I'm nominating Scott Boras for the Biggest Douche in the Universe award.

SLAYTON..I SECOND THAT MOTION!!!

You don't even have to nominate him, he's already won. I've had to deal with the guy trying to get endorsement contracts for my company.

The guy is a money grabbing a-hole of the highest power. Manny Ramirez is a decent guy but he can barely tie his own shoes. Boras calls all the shots and takes millions for it. To give Manny Ramirez a few hundred million dollars is insane.

The dirty little secret is that if the NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB imposed a mandatory salary cap of $125k per player every single one of these guys would still play. Most of the guys playing professional sports could barely work at McDonalds. Hell when Manny Ramirez was found the guy would have played ball for $50k a year.

None of these athletes are worth what they are paid. The agents have driven the price up to make more money just like how real estate agents drove housing prices up to make more commission.

By letting players make obscene money they believe that they are entitled to obscene money and always want more.

Put a cap on all salaries for ball players and get the ticket prices down to where the average Father can take his family to the games. $125,000 sounds like good cap and see just how many retire. Hell there are a lot of good ball players waiting in the wings. A Little League game is more interesting that professional. Those kids play for love of the game and not almighty dollar.
Jim Connor

Agreed. there are people that drive up the prices, but if you mention Salary Cap to a player, that will cause a major strike. While acquiring a bunch of expensive players might hurt the Yankees in the long run, be prepared for plenty of predictions on how the Yanks will win the World Series in the spring. The main fact is that adding free agents doesn't work. C.C. Sabathia has a history of fading down the stretch, and I don't think New York would be the place for him when he gives up three straight home runs to the Red Sox.

As for that list of teams with the big budgets, 13th is still top 15 with the Phillies at $98 million. What the author fails to realize is that while the Rays had a good season, so did the Marlins who finished third in the NL East with a payroll of $22 million.

Still, the bigger the budget, the better the chance at winning the series. Here are the 2008 budgets for the last few Series Winners starting in 2001.

2001: Arizona at $66 million, ranked 23rd, but they had expensive players in Luis Gonzales, Randy Johnson, and Curt Schilling on that roster so Arizona was likely in the top 15 at that point.
Runner Up: New York Yankees

2002: LA/Anaheim Angels at $119 million, ranked 6th, Runner Up; San Francisco at $76 million in 2008 payroll though the 2002 team included a very expensive Barry Bonds.

2003: Florida at $21 million, ranked 30, This was an effort to regain the fan base after the disater of a fire sale that was held after the 1997 championship and started while NBC was still on the air. The 2003 team was likely at $30 million and included Josh Beckett. Runner Up: New York Yankees.

2004: Boston Red Sox at $133 million Ranked 4, This team included players from the 2002 AL Central Division champion Minnesota Twins including a bulked up David Ortiz who may have been on steroids in leading the Sox to the 2004 title. (Note: Ortiz was out of action for much of 2008 and steroids could have been a leading cause). Runner Up: St. Louis at $100 million.

2005: Chicago White Sox at $121 million, Runner up: Hoston at $89 million.

2006: St. Louis at $100 million, Ranked 11, Runner up: Detroit at $139 million and ranked 3rd.

2007: Boston Red Sox with Josh Beckett, Runner up: Colorado at $68 million, Ranked 20.

Yeah I guess Football is not doing any better than baseball with a cap