your crush when you told him not to tell anyone.
I don't think salary cap is what people are moaning about now. I think they've gone completely nuts and want a cap on how many free agents dodgers are allowed to sign. Is what it seems to have morphed into.
That one voter: "... I just forgot to cast my vote for Ichiro..."
That one voter wanted this…. To be the anonymous center of attention
Or he was being a contrarian as usual then realized too late that he was the only one this time.
AJ is right about Central Florida’s dynamics of the potential of the attendance for a thought for relocation of the Rays.
Salary floor, international draft, deferral restrictions. All need to come first.
And remove the revenue sharing why should the dodgers pay other teams their payroll
@@artm0011 Disagree. Because if they want to be in a league where there are smaller markets that’s the price they have to pay.
@Noseyy so the rich pay while thr poor do nothing sounds a lil communist
I can see the points being made.
However, we’ve never seen 14+ All-Stars on one roster. This isn’t a Dodgers problem. It’s the owners colluding to allow this to happen to force a salary cap (without a salary floor) in the next CBA.
To expect a roster of current All-Stars to all forget how to play baseball at the same time is illogical. The Dodgers have chalked the 2025 season in the minds of many fans.
It's player collusion, which is allowed
@@BKDBut I disagree for one reason: Many of the players didn’t sign with the LAyaway Dodgers in the first week of Free Agency. Only Sasaki can be speculated as not having truly considered other teams. Even Teoscar signed later after looking at other teams. With the exception of Sasaki, all the other players could have been signed by other teams. The teams are shoving their hands in their pockets purposely. I call it a “soft lockout”.
@Dr_Evil_Genius I'm not sure what the timing has to do with it though. That's assuming that LA made offers immediately and didn't wait and play their hands also. And LA has every reason to wait a bit and see the market start to unfold before undercutting it a bit because they know the players will still accept
Teoscar could have gotten more money, none deferred
Yamamoto had 2 better deals in NY and took less money to go to LA
Roki was never going anywhere else. All of those meetings were a total farce from the get go. As were all of the lines being fed.
I don't believe Ohtani was going anywhere else. Maybe he would have stayed with the Angels had they made the same offer, but I don't believe outside of LA affiliated team
@@BKDBut I’m speaking to this offseason specifically. The Japanese players will go where they want to go. I don’t think that’s collusion. Sasaki could have had friendly Japanese teammates in San Diego and New York. He went where he wanted to go. That’s not the Dodgers’ fault.
The two All-Star relievers were signed within the last 4 days. It’s the middle of January for goodness sake. Any of these other teams could have signed Scott and Yates. Hernandez took similar money, with more years. Mets offered him the same AAV for less years. If they really wanted him bad enough, they’d have offered more money, not the same money with less years. Look at how they’re low-balling Pete Alonso.
With the exception of the Japanese players, I don’t think the players on their roster signed this year wouldn’t have agreed to terms with other teams if they made better offers.
@Dr_Evil_Genius Well I said players. I'm not blaming the Dodgers for the part about players all just saying, "I'm not going to take the best deal available or take the best opportunity for me and instead go to the Dodgers." And I'm talking about for multiple years
Scott wanted 4/80 from teams, took 4/72 from Dodgers, with 21 deferred, so it's 4/even less than 72. Another case of a player taking less from Dodgers while playing hardball with others
Mets made a passive pass at Teoscar. But they weren't even a team expected to be in on him. There are other teams that would have offered more, Jays, Sox, maybe O's, but the 27th out was barely recorded and Teoscar was saying, "I'll come back for anything"
Yes. The Japanese players will go only to LA as long as LA wants them. And for some reason we don't have an IFA draft and the Dodgers win the WS and then basically get the #1 overall pick also
There should floor cap salary, meaning the team needs to spend a minimum amount. This could help. Also. Remove the deferred.
It was ok for MLB to let the Astro cheat in 2017 World series. They should have taken the world series trophie away.
this time seems different tho because japans world classic champions are bringing all their really good friends to come over with deferrals
MLB regarding potential work stoppage.
"You don't want to kill the goose that lays the gold egg"
Besides a salary cap & floor, MLB also needs an international draft. All the best Japanese players choosing the west coast teams because of proximity to Japan is just ridiculous.
Make the votes public PLEASE
I'm fine with a cap... as long as there's a $150M floor.
