Does MLB consider contracted player salaries as team debt? ← FREE KRAUT!

Does MLB consider contracted player salaries as team debt? 9

This is an … odd post from Marine Layer, and I think it deserves its own dedicated discussion thread here.

ML duplicates some (but not all) of grover’s recent work in profiling the A’s salary situation for 2011-2012. He makes a couple idiosyncratic assumptions (um … what “slugger” available this offseason will sign with Oakland for 2/20?), but the overall picture is similar to what grover came up with.

However … here’s the key assumption on which ML’s thesis hinges:

With the new CBA, the debt rule had radically changed. Instead of pinning available debt to franchise value under the 60/40 rule, debt was to be capped based on earnings. … The kicker here is that while player compensation is not supposed to be part of the calculus, it is no doubt a considering factor.

“No doubt”? Um, ML, I’m gonna need to see something with a little more … provenance than that.

Yes, I think it’s a virtual certainty that the A’s won’t engage in big-ticket FA signings until they have a stadium deal firmly in place. But I don’t think there’s any mechanism, formal or informal, whereby MLB bars them from doing so.

And given the financial shenanigans that have come to light this year — the Rangers sale debacle and the consequent MLB loan being used directly for player salaries, the McCourts’ using the Dodgers as their own microcosm of the housing bubble, the leaked financials on several teams; not to mention the relatively lax enforcement of Selugworth’s slot “recommendations” — I don’t think anyone can plausibly argue that there’s any real due diligence in vetting, managing, or disciplining ownership groups.

What’s more, given ML’s recent bad-faith-or-post-traumatic-head-injury arguments, I can’t see this reasoning being anything more than another rhetorical gambit in reinforcing the message that the A’s won’t compete until they’re allowed to move to SJ. (Which, again, may well be true, but not on the “evidence” ML presents.)

Anyone feel like correcting me?

9 thoughts on “Does MLB consider contracted player salaries as team debt?

  1. andeux Sep 30,2010 10:44 am

    what “slugger” available this offseason will sign with Oakland for 2/20?

    Manny?

    TINSTAAFK
    • monkeyball Sep 30,2010 10:46 am || Up

      It sure ain’t gonna take that much to sign Manny. Even considering the Mausoleum Premium.

      you better hope to God you don't show up in this little community, because you'll wish you had never come
    • nanotrebuchet Sep 30,2010 10:49 am || Up

      Dunn? Konerko?

      • nevermoor Sep 30,2010 10:51 am || Up

        GAH! Dunn! Begone!

        "There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want"
      • andeux Sep 30,2010 10:59 am || Up

        Dunn wants a longer (and probably more lucrative) deal.

        TINSTAAFK
        • nanotrebuchet Sep 30,2010 11:02 am || Up

          dan johnson

        • nevermoor Sep 30,2010 1:26 pm || Up

          So do I, but…

          "There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want"
          • andeux Sep 30,2010 1:37 pm || Up

            If you were a 4 WAR player this year, you might get one.

            TINSTAAFK
            • nevermoor Sep 30,2010 1:47 pm || Up

              STRICKOUTS!!!!!11

              "There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want"

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