Red Sox CEO Larry Lucchino spoke with reporters in Fort Myers, Fla. today and covered a number of topics, one of them being the impending retirement of commissioner Bud Selig. USA Today's Bob Nightengale reports that Lucchino "challenges the premise" that Selig is 100 percent certain to retire following the season. Lucchino says he is one of multiple executives who will pressure Selig to stay in office beyond January 2015. Nightengale quotes Lucchino: "He knows that [the] pressures for him to stay will be so great, that he will have to accede to them." (All Twitter links)
More from the CEO of the reigning World Series champions…
- Lucchino confirmed that the club has met with David Ortiz's camp since the beginning of Spring Training to discuss a potential extension, writes Tim Britton of the Providence Journal. Lucchino called Ortiz "one of the most important faces in baseball" and said the club was going to give Big Papi's extension "the priority it deserves." He praised Ortiz for his leadership not only among teammates but also in the Boston community.
- Also from Britton's piece, Lucchino called Jon Lester's comments about taking a discount to stay with the Red Sox "one of the highlights of the offseason" and noted that a Lester extension is something Red Sox brass will address in Spring Training as well.
- WEEI.com's Alex Speier writes that Lucchino cringes when people lump the Red Sox and Yankees together, calling the two teams "very different animals." Lucchino points out that even though the Red Sox invested heavily in last offseason's free agent market, they only went to three guaranteed years on one deal (Shane Victorino), where the Yankees went to three-plus years four times this offseason alone. "They are still, this year at least, relying heavily on their inimitable old-fashioned Yankees style of high-priced, long-term free agents," he told reporters.
- Also within Speier's article, Lucchino does give way to the possibility that the Red Sox could make future splashes of that significance in free agency, however it would be more as an exception to the rule than the start of a trend.
Very different animals! That’s rich.
“Very different animals” — These past two offseasons have seen stark differences between the spending habits of the Red Sox and Yanks, but on a much grander scale, they’re essentially the same two-headed monster from the northeast (except the Yankees have more championships to show for it).
Agree.
RS always try to make themselves look like the little guys, but for past 10 years they have been right up at top of league in spending. When you are top 5 spenders every year you can tell yourself all you want, but your not running a brilliant low payroll club.
They’re not saying they’re a “low payroll club”. They’re saying they’re tired of being put in the same sentence as the Yankees. Big difference. Especially after Spendfest ’14.
Boston has totally gone draft 1st since henry bought the team. Have been a Sox fan since the early 60’s. never, ever has the team put so much into the development as they now have.
Duquette would have LOVED to have had the resources for example as did Epstein and now Cherrington, just look at who they have graduated from the system, even traded away in deals as to the small handful the NYY have the last 10 years? Boston has put multiple AS, even league MVP’s from their farm system into the league and the Yanks have barely put league average regulars. The systems are totally different. NY STILL counts on checkbook policy, while Boston is using farm system 1st. They are totally different.
“Boston has put multiple AS, even league MVP’s from their farm system
into the league and the Yanks have barely put league average regulars.” Since when are Jeter, Cano, and Mo ‘league average’
Jeter and Rivera are before Henry took over. Yep on Cano.. I missed that one..
I was posting about player graduated from the systems post ’02, developed by the teams after then. The numbers by Henry and Co. are astounding.
Ramirez, Anibal Sanchez (in Beckett deal)
Pedroia, Ells, Papelbon, Lester I can go on, but you get the idea.
I agree with you 100% during the mid 90’s when Steinbrenner had all those picks, they drafted and went International well, but they got away from it and never went back. There is talk of them spending huge this year. Maybe go back to it again? It would be nice to see them start to develop their own once again.
Robertson and Gardner? Omit Ellsbury’s 2011 season and he is basically Gardner. I really don’t think their international spending is going to have an impact on the Yankees anytime soon. Those guys won’t come up until the next 4-5 years.
Do you think Gardner will get 150m after this season? Just curious.
Who would have thought Ellsbury would?
Am with you there. rumor was Boston wasn’t going over between 75-100m.
Edit:
I do hope NY can find a way to keep him. He’s a decent all around player, but think he’s going to end up around what Bourn got at the end (4 50-60m)
I agree. He is one of my favorite players on the current Yankee roster, I wouldn’t want to see him leave.
