Archive for the 'Things that shine a little less' Category

Sep 23

The Continued Struggle for the Soul of the Florida Sports Fan

Attendance, Fans do silly things, Feed your mind, Minor League Affiliates, New York Yankees, Season Ticket Sales, Statistical projection, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Tampa Bay Lightning, Tampa Bay Rays, Tampa vs St Pete, The Trop, Things that make us giddy, Things that shine a little less, TV Ratings, We are mad as hell, We need more Cowbell, Your thoughts please Jordi Scrubbings 12 Comments »

Jordi Scrubbings is back with his take on Rays attendance…

Last year, I wrote an article for this site entitled “The Battle for the Passion of the Florida Sports Fan”. In that article, I explored how the Rays were at the short end of a fight to get attention in a rapidly expanding Florida sports scene.

This year I have continued to track attendance and viewing trends. I have saved almost every post I can find from this site, other Rays sites, Bucs sites, Florida Minor League Baseball sites, and anywhere else that talks about the comings and goings of Florida sports fans.

Before I begin to dissect the year in attendance trends, I first want to share an interesting tidbit I recently discovered.

Did you know that in 2010 the Rays drew 95% of the combined attendance total of the Bulls, Gators, Hurricanes, and Seminoles last year?

Attendance of every 2010 home game of Florida State University, University of Florida, University of Miami, University of Central Florida, and the University of South Florida at their respective stadiums was 2,087,026. This number excludes only UF’s bowl game in Tampa and the UF vs. Georgia game in Jacksonville, as they were not true “home” games.

According to Baseball-Reference, the 2010 Rays drew 1,864,999 people to Tropicana Field in 2010. And another 112,854 during the playoffs. That’s 1,977,853 people and a 95% correlation. Which means almost the same amount of people that went to Rays games last year went to see a game at one of the five major college football programs in Florida.

There is no doubt Florida is still a college football state.

A lot of people would point to the above statistic and say it should be Exhibit A why the Rays should move from Florida – they can’t possibly compete in the Florida sports culture landscape. Baseball will regarded as a novelty especially as the University of South Florida grows in popularity and prominence and Florida State gets back on track, loses to Oklahoma withstanding.

I, of course, disagree.

Last year I argued that there was an oversaturation of Read the rest of this entry »

Aug 10

The Guilt of Not Going

11 Questions, Attendance, Cheap is as cheap does, Cutting the Fat, Exagerated headline, Fans do silly things, Jordi Scrubbings, Kool Aid, Meta-laziness, My Baseball Bias, No Excuses Tour, Options, The Trop, Things that shine a little less, Too early to open a beer?, Tweetup, We need more Cowbell, Where we're going, Your thoughts please Jordi Scrubbings 15 Comments »

Our correspondent Jordi Scrubbings is back with another take on all things Rays….

I’ll admit, when reported attendance numbers are below 15,000 at Tropicana Field, I feel kinda guilty. I feel guilty because I think I could make a difference. It’s the same guilt I feel during an election when there is a candidate I support but I don’t bother to get out and vote. And then that candidate doesn’t win. Was it because of me? Or was it because of hundreds of other people like me who figured someone else would carry the burden of voting?

Although the worst a candidate can do is raise my taxes, approve or disapprove of transportation measures, cancel programs, stifle the economy, or generally cause the social fabric of the world around me to fall apart, for some reason I am more concerned about an empty seat at Tropicana Field that my tuckus could have sat in.

I wonder if I am the only one. Am I the only person who thinks if the team moves it would be partially my fault for not supporting them to the utmost of my ability?

I am a huge baseball fan. The fact that I am writing here is evidence enough that I am a huge Rays fan. So why aren’t I at every game contributing my +1 to the attendance total?

