All teams have an absolutely fair chance right now, without any tweaks other than eliminating MLB’s ability to “punish” slot offenders. The Pirates wouldn’t go over slot in the 2007 draft, but the commissioner’s office (and slot-fans) don’t question them spending 9 million on Matt Morris. No, not just 9 million. About 3 million last year, 9.5 million this year, and at least 1 million in 2009. Yes, that’s a much better investment for a perennial last place team than a 3.5 bonus to Porcello that could push it to 7 million. Talk about penny-wise and pound absolutely idiotic.

It’s amazing how owners will howl about their rights to engage in capitalistic activity while a certain percentage of those owners want to saddle would-be employees with the most anti-capitalistic obstacles possible. They consistently want to be mandated to act in a certain way rather than simply acting intelligently.

Porcello was far from the only player who signed over slot, and I don’t see how Detroit is “big market.” 11th largest TV market, which overlaps a region that has been economically savaged over the last couple of years. A lot of smaller market teams went over slot and benefited. Any of the teams picking before Detroit could have afforded Porcello without breaking a sweat.

Now, if you can convince me that only the Padres will defect, and that all other teams will follow slot, then I am all for the Padres defecting.

IMO, they need a mandatory slot draft system to provide all teams a fairer chance and to eliminate defections, similar to what is done in the NFL, with the understanding that unlike the NFL, these players, particularly high round picks, usually don’t see the major leagues their first year.

Attendance has gone up significantly, and ticket prices are much higher than at Jack Murphy. The average ticket price in 2003 was $16. The average ticket price in 2007 was $22. Just in tickets alone – leaving aside concessions, any money the team gets from parking, etc – that’s a bump of 4.5 million. If they’d maintained the 2004 attendance levels the bump would have been 5.8, not very big. Those are average ticket prices, not actual tickets sold, but it should track.

If the concern is that the Padres need more community support, I don’t see it. An extra 1.3 million in attendance revenue wouldn’t change the 25 man roster one bit, or change who we draft. The difference in attendance money between 2004 and 2007 is a drop in the bucket compared to the increased revenue from the national media deals and MLBAM.

115: The big market teams aren’t benefiting from “defecting.” The real beneficiaries are the small and mid-market teams who realize that every dollar they spend in the draft is worth a hundred dollars spent on mediocre free agents.

Not that this means anything, but I bought MLB 2K8 for my 360. Playing with the Padres is depressing. The national perception is that the Padres offense is terrible, and they don’t make up for it with a lot of athleticism or fire. You can only say “Check out their home/road splits” so many times before people start to ignore you and think you’re crazy.

I’m sorry, but I have to agree with Phantom on Kyle Lohse. He is not a big name player and most San Diego fans have never heard of him. If the Padres chose to allocate their payroll resources elsewhere, then question those moves so that Lohse could be brought in. Same with Edmonds; criticize the team’s allocation and provide alternatives available at the time, and please don’t say Andruw Jones or Torii Hunter – they did not fit within the budget without gutting too many other areas of need so as to stay within resource limits.

If the team is not making a profit and is putting all of its money into its product at one level of another, by my logical reasoning it cannot be cheap, unless you redefine cheap to require the ownership to continuously take big operating losses.

Your point regarding Porcello over Schmidt relates to resource allocation and also the attempt at ownership solidarity in terms of not paying more than slot (a collective bargaining and draft fairness related ploy), not whether or not the team is cheap. On resource allocation, I would have preferred the Padres invested more in the draft, and less in retread pitchers for the 40 man roster. On the slot issue, that is designed to allow the non-big market teams to at least try to level the playing field more in the draft; the more defectors from the slot issue there are, the more that benefits Boras clients and the big market teams. I still would have preferred them taking Porcello over Schmidt, but imo that has nothing to do with the organization being cheap.