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Before Bud Selig, with all of his infinite wisdom, decides that he's come up with another great idea by developing a salary cap, he should create a minimum salary level that all teams would be required to meet. With all of the millions of dollars that comes into and is shared throughout the game via television deals and merchandise and the additional money from ever-increasing attendance levels and revenue sharing, no team has any legitimate excuse to not spend on quality talent.

No team should be in a situation where their entire roster makes less than one player in the league (as is the case in Tampa Bay making less than what Texas owner Tom Hicks decided to pay Alex Rodriguez - so don't blame the Yankees for that). As a reward for over a decade of poor play and a refusal to spend money to better their situation, Major League Baseball gives money to teams like Tampa Bay with the hope that they will invest it wisely to put a better product on the field. Some teams have tried to make it work, like the Kansas City Royals, for example, with a payroll surprisingly near that of the Texas Rangers, but others pocket the money and continue cutting costs in an effort to line the owner's pockets with more cash.

While spending more money doesn't guarantee success on the field, as in the case of the Royals, it certainly increases the chance of success. It doesn't even require a huge investment, like that of the top one-third of teams in payroll. Four teams (the Diamondbacks, the Rockies, the Padres and the Indians) have managed to put together positive results while being in the bottom one-third of teams in payroll. It doesn't require out-of-control spending to become competitive.

The reason a salary minimum should be developed instead of a cap is that high team salaries are not keeping smaller-market teams from being competitive. A refusal of some small-market teams to spend money, some of which is given to them from the teams that spend more, is keeping in an endless cycle of losing seasons and poor attendance. If they were required to spend more they could quite possibly turn their franchise around by winning more games then drawing more fans. It's happened recently with the Detroit Tigers, losers of 119 games just three years before appearing in the World Series. They started investing in players (with a combination of developing quality young talent) and are now one of the more competitive teams in the league.

A salary cap would do nothing to encourage some teams to spend more money and would likely not be accepted by the player's union as it would likely result in decreased salaries. A minimum salary would force organizations to try to put a competitive team on the field in an effort to draw more fans to avoid losing money on another unsuccessful season.

Learn more about this author, Lyle Fargas.
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