Newsflash: Red Sox knew Ellsbury/Boras wouldn’t accept the 100mil offer before his last season. It was a PR move “Well, we tried”. MLBTR predicted Ells to get more than 142mil. So I think 150 was quite a reasonable expectation.
Many people.
I’m always amazed at the delusional yankee fans comparing Gardner and Ellsbury. Get a clue!!! Pay attention! You will find out this year when you see that Ellsbury is an elite athlete and player.
How is Ellsbury far better than Gardner? Could you explain that to me? Their defensive WAR’s are nearly INDENTICAL. Both barely hit for power, and are capable of leading the league in stolen bases.
Gardners OPS is .733 below average for his career. Hes far below as a fielder and is being replaced in center in 2014 by Ellsbury. Only delusional yankee fans are cherrypicking WAR stats to try to compare them. Ellsbury is a .300 hitting GG level centerfielder. Gardner isn’t.
Gardner’s OPS in 2013 was .759 and Ellsbury’s was .781 Gardner hit 33 doubles Ellsbury hit 31. Gardner hit 10 triples, Ellsbury hit 8. GG awards prove nothing. How is Gardner far below as a fielder? Ellsbury is not a lifetime .300 hitter, he has only hit above .300 twice in his career. Stats prove he is almost the exact same player as Jacoby Ellsbury.
stats don’t prove that!!!! gardner is a .381 slugger lifetime and ells is way better at .432 ops is way better. Ellsbury is lifetime .298 hitter. Gardner .268???? what part of mediocre don’t you get about gardner?
If you look at the numbers he put up last year, his average was higher than .268. He isn’t mediocre like you are making him out to be. His wins above replacement last year was at 4.2. Here is the WAR scale. According to this, Gardner is an “All-Star”
Scrub 0-1 WAR
Role Player 1-2 WAR
Solid Starter 2-3 WAR
Good Player 3-4 WAR
All-Star 4-5 WAR
Superstar 5-6 WAR
MVP 6+ WAR
WAR per 162 games
Gardner – 4.7
Ellsbury – 5.4
Sure Ellsbury is better but it’s not like he is light years ahead.
I don’t understand how because it was former Red Sox owners, that somehow eliminates the Yankees’ past? Especially from a draft? Are you implying had the Sox been under new ownership in the late 90’s they would have taken Jeter, Rivera, Pettitte etc?
That isn’t at all what was saying. I was saying in all of those posts that previous ownerships, even the ywkey ones were hindered in one way or the other regarding amateur talent, either $$$, or development scouts, infrastructure, etc.. The henry group is the 1st to put it all together.
Yawkey would spend unlimited amounts, but he had little infrastructure in place. Duquette? He seemed to be able to spend a fair amount IFA wise, but little on the Rule 4. Gorman was always zig zagging between nothing and little to nothing under Sullivan.
I get that prior ownership was dysfunctional, but that has nothing to do with the Yankees.
“Jeter and Rivera are before Henry took over. Yep on Cano.. I missed that one..”
This would seem to imply Jeter and Rivera don’t count because Henry wasn’t in Boston. Well if we’re choosing an arbitrary year of 2001 (conveniently after the Yankees won four championships) we should probably also choose an arbitrary year of 1996. You can measure Boston success under Boston’s current regime, but that doesn’t somehow eliminate what NY did or didn’t do.
And while we’re comparing from 2001 arbitrarily, yes, Boston won three championships to the Yankees one, but division titles are what, nine to two? Playoff appearances: 11-8 or so? I guess I just don’t get that some Boston fans are arguing one thing and other ones are arguing something entirely different.
The Sox have a better farm system and a better record in 2013, that should be where the current argument ends. If you bring history into it, you lose, period.
No doubt overall NY has done better throughout total history and you see one of my posts above MENTION THAT.
I posted to start all this off how well Henry’s ownership has done.. nothing else and it seems to have hit a nerve or something. It is true if NYY fans will look back 10-11 seasons. I am not trying to be hateful, mean spirited, anything like that and even mentioned will be glad when/if they do spend huge this coming season (as rumored) on IFA talent.
