Questions we need to ask about contraction:

A) Why did baseball expand in 1998? Why should any city ever pay an expansion fee again?

B) Why can't teams in struggling markets simply relocate (like the Seattle Pilots, bought by some Selig guy and moved to Milwaukee)? There hasn't been a franchise shift in over 30 years, are we really to believe that markets that could/couldn't support baseball 30 years ago have gone unchanged? Basketball just shifted the Grizzlies, the NFL and NHL move teams just about every year, why does baseball have to contract rather than just re-locate?

C) How does this really change the competitive imbalance of baseball? How does the 28th lowest payroll in baseball in 2002 increase its chances of winning the World Series simply by getting rid of #29 and #30? Contraction alone will not keep the Yankees from being able to outspend the other teams.

D) Where is the $250M coming from to buy out the Twins? If the money exists to do that, then why not solve the Minnesota problem by using it to build them a new stadium?

E) If this is really about cutting non-competitive, non-supported teams, then why are the Twins mentioned? They were in contention for most of the summer, drew more fans than the Chicago White Sox, have drawn 3 million fans in the past, and have two world titles in the past 15 years.

F) Who are the two teams that are being cut anyway? How do you justify all thirty teams taking season ticket money if two of them are gone?

G) How much will this improve the product? Take two teams and disperse them across the remainder of the league, and that sends the last guy on the bench and the last pitcher in the bullpen back into the minors. Would you really notice that?

H) And what about the minors? What are the people in the cities of farm teams of the contracted teams going to do? It's not like baseball is going to keep around a few extra farm teams for the heck of it.

I) True or False - If we were talking about this ten years ago, the top prospects for contraction would have been Cleveland and Seattle.