Around $120-125 would work best! Presently 10 teams are under the $120 threshold… that’s a 1/3 of the league but it would force teams to fairly compete rather than just making a buck. As a lifelong Pirates fan ( since 1973) I know that the Pirates could win the WS if this was implemented. Presently they are at $79 and would have to spend another $41 which is 2-3 solid players. We need a floor with serious penalties if missed
Owners will never approve a floor, players will never approve a cap...
What’s bad for baseball are cheap owners that don’t want to spend money to make more money when they sell the team.
The work stoppage is already baked in the cake. It's true that the Dodgers may not win the World Series. It's also true that it is very unlikely that a small- to middle-market team is going to win it all. There is no competitive bargaining power, which is the real issue for the owners who will shut it down.
Introduce relegation to AAA to force teams to try with severe financial penalty attached.
There are a whole host of players that should've been unanimous into the HOF and weren't. Greg Maddux, anyone?
Ichiro could care less of that one individual that didn’t.
Salary cap comes with a salary floor
The Rich are getting richer, so we don't have to change. The LaD have been going to the playoffs since 2012, so it is the same top ten markets competing at the end of the year. Fan interest and youth involvement is down from 30 years, baseball used to be America's sport, make baseball great again.
No one is going to Orlando to watch their own team against the Rays! They go to LA, SF, NY, Chicago, and Boston...
There is multiple problems, owners are cheap and need to compete more, and the revenue sharing needs to happen, 350 million tv deal while other teams lose their mightt 50 millipn tv deals, both are problems. Stop attacking fans, who make this sport actually succesful.
Through all of this manufactured outrage against the Dodgers one simple fact remains: the Mets have spent nearly 3x more this offseason. But, but, but...evil empire. 😂
Salary cap works, nba lvl the playing field where Cleveland and OKC has the best team, not necessary big market team. Go back to draft and develop, and allow salary increase for resigning with team. If Soto has that with yanks, he might not have left
Guardians put up a good fight against the Yankees. Maybe if Rocchio doesn't commit an error or Clase doesn't throw pitches down the middle, they would have won.
Question no one is asking is how many World Series do the Dodgers have to win to justify current roster. 3 out of next 9? More?
Other teams are going to beat the Dodgers and/or win the series in some or most of the next 9 years. And whoever knocks out the dodgers in those years will probably get rings for doing so. The league loves this and you all know this.
Honestly, if I'm an owner of a team pumping millions of dollars into the revenue sharing stream, I'd prefer if the cheap owners pocket the money. It's a sunk cost. I've already spent the money, so there's no changing that. It serves me and my interests more if that money isn't used to bid *against me* in the next free agent negotiations. As long as OAK, PIT, CLE, FLA, etc all put that money under their mattress, it means they aren't using my own money to make my goal of winning that much harder.
I would have no problem with what the Dodgers are doing if they didn't have half thier roster on differed payments and were paying the proper luxury tax each year.
I think we're headed to a very bad situation 2026 (lock-out/strike). Owner shennanigans aside, the majority of teams cannot realistically compete. The problem is real. Brace yourself.
The owners letting the Dodgers sign all available All-Stars is what I call a “Soft Lockout”. The real one is on the horizon when the players balk at a salary cap.
Just like any other business in America, if you can't compete it's time to sell. Capitalism works.
Keep the Luxury Tax
No deferrals.
Retroactively tax the current deferrals.
Salary floor.
In Football a quarterback is able to change the outcome of the games on bad teams. Fran Tarkenton. In baseball one man can't change the outcome and win a world series even he's one of the best that ever played, Barry Bonds. Ken Rosenthal, false equivalency, do better.
A Salary cap will never happen because then there will be a floor. That Limits the Dodgers spending and the Dodgers luxury tax money that gets spread around to the other teams goes down significantly and these other teams who don't spend and want to spend payrolls go up a ton and way less money comes in than before
Spend what you earn should be the rule.
The vitriol comes from the ush out for ohtani .....and also TODAY present time , the dodgers have gotten like 10 players in this off season alone !!!!
Ken works for the MLB he's not going to say anything truly bad about the sport
So owners opening their books are going to give them the chance to get a Ohtani with 2 buddies from Japan. AND a backloaded contract? Yea ok buddy.
