The amount of money each team receives in income each year is not constant. The net average value of a Major League team is 523 million dollars. But this is the average some teams are higher some are substantially lower. For example the New York Yankees had a value of 1.7 billion dollars. The amount of money that is flowing in the Major League is unheard of especially during the times of recession.

There was only one team that needed help from the MLB headquarters to pay there players that was the Texas Rangers, this is because they struggled with the building of a new stadium and and the low aount of fans at each game. I find it interesting that even during such an economic downturn that teams are still able to have such an income from the fan base. For example the Yanks brought in 325 million from fan revenue.

The pay roll of teams is a huge spectrum starting with the highest the Yanks, with 200 million dollars, and going as low as 55 million with the Padres. Is the game fair?  How is a team that has such a low payroll supposed to compete with a team that has such a high one? A player will most likely always go where theres more money that is just the human nature. How did they do it in the old days with such little money?

The game of baseball has turned from just a game into a multi billion dollar business. The business aspect of baseball has become such a more dominant role in the way the game is played by the players. The players are now property of the team and are dealt like playing cards to other teams usually for an increase in salary. Not only are players dealt around entire baseball teams are capable of being put up for sail for upwards of a billion dollars.

I am not trying to say that in the beginning years of the League that there was not trading of players I just mean that there was more respect for players. For example a player who has been a part of an organization for 10 years is just traded away like nothing during todays game. The level of professionalism has declined over these last couple of years and the game has been tainted by steroids and by controversial actions done by players/coaches.

Recently in the Controversial move by the coach, Ozzie Guillen stated that he "loves Fidel Castro" this offending the famous announcer for the Marlins who escaped from Cuba at a young age. He did not only offend the announcer but the millions of fans who took offense to this statement. Of course the front office of the Marlins forced Ozzie to apologize to the fans, that his comment was not serious and was not appropriate.

A huge change has been made previously to the 2012 baseball season. The addition of a new baseball team into the league. Actually it is just a transfer of names and cities that the team is located. The previous Florida Marlins now referred to as the Miami Marlins are home to a new team. The new stadium is among one of the most technologically advanced stadiums that are in the Major League.

The Major League is composed of 30 teams 29 which are located in the United States and 1 that is located in Canada.  Compared to in 1930 when that Major Leagues consisted of 16 teams. The growth of the sport also triggered a growth in the amount of teams there are as well as the publicity that surrounds the game. The formation of the Florida Marlins was in 1993 and throughout there existence they won 2 World Series titals, them winning was not the issue that they changed there name and location.

Some say that the reason they changed there name was because there stadium was shared with the Miami Dolphins and was not the ideal place to play. But the real reason was becasue the name was under lease by Sun Life Stadium (there old stadium) so when they changed locations to the new feild they had to change the name of there team as well.

Here is a picture of the new stadium.

Opening Day

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNf3nwWyk80&feature=relmfu

I posted a link to a commercial for the 2012 opening day, the excitement that surrounds the day is beyond all other sports. It is the beginning of a 162 game grind to the top. It is where teams will find out how the compete, see how rookies will step up where needed. It is a huge day in the game of baseball the media and sports broadcasters that cover opening day and the first week of baseball.

Still even with the publicity some sports analyses argue that opening day is not what it used to be. This year the first major league game was held in Japan, but after that there was a solid week long period where no games were played and the excitement seemed to kind of build then die then build again.

They amount of talk that surrounds opening day has seemingly not been as high of a topic as past opening days. Maybe it is because of all the other sports still being played and headline news in those sports. For example on my twitter I really did not see to many of my friends tweeting about opening day or about if they are excited.

With the beginning of the season upon us I would like to talk about season predictions using series of calculations to attempt to predict a players success. Technology has had such an advantage on the players who play in this age compared to previous generations. The use of computers to baseball has a huge impact, calculating players pros cons using computer software, creating charts and graphs on where players tend to hit the baseball as well as pitchers habits when they pitch. 

Older players who did not have the access to technology like today did not have the same advantage that players have today. They were not able to get years of scouting reports on hitters/pitchers, they had to just play the game and figure it out on there own with the little amount of outside help they had. Newer equiptment has helped decrease the injury rate as well as the facilities the players play at are unreal. For example the Arizona Diamondbacks have a pool behind the center field wall. 

Or the slide that is mounted at the Milwaukee Brewers Stadium. And the retractable roof.