Edit:
Actually it’s a few posts below this one
While I agree about the draft & player development being a huge part of this team now there was a time when they started tilting back towards that other direction. When they first bought the team & hired Theo Epstein as the GM they absolutely focused on the draft & player development. But after winning it all in 2004 they started making horrible moves. I’m still pissed about the trade that sent Masterson & Hagadone to the Indians for Martinez. They figured Victor would be that middle of the order bat & 1st baseman of the future. Then they turn around & let him go & trade Casey Kelly & Anthony Rizzo to the Padres for Gonzalez while signing Crawford & Jenks to those disgusting contracts. I think that may be one of the reasons Theo wanted out because ownership wanted to spend & compete with the Yanks every year. You can add the Lackey & Matsuzaka contracts in there as well. But since the Dodgers bailed us out combined with the past few drafts they have gotten extremely better. I know people like to think that us Red Sox fans over value our prospects but you can’t help but be excited about the future of this team when you look at it’s top 10-15 prospects.
Yankees have more championships? Not this century.
Why should we have to ignore all the previous ones?
Largely because we are discussing the teams as they stand now. Mo, Jeter and Cano were great, but as of next year none of them will be wearing a Yankees jersey. It’s not about what have you done for me ever, it’s about what have you done for me lately.
“Largely because we are discussing the teams as they stand now.” No. He is talking about championships in this century, many of the titles the Red Sox/Yankees won involved players that are no longer on the roster so I’m not really seeing your point.
It is not fair to completely ignore the Yankees old championships but the MLB was very different before the league and rule changes of the late 1960s and early 1970s. The Yankees have a great franchise history but winning a WS in 1923 and 2013 are very different.
I agree, but why should 1996,1998,1999, and 2000 be ignored when talking about the past?
Never said they should be. Ignoring 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2000 is just as bad as flaunting 21 championship rings won prior to the implementation of modern MLB rules.
Not even really modern, but pre 1970 amateur rules.
The NYY and LAD/Brooklyn Dodgers had better talent in their respective farm systems than did several MLB teams and owners knew it, that is why the draft came about to begin with.
Those 2 teams had huge amounts of talent to draw upon.
Because the current Red Sox ownership came into being in Dec 2001 (2002 season). Noones trying to deny Yankees championships last century. But they are not relevant when Lucchino is talking about how they’re doing business NOW.
The game gets tougher with an amateur draft, and without Kansas City acting as a farm club.
You say century like it’s a large time frame, but you’re talking about 14 years.
any time you start talking about how great your past was you’ve already lost. No matter how many times you tell it to yourself the only thing that really matters in sports is the present. The Cubs could win the world series this year and they would give 2 craps about how many NY, Boston, or St. Louis has. Yes the Yankees are one of the most storied franchises in sports history…but talking about a bunch of championships you had no part in and many of you weren’t even alive for is getting old. You sound like Al Bundy talking up his 4 touchdowns in high school. It’s all about the present.
I figured out Ortiz’s angle. He’s looking to buy the entire Dominican Republic. This way, any prospects from there that sign a MLB contract will owe him 10%. He’s just a bidness man!
Selig will be 80 in July. He’s done well during his tenure, but I think it’s about time that he retires. It becomes harder and harder to properly run a multi-billion dollar organization as you age into your 80s.
“It becomes harder and harder to properly run a multi-billion dollar organization as you age into your 80s.” <– because you have run a multi-billion dollar organization, or aged into your 80's?
Have you experienced firsthand everything you’ve ever inferred or claimed?
Make no mistake, the Red Sox do spend money. Much more money than most of the teams in baseball. But I think the point is the Red Sox spend in a way very different from the Yankees. Shorter deals for the most part. The Red Sox only owe 1 player more than 32M going forward, meanwhile the Yankees owe 7 players 45M or more going forward. (that one player being Pedroia for the Red Sox)
not saying that there’s anything wrong with either philosophy
In all fairness the only reason that is the case is because LA took on Agon and Crawford…. up until last off season the Red Sox spent like the Yankees and looked to have quite a few bad contracts they would have to live with… LA gave them a mulligan
Cherington and Theo are very different GMs. There has been a noticeable change in philosophy since Theo left to Chicago.
Yes but the Sox still were pretty good about staying under the luxury tax. They also focused more on player development while the Yankees focused more on free agency.
Please don’t do it Lucchino. Please just let Bud leave. We’re so close to a Budless baseball, don’t get my hopes up just to smash them into smithereens. Please.
