New CBA

[wrveres]

All it does is help teams like the Mets, Red Sox, Dodgers, etc., and continue to penalize the Yankees. This does nothing for the team that can't afford the big payroll (assuming they exist).

yeah, I am pretty sure they were able to get all of the owners approval on that one rather easily.

They should have lowered it to 100 million, not raised it to 170 million.

No word on contraction?
I know it hasn't been talked about much, but in the last CBA, the players agreed to drop their objection once this CBA was finalized ..

and then we have heard nothing ..
I guess we need another 'Blue Ribbon Panel' to find out what happened to contraction

[Amazinz]

They mention it in the article. It says contraction isn't possible under the new CBA so Dec. 2011 is the earliest that it can be brought up.

[wrveres]

They mention it in the article. It says contraction isn't possible under the new CBA so Dec. 2011 is the earliest that it can be brought up.

doh .. I guess I should read the article huh?

[wrveres]

Minimum Salary
1. Major League: $380,000 in 2007, $390,000 in 2008 and $400,000 in 2009, COLA in 2011

I hope this doesn't mess with Floridas long term plans, that would be tragic ..

• After Major League players file for free agency in the one-week period that begins at midnight the day after the World Series, all subsequent deadline dates are eliminated: Dec. 7 (for club to offer arbitration), Dec. 19 (for players to accept), Jan. 8 (last day the old club could re-sign its own free agent) and May 1 (first day a club's former player could re-sign with its former club if he went past Jan. 8 date).

That was a dumb rule anyways ... "Can't play till May 1st." I hope they fired the donk that thought that one up.


The Yankees, for example, were over the threshold for all four years of the expiring agreement and will remain paying at a 40 percent rate for the five-year length of the new agreement unless they stay below the threshold in any given year. Then it would revert to 30 percent the next year. The threshold will increase from $136.5 million this year to $148 million next year and then continue to grow at approximately 4.7 percent a year from there until 2011

thats awesome .. 40%
Spend away boys...
Spend away ..

[JTWood]

quick thoughts

Overview of the CBA here.

Luxury Tax:

Thresholds reset to $148 million in 2007, $155 million in 2008, $162 million in 2009, $170 million in 2010 and $178 million in 2011.

what a joke ...

That's only 4.5% - 5.0% inflation. I mean, you have to factor in cost-of-living for these guys. Never mind that the rest of country only gets 3.0% and starts with a lower number. These guys have to put shoes on their children's feet, right Vince Coleman?

[ukrneal]

The only mention of the drug program is a note at the bottom of the article: "Drug program continues." Not very informative.

It means there were no changes and the existing agreements on that point were merely continued as currently written.

[George_Foreman]

Wow. I think I like all of those changes. I don't mind people not getting compensation for loing mediocre FAs, and I like retaining compensation for those at the top. I especially like the compensation picks when your guys don't sign in the early rounds. This will allow "small market" teams to have a bit more leverage when they go after the more high-priced kids. Who knows; it may even drive down draft pick signing bonuses a bit (which IMO would be good).

[BritSox]

I really like that teams will get compensation for FAs. This will help restock teams who can't afford big FAs.

Well, the teams that benefitted most from the old system were... the Yankees, Red Sox, and Angels.

I'd prefer no FA compensation, it'd help small teams more, but at least this system should be better. Taking some of the more mediocre FAs out of Band A into B, or B into nothing, will go some way to preventing the practice of letting go a couple of old players on the decline, and signing new big-ticket FA to replace them, and improving the team's draft position to boot.

[Half Massed]

Well free agent compensation goes both ways. It helps the big market teams that can get these free agents then let them go later for compensation, and it helps the teams that develop them and have to let them go. I like the adjustment, as it favors small market teams more. A big market team is less likely to let go of a good free agent that they could afford to resign simply for a draft pick, while the small market teams have no choice.

[tinfoilxtouch]

I really don't get why MLB goes out of their way to screw over the Yankees, yet not actually do a thing about all the other big market teams. If they really wanted to even things out, they'd make the top 1/3 pay something. Instead, they are taking money away from a team who has no regard for spending... and why? The Yankees struggle to earn the best record in the AL, even with that salary. It isn't like they are trying to slow down a team who is buying more wins than anyone else can post. I'm not a Yankee fan, but as a fan of small-market teams, this doesn't make me the least bit pleased.