Sep 01
In the wake of the Major League Baseball’s leaked financial documents, Patrick Rishe of Forbes.com is the latest to call for the institution of minimum payrolls, often referred to as a “salary floor,” as a way to force teams to reinvest money received from revenue sharing…
Imposing league minimum team payrolls would ensure that money received through MLB’s general fund is re-invested into the major league product in a very direct way…The revenue sharing system in MLB was instituted to create a greater degree of competitive balance. Low payroll teams with persistently poor on-field performance that have the means circa their shared revenues to add $10-20M dollars in payroll – but don’t – are doing the system, and their fan bases, a major disservice.
First of all, Major League Baseball already has a salary floor of $10 million (25 player roster, $400K minimum salary per player).
Beyond that, what if MLB and the player’s union agreed to raise the salary floor? The theory sounds great. And for the first couple of seasons, it might actually work. But eventually, it will cause a problem bigger than the one it is attempting to fix.
In short, raising the salary floor will only serve to Read the rest of this entry »
Sep 01
Everywhere you turned yesterday, people were dumping on the Tampa Bay area for the lack of attendance at The Trop on Monday night. One example is Dari Nowkhah, a sportscaster for ESPN, who said the following (via Twitter)…
11,000 at last night’s #Rays game. 31 games over .500. Pathetic. Why would Carlos Pena and Carl Crawford re-sign?
Let’s ignore the fact that no player in the history of baseball has based his free agent contract on attendance. But in ripping the attendance, Nowkhah was not alone. Bashing of Rays fans could be heard on “SportsCenter” and on “Baseball Tonight” and many corners of the internet.
First of all, as a commenter (Thad) correctly pointed out, most of the parks in action on Monday night had very small crowds. With schools back in session it is hard to expect big crowds for weeknight games. The difference for the Rays is that they don’t have a large core of season-ticket holders. So when other teams have 10,000 people in the stands, they can still report a bloated attendance number that includes season-ticket holders that did not show up. And those figures don’t have the same emotional impact that ESPN is looking for.
But, none of those other teams have the best record in baseball. So why should the Rays be exempt for this criticism? Because a team’s current record has little to do with how many fans show up to the park.
In Baseball Between the Numbers, edited by Read the rest of this entry »
Sep 01
Without a doubt, the Rays have attendance problems. But with the Rays ranked in the top 10 in local television ratings, interest in the team is at an all-time high.
At the other end of the spectrum we have “The Red Sox Nation,” baseball fans that are smarter and better than regular fans and would never bail on their team! The group that can trace their Red Sox lineage back to a relative that wore a Red Sox cap on the Mayflower. The holier-than-thou “Red Sox Nation,” that can actually improve the potential of their team! Yeah, not so loyal after-all…
On the eve of September 2010, here’s the problem: you now see through it. Whether one measures the Red Sox’ Q rating through television ratings, talk-show volume, web hits or that intangible buzz, the Sox took a major hit this year. Broadcast ratings have plummeted. Secondary ticket sales have slowed to a crawl if not stopped altogether. Fenway Park has gone from among the most fashionable places to be seen to just another ballpark, and the timing could not be worse for a Red Sox administration that might have been planning for another lean year.
All this for a team that some believe still has a shot at the playoffs.
To us, there are two different types of “bandwagon” fans. The first kind Read the rest of this entry »
Sep 01
Yesterday, we expressed our fear that Randy Choate might actually be able to give up a bases-empty grand slam in a 4-run game. Immediately, several commenters came to the defense of Choate, correctly citing his rough April (10.50 ERA) for his ugly 4.42 ERA. One commenter pointed to Choate’s 3.27 FIP as evidence that he has pitched much better than his ERA (click here for an explanation of FIP).
FIP can indeed be a better indicator of a pitcher’s performance. And a 3.27 FIP is generally considered good.
But is a 3.27 FIP good for Choate? More specifically, is it good for a lefty-specialist that will normally only face batters in which he has a very strong advantage during the matchup?
Let’s take a look at how lefty-specialists* in the American League have fared this season (ranked by FIP versus left-handed batters)…
As we can see, Choate is far from
Read the rest of this entry »
Sep 01
The GBT – The Good, The Bad and The Telling sandwich, where The Bad is nice and lean and the The Telling is ripe.
click above image for boxscore
THE GOOD: Magic Numbers. The Rays lost, and looked bad doing it. But the good news is, the Red Sox lost also, lowering the Rays’ magic number to 24 with 30 to play.
THE BAD: Jeff Niemann. Things looked promising for the first 5 innings. It looked as though maybe Niemann shed the rust that plagued him in his first start back from the DL. But then the 6th inning happened. Niemann faced 6 batters in the 6th and retired none of them. All 6 would eventually score…Over-Aggressive. Dan Johnson’s double in the 5th gave the Rays a 3-1 lead. But with 2 outs, we still have no idea why he decided to stretch the double into a triple, considering Johnson was rounding second just as Aaron Hill fielded the relay about 20 feet in front of Johnson (Ben Zobrist was going to score easily).
THE TELLING: Andy Sonnanstine was demoted to short-season Hudson Valley to make room for Brad Hawpe. Since the Renegades’ season ends Sunday, the Rays won’t have to wait 10 days to bring him back…Grant Balfour will throw a simulated game today…Stephen Vogt, Matt Moore, Joe Cruz and Zach Quate were named to the FSL post-season All-Star team…Elliot Johnson joins Dan Johnson and Jeremy Hellickson on the IL post-season All-Star team.
WHERE THEY STAND: The Rays are 81-51, 1 game behind the Yankees in the East and 7 games ahead of the Red Sox in the AL East. After 132 games in 2008, the Rays were 81-51.
THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…
- Joe Maddon on what went wrong with Jeff Niemann (Video). [Sun Sports]
- Matt Bush will have surgery on a nerve in his throwing arm. The move will require 6 weeks of rehab. [St. Pete Times]
- A scout on Jeremy Hellickson: “Minnesota, or whatever team they get [in the playoffs], would much rather see the kid [in the bullpen] than the prospect of seeing him start in a short series.” [SI.com]
- Peter Gammons is at it again. This time saying
Read the rest of this entry »
