Initial non-farm payrolls expectations of 200,000-210,000 have been pared back after both the ADP employment report and jobless claims failed to meet forecasts.
Budget concerns were never a question with the Yankees, although the payroll carried expectations that sometimes seemed suffocating.
Friday's jobs report revealed U.S. unemployment fell to a nine-year low of 4.6% after the economy added 178,000 non-farm payrolls (versus expectations for 180,000).
The Marlins are expected to hire a new manager for next season, when they will move into a new ballpark with an increased player payroll and higher expectations.
The Tigers are in a tougher position, though, feeling the urgency that comes with their big payroll and high expectations, Bob Wojnowski writes in The Detroit News, and trying to write a different ending than the World Series flop in 2006, Mitch Albom writes in The Detroit Free Press.
They have won nothing, proven nothing, and with the highest payroll in baseball, expectations are high.
Because of Portland's payroll and the great expectations of the Blazers' fans, Coach Mike Dunleavy is probably under as much pressure as anyone to perform immediately.
"The payroll number was below expectations, but it's still the fourth consecutive month of job growth," said Brian Slater, who helps manage $500 million at Condor Capital Management in Martinsville, N.J. "The trend is that companies are hiring new workers".
While that decrease actually reflected the more ominous trend of unemployed workers dropping out of the labor force, the headline decline in the unemployment rate and payroll job losses raised expectations that the economy was turning around.
Still, the headline numbers were far better than market expectations for payroll growth of about 155,000 jobs and an unemployment rate of 8.5percentt.
