Archive for the 'Jonah Keri' Category

Nov 04

Rays Ad Spending Has Fallen 33% Since 2009

Attendance, Jonah Keri Cork Gaines 7 Comments »

In a column by Michael Sasso of the Tampa Tribune, he addresses the issue of whether or not the Rays are doing enough to help attendance. This is something we have addressed on this site in recent weeks.

One of the biggest issues has been advertising, and what some fans and media personalities have perceived as a lack of effort on the part of the Rays.

According to Sasso, their fears may be true…

“…data suggests the Rays cut their ad spending by 33 percent over the past two years. In 2009, the team spent an estimated $761,000 on TV, radio, print, billboard and online ads, Kantar found. That fell to $508,000 in 2010. The team’s advertising rose slightly in the first half of 2011 over the first half of 2010…Most teams also cut their ad spending by 14 percent to 40 percent. But the data show the Rays spent less on advertising last year than everyone except the Royals (see chart). The Rays declined to comment on Kantar’s data.”

That’s kind of amazing considering the number of teams that can sell out their ballparks without any advertising at all. Sasso does add that there is debate as to how much advertising impacts ticket sales.

Jonah Keri, who authored the book “The Extra 2%” about the rise of the Rays, has a different take on why the Rays attendance is so bad.

“I just think this is the 30th worst market out of 30 markets.”

We guess that chapter will be in the paperback edition.

Apr 22

Stuart Sternberg On “The Extra 2%”

Jonah Keri, Stuart Sternberg Cork Gaines No Comments »

We spoke with Stuart Sternberg recently about Jonah Keri’s new book,
“The Extra 2%,” which covers the Rays and their front office. Sternberg seemed very pleased with how the book turned out. “I read it and couldn’t be happier with it,” said Sternberg. “There were some small [incorrect] items that stood out but quite frankly none come to mind, they were quite minor I suppose. I can’t categorize it as unfair or unrepresentative.”

Apr 08

Keri Wonders If A Losing Season Is Better In The Long Run

Jonah Keri Cork Gaines 12 Comments »

Jonah Keri, author of “The Extra 2%” joined Craig Calcaterra for a short interview in which they discussed, among other things, the Rays slow start. Keri isn’t ready to give up on the Rays, but he wonders if the occasional crappy season is good for the franchise in the long run…


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Mar 23

A Review of The Extra 2%

Andrew Friedman, Book Review, Joe Maddon, Jonah Keri, Matt Silverman, Stuart Sternberg Jordi Scrubbings 6 Comments »

For a review of the new book on the Rays, The Extra 2%, we turn to our correspondent Jordi Scrubbings…

There is no doubt some of the best sports books ever have been about baseball. Every baseball fan has their favorites. Personally, I am fan of The Curious Case of Sidd Finch, Boys of Summer, and Ball Four.

But whereas the amount of literature is staggering and certain stories have been told, re-told, and told once again, no one had yet written about the Tampa Bay (Devil) Rays – unless you count Vince Namoli’s Baseball, Business, and Beyond. But if a book is written, and no one reads it, does it count?

Esteemed baseball and business writer Jonah Keri attempts to rectify this lack of Rays literature with his new book, The Extra 2%: How Wall Street Strategies Took a Major League Baseball Team from Worst to First. Keri, who has written for Baseball Prospectus, ESPN.com, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and many other places, tells the tale of the rise of the Rays, from the early days of expansion to the present era.

The Extra 2% is not a typical baseball book, however. Focusing primarily on the new Rays ownership, Keri looks at the Rays history from a business perspective, using terms such as “leveraging”, “opportunity cost”, and “arbitrage”. Having been years removed from my college business course, I was a bit intimidated, but Keri’s writing style speaks to the average fan and carefully explains the business terms and makes them easily digestible. Even for an English major.

Written in chronological order, the first few chapters of the book detail the excruciatingly poor business operations of Vince Namoli. Although Namoli is given credit for battling MLB to get a team in St. Petersburg, he is vilified for each of the boneheaded blunders he makes when the Devil Rays actually start play. There are stories of failed fan interaction, mangled marketing, poor public relations, and awkward organizational management. Keri doesn’t mention what Namoli is up to currently, but given his detailed mistakes, it’s hard to see him positively contributing to any company these days.