Yeah, because Bud’s been so bad for the game. Record revenues. New ballparks. Revenue sharing!!! The wild-card. Realignment. All horrible, horrible failures.
Get a clue, son.
The Brewers have a statue of Selig in their park…
He turned a blind eye to steroids and did nothing about the obvious blackballing of Barry Bonds, among other things. I’m ready for a 21st century commissioner.
So did he turn a blind eye or “blackball” a steroid user? Seems a little contradictory.
And to lay the steroid users on his lap is laughable. Ever hear of the Don Fehr?
One might even argue Bud saved the game after the ’94 strike.
HE hasnt been perfect by any means, he contributed to the steroid area as did others like Fehr, Reporters who are now keeping the players they wrote and made careers off of while they were jucing out of the hall, and other owners. He has been commissioner over the longest stretch of labor peace though, and has been active in bringing the league to the 21st century with insant replay and other things. Hes had some misses for sure and he hasnt been “great” but I would say he is the best active commissioner in sports, so he is above average.
god, the red sox for 1 year don’t sign any long term deals and all of a sudden they’re not a team that does that anymore….can’t wait to see Lester’s ext which i can pretty much guarantee will be more than 3 years.
Sox offered Ells more than 3 years this offseason too, NYY just happened to offer more.
It will be and I don’t see anyone complaining about the Pedroia 8y deal so far either? If it’s not a massive overpay, people generally don’t complain.
If the Red Sox are smart they will extend him for what he’s worth (which would probably be 5 or so years).
And if they’re lucky Lester may take a friendly discount to stay with them too. But I guess we’ll see.
The article says “long term deals on Free Agents”. Not extensions.
its still a contract!
Red Sox extended Pedroia, hopefully will extend Lester, too. Out of loyalty. How’s that Cano extension working out? Gardner?
Yeah, out of loyalty! lmao! It wasn’t b/c Pedroia was the 2nd best 2B in baseball and was offered a huge deal. And Cano’s ext worked out great, they got MVP years out of him for a lot less than 24M a year and he hit free agency later.
Pedroia gave a severe discount, out of loyalty, not the other way around. Cano asked for 300 million and settled on 240. I’d say in both cases, the teams made the right decisions.
Much less risk extending a guy that you’ve already seen perform on the ball club. Free agents have to make adjustments coming to a new place, too many dont pan out.
When will you learn from the experts like Croagnut. It doesnt matter the Red Sox have a history of signing top free agents and have a top 5 payroll, it only matters that the Yankees just gave out a Crawford sized extension, therefore they are 2 completely and totally different animals! Its like comparing a mouse to an ape!!!!!!!!
This is just another feable attempt by Red Sox nation to say “nuh uh we are different” See that is why I find Yankees fans more tolerable. They say “yea we spend money so what?” Same with the dodgers. The Red Sox are the “nuh uh we dont spend we are different!!”
nobody ever said we dont spend money. we are in a big market with a lot of revenue, trying to compete. similar to teams like the dodgers, tigers, phillies, and mets of years past. the point is, the yankees are on a whole other level than anyone else.
Think the only comments Yankees fans got is to just exaggerate everything. You have “nuh uh we dont spend we are different!!” in quotes. Wheres that coming from, besides the voices in your head?
Lucchino is just tired of being put in the same sentence with the Yankees, every time someone talks about big spenders. Especially now, after ‘Spendfest ’14’.
“Red Sox finish last and spent 89mil after ’12 on FAs, Yankees finished in fourth and spent 491mil after ’13 on FAs.” You cherry picked numbers to insinuate that you dont spend when clearly you do. Taken as a whole you do.
Where’s the “cherry picked numbers”? I’ve given 4 year average, 14 year average, and compared Red Sox after ’12 and Yankees after ’13. BECAUSE, they are similar seasons: they both finished poorly and both had to do drastic rebuilds. Red Sox idea of drastic rebuild is 89mil, Yankees is 491mil.
Want to compare after ’13 to after ’13, fine with me. Or combine ’12 and ’13 would be okay. Where’s the cherry picking?
Also, the point has never been that Red Sox don’t spend money. They do. They just shouldn’t be put in the same breathe as Yankees, anymore. Read the original article again, see Lucchino’s quotes again.
Or you can say when the Yankees spend a quarter of a billion they win a WS and when the Red Sox do it they have the largest collapse in major league history and end up unloading players and spreading slamming articles about a top 3 manager in the game.
