In New York City a quarter of a century ago, in a time of unbridled crepuscular adornments of walls both stationary and moving, no graffiti were more prevalent than those of REVS and COST, conjoined twins of tagging, whose monikers were splayed in head-high block letters rollered onto buildings from the Battery to the Bronx. The pair seemed well on the way to marking their presence on all of Manhattan's 60,000 buildings until the long arm of the law snatched COST off the rooftops and into the courts. Found guilty as charged, his sentence of 200 hours of community service (which was defined by the judge specifically as graffiti removal) proved an effective deterrent, as it was fifteen years before another freshly applied COST was seen on public property in New York City. (REVS, it should be noted, has remained at large and active, though when the heat got turned up in the 1990s he found refuge for a time in Alaska.)
In baseball, revs and cost are equally ubiquitous, and many fans would like to see the whole thing scrubbed away. Wish I could oblige, but with a new CBA about to be negotiated, not only can we not unblot our escutcheons, we must scrutinize them all the more. I've gone back through the past seven years of the annual 'Business of Baseball' compilations that Forbes publishes before the beginning of each season. The economic data thus applies to the seven seasons from 2008 through 2014, while the wins and losses are from the seven seasons from 2009 through 2015; there's a one-year stratigraphic skew, but the fundamental geology is, I'd wager, not significantly changed.
Instead of breaking the thirty franchises into groupings determined by market size or by payroll, let's look at them by total team revenues (in millions of dollars). Here are the nine high-rollers:
Team | Average Revenues | Wins | Losses | Pct. | Winning seasons | Postseasons | Pct. | Postseason Series Record | Pct. | Postseason Wins | Postseason Losses | Pct. | WS Champs | Average Player Expenses | Pct. of Revenues |
NYY | 465 | 646 | 488 | .570 | 7-0 | 5-2 | .714 | 5-4 | .556 | 21 | 18 | .538 | 1 | 234 | .482 |
BOS | 326 | 589 | 545 | .519 | 4-3 | 2-5 | .286 | 3-1 | .750 | 11 | 8 | .579 | 1 | 178 | .546 |
LAD | 295 | 621 | 512 | .548 | 6-1 | 4-3 | .571 | 2-4 | .333 | 12 | 15 | .444 | 0 | 165 | .559 |
SF | 288 | 608 | 526 | .536 | 6-1 | 3-4 | .429 | 10-0 | 1.000 | 34 | 14 | .708 | 3 | 134 | .465 |
CHC | 273 | 526 | 607 | .464 | 2-5 | 1-6 | .143 | 2-1 | .667 | 4 | 5 | .444 | 0 | 141 | .516 |
PHI | 256 | 582 | 552 | .513 | 3-3-1 | 3-4 | .429 | 3-3 | .500 | 16 | 13 | .552 | 0 | 166 | .648 |
LAA | 252 | 613 | 521 | .541 | 5-2 | 2-5 | .286 | 1-2 | .333 | 5 | 7 | .417 | 0 | 150 | .595 |
STL | 249 | 642 | 492 | .566 | 7-0 | 6-1 | .857 | 8-2 | .615 | 32 | 32 | .500 | 1 | 109 | .438 |
NYM | 246 | 543 | 591 | .479 | 1-6 | 1-6 | .143 | 2-1 | .667 | 8 | 6 | .571 | 0 | 134 | .545 |
Total | 2,650 | 5370 | 4834 | .526 | 41-21-1 | 27-36 | .429 | 36-21 | .632 | 143 | 118 | .548 | 6 | 1,411 | .532 |
Those gaudy numbers should improve as the Epstein/Maddon Regime continues to transform the Cubs. The Mets are still making enormous interest payments on the loans the Wilpons took out on the team after they watched $400 million swirl down the Madoff Ponzi toilet, but they might now be coming out of that funk. Those average revenues disguise the fact that the Dodgers and Giants have nearly doubled their intake over the span of these seven years. The rich always get richer, of course.
Here are the six upper-middle-class teams.
Team | Average Revenues | Wins | Losses | Pct. | Winning Seasons | Postseasons. | Pct. | Postseason Series Record | Pct. | Postseason Wins | Postseason Losses | Pct. | WS Champs | Average Player Expenses | Pct. of Revenues |
TEX | 235 | 612 | 523 | .539 | 6-1 | 4-3 | .571 | 4-4 | .500 | 20 | 19 | .513 | 0 | 125 | .532 |
WAS | 232 | 571 | 562 | .504 | 4-3 | 2-5 | .286 | 0-2 | .000 | 3 | 6 | .333 | 0 | 104 | .448 |
DET | 229 | 607 | 525 | .535 | 5-1-1 | 4-3 | .571 | 4-4 | .500 | 17 | 21 | .447 | 0 | 152 | .664 |
ATL | 229 | 602 | 532 | .531 | 5-2 | 3-4 | .429 | 0-3 | .000 | 2 | 7 | .222 | 0 | 108 | .472 |
SEA | 219 | 522 | 612 | .460 | 2-5 | 0-7 | .000 | 0 | 115 | .525 | |||||
CHW | 214 | 543 | 591 | .479 | 2-5 | 0-7 | .000 | 0 | 122 | .570 | |||||
Total | 1,358 | 3457 | 3345 | .508 | 24-17-1 | 13-29 | .310 | 8-13 | .381 | 42 | 53 | .442 | 0 | 726 | .535 |
A distinct step down from the one percenters, but there were three World Series appearances among these franchises, and only some David Freese heroics kept this group from hoisting a trophy. Next are the six lower middle-class teams.