In the early chapters, Read the rest of this entry »

Mar 23

The Extra 2%: A Pre-Preview

Jonah Keri Cork Gaines 4 Comments »

The Extra 2%: How Wall Street Strategies Took a Major League Baseball Team from Worst to First by Jonah Keri is currently the no. 1 book on Amazon’s list of baseball books and has been well-received in many circles.

It is also this month’s RI Baseball Book Club book of the month. So I will be saving most of my comments for our discussion on Saturday April 9.

For a more traditional review of the book, we have called on our correspondent, Jordi Scrubbings. That should be appearing on this site in the very near future.

In the meantime, I do want to say a couple of things about The Extra 2%…

I cannot emphasize enough, that if you are a Rays fan, this book is absolutely required reading.  Among the many things you will love about the book is the thorough historical narrative of the (Devil) Rays and of baseball in the Bay Area. As much as I thought I knew about the history of this franchise, there was even more that I learned reading this book. Some of it is good. A lot of it is sad. But it is all intriguing.

The book is also Read the rest of this entry »

Mar 08

[THE HANGOVER] The One Where We Discuss Price’s Change, Manny Working It And A Rays Book Hits The Shelves

Jonah Keri, Manny Ramirez Cork Gaines 5 Comments »

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: David Price. Joe Maddon stretched Price out to 4 innings and 59 pitches, but he did struggle a bit in the 4th inning. Price appeared to be really working his changeup throwing about 12. The two runs he allowed did come on a 2-run home run off of one of his changeups…Sam Fuld. Fuld was back in the lineup, made a diving catch added a basehit. This is good as the gap between he and Ruggiano for the 4th OF spot appears to be shrinking a bit…Just A Little Patience. The Rays walked 7 times, including 4 from players that could be in the opening day lineup…Bullpen. Only one inning came early in the game, but 4 relievers looked strong combining for 6 strikeouts and just 1 walk in 5 scoreless innings. Mike Ekstrom contributed 2 innings. Rob Delaney, Alex Cobb and Matt Bush also pitched.

THE BAD: John Jaso. Jaso is off to a slow start this spring going 1-13 with just 1 walk in his first 5 games.

THE TELLING: Manny Ramirez was given Sunday completely off, and yet he still showed up at the Spring Training complex at 8am to work in the batting cage…Jeremy Hellickson will throw BP today and is still scheduled to make his spring debut on Friday…Elliot Johnson is expected back today and Ben Zobrist might not be back until Wednesday.

RANDOM THOUGHTS: We put together a chart recently showing that there is almost no correlation between spring training and regular season winning percentage. But there does tend to be a little correlation at the extremes. That is, teams that are really, really bad in the spring rarely do well during the regular season. The highest jump in winning percentage over the last 8 seasons is .210 percentage points. It is still VERY early, but the Rays would need more than that just to hit .500 at this point.

THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…

  • Here is a new Rays blog we just we learned about. Please check it out and welcome them to the neighborhood. [Catching Some Rays In Tampa Bay]
  • Jonah Keri’s book “The Extra 2%” is out today. We are about two-thirds through the book and have will have a review soon. But so far, we can tell you that you won’t be disappointed. Just make sure you are sitting when you read about The Hit Show. [Amazon]
  • Joe Maddon continues Read the rest of this entry »
Feb 07

[THE HANGOVER] The One Where We Discuss Kazmir As Pettitte’s Replacement?

Johnny Damon, Jonah Keri, Manny Ramirez, Scott Kazmir only works part-time Cork Gaines 14 Comments »

Brian Cashman and the Yankees have had a tough off-season. First they lost out on Cliff Lee, and they never got a shot at Carl Crawford. There was the Derek Jeter ugliness and the Rafael Soriano contract Cashman never wanted. To make matters worse, Andy Pettitte pulled a Brett Favre and kept the Yankees waiting all winter before deciding he was done.

And now the Yankees are said to be considering Scott Kazmir as a trade target to replace Pettitte. We know the Rays have had trouble against their former pitchers at times, but boy the Yankees are in trouble if they think Kaz can help them.