All a salary cap does is allow for owners to pocket money. There is an international cap for Roki and he went to the Dodgers because he's only 6.5 million. Remove that cap and he probably get 300+ million which probably prices the Dodgers out. A salary floor increases competition for free agents driving the price up on the Dodgers. How about all teams ELIGIBLE for receiving revenue sharing dollars must have a .500 record to collect any money. That would make those bottom spending teams invest first, just like any other business in the United States. How often will you see "bullpen games" or "position players pitching" if losing a game in April may cost the owner 100 million. This is America we shouldn't be encouraging handouts, earn it.
But the Dodgers are a group of huge owners.
Guardians have one of the top 10 cheap owners. Only signs left overs
Many fans, like myself will stop watching baseball! And I probably will not watch baseball this year
Why do all of these pundits say that all teams should spend much more on player salaries? If they do, they will have to charge more for tickets and broadcast rights? I have not attended a game in person since before the Pandemic because tickets cost too much. I'm not saying I can't afford it. I'm saying that I refuse to pay the exorbitant prices. MLB should force the teams to make their financial records public. Why no discussion on the impact of the higher salaries on fans?
Look I don’t blame the Dodgers for doing it because it’s legal, but having permanent franchises basically serve as poverty franchises that develop players for the have’s isn’t ideal. I mean, I’m a Mets fan, so we have decent money to spend, but I really like the Pirates as well and there’s no way for them to compete
MLB is the only pro sport league in the country that doesn’t have a Salary cap. There needs to be a salry cap and a floor. Otherwise interest in MLB will decrease to a point of no return. Do it now before its too late.
Why not institute a "cheapskate tax" to mirror the "luxury tax" to force teams to spend??? Spending less than 80 mil will get you a penalty of 10% tax, less than 70 mil 15% and then 65 mil 25%......... so on and so forth???????????????????👎👎👎👎
The Dodgers will only have 1 playoff spot.
Fans should be cursing their owners for not spending money on their teams. When you look at the revenue That even the lowest team has, it's appalling how greedy those owners are in hoarding money. These are billionaires. They all have local revenue streams and communal national revenue streams such as TV money. They also have the cba tax revenues. The Dodgers are being heavily penalized in taxes and that tax money is going to all the other teams in the league and all those teams are just putting that money into their billionaire owners' pockets. There is no reason why they can't make their teams better. The Dodgers are spending bc they know the window to win is finite. You can't be a cheap team and spend on one player and hope you win. Fans should demand that their team owners make an effort beyond just making buckets of money.
I know what some of those fans are feeling. When the Dodgers were sold to the McCourts, Dodgers fans suffered mightily. The McCourts had money, but they weren't really rich. They just used the moneymaking machine that all baseball teams are to fund their lifestyles. They depended on their farm system to produce rookie of the years. They paid for 1 or 2 big contracts. And then just watch money roll in from baseball. In fact, the Dodgers benefitted from the richer teams like the Yankees giving them penalty money. The biggest reason for the change for the Dodgers was when the McCourts had to sell them to owners who were baseball fans too. In fact, the McCourts are still sucking money from the Dodgers because they kept the Dodgers parking. If you want to know why Dodgers parking is so expensive, look at the McCourts!
I feel for the Padres because they are going to be the modern day McCourts. The brothers that inherited Peter Seidler's Padres are rich but not super rich and they're going to use the moneymaking machine that is the Padres as their piggybank. People blame the widow. But the brothers have not managed Peter's assets well. They have not run the trust well. They are not running the Padres well.
Ahhh, the McCourts. The scourge of MLB....
only thing that needs to be fixed is getting rid of the deferred money non sense, that is why the dodgers are doing what they are doing
Tell the Jays, Giants, or Padres to play with more passion. They are trying as hard as they can but what do you expect them to do? So you're telling me the Pirates, Rays, or Guardians are going to try harder after seeing what the Dodgers did? Gtfo
It's funny....ALL fan bases were cheering their team on, hoping & praying their team won the 2020 WS. As soon as your team loses, you discredit the title? That is hilarious. Be a real baseball fan and give credit where credit is due.
All these different baseball podcast platforms are ruining baseball
Yes this is bad for baseball. More and more people I know are saying “what’s the point” and are becoming less and less interested
Actually maybe its just me but I’d hate to be a Dodgers fan. You’re literally just buying off a championship. If you win it, you’ll do nothing great but if you lose, its a major embarrassment.
I do not think my team should not be dodgers in they finial buying a team
I don't care if you are a dodgers fan or hater or niether it is bad for baseball when one team is outspending everyone 4-1. MLB needs a new economic system or fans are just going to walk away. You can't have one team with everyone. If you don't want a hard cap at least what the NBA does and equally share all the TV money local and national in one big pot.
