Category Archives: Baseball

07.25.10
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Regionality: The New Revenue Stream

Is it possible that the A’s v. Giants rumble for the South Bay is a lot more complex than we even imagined? I mean, Bud Selig keeps saying so. Should we not believe him? Is it possible that the concept of MLB territory is evolving and this dispute is less about right now and more about an emerging revenue stream?

I caught myself pondering this question last week as the All Star Game was struggling to keep my attention. Honestly, my pondering began with a question like “When was the last time I cared about an All Star Game?” Oddly enough, I thought of the 1988 Triple A All Star Game in Buffalo, New York. It was the first Triple A All Star Game to feature all 26 Triple A affiliates and it was televised on ESPN. I remember waiting for the game to start as I sat in a 1950’s era ranch style San Lorenzo home staring at my grandparents 20 inch TV. Jim Kaat and Gary Thorne were waxing poetic about the beautiful new Pilot Field in Downtown Buffalo and the future stars about to take the field.

At the time, my main reason for being so excited was that I would get to see the player I thought would be the 4th Rookie of the Year (after Canseco, McGwire and Weiss) in a row for our Green and Gold heroes, Lance Blankenship. As a baseball card collector, I was also interested in seeing one Gregg Jefferies, a player I had heard about in card shops as a rookie card one needed to possess. They didn’t disappoint! Blankenship was 1 for 3 with a stolen base, while Jefferies was 1 for 2 with a Home Run. Other notable names that participated in the game? Bob Geren, Geronimo Berroa, Mike Devereaux, Joey Cora and Sandy Alomar.

Thinking about the game reminded me how much minor league baseball has changed.  It seemed that, back then, MLB teams didn’t think much about how the distance between the parent club and it’s top affiliate impacted business. The A’s Triple A team was 772 miles away in Tacoma, WA, for example. While that seems like quite a distance, it was nothing when compared with the over 3000 miles that separated the Chicago White Sox and their top affiliate in Vancouver, BC. I threw a quick spreadsheet together and discovered that in 1988, the median distance between a Major League team and it’s Triple A affiliate was 559 miles. (ed. note- This number is based on Google maps and is hardly precise, but close enough to illustrate the point)

If we juxtapose the conditions in 1988 with the conditions in 2009, it is easy to see a trend towards greater regionalization. Consider these things:

  • The median distance between MLB teams and their top affiliate is now only 315 miles.
  • In 1988, there were 2 Triple A affiliates that played within 200 miles of their parent club. Today there are 12.
  • Today there are 3 teams with their top affiliate over 1000 miles away, the greatest distance being the 3600 miles that are between Toronto and Las Vegas. In 1988, there were 6 teams that were separated from their top affiliate by more than 1000 miles, 2 well over 2000 miles.
  • The Braves moved their Triple A affiliate from Richmond, VA after 43 years. The Gwinnett County Braves are just over 30 miles from the parent club
  • The San Diego Padres (or at least some members of the teams ownership group) are actively working to bring the current Portland Beavers (next season Tuscon?) closer to the mothership. Possibly as close as San Marcos (36 mi.) or Escondido (31 mi.).

With MLB Advanced Media generating profits from the web, Fox Sports paying big bucks to broadcast national games, the advent of MLB Network, Regional Sports Networks extending the reach and frequency of each teams broadcasts, and most teams having a newish piggy bank for a stadium… Are minor league affiliates the next money maker for the MLB clubs? Or could there be a different reason for the decline in median distance? Is the shrinking distance between the clubs and their affiliates  about efficiency or marketing or both? Or could it be simply that expansion in the 90’s brought big league baseball closer to existing Triple A cities?

It seems to be all three. Teams are investing in minor league affiliates to make money, closer affiliates help the baseball operations staff by allowing for things like more efficient use of scouts or potentially quicker player call ups and the MLB expansion of the 90’s created the opportunity for MLB Clubs and their Triple A affiliates to move closer together.

Minor League Investments

The Padres are just one of a growing number of ownership groups that are finding it beneficial to invest in the minor leagues. The Braves, Giants, and Red Sox have all made investments in minor league teams at some point in the last decade. While I don’t expect that every team will be out buying up the 150 or so major league affiliated minor league teams across the country, I imagine most are kicking the tires on limited investments.