So your point is “hey hey we spend a lot but umm they usually spend more in the offseason so hey we are totally different despite the numerous other similiarities”.
…..Alright then!
BTW you brought up all those stats in something not related to me, I saw it after the fact. Point stays the same though
So let me get this straight, both spend gobs upon gobs of money but because the Red Sox have shorter deals on FA that means they are different animals? Are you kidding me? I mean honestly both teams are exactly the same. They both have owners who will spend tons of money to win and will give big FA deals, both get a combined 75% of the coverage on ESPN, and both have insufferable fanbases. I tried to convince myself for years that the Red Sox were different, but I then realized I was just blind to the obvious.
Define “gobs and gobs of money”. Red Sox finish last and spent 89mil after ’12 on FAs, Yankees finished in fourth and spent 491mil after ’13 on FAs.
big money is big money, they both still spend more than most MLB teams
Right, Red Sox spent big money (89 million) last year on FAs, to improve after a disastrous season. Yankees spent 500% more than that this year, under similar circumstances.
one year doesn’t change the history and track-record these teams both have. it’s going to take years of success from the red sox and their new found “strategy” in order to seperate themselves from teams like the yankees.
Dont cherrypick. 150 mil is a lot of money and the difference of 20 mill when you factor in the yankees dont have to pay A Rod isnt that big of a difference. If you dontt hink 150 mil is a lot, then fine whatever.
What was 150mil?
The Red Sox payroll?
Are you talking payroll for 14? Red Sox at 152.7 and Yankees at 195.2. What math gives you a 20mil difference?
….Seriously dude? I said setting aside A Rods contract because he is suspended and they dont ahve to pay him that is 20 mil ish right there. I prefaced that 20 mil difference with that. Now if that is not the case and they are paying him and he is suspended then clearly I am not going to stick to that.
“Seriously dude?” I use Spotrac for accurate team payrolls. You don’t think they know how to subtract ARods salary out? 195.2 DOES NOT include ARod. (Well actually they have him listed as 3.8mil for some reason. I’m assuming its his pro-rated bonus.)
Does anyone in NY know how payrolls or even math works besides throwing out phrases like “gobs and gobs of money” or “big money is big money” or even “seriously dude”?
Alright then 40 mill. Like I said I said I was setting aside his contract and thought that was excluded. But regardless both are still in top 5 for payroll and the red sox will climb once they extend lester. But like I said if you dont consider 150 mil to be gobs of money then fine whatever. Point is Red Sox gave out a contract as big as ellsbury’s just about to Crawford and were constantly in on big name free agents. To say the teams are completely different animals is absurd.
“both are still in the top for payroll” Red Sox are actually in 5th right now. (Dodgers, NYY, Phil, Det, Bos). Only 6mil ahead of LAA and 8mil ahead of SF. But what the heck, why start being accurate now.
Even if they were second. Being only at 75% of the yankees payroll tells you all you need.
So spending 150 mil isnt a large amount? Yea okay. Also everyone else is ignoring the other similarities.
of course its a lot of money, just like the payroll of 90% of the other contenders in baseball. Money buys talent, talent brings success. its an inexact formula obviously, but everyone knows its hard to win if you arent willing to spend. The point is that the yankees have ALWAYS been the leader in free agency and big contracts. For a while red sox tried to compete with them but they recently realized that it isnt a good business method to sink money into these albatross contracts for decades at a time. Yankees havent come to that conclusion yet, and fine by me.
Yes. Everything you said is true. However that does not make them completley different animals. They have both spent a ton of money, yea the yankees more recently but what 2 years ago the Red Sox spent more on FA and extentions and 2 years before that the Yankees spent way more. THey go in circles, both play in huge markets, both have rabid fanbases, both get national coverage, and both are consistently players on the FA market and at the top of the division. That is enough in common to make them not 2 completely different animals as Larry said.
I said top 5…..woowowowowowowowow. But like I said 150 mil is still a ton to spend on a team, you guys are in the top 5 and will move up next year. Boston has consistently been in the top 5. That is spending a ton of money in comparison to the rest of the league
You did an edit. Where’d the misspelled “for” go? Typical Yankee fan. Can’t even own up to mistake.
