Why are the Washington Nationals so cheap?

Question

I want to become a GM for hockey or football but not for baseball, but that doesn't mean i don't know baseball. The Washington Nationals have like the 26 or 27th lowest payroll. The top 8 highest payrolls are teams that are going to playoffs. They traded for 2 unproven player's with less then 500 ab bats(Dukes and Milledge). They were too scared to sign Alfonso Sorriano, which was one of my favorite players. The other players they should of kept was Livan Hernandez, Mejewski, Marlyn Byrd. My method is that you should spend money or else you wont be successful, they just are waiting for the future but if they do that they lose fans becasue there whole bullpen has not 1 good pitcher, and that means they lose money. If you have no stars then your a bad team.(with the exception of the Marlins, I tip my hat to them)

Answer 1

Well, they want to save money probably because they wanna resign the young stars who are gonna ask for alot, like Lasting Milledge or Ryan Zimmerman. Look at Florida, the team with the lowest payroll in the MLB. They're like 2nd or 3rd in the NL East. It just all depends on how your scouts scout the cheap players.

Answer 2

You are looking at it all wrong...Soriano would not sign with them, do not waste your time on a guy that has flat out said that he would not sign with your team...Hernandez has bounced around the league for a reason, he is not that special.  Marlon Byrd is a nice fourth OF but not a star player that you want to spend big money on.  They are trying to develop the farm system and keep trying to get good talent...the problem is that they make bad trades, they always seem to be getting the short side of the trade!

Answer 3

Don't forget they had Vladimir Guerrero when they were the Expos...They don't really have much money to spend i mean i don't think fans go to alot of their games,so until then they'll prolly not have much money to spend like the Marlins.

Answer 4

because they dont have much money

Answer 5

True, generally bad teams are ones who dont spend a whole lot, but then look at Atlanta, they have a boatload of dead weight (Smoltz, Glavine, Hudson, Hampton) who have all been on the DL or are out for the year and Chipper Jones who missed 1/3 of every season on the DL.   Together they are paid more then about 30% of all teams.  So it works both ways.

Answer 6

Never ever ever forget, baseball is a business and the owners are in the business to make money.  Period.  Whether or not the team actually wins baseball games is quite irrelevant to many owners.  If they are letting the good players go, it is because paying them would cut into the owner's profits.  There are many teams around baseball that do this.  Prime suspect #1 is the Pittsburgh Pirates.  They haven't had a payroll of over 50 million for years and years now.  But when the league kicks you back 42 million in luxury tax, you've already broken even for the season.  Then you just collect the box office and concession profits and the team finishes in the black.

A couple of years ago the small market teams all received something like 43 million in luxury taxes from the top payroll teams.  That year, the Minnesota Twins fielded a team who's payroll was 37 million.  So before a single pitch was even thrown, the Twins had already made a 6 million dollar profit on the season.

You seem to be under the impression that the management actually cares about you and the fans.  They don't.  They are trying to make as much money as they can.  And when the biggest expenditure is player payroll, they are going to try to keep it to a minimum.

They know that they're a bad team.  They could care less.