Team | Average Revenues | Wins | Losses | Pct. | Winning Seasons | Postseasons | Pct. | Postseason Series Record | Pct. | Postseason Wins | Postseason Losses | Pct. | WS Champs | Average Player Expenses | Pct. of Revenues |
MIN | 210 | 529 | 606 | .466 | 3-4 | 2-5 | .286 | 0-2 | .000 | 0 | 6 | .000 | 0 | 103 | .490 |
BAL | 203 | 554 | 580 | .489 | 3-3-1 | 2-5 | .286 | 2-2 | .500 | 5 | 8 | .385 | 0 | 102 | .502 |
MIL | 199 | 560 | 574 | .494 | 3-4 | 1-6 | .143 | 1-1 | .500 | 5 | 6 | .455 | 0 | 107 | .538 |
CIN | 199 | 575 | 559 | .507 | 3-4 | 3-4 | .429 | 0-3 | .000 | 2 | 7 | .222 | 0 | 103 | .518 |
TOR | 199 | 564 | 570 | .497 | 3-3-1 | 1-6 | .143 | 1-1 | .500 | 5 | 6 | .455 | 0 | 115 | .578 |
COL | 198 | 520 | 614 | .459 | 2-5 | 1-6 | .143 | 0-1 | .000 | 1 | 3 | .250 | 0 | 98 | .495 |
Total | 1,208 | 3302 | 3503 | .485 | 17-23-2 | 10-32 | .238 | 4-10 | .286 | 18 | 36 | .333 | 0 | 628 | .520 |
The steady decline continues apace. In common with all of us at LGT, these teams' participation in the Fall Classic was exclusively through the miracle of television.
The poor will always be with us, sayeth the Lord, and nobody knows that better than an Indians fan. Here are the downtrodden nonet, either oppressed masses or lazy welfare cheats, depending on your inclinations.
Team | Average Revenues | Wins | Losses | Pct. | Winning Seasons | Postseasons | Pct. | Postseason Series Record | Pct. | Postseason Wins | Postseason Losses | Pct. | WS Champs | Average Player Expenses | Pct. of Revenues |
AZ | 193 | 534 | 600 | .471 | 1-4-2 | 1-6 | .143 | 0-1 | .000 | 2 | 3 | .400 | 0 | 105 | .544 |
SD | 189 | 539 | 595 | .475 | 1-6 | 0-7 | .000 | 0 | 76 | .402 | |||||
HOU | 188 | 468 | 666 | .413 | 1-6 | 1-6 | .143 | 1-1 | .500 | 3 | 3 | .500 | 0 | 90 | .479 |
PIT | 188 | 550 | 583 | .485 | 3-4 | 3-4 | .429 | 1-3 | .250 | 3 | 5 | .375 | 0 | 74 | .394 |
CLE | 187 | 540 | 593 | .477 | 3-4 | 1-6 | .143 | 0-1 | .000 | 0 | 1 | .000 | 0 | 88 | .471 |
KC | 184 | 545 | 589 | .481 | 3-4 | 2-5 | .286 | 6-1 | .857 | 22 | 7 | .759 | 1 | 91 | .495 |
OAK | 177 | 576 | 558 | .508 | 3-3-1 | 3-4 | .429 | 0-3 | .000 | 4 | 7 | .364 | 0 | 81 | .458 |
TB | 172 | 610 | 525 | .537 | 5-2 | 3-4 | .429 | 1-3 | .250 | 5 | 9 | .357 | 0 | 79 | .459 |
MIA | 169 | 518 | 616 | .457 | 1-6 | 0-7 | .000 | 0 | 67 | .396 | |||||
Total | 1,647 | 4880 | 5325 | .478 | 21-39-3 | 14-49 | .222 | 9-13 | .409 | 39 | 35 | .527 | 1 | 751 | .456 |
Our lads are smack dab in the middle in revenue and winning percentage (losing percentage?) among the abject poor, alas. Some of the successes seen here are the result of teams benefitting from high draft picks over multiple seasons of catastrophic failure—Pittsburgh and Tampa, certainly. Some of them are just plain inexplicable, like KC's performance over the last two postseasons. But there is no great endorsement here of a surplus of front office wisdom in The Greatest Location in the Nation, i.e. Cleveland, and every indication that our brain trust has been unable to break free of the form-fitting economic straitjacket the baseball oligarchs so thoughtfully provide. Still, we have seen three straight winning seasons, even if only by the skin of our teeth, and there is more talent in the pipeline now than at any time this century. Let us hope those tyros earning raves in the hinterlands join Young Lindor as Major League terrors, and soon.
As to the next CBA, I expect absolutely no alms for the poor from either ownership or players. Too much of baseball's annual revenues—soon to top $10 billion—depends on Goliaths like the Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers and Cubs driving those television ratings, and the poor franchises can't begin to satisfy the salary demands of a union intent on retaining its share of the pie, a share that has been dwindling. As to the inevitable protestations that the periodic successes of teams like the Yost Royals prove that the system isn't rigged, I simply offer the evidence you see in these tables, as you scan them from Parnassus down to Podunk.