With the signings of C.C. Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Mark Teixeira, The New York Yankees have signed the three biggest contracts of the off-season.

That spending spree is raising concerns about competitive balance in baseball, and Milwaukee Brewers owner Mark Attanasio is none too pleased. In an email to Bloomberg, he wrote that "At the rate the Yankees are going, I'm not sure anyone can compete with them. Frankly, the sport might need a salary cap."

In a phone interview with Bloomberg, he added that "I paid $220 million for my team; now they get three players for $420 million." Brewers assistant general manager Gord Ash had some fighting words for the Yankees: "This is very reminiscent of what they have tried before. It didn't work then, and I'm not sure it's going to work now."

Whether baseball will ever end up with a salary cap is an open question. Under the current system, teams that spend huge sums of money on players are required to pay a "luxury tax" to the league, but that seems to do little to dissuade these signings.

For the sport as a business, a salary cap seems to be the way to go. This arms race hurts profitability for all teams, and it certainly seems to be having a negative impact on team values. According to Forbes, the average National Football League team, which operates under a salary cap with non-guaranteed contracts, is worth $1.04 billion. In baseball, only the Yankees are valued at more than $1 billion, and the league average is just $472 million.

This post is one of several on business heirs apparent. Let us know in the comments whether you think Charlene de Carvalho-Heineken's heir should take up the reigns of Heineken, and be sure to check out the other heir apparent posts.

It was Charlene de Carvalho-Heineken's father, Alfred "Freddie" Heineken, who built the family business from a small Dutch brewer into Europe's largest brewing empire. A well-known bon vivant, he was friendly with the Dutch royal family, and his sense of humor didn't abandon him even after a three-week kidnapping ordeal in 1983: he claimed that his kidnappers tortured him by making him drink Carlsburg.

On Freddie's death in 2003, his heir apparent and only child, Charlene, became the wealthiest woman in the Netherlands, now worth more than $7 billion. She lives a more low-key life in London with her five children and stock broker, and former Olympic skier, husband. She continues to hold the controlling stake in Heineken, though she hasn't been as involved in the company day-to-day as her father was. She told a family biographer that she intends to keep the business together until her heir apparent, her eldest son, is old enough to take on the mantle.