Royals Review, a Kansas City Royals community

This is an old article by Jonah Keri on GM's. I was trying to figure out why front loading a contract is such a no no in the MLB. The responses i got (no real heavy digging) were this article and a quip of "you win and its no problem, you lose and get fired and it's someone elses problem. This article could serve as a warning for GMDM on the dangers of an Edwin Jackson.

"It's not talked about much, but ballplayers' salary increases have not kept up with owners' revenue increases. The past two seasons, salaries have held steady between 40 and 45 percent of the game's revenue. By comparison, the NFL -- often held as the shining example of how to keep salaries in check -- paid out around 62 percent in 2008. As my friend Jeff Passan pointed out last offseason, when Bud Selig became commissioner in 1992 payrolls accounted for 52 percent of revenues. In 2001, they spiked to 56 percent. So if anything, the players -- as a group -- have a case that they are now underpaid, when taken in the context of record revenue season after record revenue season." Very good (and diplomatically worded) article by Mellinger.

just a little tool to compare team salary vs. record. you can add 2005/, 2006/, etc. to get past years. was posted on NYT freakonomics blog today.