First and foremost, I am a partial season ticket holder. I go to Read the rest of this entry »

Jul 25

Waiting for Perfect

Attendance, Fans do silly things, Jordi Scrubbings, State of the Franchise, The Trop, Things that make me want to club a stuffed baby seal, Things that shine a little less, Too early to open a beer?, Your thoughts please Jordi Scrubbings 16 Comments »

The latest from our senior afrologist Jordi Scrubbings…

They don’t play baseball on the beach. And for good reason. It is incredibly tough to run on the beach. And ground balls don’t roll very well in the sand.

But beaches in Florida are quite popular. Outside of the prolific House of the Mouse, I’d guess beaches are the number one tourist destination in Florida. People come from all over the world to the beaches of Florida, and specifically to our local beaches such as Clearwater Beach, St. Pete Beach, and Siesta Key.

Beaches are interesting places. They have to be well-kept, lest you have litter on your landscape. They predominantly have to be kid-friendly, as you don’t want creepers and hoodlums ruining the experience. And beaches need good press, as local areas want to see their beaches listed at the top of any possible category, from most beautiful to best sand to most beautiful bodies. Being a top beach brings a sense of pride, good reputation, and most importantly, it brings visitors and money.

But beaches have an Achilles heel. No matterhow well-kept, no matter how popular, and no matter how great the sunset, hardly any one goes to the beach when it rains.

Baseball in Tampa Bay and Florida in general reminds me a lot of the beach.

For whatever reason, Floridians only Read the rest of this entry »

Jul 04

Sold By The Story: The Lesson Of Toe Nash

Casey Kotchman, Fans do silly things, Sam Fuld, The temptation of not being tempted, Things that don't end well, Things that shine a little less, Toe Nash Jordi Scrubbings 5 Comments »

Our correspondent Jordi Scrubbings is back with another take on the Rays…

As fans, we love stories. We love extolling the virtues of our favorite athletes.  We love cheering for heroes as they wage battle against their hated rivals. We love creating stories around players as they become more engrained in our collective consciousness.

With the emergence of twitter, these playful narratives have grown from the tables of our local sports bar to entire fan communities and even to the players themselves. They are no longer inside jokes of a select few, but ideas and identities embraced by everyone. They transcend cyberspace and are seen on signs, t-shirts, in mainstream media, and even accepted by front offices for ballpark promotions.

However playful, innocent, and creative narratives are, we should be careful. Sometimes they cause strife, struggle, and confusion at every level, from the fans, to the media, to the players themselves. Sometimes if we are not careful, we get entwined with a good baseball story as we would with any good book, and fail to see the world crumbling around us.

This year, Rays fans have created amazing narratives around two players who have outperformed expectations. Seemingly heaven sent, these two players saved our team when they were down and kept the Rays from falling in the standings and out of relevance. Early in the season, it was Sam Fuld with his exceptional defense and blazing speed and timely slap hitting. While a good real-life tale, Fuld’s performance on the field made him cyber-legendary.

Did you know Sam Fuld can leap small buildings with a single bound? He’s Super Sam.

Did you know Sam Fuld once scored on a bunt … off his own bat? Tis written in The Legend of Sam Fuld.

As the season has progressed, it has been journeyman first baseman Casey Kotchman who has captured the hearts, imaginations, and Twitter attention of the Rays community.

Did you know Casey Kotchman’s bat is made of the same wood as the wands in Harry Potter? It’s the Magic of Kotch.

Did you know pitching awards are now determined by who can get Casey Kotchman out the most? It’s the Magic of Kotch.

Where the narratives fail us, however, is when we mistake our own impressions of a player with his real life ability. We trick ourselves or trick others into believing Sam Fuld is not the second Joe Orsulak but the second coming of Carl Crawford or that Casey Kotchman is really Hal Morris and not another Pat Putnam, his number one comparison on Baseball-Reference.com and possibly the only baseball player known for eating dog biscuits.