 

THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…

  • The Rays still haven’t officially added Manny Ramirez and Johnny Damon to the roster. Marc Topkin says that won’t happen until “early this week” when the Rays clear two spots on the 40-man roster. Still no word on how the Rays will clear those spots. [TampaBay.com]
  • Jonah Keri, author Read the rest of this entry »
Jan 12

[THE HANGOVER] The One Where We Discuss The Extra 2%, The Trop And Balfour’s

Grant Balfour, Jonah Keri Cork Gaines 10 Comments »

Jonah Keri asked us to pass along a note that a free preview is now available for his new book “The Extra 2%: How Wall Street Strategies Took a Major League Baseball Team from Worst to First.” This is the long-anticipated book about the Rays front office. The free preview includes the foreward from Mark Cuban. [Scribd.com]

You can pre-order the book at Amazon.com.

THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…

  • As we near spring training, Buster Olney says that Grant Balfour’s asking price might finally be coming down. [Twitter]
  • Buster Olney thinks Grant Balfour’s best option may be to re-sign with the Rays as their closer and hit the free agency market again next year. [Twitter]
  • Buster Olney adds that the Rays could entice Grant Balfour by promising to not offer him arbitration next winter so that teams won’t have to surrender a draft pick. [Twitter]
  • Roy Peter Clark in the St. Pete Times makes a case that Tropicana Field is not the Rays problem. [TampaBay.com]
May 04

[THE HANGOVER] The One Where We Discuss Jonah Keri’s Upcoming Book, Aki’s Rough Start And Why The Rays Will Never Move To Connecticut

Aki Iwamura, Chris Richard, Jonah Keri Cork Gaines 16 Comments »

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

DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…

  • Jonah Keri’s upcoming book on the Rays will tentatively be called “The Extra 2%: How Wall Street Thinking Took a Major League Baseball Team from Worst to First” and will be co-marketed as a business book. [Twitter]
  • Bob Nightengale of USA Today describes the Rays rotation as the best in baseball. [USA Today]
  • Joel Sherman is the latest to suggest the Rays should move to Connecticut. While Sherman acknowledges territorial issues, he apparently doesn’t realize that this would NEVER happen. Greenwich, Connecticut is 25 miles from Yankee Stadium and many of the Yankees wealthiest fans live in Connecticut. The Yankees would allow a team to move to Brooklyn before they let a team take Connecticut. [NY Post]
  • Marc Topkin writes about what Sunday’s game did for Sean Rodriguez’ confidence…Also, the Rays will likely face 6 lefties during this 9-game road trip. [St. Pete Times]
  • Joe Smith writes about Reid Brignac’s transition to most-days big league second baseman. [St. Pete Times]
  • Tony Fabrizio writes about Ben Zobrist’s surprising lack of power. [Tampa Tribune]
  • Aki Iwamura is off to a rough start in Pittsburgh. [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]
  • The Rays sit atop What If Sports power rankings which uses a simulation engine to play out the remainder of the season. [What If Sports]
  • The Rays are also on top of Phil Rogers’ latest power ranking. [Chicago Tribune]
  • Chris Richard set up his own fan page on Facebook. [Facebook]

DOWN ON THE FARM…

  • Check out “The Rundown” from Rays Prospects for boxscores and more detailed recaps. [Rays Prospects]
  • DURHAM: Jeremy Hellickson improved to 5-0 with 2 runs allowed in 7 innings. he allowed 4 hits and no walks while striking out 8. After giving up a lead-off home run, he retired 19 of the next 20 batters he faced…Joe Dillong hit his 3rd home run and Fernando Perez hit his first, a 3-run shot…Hank Blalock was 2-5 and is hitting .347 early on.
  • MONTGOMERY: In the second game of a double-header, Darin Downs allowed just 1 hit, 2 walks and a hit batter in 6 shutout innings. He struck out 5. It was just his second start, but he now has 23 strikeouts and just 5 walks in 23.0 innings this season…Cody Cipriano hit his first home run of the season in game 1.
  • CHARLOTTE: Frank De Los Santos gave up 2 runs in 7 innings, striking out 9 and walking 2…Jake Jefferies had a triple and 2 RBI.
  • BOWLING GREEN: Wilking Rodriguez gave up 3 runs in 5 innings on 8 hits and a walk. He struck out 2…Brett Nommensen hit a 3-run home run, his first of the season.
Apr 22

