Is this thing On?

I was happy to see there wasn't an out pour of negative comments by all of our fans about my guarantee that Roy Halladay would be traded. So this is just my afterthoughts on the trade deadline. Mostly I just have a lot of questions and observations. I though Roy Halladay getting traded would have made perfect sense. A team that is not contending should trade away veteran players for prospects in hope to contend in the future. It also makes sense to trade end of the year free agents who tell you up front that they won't sign with you for any reasonable amount of money. What doesn't make sense to me is how separated the level of competition is around the league. I saw Andrew McCutchen hit 3 home runs in a game shortly after the break and I envisioned him getting traded in 2 or 3 years at the deadline for prospects. I think we are headed down a road for the next 20 or 30 years where bad teams trade away all of there good players for prospects every 3 or 4 so that they can't make the fans believe they are still trying to win. When really what they are trying to do is make a profit. I understand that, but I like to see good competition. We wouldn't pay decent money to see the Yankees play a good minor league team, but yet day in and day out we pay decent money to see the Padres play the Phillies. What's the difference? It's like watching a 5A football team play a 1A football team. The Phillies pick the best players that $110 million can buy. The Padres put the best team on the field that $35 million can buy. Whose going to win time after time? Then we have to deal with the fact that the Kansas City Royals have to pay a guy like Gil Meche $55 million to come to KC. Small market teams are further handicapped because guys want the ultimate top dollar contract they can get to go somewhere that they know they are going to lose. I was proud that Kansas City didn't sell out like the Indians and Pirates, because they want to contend in the near future. But when Alex Gordon finally starts to pop off, Greinke becomes a free agent, and Billy Butler demands high dollar, are they really going to pay for all these people? No. They are going to let one or two of there top guys go for the big paycheck then when they realize they can't compete, they are going to trade the remaining guys for prospects... and the cycle continues. I don't think the owners should rake in all the benefits from a $95 million salary cap, but how about we keep ticket prices reasonable, impose the cap and see much better competition? We won't see this. There are plenty of MLB and owners publicist / commentators out there telling you why its bad for the league. But here's my next prediction... if we don't impose some sort of cap or maybe even take another root of a salary floor of $50 million, then the Padres, Royals, Mariners, Pirates, Brewers, Nationals, Indians, Twins, and even the Devil Rays, Marlins, and Rockies will not win a World Series this century. Obviously the Rays and Marlins have the best shot in the next few years, but once Jeff Nieman, Evan Longoria, David Price, Jason Bartlett, and Jorge Cantu start demanding their fair market value the Rays success will go out with a few of these players.