I find this particular quote from the above linked article to be telling:

“We’re on the record and excited about operating a Triple-A franchise in Padres’ territory,” Moorad said. “And we want to break ground, start turning shovels of dirt within four to six months.

“To be clear, though, our ownership group — not the Padres — will make the deal that makes sense to all parties.”

Is it possible that this view of expanding the reach within their territory by collocating a Triple A franchise is one of the issues that the Selig Panel is reporting on? It seems so.

Efficiency of Baseball Operations

Picture this hypothetical situation that a GM might face. The trade deadline is fast approaching and you are not sure yet if you are a buyer or seller so you need to get good scouting reports on potential targets as well as understand the recent performance of your minor league assets. Your top free agent acquisition is about to go on the shelf with elbow trouble and you aren’t sure who to bring up to take his roster spot. You want to send your most trusted scout to report on both scenarios. If your Triple A team is 80 miles away, and playing at home, and your High A affiliate is even closer, and playing a potential trading partner… It suddenly becomes a few days of driving around the adjacent Metro Area to get an on the ground report rather than a series of plane flights all over the country and back, assuming the two affiliates are playing nearby.

It’s less expensive, your scout is presumably more alert and when you call him on a whim and say, “Ben Sheets elbow is barking, should we call up Bowers, Mortenson, or someone else?” You can expect to get a better answer.

In a scenario that probably more applies to our A’s… Rehab assignments can be monitored by the GM himself if he wants, for crying out loud.

The Changes Since Expansion

Of the markets that hosted Triple A teams in 1988, 2 (Phoenix and Denver) were “promoted” to the bigs and 6 (Calgary, Edmonton, Richmond, Old Orchard Beach Maine, Tuscon and Vancouver) were “demoted” on out of Triple A baseball.

With 4 new Major League teams creating a need for 4 additional Triple A markets, the total new Triple A cities in the past two decades is 12. The new cities, since 1988, are Charlotte, Durham, Fresno, Lawrenceville (Gwinnett County, GA), Allentown (Lehigh Valley, PA),  Memphis, New Orleans, Reno, Round Rock (TX), Sacramento, Salt Lake City and Scranton/ Wilkes-Barre.

With Triple A teams dropping below the Canadian border, and closer to existing MLB franchises, all while new MLB teams were being established closer to existing Triple A cities (Colorado Springs/Denver), it seems only natural that teams would look to realign their minor league affiliations to take advantage of the opportunity to expand their reach into adjacent metropolitan areas. With the growth of Regional Sports Networks, minor league affiliates outside of traditional MLB territory, but inside an expanded TV market, became of greater strategic value.

In conclusion, it is all speculation as to what role this evolving view of the value of minor league affiliates in an extended metro area may hold for big league clubs. That said, it is clear that even small market teams are looking to the minor leagues as potential sources of future revenue. While I am not sure this is something that Selig’s panel is looking into, thinking about it (and mentally squinting really hard) definitely makes me understand some of the delay.

07.23.10
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Cuban cleared to bid on Rangers

A day after The Decision in San Jose, an auction for the Texas Rangers is expected to occur. The proceedings on August 4th are sure to be even more interesting, now that billionaire/Mavs owner Mark Cuban has been cleared to bid on the team.

If Cuban wins, I’ll officially be concerned for the A’s and the AL West. Cuban is already legendary for the perks he provides to the members of the Mavericks roster. Expect that and more with the Rangers. It’ll threaten to escalate the Rangers-Angels rivalry into something approaching Yankees-Red Sox. Now that’s scary.

Even worse, Cuban has spent the last several years crunching numbers, running proprietary algorithms, and measuring performance on everyone in the NBA, from players to coaches to referees to sportscasters. (Okay, maybe not sportscasters.) If there’s a guy who can and will hire enough of the right people to really crank up a team-building model based on sabermetrics, it’s Cuban.

At least Cuban can’t fix the oppressive August Texas heat. Then again, I wouldn’t put it past him to invest in a retractable roof of some kind.

07.18.10
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2010 Ballpark Tour

It all started as a favor to my younger brother. He will be matriculating at that bastion of academic excellence known as Arizona State University, and he asked me to help him move down there. Since I was going to be out of town for a spell, I figured it’d be worth finding out how long I could string out the trip as an extended ballpark journey. I had been looking at other windows to do it, including early and mid-September. In the end, a trip starting in early August made the most sense in terms of flexibility and scheduling.

