GM of White Sox suggesting for MLB to shut down? Your thoughts & some of the article inside->?

Well, he is not outright proposing shutting down the game, and I think a lot of people are confused about that. I asked a question like this yesterday, and everyone loved Williams, but some of those same people are saying he is taking it too far. He's not saying "Shut down the game!"

But Kenny Williams is right on the money here. He nailed it. Just a short time ago, a $20 million contract was insane. Now, a $20 million contract is a huge discount for a star. HUGE!

WIlliams is angry because the greed of the players. MLB Network debated this yesterday, and completely were off with everything they said (maybe because they made a lot of money). Williams is speaking for the general fan. It costs around $75 per person to go to a game! Yet, the ballplayers just want more and more. And indirectly, he is calling Pujols and others irrational in their demands. And basically, he is calling them selfish.

Anybody who says payroll doesn't matter is ignorant. Sure, it doesn't give a team championships every year. But how can one deny it greatly improves the chances? Teams like the Pirates, Indians, Royals, Orioles, and more have no hope EVERY year. When people look at teams that can sign Pujols, no one mentions those teams. That's downright unfair, when only some teams can sign a star player/keep a star player.

It's gotten very out of hand with player's demands. And Williams wants fans to be able to have hope for their team every year. And he wants fans to be able to afford a baseball game. For that to happen, baseball will need to shut down for a year, or fans making $50,000 a year can have a little talk with the star players. Every team should have a chance to compete, and that can't happen. Shame.

Here's a great quote that Williams said:

"Listen I love the game, I love the game for the players and the fans, but in order for the game to continue to be affordable for families, for guys who are hard-working guys busting their asses everyday to take their kids to a ballgame...well, hell yeah. Yes. I'm okay with it being shut down."

As a fan of a small market team (Florida), I like the idea of a hard cap and the leveled playing field, but Kenny Williams and Hank Steinbrenner are whining about the same thing, "We don't want to give up more of our billions to these players who's talents are lining our pocketbooks."

Unless the owners are willing to provide revenues directly to the players (which teams like Chicago and New York are almost certainly unwilling to swallow) then there's no compelling reason to install a hard cap. Certainly owner greed is not a compelling reason.

The fact is that spending $30 / year for superstar players is not the only way to win championships. It might make you a contender if you do it right (as the Yankees and Sox have been), but there have been teams at the bottom third of payroll to play and win the World Series.

At the same, a salary cap does not necessarily mean that teams will be competative. Take a look at the NBA, where only 8 teams have won the NBA Titles over the last 4 decades.

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As for the idea of it being unreasonable for any player to earn $X / year, I think it's perfectly acceptable. The reality is that the players are bringing in billions of dollars of revenue for teams and for the league. Athletes earn a salary closer to their economic worth to their employer than most other employers. Getting upset at players salaries without thinking about who can afford to pay these salaries and still clear profits is short sighted.

Scooter, we've seen articles like this before. Every time a player reaches a certain level it's referred to as "asinine". It's never going to stop unless the fans stop it!! What does that mean? Stop supporting these insane salaries. Stop going to the ball park and see how long it takes for MLB to put an end to it.

I use to be able to afford several games a year and usually would get really decent seats when I'd go. Now it's maybe two games a year and much lessor seating. Why? Because ticket prices have gone through the roof. If we keep shelling out more and more money to the league it won't be long until we will be talking about the $40 million dollar a year player.

I'm not in favor of the game shutting down, but Kenny Williams has a point. Spending $30 million on one player is absolutely insane. Pujols should just take less money and shut up.

I don't think they need to shut the league down. That would be even more insane than 30mil dollar players.

Just bring back the salary cap idea. I think it's worth putting up for debate again. I understand both sides of the argument, but when individual players are making more than some team's starting line-up, there's obviously a lack of parity. And that doesn't make for good baseball.

It's the truth. It's ridiculous how much money players are making to PLAY a game. The president of the United States makes $400,000 per year, and does anyone have any idea how hard that job is? Then there's people like Pujols demanding $30,000,000 per year. It's RIDICULOUS. If this keeps up, there'll eventually be players making $50,000,000 a year. A lockout may or may not be the solution, but something has to be done to stop this craziness.

Actually I think a lot of people are reading way too much into this.

I also saw the story in the actual paper (remember those - before we got all our news online? lol), and I think he is basically stating that, while he does not want to see any sort of work stoppage, he feels that if that is th only thing that will get salaries under control, then it is better for it to happen.

While I would also hate to see any sort of strike or lockout, if it meant that maybe it would be more possible for the average fan to go to games (which I doubt - I don't think any owner will sell a ticket they can get $50 for $20 just because salaries go down)

I don't think that he is, in any way, stating that a work stoppage is the only way to get things under control, and I certainly don;t think he is endorsing a lockout as a way to do so.

Call it more a statement of how ridiculous salaries have become than a "state of the union" address regarding labor relations.

I dont think they need to shut down the league down but 30 million dollars per year is way to much money for just one player

I don't see why the MLB just doesn't get a salary cap. But Kenny has taken this out of hand, he just needs to keep quiet for a while.

But I do agree with him about $30 Million being crazy. If I paid a guy $30 M a year, I'd expect a WS every single year.

YOU can thank the yankees for giving a-rod the contract he has making pujols think he's worth that much. i do not want the mlb to shut down, but the white sox gm makes a great point, 30 million a player?