Astros Owner Jim Crane yesterday said that his spending habits since buying the team in '11 "have followed the path he said they would: frugality and steady increases," according to Evan Drellich of the HOUSTON CHRONICLE. The Astros will have an Opening Day payroll around $94M, which would be the "second largest in the team's history." Crane said, "We've got an ownership group that's very supportive. We run kind of a break-even budget. ... We're always flexible in moving a little bit more forward." He added, "We told you when you bought the team, as the team improved, we'd continue to spend the money in the right places and spend it in a frugal way." With the current CBA ending Dec. 1, Crane indicated that he believes the revenue sharing system "likely needs some alterations." Crane: "The guys that pay don't want to pay it and the guys who receive it want more. So we're kind of right in the middle, we don't get much of anything so we've just got to earn every nickel we make. You know it's a decent system, it probably needs some tweaking. I think there'll be some give and take (with the CBA)" (HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 2/24).
