Sportsfrog.com

Rob Neyer’s chat transcript at ESPN is pretty darn good, and he brings up a point I’ve tried to make in the big market-small market argument: Money is not the answer to all of your problems.

I know it’s hard in our society to think that something other than money can fix things. While it’s not fair that Steinbrenner can spend three times as much as most teams, is it any more fair that Billy Beane is three times smarter than other GMs? Neyer lays it out:

“Shawn, Bloomington: I grew up watching a lot of Tigers games. Is a salary cap the only way they can compete again?

Rob Neyer: Honestly? After watching the A’s and the Angels and the Twins and Marlins the last couple of seasons, isn’t the notion of a salary cap pretty ridiculous? Yes, rich teams tend to win and poor teams tend to lose. But it’s just as true that smart teams tend to win and dumb teams tend to lose. If the Tigers start doing everything right and they’re still losing 100 games, then we can talk about a salary cap (Don Fehr won’t listen, though).”