The annual Forbes business of baseball section is online. The Yankees are now worth $1.6 billion, keeping them the most valuable franchise. The next closest team is the Boston Red Sox at $870 million. Given that Steinbrenner’s group bought the Yankees for $20 million, he made a pretty good investment. The Yankees do have a high amount of debt, but that’s due to their using the equity in the club to keep improving it, for example, by building a new stadium.

The Marlins showed the biggest positive percentage change in value, while the Oakland Athletics were the most negative. That should allow Florida to start spending more money, and we’ve already seen some of that with the signing of Uggla.