The A-Rod sweepstakes and an idea

It's been two days since the 2007 World Series was concluded with Boston sweeping the floor with the Rockies. Since then, free agents have been starting to fill up the hot stove, seeing as how the free agent filing period began after the World Series. Teams have 15 days to negotiate with their respective free agents before said players may shop around with other baseball clubs.
The most notable free agent has been by far former Mariner, former Ranger, former Yankee Alex Rodriguez. First off, what a shitty thing to do upstaging the biggest game in baseball by announcing he'd opt out of his $252 million contract. Great, he wants to opt out? Fine. Announce it after the World Series is over. Now I was pretty upset but I started thinking about everything as a whole. Rodriguez and his agent Scott Boras actually took away some spectacle from the World Series by announcing he'd be a free agent. Announcer talk went from how well the Red Sox were doing to where Rodriguez would land next. Now you can look at it and say it was a bad thing to do on Rodriguez and Boras's part, but on the other hand, the World Series was so uninteresting a player becoming a free agent became the bigger story. Commissioner Bud Selig and the rest of Major League Baseball should find some way to fix the situation because while they tout record attendance figures and small market success, they still can't seem to find the answer to the World Series television ratings in a long while. Bottom line: the World Series is boring. No one wants to watch it, especially when Boston railroaded Colorado in Game 1. No wonder Rodriguez upstaged the game - it didn't take much. As a result, as one ESPN.com writer said, Rodriguez used the timing to assert he is bigger than the game of baseball. What a sad situation to be in, but baseball brass must find a way to either make baseball interesting again or suppress superstar players from becoming too big for the game. Although, this wouldn't be the first time Major League Baseball has faced this problem. Rewind almost a century ago when Babe Ruth ushered in the "live ball era" with a .376 batting average and 54 homeruns during his first year with the New York Yankees. Ruth, at that time, was bigger than baseball and his legend only continued to grow. Eventually Selig will have to channel in the spirit of the first baseball commissioner Judge Keensaw Mountain Landis and take on the biggest player in the game as Landis once did with Ruth. "This case resolves itself into a question of who is the biggest man in baseball, the Commissioner or the player who makes the most homeruns," Landis once said while battling Ruth's intentions of barnstorming.

What could Selig really do to make the World Series more interesting again? He can't control which teams participate in it because if he could it'd be the Yankees and the Red Sox (he'd find a way to put them against each other). Baseball needs a massive shakeup and it needs to come from the commissioner's office and not the offices of Boras and Rodriguez, who are happy to overshadow the game - it makes them more money. The World Series should find a way to play itself to TV much like the Super Bowl does, but unlike the Super Bowl, the World Series isn't a one game championship. Therefore, it's not as easy to market. I wonder what would happen if they took away home field advantage for the World Series and instead made it a "world" series. Using this year as an example, Games 1 and 2 are played in Boston, 3 and 4 in Colorado, 5 in Boston, 6 in Colorado and the 7th game of the World Series would be played at a neutral site outside of the United States (should the series last that long). Although you wouldn't have moments like Kirby Puckett homering in extra innings to win the World Series at home in the Metrodome or Joe Carter blasting a Game 7 winner at home in the Sky Dome, it could be interesting nonetheless.

Imagine if Game 7 of the 1993 World Series between the Toronto Blue Jays and the Philadelphia Phillies was instead played in Tokyo. Mitch Williams rears back, throws, Joe Carter swings and launches a homerun deep into the stands of the Tokyodome as 55,000 Japanese fans erupt into a frenzy. Now, there's one thing baseball has going for it that football doesn't - international interest. A game like the 1993 World Series in Tokyo would have given further credibility to the U.S. baseball product and would have been far more influential in bringing Japanese players over instead of Ichiro signing with the Mariners or Daisuke Matsuzaka signing with the Red Sox. *Geoff pointed out my egregious errors in that the homeruns by both Kirby Puckett and Joe Carter both came in Game 6 of the World Series. I plead insanity in both cases. I could always throw in Bill Mazeroski's walkoff in Game 7 of the 1960 World Series can't I? Thanks Geoff for pointing those things out.