Unlike the trip I had taken to the East Coast two years ago, this one will have a different mode of transport for most of the duration: train. I’d been longing to take a long train trip for several years now, and the cost and hassle of either driving thousands of miles or coming in and out of airports everyday was not particularly compelling, so I looked to the rails as an alternative. Amtrak has a series of rail passes which can work well for such a trip. I purchased an 8 segment/15 day pass for $389 with no additional taxes or fees (thanks, government subsidized passenger rail). I’ve made partial reservations on some trains and will soon lock in the rest, though I know I can easily make changes prior to and during the trip. The journey is compressed enough that it’ll require a single one-way plane trip from Dallas to Kansas City, but beyond that everything’s ground-bound and quite leisurely. Train travel is something I recommend to everyone looking for a change of pace. It’s not perfect, but you may find it suits you with some planning.

Enough background. Here’s the itinerary.

The downside of this two-week stretch is that I’ll barely miss the A’s at Minnesota on August 13-15, but I’m trying to make up for that by checking out the Kane County Cougars on August 16. I’d like to check out young lefty Ian Krol while I’m there, but from the looks of things I’ll be catching a game a couple of days before or after his scheduled starts.

In total, I’ll be going to 12 sporting events, including 8 MLB games, 3 MiLB games, and 1 exhibition NFL game. Interspersed in the trip will be several ballpark and stadium tours, plus visits to other venues such as the Negro Leagues Museum in Kansas City.

I haven’t decided what the posting frequency will be for the trip, whether it’ll be per event or per day. I’ll try to do a local “trial run” prior to the trip. What do you think of the trip? Do you have any suggestions for places to eat, watering holes, etc? Drop ’em in the comments.

07.12.10
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Selig speaks, actually says something

LA TImes baseball scribe Bill Shaikin has a fairly lengthy interview with one H.R. “Bud” Selig on the eve of the All Star Game. I say “fairly” because the Times has chosen to split the interview into ten (!) parts to hike up pageviews. In any case, Shaikin got Selig to comment a little on the SF-Oakland-San Jose love triangle on page 4. Here’s the excerpt with some interspersed commentary by yours truly.

Q: George Mitchell delivered the report you commissioned on baseball’s steroid era — 700 interviews, 115,000 pages of documents — in 21 months. It has been 16 months since you commissioned a report on the Oakland Athletics’ stadium situation, an issue that does not appear anywhere near as complex. The A’s still want to move to San Jose; the San Francisco Giants still say no. Why have you not been able to broker a deal between the A’s and the Giants?

A: …Now, as far as the San Francisco-Oakland thing: It’s complicated. I like both parties a great deal. We have territorial rules. I put a committee together that has the qualifications to understand. They’re still hard at work. They’ve still got things to do. This has a lot of ramifications to it.

Eventually, I will make a decision. What I want to say — because I’m generally very deliberate, as everybody knows — is that I didn’t want to have anybody say at the end, ‘Did you look at this? Did you look at that? What about X? What about Y?’

Selig is basically saying that he has all the cards here, so he doesn’t have to do anything right away. If  San Jose is balking at putting a measure on the ballot without the decision, tough luck. Why should he put himself out and start making sausage with the owners when SJ hasn’t gotten everything done yet?

Q: Why is it not as simple as: The Giants claim their business will be severely damaged if the A’s move to San Jose, so you quantify how much their business is hurt and write them a check?

A: It isn’t that simple. You’ve got two parties involved here. There are a lot of questions that people raise about damage. It’s up to us to check everything out. There are a lot of questions the other clubs can ask — and I will ask — before we can make any move. I know that people want a decision. I understand that. But my job is to get it right. If it takes a little longer than people thought, so be it.

Ergo, “I really don’t want to open up this can of worms because of the effect on the NY teams. At least not until someone in the Bay Area has their act together.”

Q: The A’s and Tampa Bay Rays are the two teams still looking for a new ballpark. When the collective bargaining agreement expires next year, so does the moratorium on contraction. If the ballpark situations are not resolved, would you consider folding the A’s and Rays?

A: No, I wouldn’t. I think we have moved past that.

It’s too late to talk contraction until the after the next CBA begins.

We’re going into 16 years of labor peace. I regard that as maybe the prime reason for the growth of the sport.

Do you really think Selig wants two contracted teams as part of his legacy?

