Red Sox-Dodgers reported blockbuster show MLB’s flaws not fixed
By Matt Shetler
The reported blockbuster on the table between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Boston Red Sox goes a long way to show one thing- the world of Major League Baseball is a pretty screwed up one.
For those that don’t know, the proposed trade will send the likes of Adrian Gonzalez, Josh Beckett, Carl Crawford and Nick Punto to Los Angeles in exchange for James Loney, Rubby De La Rosa, Allen Webster, Ivan De Jesus and Jerry Sands- or basically an All-Star team in exchange for nothing.
In the span of second, the Dodgers will successfully add over $250 million to their payroll and that’s the problem.
I don’t fault the Dodgers for doing so one bit. Every team is given the same opportunity the Dodgers had. Give their ownership and front office credit for going for it.
Back at the trade deadline, the Pirates were said to be “all-in,” in an attempt to end their playoff drought. But what the Dodgers showed a team like the Bucs is that they have a different definition of being “all-in.”
That’s the sad reality of Major League Baseball and another kick in the teeth to a team like the Pirates.
The system will never be fixed and until it is, the rich will always get richer and teams like the Pirates will always be stuck on relying on acquiring the likes of a Chad Qualls to make their team better, while the rich can add multiple time All-Star’s and $250 million at the blink of an eye. Do you know how many years it would take for the Pirates to spend $250 million? The Dodgers did it in a second.
It’s not even the players involved in this salary dump that should anger teams like the Pirates. Sure Gonzalez is a middle of the lineup hitter, but Beckett and Crawford’s best days are behind them, although I’m much more comfortable with those two than having to rely on the likes of Kevin Correia and Yamaico Navarro.
You can blame Pirates’ owner Bob Nutting for being cheap, but the problem is the system is still broken and will never be fixed.
A genius like Bud Selig thinks it’s good for the game to cap signing bonuses on draft picks and penalize teams for trying to build, but sees no problem at all with the competitive unbalance in baseball.
God forbid a team like the Pirates build through the draft. It makes perfect sense to penalize these teams for trying to compete with the big spenders on the field. We wouldn’t want that Bud would we?
Instead it makes much more sense for Selig to sit back and watch the game run into the ground. He’s good at doing that.
This trade, and again I don’t blame the Dodgers, is just another example of the flaws in the game. Flaws that will never be fixed.
It’s not fun when you’re the Pirates to see a team you are competing with basically steal three former All-Stars. The Bucs are forced to call up Jeff Clement, hoping he can give them one or two hits off the bench, while the Dodgers can add a guy like Gonzalez and the only value they give up is their No. 2 prospect in Webster.
The Pirates can’t sign No. 1 draft pick Mark Appel without being penalized for doing so, but the Dodgers can add Gonzalez, Beckett and Crawford for nothing except paying their salary. Penalizing one team for wanting to pay a young guy and allowing another team to add three players just because they are willing to pay them makes very little sense.
But nothing Selig has ever done has ever made much sense.
The great sport of baseball is broken, but some things will never change. Teams like the Pirates should be used to being stepped on by now and it’s going to happen a lot more in the future.