I am not a yankees fan, I am a Tigers fan. A team that in recent years has been in the same ballpark as the Red Sox and Yankees for spending. See. I can admit that. And dude I seriously edited that 10 seconds after I posted and realized my typing error. You must have been sitting right at your computer waiting for me to post to have seen it when it said “top” as that grammatically makes very little sense.
It said “top for”, Why would I comment about “top”? Seriously, whatever.
Again you are dodging the issues. I mean honestly the issue is the word top for christ sakes. Why would I say 2 teams are top for spending? That makes no sense grammatically. But alright the Red Sox are the new moneyball.
Sorry, if I wasnt clear I meant you are focusing too much on top. not that it is the main issue.
It makes total sense if you can’t spell ‘four’, or if auto-correct took over.
Like I said you are dodging the issues, at least coreno is making legitimate points.
Well, Randy Levine just responded to this according to Feinsand and said “I feel bad for Larry; he constantly sees ghosts and is spooked by the
Yankees. But I can understand why, because under his and Bobby
Valentine’s plan two years ago, the Red Sox were in last place. Ben
Cherington and the Red Sox did a great job last year winning the World
Series, but I’m confident Cash and Joe and our players will compete with
a great Red Sox team to win a world championship this year.”
lol
Sox are more or less the same sort of team as NY but with better farm success going on the past 14 years. Our payrolls are very similar, both can make the big splash, both have recent titles. Both have utilized money and scouting to build consistent contenders. But one shaves and the other champions the Swansonesque male dominance of facial hair. We each have our quirks but are more or less the same.
Yankees have spent 710 million more than Red Sox over past 14 years, and its trending wider. Not “very similar”. Red Sox are much closer to the Detroits and the Phillies of the world than the Yankees.
How about over the past four years?
Last 4 years ’10-13; Yank 836 mil, Red Sox 656.4 mil.
A Difference of 179.6 mil (44.9mil per season)
Looking Forward, ’14 and beyond: Yank committed 677.5* mil, Red Sox committed 274.9 mil.
A Difference of 402.6 mil
*Doesn’t include Luxury Taxes or Posting Fee.
Thank you. I think the 44.9 per season is the most accurate portrayal and it kind of makes sense when considering the respective markets. The Sox outspending the Yankees wouldn’t coincide with their worth or revenue. Looking forward is a bit silly considering every single contract the Yankees signed in this offseason is added to that while the Red Sox are now two years removed from fleecing almost all of their long-term deals.
Dont you have to go watch baseball tonight or something? The Yankees spend more. But its the numerous other similiraties along with the vicinity in spending that makes them one in the same.
Short and convenient memory. Where would Mr. Luccino be but for his friend Bud Selig forcing the sale of the Dodgers to a group with infinite cash to take all those bad contracts off his hands? Has it been so long? The Red Sox have done an excellent job with the farm system, but to reinvent history as the type of clever Tampa-limited resources adaptable team is too much. I don’t know why Luccino feels the need to strut around–his team won the World Series last year–that should be credit enough.
When did he compare us to Tampa? Why is that where your mind goes when you hear different from the Yankees? Our team spends money and our fans pay to go to games, aside from a great farm (Tampa used to have one) we are nothing like Tampa.
My point was that Luccino’s purported brilliance was enabled by the Dodgers massive blunder. Otherwise he would have been saddled with all those long term contracts that he criticizes the Yankees for having. And, presumably, “cringing.”
Do not giv Ortiz an extension his numbers will start to fall soon
Mr. Selig, embrace all that makes baseball wonderful. Return the game to the fans so they can afford to pass the legacy to the next generation. Enact progressive
measures that safeguard the game for posterity. Steer the game clear of the NFL model….and we’re all good
Red Sox fans think they are different from the Yankees simply because the contracts they sign tend to be a degree more reasonable than the insanity the Yankees and Dodgers display. But if you’re a small market team, what does it matter if your player is taken by a deal that is reasonable, generous or insane? If you can’t compete you can’t compete. Burnett is a perfect example. The Pirates simply couldn’t afford to pay him what a team like Philadelphia could step in and offer without too much of a second thought. And this after Burnett purposefully narrowed his options to local teams! The Red Sox may not spend as dramatically as the Yankees, but they also haven’t won a World Series with a team outside the top five in payroll. If you ask either fanbase if they’d support a hard salary cap you’re likely to get the same answer.