"OF COURSE NOT!!!! IT'S GREAT!!!!"
- Says only MLB talking heads and Dodgers fans
Wrong
@allelujah1210 Really? Who else says it?
@@BKDBut Any true baseball fan that is a content creator, they can put their bias aside and know that it's good for the game to have a villain
@@allelujah1210 Let me clarify. I don't mean MLB talking head as in the MLB organization. I mean MLB talking heads as in someone talking about professional baseball in a professional manner
Yes, you are correct, and you agree with what I said. Content creators are part of the talking heads, the only demographic besides Dodgers fans who think it's good
The "villain" is tiring. It's just a bad line people throw out to defend what's obviously bad for the game. There are already hated teams. Teams don't even need to be good to be vehemently hated.
@BKDBut There hasn't been a villain, viewership is up, wtf are you talking about???? just say you're a hater and it's fine
Try being an Ms fan
Baseball is a business!! they're all playing by the rules!! And if it's a business, you invest in your business and put the best product out there for your consumer the fans!!
This is the beauty of capitalism if you don't like it, Get pissed at your owners!! And take a playbook from the Dodgers front office... while others are playing checkers. The Dodgers are playing chess!!
Exactly mr Rosenthal and dodgers still have Roberts he won't be lucky again trust me on that one yankees baby
Cry harder non dodger fans!!! Please! This is the dodgers era!!! Go blue!
I wantva mandatory floor. If it's a cap, then they can get away with a 80 million dollar payroll and say" We are under the cap, what's the problem?". I want a 55-60% of revenue put in payroll. Penalty is loss of first 2 draft picks and cut revenue. Only way to make owners spend
😂🤡
God I wish revenue sharing wasn’t a thing. A lot of owners are prob super happy dodgers are raking in money. Discrepancy between the owners and fans of those teams is not something any other sport has. Makes online discourse about baseball a clown show.
This all foul territory talks about now
Braves are swimming money so cut payroll they are pathetic
Cheap owners. Do better.
Salary cap and floor is needed. I don’t carry if we miss a year
Bleed blue 💙 everyone else just needs to get their money up. Sorry the dodgers don’t speak broke 💸💸💸
Survival of the fitness, if you can't keep up, so what. Move to a better city!
LET'S GOOOOOO YANKEES
I see lots of talk of “cheap owners”, but what do you want? Every team should be owned by tech billionaires and suck the life of game. I thought you liked baseball Ken?
"while the Dodgers have immense financial advantages, there's no question about that" - FULL STOP
Shrink the amount of teams? Or sell them to other nations a team from Japan? MEXICO, SOUTH AMERICA, AUSTRALIA, EUROPE? ONLY THE CRAPPY BOTTOM 3RD. Money lossing teams
AJ is a waste of time. Add something interesting not lame to the conversation.
Dodgers are TERRIBLE for Baseball
No one wants to play on canada. Y’all had for baseball lol jk
The owners allowing them to do what they’re doing is bad for baseball.
😂😂😂😂 thanks Toronto BridesMaid fan
The dodgers are bad for Toronto and the Padres but great for the rest of baseball
@@Dodger_dogged72 If the hopes of all non-Dodgers fans are extinguished before spring training, revenues will fall across the sport. Some “premium” tickets will be sold when the Dodgers go on the road, but you’ll see this will be bad for the sport. Once the illusion of competition is gone, people who aren’t fans of the superior team quickly turn their interests elsewhere.
This is gaslighting by mainstream media and these TH-cam clown hosts.
hate sports journalist, they always side with players othewise they get black balled by the players and no interviews
I think they should raise the cap to 300 million so teams that are close to the cap now don’t have to sell players to keep from being penalized in the teams that go over the cap should be penalized a lot more than they are now because it has no meaning to the team like the Dodgers who their TV contract covers everything
Didn't this guy say Ohtani on a plane to Toronto last year and banned from Padres clubhouse in the playoffs this year?
That was Morosi
@ronmexico7256 oh that's right thank you
Lockout coming Kenny Boy
I WANT A SALARY CAP WITH A FLOOR.
Who cares about losing a season of baseball when the players don't care about competitive balance and the vast majority of owners won't compete? Why carry on with an antiquated system if the alternative is what is fair and just in sports? If this stuff continues, the only baseball fans are going reside in LA, NY and Boston. Good luck selling that.
Rosenthal is very arrogant