Trimming Teams in Baseball:

The thought of getting rid of two teams is amazing to me. 50 major league ballplayers moving to a new town. Countless minor league players being shipped all across the country.

Who gets who? Do they get thrown in a draft? Do the Yankees, Dodgers, Braves and Mets pick out their favorites and leave the rest for the remaining 24 teams? Baseball has been about the have and the have nots for years so why should anything change now.

The Montreal Expos draw less than 10,000 fans a game and the city of Montreal doesn't seem to care. The Minnesota Twins payroll is only $20 million, less than Alex Rodriguez made this year by himself. The Tampa Bay Devil Rays have a horrible field and a worse team.

All three are at risk to lose their teams forever as the Major League Players Association and the owners will discuss whether or not to trim the majors into just 28 teams instead of 30.

Bud Selig, it has been argued, is trying to get rid of the Minnesota Twins so that his Milwaukee Brewers will draw larger crowds. But the fan base in Minnesota is not that great for me to think that Selig is doing this for that sole purpose.

I think that there should be 28 teams in baseballl instead of 30. But contraction is not good for baseball. Just look at how many families would be affected by contraction.

There is more to a baseball team than 25 players and five coaches. Every team in baseball has at least four minor league teams and an entire front office for all five teams. Not to mention all the workers at the stadiums that you would be putting out of work from April to October. Multiply that by two and you have several hundred people looking for work in the brutal business of baseball.

I would like contraction if baseball wasn't so crooked about a dispersal draft.

If the Montreal Expos and Minnesota Twins were the two teams, for example, Vladamir Guerrero and Eric Milton would definitely be two of the hottest players available.

The problem with baseball today is that somehow the Yankees, Braves or Dodgers would be fighting for both of them, despite probably being at the bottom of the draft board.

If I thought for one second that the dispersal draft would be honest and fair, than I would be in favor of contraction. But because of all the evil in baseball, no way would I like to see contraction.


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