Now, what I'm sure baseball owners and people in the MLB offices would be furious if this happened, but what if the World Series became the American Championship and the winner would represent the United States in a global tournament like the World Baseball Classic. MLB could extend its influence to major countries like Japan, the Dominican Republic, Canada, France, Puerto Rico and China and create a league, similar to the MLB in each country, have a regular season, a post season and culminate in a championship that determines the country's representative in the World Series. For the sake of argument, let's say MLB does this with 15 countries and leaves open the 16th slot as a Wild Card for a smaller country without the MLB system. The Wild Card tournament would take a few weeks, giving the 15 representatives from other countries a chance to rest and practice. Then with 16 teams the tournament could be a one-game format showcasing the best pitcher from each squad against the best lineup from the opposing squad. The winner of the World Series would have international respect and MLB would have international television profits. Why keep trying to sell baseball in America when it won't sell? Take it to Japan. Take it to China. Take it to South Africa. Take it internationally where the audience is larger. The obvious pitfalls in this would be it would take way too long for this tournament to happen and it would fall into the off-season. However, MLB needs to shorten the regular season anyway because there are way too many games that simply don't really matter. By shortening the season a month or so, MLB could have a little more time for the international tournament. Owners wouldn't go for it because of the obvious wasted revenue in the loss of about a month's worth of games, but MLB could start a TV revenue sharing plan that gives all teams in the international tournament a stake in the broadcasting revenues. This might cost owners money in the short run but over time players would be paid less for less games and it would create incentive to build a winning franchise year in and year out to capture the revenue. For a worldwide audience, the revenues from TV and sales would be astronomical. I know the World Baseball Classic is using some of these ideas already but overall the WBC doesn't amount to crap. It's going to happen once every four years but by then the magic is lost. Soccer can do it, but internationally soccer is way more popular than baseball. Baseball just needs a foothold to give it legitimacy once again. An actual "world" series may do the trick.

I know, the ideas aren't anywhere near perfect but you have to start somewhere. Maybe something hits, maybe it doesn't. If MLB doesn't find a way to improve interest in baseball then why is any casual fan going to watch the product?

Anyway, let me step
off
my
soapbox.

Back to the original topic, who will sign Alex Rodriguez? The Yankees say they're opting out of the A-Rod sweepstakes after he opted out of his contract and many teams say they simply can't afford a $30 million per year contract. So who can?

1. Boston Red Sox
Of course Boston will be in the mix but after Mike Lowell won the World Series MVP and played well for the Red Sox this year, do you really think they'd take A-Rod? Lowell will make a considerable amount less than A-Rod and justifiably so, but there's proof they can win with Lowell. What else would they have to prove by signing A-Rod? There's no way to win the World Series in 1, 2, or even 3 games.

2. Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
Bartolo Colon and his massive contract are gone. Vladimir Guerrero needs a big stick hitting behind him. Third base can be opened for a player of A-Rod's caliber. The Angels make sense for A-Rod, but again the question is are they willing to pay $30 million per year for him? I'm sure Vlad would love to have him in the lineup but at what cost? A couple of role players here and there to supplant what they've already built up in Anaheim? A definite possibility for the Angels.

3. Los Angeles Dodgers
The interleague rivals of the Angels are also in the A-Rod sweepstakes. The Dodgers tanked offensively last year and with their divisional foes getting better, the Dodgers need to step up and take a $30 million per year chance. A-Rod would solidify the lineup and his superstar status would be perfect in Los Angeles. Another possible A-Rod landing destination.

4. Chicago Cubs
Of course there were rumors of one of the potential Cubs franchise buyers negotiating a contract for A-Rod, but how likely would his contract be for the Cubs?
Aramis Ramirez, 3b $9 million in 2007
Alfonso Soriano, of $10 million in 2007
Carlos Zambrano, p $12.4 million in 2007
Derrek Lee, 1b $13.25 million in 2007

now lets throw in the A-Rod potential
Alex Rodriguez, 3b $30 million

that would mean the Cubs would be paying at least $74.65 million dollars for five players. Add in Mark DeRosa ($2.75 million), Jacque Jones ($5.63 million), Ted Lilly ($6 million) and Jason Marquis ($4.75 million). Now 9 players will be making almost $100 million per year. There are 16 other slots to fill on the roster and some are already taken by multi-millionaires. Adding A-Rod does not make financial sense to the Cubs. If an owner is willing to pay for him then it'll happen, but when you look at how much money the Cubs are already spending on a mediocre team, A-Rod isn't a necessity. I doubt he winds up here.

5. I decided to throw a wild card in here. Fans for every major league franchise are wondering if A-Rod goes to them when it is all said and done, but I'd like to see if the Oakland A's acquired A-Rod. The A's have been tight with money ever since their new management brought in Billy Beane as general manager, but with an upcoming move out of Oakland, A-Rod would be the perfect player to build a franchise on. While potential sites for the Athletics franchise haven't been finalized, one thing that is finalized is the A's are leaving Oakland. Should the A's move away from Fremont to another potential city, say Las Vegas, Portland, Omaha, or Norfolk the A's would have to build a loyal fan base. A-Rod would bring in millions of revenue from jersey sales, let alone any other revenue streams. There would be a brand new ballpark for A-Rod to christen "The House A-Rod built" and he would fill the seats of that house as he continues his monstrous homerun pace. Wouldn't paying $30 million per year for A-Rod be a justifiable investment for the A's so he could establish a new fan base and chase the homerun record in a new A's jersey? After skimping for so many years on their players, I wouldn't be surprised if the owners decided to make a play for A-Rod's services.

So where do you think A-Rod is going? There's a poll on the right side of the web page to vote. You can also vote for more than one team, in case you think A-Rod has lots of options.