Win Now or Pay Later?

There has been an emerging trend in major league baseball the last few seasons that can greatly impact a team's success. This trend involves keeping promising young prospects in the minor leagues for an extended amount of time in order to hold that player's contractual rights for an additional season. If a rookie starts the season with a major league club, he has to accumulate five years of service in order to be eligible for free agency. If he is kept in the minors at the beginning of the season for a certain amount of time, then called up, he has to wait six years to apply for free agency. For example, the Braves decided to put 20-year-old super prospect Jason Heyward (pictured above) on their major league roster to start the season. This means he can be eligible for free agency in 2015. If they had waited nine days from opening day, then called him up, he would have had to wait until 2016, giving his rights to the Braves for an additional year. Many teams have been keeping their young stars in the minors at the beginning of the season so they can put off for an additional season offering them a huge contract. The issue is, however, what if the young player can make an impact on your team right now? Do you hold him down in the minors for financial reasons, or put him on the major league roster to help your team win?
A perfect example of this involves pitcher Tommy Hanson, another Braves elite prospect. Last season, the Braves held him in the minor leagues until June so he would have to wait an additional year to become a free agent. Once he was called up to the majors, he was dominant. The Braves narrowly missed making the playoffs, and many feel they would have made it if Hanson was on the team from the beginning of the season. The Braves possibly sacrificed making the playoffs to save money in the future. A similar incident happened a few years ago when the Tampa Bay Rays left Evan Longoria (not to be confused with Eva) in the minors for about a month. Although it didn't hurt their season, it once again showed some franchises are willing to place money above success.
If a player is ready to contribute at the major league level, he deserves a chance. If he turns out to be as good a player as everyone expects, the team is going to have to pay him a large contract anyway, regardless of whether that player has to wait five or six years. It appears the Braves learned their lesson with Hanson, and put Heyward on the major league team. Sometimes, paying stars large amounts of money is just the cost of doing business.

Expand to 96? I Hope Not

March Madness is just days away, as 65 teams get ready to battle it out for the title. Well, only about ten teams have an actual chance at winning, but that doesn't stop fans from every school from hoping that their program is this year's cinderella story. Kids and adults alike fill out brackets, and stop all productive activity to follow their bracket as the tournament progresses.
Recently, the NCAA has proposed expanding the field from 65 to 96 teams. This would be mainly for financial reasons. More games means more commercials, as well as more tickets and merchandise sold. The only problem is, that many teams would water down the excitement of the tournament. If there were 96 teams, there would be a lot of mediocrity in the early rounds. Who wants to see a 19th seed play? With that many teams, even Georgia may have had a chance to make it this year, and we all know they are far from a competitive team. The early rounds would feature matchups between last place-caliber teams, and no one wants to see that. So, the NCAA should just keep the field at 65 teams and leave the excitement as it is.