Fireside Chats #66: Where we celebrate a Happy Arbitration Day with the sizzle of the hot stove

Happy Arbitration Day and welcome back to Fireside Chats. Paul and I had taken a little break as we enjoyed the lull in baseball activity between the "World Series that shall not be remembered" and the official beginning of the active hot stove season, Arbitration Day. But have no fear, we spend an hour rehashing everything from potential trade targets (Adrian Gonzalez & Roy Halladay) to recent departures (Alex Gonzalez) to things that we can't let die (Mark Teixeira) in hopes that we stumble upon at least one strategy that puts the Red Sox back in that "top 1%" again as a World Series contender in 2010. All that and more on this episode of Fireside Chats after the jump.

Financial Darwinism and the Economics of the AL East

The winter months always bring to light the advantages of the rich over the poor in the MLB. Without a doubt, there will, again, be a ring of publications bemoaning the struggles of low-market teams as they fight to compete in their league and division. The American League East division is, in many ways, a microcosm of the entire major leagues - running the gamut of haves and have-nots as hypercompetitive juggernaughts stand side by side with the financial runts of the litter. The state of hypercompetition in the AL East is shocking, if not alarming, in the way that it dominates competitive balance within the division. There is no escaping the trends. Any layperson can make the connection between finances and on-field success. The ‘08 Tampa Bay Devil Rays were the only team this decade to win the division other than Boston or New York. Before then, it was the Orioles in 1997. The Blue Jays were the only team of Tampa, Baltimore, and Toronto to even finish second in the past decade, in 2006. Clearly, there is a competitive balance problem, which is not being helped by the MLB Commish’s office nor the MLBPA. And why not? Sport fans love dynasties and heels – the Red Sox and Yankees fulfill both of these needs – even if they only love to hate them. And the MLB and MLBPA love the ratings, which inflate the sport’s bottom line.