Kansas City, we want our money back

I read a very interesting article by Jayson Stark today (viewable here), in which he talks about a growing discontent between small and large market teams over revenue sharing. As a Mets fan, I shudder thinking that our money is going to these small market teams and either being used frivolously or just pocketed by the owners of those teams.

The worst offender, the team that most misuses their revenue sharing funds, is clearly the Kansas City Royals, and they do it in both of the ways I mentioned above. Their general manager, Dayton Moore, apparently purposely tries to build a team that can't get on base. He signs players like Rick Ankiel, Scott Podsednik, and Jason Kendall to often highly overpriced contracts. He trades premier prospects for players like Yuniesky Betancourt. To him, this is all part of "the System", a mythical concept which he often brings up.

In addition, their owner, former Wal-Mart CEO David Glass, routinely seems to pocket this revenue sharing money. Glass is clearly quite a wealthy man (though his exact net worth is apparently not public), and he refuses to spend more of his own money to help the Royals. Why does this team, which is using its revenue sharing money to sign mediocre players and line David Glass's pockets, still get said money from the big market clubs?

Now, this certainly does not mean I am against teams like the Pirates, who have a solid rebuilding strategy in place, receiving revenue sharing funds. The system was designed to give small market teams much needed money, which would help to maintain competitive balance in baseball. Teams that essentially throw this money away should not be receiving money at all.