The business of Major League Baseball

	MLB Stories
	Joe Mauer gets 4th biggest contract in MLB history This was a move the Minnesota Twins had to make, not only is Joe Mauer one of the best players on the Twins roster, he is a home town kid they need to help fill their brand new ball park. Finally the Twins have given up their small market mentality, and made a strong move to insure the success of their team in future seasons.
	How does baseball arbitration work? It is that time of year, when baseball teams, and players cannot come to an agreement on new contracts, than a third party has to become involved. In baseball this is known as arbitration, and we are going to take a look at how it works.
	Florida Marlins forced to increase their payroll It seems that the MLB players union has filed several grievances with the MLB about the way in which the Florida Marlins have managed their payroll, most notably the money they get under the revenue sharing provisions.
	Milwaukee Brewers bad contracts, limit their ability to add pieces Doug Melvin, General Manger of the Milwaukee Brewers, has a problem on his hands. He needs to an arm or two to his starting rotation, but with about 80 million dollar payroll, ownership is unwilling to pay out more. On top of that nearly a quarter of the Brewer payroll is tied up in two players, one of whom is no longer on their roster.
	Mariners continue to add pieces, trade for Bradley The Seattle Mariners seem to be involved in every big deal of this off season. They have added a ton of talent to a team that won 85 games in 2009. On top of trading for Cliff Lee, signing Chone Figgins, they have now traded for Chicago Cubs OF Milton Bradley.
	Are the Yankees and the Red Sox ruining baseball? Each and every off season we sit back, and watch the New York Yankees, and the Boston Red Sox compete in their annual arms race, and every high price free agent looks to cash in with one of these two teams. Since Major League Baseball has no salary cap, these two teams often wind up with the best players since they can afford to pay them more
	MLB looking to play games in Puerto Rico According to the Sporting News and New York’s Daily News, Major League Baseball is in serious negotiations with a promoter in Puerto Rico about the possibility of playing some regular season games there as early as the 2010 season.
	The cost of winning: 2009 American League edition A look at what American Leage team spent to win in 2009
	The cost of winning: 2009 National League edition A look at what National League teams spent to win in 2009
	Who makes what from the MLB playoffs Now that the MLB post season is here, the teams who made it and their players get to share revenue from one big pot. According to the MLB collecting Bargaining Agreement an annual revenue pool is the pay for players and teams appearing in the post season.
	MLB teams use concerts to add revenue What should one do with a 40,000 seat venue, which may sit empty for half the summer. The answer seems kind of obvious, and MLB teams this summer used their venues to hold summer concerts to help pad their revenue streams. Thanks to a couple of big name concerts held in MLB ball parks a few MLB teams made a ton of dough from holding music concerts.
	What is a 40 man roster? This time of year we hear the media and General Managers from all 30 MLB teams use a lot of different terms. One of those terms is the 40 man roster, so naturally a lot of us not in the know are left wondering what that means exactly.
	Baseball not likely to return to the Olympics The International Olympic Committee recently turned down an attempt to have baseball return to the Olympic Games in 2016. It doesn’t look likely that it will rerun in 2020 either, and in this case it all comes down to TV money.
	What does designated for assignment mean? Since all MLB contracts are guaranteed, the DOA rule is one of the only ways a MLB franchise has available to get rid of contracts of players who are not exactly working out.
	What is going on with the Mets? The Mets are struggling in the first season in their new home Citi Field. They currently sit fifth in their division 9.5 games behind the Phillies despite having the second highest MLB payroll and six of the top 50 players in the league according to The Sporting News.
	What are the New York Mets Worth? The New York Mets were added to the National League as an expansion franchise in 1962. Their addition was a response to two different baseball issues, the exodus of the Giants and Dodgers from New York and the formation of a third baseball league, the Continental League.
	Who were the Seattle Pilots? The Seattle Pilots were an American League MLB franchise that played only one year, 1969, before they were forced to file for bankruptcy and be bailed out by then Milwaukee, Wisconsin car dealer Bud Selig. The team left Seattle in the spring of 1970 to become the Milwaukee Brewers.
	Is going to an MLB game too expensive? A new poll conducted by AP/Knowledge Networks has listed the top problems with Major League Baseball according to its fans. The Poll was conducted from June 26th to July 5th of this year and asked 655 adult fans who said they had an interest in the MLB.
	Yet another twist in the sale of Cubs Another potential complication to the Ricketts family final purchase of the Chicago Cubs has arisen. According to IRN News the Chicago Tribune Company, who bought the Cubs in 1981 for 21 million dollars, may have to take the team into bankruptcy to clear the Tribune company of any future debts related to its ownership of the team.
	Best Owners in Sports: 2009 MLB edition Sports Illustrated recently published its annual list of the best owners in sport broken down by sports. While it is fairly easy to determine best and worst sports owners in the other sports, and the worst MLB owners re fairly easy to call out, determining the best MLB owners is actually kind of hard
	Chicago Cubs sale, not exactly completed The exclusive negotiating period between the Chicago Tribune company and the Ricketts family expired last week. While the two sides continue to try and reach a deal the Tribune company is free to back out of the deal and solicit new offers for the Chicago Cubs.
	MLB ratings steady so far in 2009 Through the first two months of the 2009 baseball season MLB is not seeing a big increase in their TV numbers, the good news here is there has not been a significant decline.
	Worst owners in sports: 2009 MLB edition There is no doubt that baseball has a special place in the sports fan’s heart. Along with that comes a healthy admiration for the baseball owner. It is really too bad that compared with the other major sports leagues baseball may have the biggest collection of bad sports owners.
	MLB attendance woes So far in 2009 MLB attendance is down 4.9% versus 2008. While that is not a huge number, it would represent the biggest year to year decline in MLB attendance over the last seven years. More disturbing than all of that is the nine clubs whose attendance has fallen by double digits so far in 2009.
	Should the Boston Red Sox buy the Boston Globe? This is kind of an odd story from a couple of different angles. First and foremost the New York Times owns a 17.75 stake in the Boston Red Sox. The Times also happen to own the Boston Globe. For some reason John Henry, principal owner of the Fenway Sports Group, who owns the Sox, appears pretty desperate to buy back the Times company stake in his baseball team. So desperate that he has told the times that he would purchase the Boston Globe as part of the deal to get that 17.75% of the Red Sox back.
	Could Nolan Ryan buy a stake in the Rangers? Tom Hicks, owner of the Texas Rangers along with the Dallas Stars and part owner of Liverpool FC, is looking for investors in his struggling baseball franchise.
	Yankees incur big debt for new stadium The New York Yankees are defying the downturn in the economy first by building a premier new stadium, and then by incurring a huge debt load for the stadium’s construction. In fact the Yankees organization will have a total debt of 1.3 billion once their new stadium opens next month.
	2009 WBC builds a bigger audience Compared to the 2006 World Baseball Classic the 2009 version is doing some very large numbers. What this probably means is love it or hate it the WBC might very well be here to stay.