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Reply to "Lamest off-season ever?"

The smartest man in baseball the last 50 years was Marvin Miller - He foresaw George Stienbrenner but maybe not Hal.  And the new metrics never were on his radar but I suspect he would have understood them sooner than most and adjusted.  As long as boobs like George were around a limited supply of high end free agents was the thumb on the scale for all player salaries to drift upward.

It is unlikely Miller ever would have afforded the owners the Governor of a salary cap or tax without the sport being endangered first.  So with the emergence of Hal Stienbrenner and the new metrics baseball has learned the lesson of the NFL which is to pay the a few dozen superstars and mix them with cheap young players before they reach maximum salaries.  Wipeout the veteran players that can chew up big money for a WAR about equal to that of younger players.  

What the MLBPA should be doing is pressing for arbitration at 3 years instead of 6.  If they fail the career of MLB players will become like that of the NFL - 4/5 years and done unless you become a superstar.  It is also possible that baseball owners after forking over big cash for Panda, AROD, David Wright and others might have learned the lesson of the 7 to 10 year contract.  Can Billionaires learn lessons? I am sure a few can - they all didn't steal their money - a few of them might actually know what they are doing. 

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