Major League Baseball is narrowing the search for who was behind the leaks of team financial reports that reveal how profitable the Pittsburgh Pirates are despite an 18-year string of losing records, and how much they, the Florida Marlins and the Tampa Bay Rays receive in revenue-sharing from wealthier clubs, according to a baseball executive who was not authorized to speak publicly. The Pirates' financial statements were detailed Sunday by The Associated Press, and the statements of the Marlins, Rays, Seattle Mariners and Los Angeles Angels were posted Monday by Deadspin.com. Major League Baseball officials declined to comment. But David P. Samson, the president of the Marlins, said in a conference call that the release of the documents 'was a breach of fiduciary obligation and duty by the leaking party. It's a crime and it will be followed up intensely by Major League Baseball and its member clubs.' Access to the teams' audited financial statements is usually limited to the commissioner's office; baseball's lead bankers, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase; and two accounting firms, Ernst & Young and PricewaterhouseCoopers. But Samson said that 'in the course of business, other entities have access.' Teams do not see one another's financial reports but receive a general accounting of where they rank compared with the other 29 clubs in profitability. Leaking of team financial reports is a rarity. Few sports teams are publicly owned like the Green Bay Packers, which releases its financial results annually, and are under no obligation to make their results public. But sometimes, aspects of their profit and losses are revealed when they are sold or are involved in a lawsuit or a bankruptcy. 'If I were Major League Baseball, I'd be much more concerned if the Yankees' numbers were released,' said Vince Gennaro, the author of 'Diamond Dollars: The Economics of Winning in Baseball' and a consultant to several MLB teams. 'It would present a dramatic disparity and you'd begin to wonder how you can retain an economic structure that allows teams to earn such disparate amounts of money.' Had the statements provided only what the Rays, Marlins and Pirates have received in revenue sharing, the leaks might be traced to someone disgruntled with the system of the higher-revenue clubs providing financial sustenance to those with lower revenue. But the leaked reports showed three teams that received money (the Marlins, Rays and Pirates) and two teams that paid into the pool (the Angels and Mariners). 'There is a group of people ticked off that revenue-sharing money isn't being used to put a product out on the field, but in the owners' pockets and that would be parties related to the players,' said Marc Ganis, a sports industry consultant. 'But I don't think the union has access to the audited financials.' The documents offer various glimpses into the generally rosy financial state of five teams, regardless of their records: -- The Pirates earned $29.4 million in 2007 and 2008 -- taking $69.3 million in revenue sharing at the same time. Although the Pirates have the lowest team payroll in baseball, they have chosen to use revenue sharing for player development, and they spent $44.3 million in 2007 and 2008. 'Even when we're winning, we will be a revenue-sharing recipient,' Frank Coonelly, the Pirates' president, told the AP. -- The Marlins received nearly $92 million in revenue sharing in 2008 and 2009, the years detailed in the statements posted on Deadspin.com, while producing net income of $33 million in those years. The importance of the revenue-sharing money is underscored by the team's meager gate receipts in 2008 ($20.9 million) and 2009 ($21.5 million). It was paid only $16.7 million in local media revenue last year, compared with the $45.9 million the Angels were paid that year and the $64.3 million that the Mariners received in 2008. Samson said the Marlins' decision to maintain a modest payroll and trade a star like Miguel Cabrera after the 2007 season was to save money to help finance its $645 million, retractable-roof ballpark, which is to open in 2012. The team must pay about one-quarter of the cost, with Miami and Miami-Dade County the rest. 'We could have had Cabrera, but no ballpark,' he said. 'That's what I tell fans.' Earlier this year, the Marlins agreed to let baseball and the players' union monitor their finances for three years to make sure that that they are spending the proceeds from revenue sharing on player development and salaries. The agreement forestalled a potential grievance by the union. -- The Rays received $74 million in revenue sharing in 2007 and 2008, and total net income in those years of a little more than $15 million. The effect of the Rays playing in the 2008 World Series is evident in the $17.7 million in postseason receipts it collected, increasing total revenue that season to $160.1 million. -- The Angels paid $31 million into the revenue-sharing pool in 2008 and 2009; the Mariners paid a little more than $24 million in 2007 and 2008. The Angels had combined earnings of $17.8 million in the two years covered in the reports; the Mariners lost $4.5 million in 2008 after showing a $17.9 million profit in 2007. 