Off-topic post: How dare you call us profitable!

First a little background for those who don't follow Major League Baseball (why don't you?): The Houston Astros are bad...really bad.  The team is in the supposed process of rebuilding after moving to the American League from the National League this year.  They are currently 31.5 games out of first place. That means they would have to win 31.5 more games than the first place team in order to catch them--and they would have to pass the other 3 teams in front of them.  With only 32 games left in their season, that seems, shall I say, unlikely.  How have they accomplished the feat of incomeptence.  Easy, they cut costs.  Running a baseball team as a cost-minimizer will lead to bad baseball.  But, on the bright side, Forbes is claiming that the Astros are on pace to have one of the most profitable seasons in baseball history.

Before we delve into how things have been absolutely awful, let's concentrate on the peculiar manner in which the Astros have been extremely successful. According to Dan Alexander of Forbes, the franchise is the most profitable in MLB history.

We probably should have made sure you were sitting before that last sentence:

The Astros are on pace to rake in an estimated $99 million in operating income this season. That is nearly as much as the estimated operating income of the previous six World Series championship teams — combined.

The reason is quite simple: Owner Jim Crane has reduced cost dramatically as the club tries to rebuild and move forward in the American League.

via bleacherreport.com

But the Astros are taking exception:

We are very disappointed that, earlier today, Forbes released an article that includes significant inaccuracies relating to the Astros' finances. The Astros do not disclose financial information. However, as MLB will confirm, the information reported in the Forbes article relating to the Astros' revenues, the Astros media rights fee from CSN Houston, and CSN Houston's per subscriber rate are all significantly inaccurate. As a result, the conclusion about the Astros operational profit is significantly inaccurate.

How dare you call us profitable! 

Apparently it's better to suck on and off the field.