I love the new ballparks. I love revenue sharing. I love interleague play and the wild card. But I don’t think we understood how those labor confrontations were damaging us, whether it was 1972, 1973, 1976, 1980, 1981, 1985, 1990 or 1994.

There’s no need to fundamentally change the current CBA. The only people complaining are fans (and some owners) of small market teams. Everyone else (owners, players’ union) is reasonably happy.

There is no question that both of those teams need new ballparks. We’ll just have to work our way through it. Tampa has done a marvelous job running their team. [General Manager] Billy Beane has done a terrific job in Oakland. With the economics of baseball today, you’ve got to have a new stadium.

It’s hard to infer too much from this. I’ve always held that Selig will not retire until the Tampa Bay and Oakland situations are resolved one way or another. Since contraction is not happening, it has to be ballparks – somewhere. Once the Rangers’ situation is figured out, I expect Selig and DuPuy to spend a lot of time and resources on TB/OAK.

I’ll leave with one of the more revolting developments from Shaikin’s excellent interview:

I [Selig] was a Yankee fan when I was growing up here [Milwaukee].

Does he deserve a pass because Milwaukee didn’t have a major league franchise when he was a kid?

07.06.10
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Let’s pool money and buy the Rangers

If, unlike me, you have nine figures burning a hole in your pocket, you may be interested in participating in a July 16 auction for the mired-in-bankruptcy Texas Rangers. The neverending saga of the Rangers sale may be finally coming to a close, as the frontrunning Greenberg-Ryan group has its price established at $502 million, with any new auction bids required to be greater by at least $20 million.

The interesting backstory is that a previous suitor may reemerge in the group fronted by Houston trucking magnate Jim Crane, who actually outbid Greenberg-Ryan. From the Dallas Morning News article (link up top):

Lenders also claimed that Houston businessman Jim Crane had been the highest bidder last winter, but that baseball commissioner Bud Selig forbade negotiations with Crane.

Instead of the Rangers’ “pre-packaged” bankruptcy plan sailing smoothly through bankruptcy court in Fort Worth, Bankruptcy Judge Michael Lynn appointed William K. Snyder as the team’s chief restructuring officer. Last week, Snyder recommended a new round of bidding.

If anything, this appears to be a last-ditch attempt to wring out more money to creditors than anything else. The Greenberg-Ryan group’s bid, in combination with $75 million guaranteed by previous owner Hicks Sports Group, would get the number just over the $576 million that is owed.

Though the Rangers are doing well on the field right now, it’s clear that the team is struggling to make ends meet. Capmaker New Era claims that the Rangers are over $100k in arrears, and that the bankruptcy could wipe out the bill. I’ve got a solution: Make the Rangers play without caps for the rest of the season! That’ll go over well during the coming oppressive Texas summer heat (mitigated by the high percentage of night games played).

06.25.10
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Tampa Tribune checks in on relocation prospects

As part of recent coverage of the Rays’ desires to leave the Trop, the Tampa Tribune took a look at four cities who had been and could be future relocation candidates. While the four (San Antonio, Portland, Charlotte, Las Vegas) still have boosters or other groups waiting in the wings, to say that they’re ready to pluck the Rays (or A’s) from their current respective homes is a bit of a stretch.

Hat tip to Field of Schemes.

06.25.10
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Not revisionist history

Many like to give credit to Peter Magowan for keeping the Giants in SF. With the death of mega-developer Walter Shorenstein, let’s remember whose true legacy this was:

For some San Franciscans, Mr. Shorenstein’s most notable civic contribution was helping to stop the Giants baseball team’s planned move to Florida in 1993. He was sought out by then-Mayor Frank Jordan, and the two men joined other business people committed to saving the team. Many have said that before Mr. Shorenstein came into the fold, it looked like a lost cause. At the time, Larry Baer, then a CBS executive who had grown up in the city, was working with Safeway CEO Peter Magowan to drum up investors. Baer is now the Giants’ president.

“Walter played a pivotal role because he was at the center of a lot of planning and strategy, and we held most of our meetings at his office at 555 California St.,” Baer said in an interview Thursday. “Having a person of his stature made a statement about the importance of keeping the team in San Francisco and sent a message to everyone – including Major League Baseball – that we were serious.”