Narratives also cause problems when they cause Read the rest of this entry »

May 10

The Zobrist Condundrum

01. Players, Ben Zobrist, Benny Boo Zobrist, Clutch this, Things that shine a little less Jordi Scrubbings 16 Comments »

Over the last few weeks there has been an awakening surrounding Ben Zobrist. With his 10 RBI day a few weekends ago and his sudden hot streak, Zobrist once again has the Rays Community all aflutter. After being mired in a yearlong slump in 2010 and sleepwalking through the first few weeks of 2011, we watched the mighty Zorilla destroy the Twins and set the team record for most RBIs in a day, hit over .500 for nearly a week, save kittens from redwood trees, kill fastballs by the hundreds, and consume American League pitchers with fireballs from his eyes and bolts of lightning from his arse.

But for all the statistical acclaim and the occasional Zorilla doll, it seems Rays fans don’t know what to think about Ben Zobrist. He seems to be more than the marginal utility player he was during the closing days of Devil Rays futility, yet his all-star appearance of 2009 seems like a distant memory. Is he a super-versatile slugger or was that Hobbsian season a Gilkey-esque mirage? What about 2010? Where are we in the Zobrist narrative and what is left?

It’s almost as if Rays fans don’t yet know what Read the rest of this entry »

Nov 09

Free Agency: Measuring How Well Rays Play The Market

Andrew Friedman, Things that shine a little less Cork Gaines 11 Comments »

Andrew Friedman and Co. are about to enter their fifth Hot Stove Season. Let’s take a look at the four previous seasons and see just how well the Rays fared with their free agent signings.

Using Fangraphs‘ WAR Value system, we looked at every player that has been signed (as free agents or claimed on waivers) by the Rays since Friedman took over the front office, and determined the on-field production of each player while they played for the Rays. We then compared this production (in dollars) to the salaries* paid to each player by the Rays.

First, let’s look at the Rays year-by-year breakdown…

A few notes on the above table…

  • Production and salary values for each season include every player with a major league contract on that year’s roster that was signed as a free agent (or claimed off waivers) since October, 2005.
  • Since Friedman and Co. took over, the Rays have paid approximately $70.3 million in salaries to free agents. Those players have been worth $105.3 million in WAR value on the field.
  • 2009 marked Friedman’s first season in which free agents were overpaid, receiving approximately $10.6 million in production less than what they paid. Of course, a good chunk of that can be blamed on the Pat Burrell signing.

Now let’s look at the best and worst signings by Friedman and Co. in terms of salary and production…

A few notes on the above table…

  • Production and salaries include each player’s entire tenure with the Rays since being signed as a free agent.
  • Salaries for Akinori Iwamura and Shinji Mori include the posting fees ($4.6M and $1.0M respectively) the Rays paid to each player’s Japanese club for the exclusive rights to negotiate with each player.
  • The two most valuable signings have been Carlos Pena and Aki Iwamura.
  • The two least valuable signings have been Pat Burrell and Troy Percival.
  • While we certainly cannot discount the value of Carlos Pena, it is worth noting that if you remove Pena’s $39.1 million value, the remaining free agent signings have a negative value. In other words, outside of Pena, the Rays have overpaid free agents by approximately $4.0 million.
  • Ty Wigginton was traded for Dan Wheeler in 2007. Since the trade, the Rays have paid Wheeler $6.7 million in salary. His production for the Rays has been worth $3.2 million, giving Wheeler a Value of -$3.5 million. If this is included in Wigginton’s value, his signing was actually worth $2.1 million for the Rays and brings the total value down to $31.6 million.

Like any team, there have been some good signings and some bad signings. Of course the sycophants love to talk about Carlos Pena and Aki Iwamura and Eric Hinske and Gabe Kapler as evidence of how smart the Rays front is. Meanwhile, the haters love to talk about Troy Percival and Pat Burrell and Shinji Mori, as evidence of the team’s free agency ineptitude. The truth is somewhere in between.

* In certain cases we had to estimate prorated salaries. Salaries also include contract extensions.