[THE HANGOVER] The One Where We Discuss Big Night’s For Big Dub And Rodzilla, Playoff Probabilities And Bowling Green’s Anemic Offense

BJ Upton, Hank Blalock, Joe Maddon, Jonah Keri, Sean Rodriguez, Willy Aybar Cork Gaines 34 Comments »

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: Wade Davis. Big Dub’s control was better (55 strikes, 31 balls). And his curveball was great. If not for the weather and the 12-run lead, he could have easily worked deeper than 6 innings…Jason Bartlett. His second 3-hit game in the last 3 days raises his batting average 50 points. And his RBI single in the 3rd got the scoring started…BJ Upton. Two more hits, including a double, and both were to right field…Sean Rodriguez. Rodzilla started at second and picked up 3 hits including his first home run and 4 RBI.

THE BAD: First Inning. We had a heart attack in our butt when Mark Buehrle struck out the side in the first. But Upton’s double in the second ended an 0-52 stretch against White Sox pitchers by Rays not named Carl Crawford.

THE TELLING: Ben Zobrist, in a 3-28 slump, got the night off and Willy Aybar missed the first of two games to be with his expecting wife…John Jaso will start today against the right-hander and all of the sudden this series with the White Sox is exactly what some of has hoped for the catching position months ago…It is early, but PECOTA says the Rays now have a 79.8% shot at the playoffs…Tonight’s game will be found on 970 AM as 620 AM is bumping the Rays for the NFL Draft.

WHERE THEY STAND: The Rays are 11-4, one-half game behind the Yankees and 2.5 games ahead of the Blue Jays and Mariners in the Wild Card race. In 2008, the Rays were 6-9 after 15 games.

DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…

  • Joe Maddon was not happy with umpire Joe West who Maddon felt had rushed him during a pitching change on Tuesday. [The Heater]
  • Jonah Keri once again joined Bill Simmons on his podcast to talk all things Rays and also to try and help Red Sox Nation back from the cliff. [JonahKeri.com]
  • Jon Paul Morosi is pushing the panic button on the Red Sox early on…let’s keep in mind that the Red Sox had two stretches of 15 games in 2007 as bad as the current one and they still won the World Series. [Fox Sports]
  • Maybe we missed something, but it seems as though John Kruk is advocating that the Rays not trade Carl Crawford and Carlos Pena and that they should make a push for the playoffs even if they are 15 games back at the trade deadline (thanks Thad). [ESPN]
  • BJ Upton headlines Joe Lemire’s list of players that have something to prove this season, noting Upton’s offseason work and his early strong start (thanks Thad). [SI.com]
  • The HART busline is looking into bus service to The Trop for Rays games, but it may not be legal. [Tampa Tribune]

DOWN ON THE FARM…

  • Check out “The Rundown” from Rays Prospects for boxscores and more detailed recaps. [Rays Prospects]
  • DURHAM: Virgil Vasquez, the player acquired from the Pirates for cash before the season, allowed 5 runs in 4.2 innings…Joaquin Benoit retired all 4 batters he faced, striking out 2…Hank Blalock hit his first home run in the Rays organization…Dan Johnson hit his league-leading 7th home run…Desmond Jennings was 1-5 with a walk and 2 steals…Fernando Perez was 3-5 with a walk and his 8th stolen base.
  • MONTGOMERY: Jake McGee allowed 1 run and struck out 3, but had to leave after 2.1 innings because of a leg injury…Nevin Ashley was 2-4.
  • CHARLOTTE: Nick Barnese struck out 8 and walked just 1 in 5 innings, but did give up 10 hits and 4 runs…Tim Beckham went 2-4 with a double…Matt Sweeney was 0-2 with 2 walks…Henry Wrigley hit his 2nd home run.
  • BOWLING GREEN: Wilking Rodriguez gave up 2 runs (1 earned) in 6 innings with 2 strikeouts and 1 walk…Bowling Green managed only 3 hits. There are 60 single-A minor league teams. Only Kinston in Southern League (.568) has an OPS worse than Bowling Green (.577).
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