Mr. Shorenstein put up $6.6 million of his own money to help buy the franchise, but subsequently sold his share after disagreeing with the direction the club was taking under managing general partner Magowan. It also is widely believed that Mr. Shorenstein felt he had not received sufficient public recognition for the role he played in keeping the Giants in town.

Let’s also remember that Shorenstein wasn’t exactly a nice guy either:

While Mr. Shorenstein generally has been praised in the public arena, he also has felt the lash of adverse publicity. He came under heavy criticism for his role in a nine-year battle that ended with the 1979 destruction of the International Hotel on Kearny Street, which had housed many elderly Filipino residents.

As a Filipino, I’d love to piss on Shorenstein’s grave, but there’s a bit of karma in knowing that the garage that Shorenstein wanted on the I Hotel site never got built, and that he was forced to sit on the land for years.

06.21.10
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Rays expand search to entire Tampa Bay region

The writing was on the wall when in March the ABC Coalition recommended looking outside St. Petersburg (PDF) for the Rays’ future home, so it’s not surprising that Rays owner Stuart Sternberg agreed with the opinion in a Monday press conference. Sternberg took it a step further by ruling out downtown St. Pete, and likely St. Pete altogether.

The city is not considered an option due to its low population and lack of convenience. Imagine having the A’s in a city the size of Fremont, only that it’s surrounded on three sides by water. Or a 1/3-size San Francisco. That’s St. Petersburg. Instead, several groups are jockeying for position with possible land deals in the city of Tampa. One wants to build out the Florida State Fairgrounds (doesn’t that sound familiar?). Another wants the Rays downtown. Reports from the local media are as follows:

The SPTimes report adds a bit of intrigue:

Sternberg arrived at City Hall in a silver sport utility vehicle. He entered through a side door, avoiding contact with media. Reporters were kept in the lobby.

About an hour later, he left through a back door with Rays president Matt Silverman.

Foster held his own news conference after Sternberg’s announcement. Foster described their meeting as “very cordial,” and then said he was surprised by Sternberg’s announcement.

“Quite frankly, the content of the press conference was different than my meeting,” he said.

The other sites outside St. Petersburg weren’t covered in his meeting, but they “resonated in the press conference.”

This could get messy.

The Times also has a graphic containing dual timelines, showing how events could unfold in terms of getting something built. In either case, a new ballpark doesn’t open for at least a decade from now.

If I’m a Rays fan and I want outdoor regular season baseball, I’m not holding my breath that it’ll happen in Tampa Bay anytime soon. If you’re looking for a parallel with the A’s, it’s this: both the A’s and Rays need to pay off someone to move where they want. In the A’s case, it’s the Giants. In the Rays’ case, it’s St. Pete. Different legal machinations, but both potentially ugly payouts (or not).

06.10.10
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If you don’t like the ballgame, there’s always clown fish

This week’s latest sign that stadium designers are focused on everything but the game is an aquarium at the Marlins’ new stadium. It was long thought that an aquarium or tank would be positioned somewhere behind the outfield wall, but this bit excess really takes the cake.

Now you and your kids can be entertained by diverse marine life, while Hanley Ramirez is timing the pitcher in the on deck circle. Honestly, if I were a batter I would take Willie Stargell’s sledge hammer to the place (after I took the fish out and put them in a more natural environment).

05.25.10
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Rangers file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy

Strange goings on in the Metroplex. Tom Hicks’ mismanagement of his sports empire has finally caught up with him, with his HSG Sports Group filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in order to avoid paying off some $540 million in debt.

Here’s how bad the situation is:

In January, Mr. Hicks reached a deal with Messrs. Greenberg and Ryan to sell the Rangers, the Ballpark at Arlington, and some 150 acres adjacent to the stadium in a deal valued at about $530 million, although the value has escalated with the rising amount of liabilities the new owners are prepared to assume. According to court filings those liabilities include almost $25 million that the team owes slugger Alex Rodriguez in deferred compensation and almost $13 million it owes pitcher Kevin Millwood. Neither player is with the team anymore.

The “Ryan” in the above paragraph is possible future Rangers managing partner Nolan Ryan, who wrote an open letter to the team’s fans in the Dallas Morning News. It’ll be interesting to see how much longer it takes for this to be resolved, as it must have MLB’s undivided attention at this point. Perhaps the league won’t broach the A’s situation until the Rangers’ issues are resolved. Not that they’re in a hurry, mind you.