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REVS and COST: Breaking down the 30 MLB teams by total revenue

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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.

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