NEW YORK -- Baseball owners told players Tuesday that the union's failure to embrace a luxury tax and vastly increased revenue sharing was unacceptable.

Talks, which had recessed in mid-March, were scheduled to continue Wednesday, with the union explaining the reasoning behind its proposals to management negotiators, who say baseball needs an overhaul of its economic system.

Seven players took part in the talks, which included the two latest additions to management's bargaining team: Baltimore owner Peter Angelos and Chicago Cubs president Andy MacPhail.

"I sensed a different tone of it because of Peter Angelos and Andy MacPhail," said New York Mets pitcher Al Leiter, who thought previous meetings were dominated by too much legal talk. "I thought the sense of it was, `Let's go guys. Let's get going here."'

Management negotiators say baseball needs more competitive balance and offered proposals on Jan. 9 and Feb. 26 that included a 50 percent luxury tax on the portions of payrolls above $98 million and an increase from 20 percent to 50 percent in the amount of shared locally generated revenue.

In their March 13 response, players ignored the call for a luxury tax and proposed increasing the amount of shared local revenue to 22.5 percent, using a different formula that would give a greater percentage to the low-revenue teams and take away less from the high-revenue clubs.

"We had a good discussion today," management lawyer Rob Manfred said Tuesday. "We asked them a lot of questions about the things in their proposal. We were told we will get answers tomorrow."

Players don't want a luxury tax, which would slow the rate of salary growth, and they fear too much revenue sharing would drain money from high-revenue teams, which otherwise would spend it on players.

"I'm not prepared this week to engage in a public debate of the issues," union head Donald Fehr said. "We'll get there if we have to."

Baseball's previous labor contract expired Nov. 7. Owners have said that through the World Series, they will not lock out players or attempt to change work rules.

Players, fearful that management will attempt to impose changes right after the World Series, could strike later this season in an effort to pressure management not to push for drastic change. It would be baseball's ninth work stoppage since 1972.