Another "Accomplishment" for Bud Selig

Terry Ryan, General Manager for the Minnesota Twins, stepped aside recently after 13 years as GM of the small market baseball team.

Ryan piloted the Twins through some tumultuous waters in the late 90s, living through futility only paralleled by the Kansas City Royals. He committed to a young team, with a few older free agents sprinkled in, and won four Central Division titles in five years. The payroll was tiny compared with the Yankees, Red Sox and others. It was a Herculean feat.

I was pondering the recent success of teams like the Twins, A's and others. I predict that no small market team will win a World Series for the foreseeable future. Sure some, like the Twins, A's and Brewers (this year) will win division or wild card, but there will be no World Series title.

The reason? You ask? Because these teams are young, the pitching wears down by the end of the season. They do not have the experience to come through in October on the big stage. Championships in baseball is all about pitching and experience.

Thanks to Bud, the larger markets have the cash to throw at the premium players.

When are the owners going to realize that it is not about the Royals vs. the Red Sox or the Dodgers vs. the Pirates? It is about baseball (as a whole) vs other sports. Baseball is the product that is suffering from this as well as other things I enumerated the other day (see below).