.... Glad to see him stay home and not let the Yanks gobble him up in the off season.

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=5016230

Mainly happy he isn't a Yankee as well.

Wow, kind of surprising seeing the Twins give a guy that kind of money as they historically been a relatively low-payroll ballclub who uses their farm system as well as the players they already have to succeed year-in and year-out. I love Mauer's game and I hope he continues to do well...

 

By the way, these payrolls for these guys are getting ridiculous nowadays and in such hard economic times. Maybe we should consider taking %50 of their income and applying it to our national debt!:lol:.

Good for Mauer and the Twins.

Will they be resigning anyone else to play with him or call up the triple A team? :lol:

I was watching Indians round table and they were asking the former players who were on the show what is the one thing they would change about the game today.

 

One player said baseball needs to make it affordable for familes to attend a game like back when he played.

 

With contracts like these it will never happen.

^ I agree they are going to price everyone out of games pretty soon.

Fans who like the game need to start going to min or league games.

Cheaper and the game is sweet.

Whining about teams not making it affordable for the average family is simply a case of not understanding business or economics. I see lots of people at Yankee games. I see the stands filled in Boston. I see no one at Padre or Marlins games and those teams have very low payrolls.

 

If the high salaries were hurting their pocketbooks THEY WOULDN"T PAY THEM. They are either happy with the profit they're making or they're happy with the growth in value of their franchise. Its that simple.

 

The only way salaries will ever come down is for fans to not a)go or b)watch. It will never happen.

Wow, kind of surprising seeing the Twins give a guy that kind of money as they historically been a relatively low-payroll ballclub who uses their farm system as well as the players they already have to succeed year-in and year-out.

 

There's a combination of things that have happened in Minnesota to make this contract possible.

 

1) It never hurts the bottom line to have put out a consistently good product for the last 10 seasons. The Twins have been to the playoffs 5 of the last 8 seasons. Attendance has been way up as a result.

 

2) The new ballpark, Target Field, is actually controlled by the Twins. Much of the Metrodome's revenues went to the Vikings due to a fairly unfavorable lease and a lot of the parking lots were controlled by the Minneapolis Star-Tribune newspaper. All of that revenue is now going to the Twins. Estimates suggest the Twins have several million more to work with this season than last.

 

It looks like the Twins will have one of the 10 highest payrolls in baseball when the season starts.

Whining about teams not making it affordable for the average family is simply a case of not understanding business or economics. I see lots of people at Yankee games. I see the stands filled in Boston. I see no one at Padre or Marlins games and those teams have very low payrolls.

 

If the high salaries were hurting their pocketbooks THEY WOULDN"T PAY THEM. They are either happy with the profit they're making or they're happy with the growth in value of their franchise. Its that simple.

 

The only way salaries will ever come down is for fans to not a)go or b)watch. It will never happen.

 

Have you been to San Diego? The last thing I would do is watch a Padre game...

Have you been to San Diego? The last thing I would do is watch a Padre game...

 

The point is simple. You can't say high salaries are going to kill the game or kill attendance when the Yanks charge the sky high prices they do. The Pads and Marlins have historically had small payrolls. The "salaries are going to kill baseball" logic would say that these teams should have high attendance because they have low salaries. That's not the case.

 

When Andy Messersmith signed his FA contract in about 1973 or 1974 people predicted the game would suffer. 30 years later its still rockin' and rollin'.

The point is simple. You can't say high salaries are going to kill the game or kill attendance when the Yanks charge the sky high prices they do. The Pads and Marlins have historically had small payrolls. The "salaries are going to kill baseball" logic would say that these teams should have high attendance because they have low salaries. That's not the case.

 

When Andy Messersmith signed his FA contract in about 1973 or 1974 people predicted the game would suffer. 30 years later its still rockin' and rollin'.

 

It goes both ways though. If you have a low salary and unload Jake Peavy, Beckett, soon to be Adrian Gonzalez nobody wants to watch you play. The bigger markets like NYC can afford to pay the ticket price for the payroll. I just know if I was in SD I would be surfin... :banana:

It goes both ways though. If you have a low salary and unload Jake Peavy, Beckett, soon to be Adrian Gonzalez nobody wants to watch you play. The bigger markets like NYC can afford to pay the ticket price for the payroll. I just know if I was in SD I would be surfin... :banana:

 

That is only a valid argument if fans showed up prior to those guys going. They didn't.

I was glad to hear this. Mauer is a Minnesota native and hopefully will play his whole career there. I know the Twins are considered a small market team but their owner is one of the richest in the game and could spend more on payroll than what he usually does. I think with the new ballpark opening you'll see the Twins move up into the upper level payrolls in the game the next few seasons.