[Josh W]

I agree 100% with an international draft. The Yankees are the desire of nearly all international stars, from Matsui to Orlando Hernandez, to Hideki Irabu who refused to play for any other team, including San Diego, who drafted him.

Is it the union that won't accept a floor? I'm pretty sure it's the owners.

You are right that 2 or 3 players a championship team does not make. But 4, and it's really close.

You get 2 aces, a closer, and one big bat, decent role players (of the Rick Fox/Robert Horry) capability (I guess these would be akin to an innings-eating 3rd starter, a setup man, a #5 hitter and a leadoff hitter), and you're dang close to a championship. Just ask Arizona. Of course, Johnson and Schilling aren't run of the mill aces (is there such a thing?).

But the problem with a naked NBA parallel is that there is still, as you said in your response to Dynasty, to much disparity between the haves and have-nots. If you want all teams to be at least moderately competitive, you need all teams to have similar (not identical) payrolls, which requires similar amounts of money to spend.

And the only way to accomplish comparable bankrolls is to institute grotesque revenue sharing. And, to be honest, I think that this is the first step. Without it, Pittsburgh, KC, Montreal, Toronto, Minnesota, Milwaukee, Florida, Tampa, etc will never compete with the Cubs (who never spend money, tho they have it), LA, Boston, Baltimore (when Angelos feels like it), NY, NY, Seattle, Texas, etc.

But the extent of revenue sharing that would be required would never ever fly to the owners. No way Steinbrenner et al are giving up there money to hurt their team and to help others.

Maybe a more realistic scenario is MLB yanking control of more teams like they have with Montreal...make the cheapskates spend more money. If they don't, they lose their team.

Or get fair scouts, but that's a funny joke.

And more money for Double A center fielders.

Josh