Though fourth overall selection Kevin Gausman recently said he’s leaning toward returning to LSU, Orioles executive VP of baseball operations Dan Duquette tells Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports the team intends to reach a deal with its top pick. Duquette says the sides have made progress toward an agreement and Morosi reports that the Orioles have already offered Gausman "close" to MLB's recommended $4.2MM bonus. Here’s the latest from the AL East…
- There’s lots of concern about Evan Longoria’s absence in Tampa Bay and no guarantee the Rays third baseman will return in 2012, ESPN.com’s Buster Olney tweets. Longoria has been sidelined since the beginning of May with a partially torn hamstring.
- Commissioner Bud Selig says it’s “inexcusable” to see the Rays ranked 29th in attendance, according to Bill Shaikin of the LA Times (on Twitter). “Nobody can defend that," Selig said. The commissioner added that he'll continue "discussions" with Rays ownership, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times notes (on Twitter).
- Blue Jays left-hander Luis Perez will miss the remainder of the season after tearing a ligament in his left pitching elbow, Richard Griffin of the Toronto Star writes.
How long until the position players are pitching for the Jays?
Jeff Mathis: Cy Young
Jeff Mathis: Cy Anora!
Geez, another arm gone. things are getting rough for the 2012 jays.
Another thing that sucks is that Drabek and Perez are gaining service time while they are hurt…
Why shouldn’t they? Arm injuries are an occupational hazard as an MLB pitcher. If I got hurt doing my job, I’d sure as heck want to be paid.
Well obviously on a personal level, yes. I want them to get paid.
but on a business level? More service time = more $$$ at contract time. Sucks for us.
I can’t imagine what people do for fun in the Tampa area besides go to expensive baseball games in an environment that screams “Bulldozers start your engines!”
Bud Selig loves his tax funded stadiums as well. Perhaps the taxpayers of Florida will get their priorities straight. Everyone with good sense knows it’s….
1. Ballparks
2. Schools
3. Roads
As it regards Tampa, the Commissioner is obviously gearing up for another reach into the taxpayer’s pocket. Professional sports is a place where stadium and infrastructure costs are paid by the many, but profits goes into the pockets of the owners. I’d like that deal. Maybe I can get the public to pay the rent on my office? Sorry if I’m not sympathetic.
New stadiums help the community. They attract tourists and help out local residents. They also give some construction jobs, etc. They definetely can help the owners too, but it is about finding the middle ground: helping the community vs owners pockets.
Actually stadiums usually end of making no money for the community and take years to pay off (a la The Olympics Effect) – especially when the taxpayer kicks in tens or hundreds of millions to help pay for it. Tourist return is minimal and is at best difficult to quantify; I would be shocked to find someone who is going to visit location X instead of location Y because X just got a brand new stadium. There is no shortage of construction jobs available in North America as infrastructure projects are all the rage, and rightly so; I don’t think there’s a lot of net jobs to be gained by building one.
Downtown space, which is always a premium and makes its highest returns on condos is taken away and unless it’s being used constantly, it’s losing money on employees and utilities. Stadiums also have one of the lowest employee to square footage ratios in building management. But they sure look purty.
What is inexcusable is Bud Selig’s refusal to implement instant replay to be used at every call at every base, immediately. His comment that the “appetite is very low” is simply wrong. Every sane observer of baseball knows that the technology is there, yet they choose to continue having blown calls as if they’re just “part of the game”. He needs to pull his head out of the sand and get it done, forthwith.
His comments about the Rays are, no doubt, part of a campaign ramping up to soak taxpayers for more corporate welfare to build a stadium in the Tampa Bay area. Let the billionaires pay for their own toys.
Tropicana Field is truly awful, but a team with that type of successful run should draw in the top 1/2 of the league playing in a parking lot. I think there is something to be said for the nature of the Tampa/St. Pete area and the fact that the majority of folks down there are either from another city or are the offspring of dedicated fans from other cities. I seem to remember the Buccaneers having an attendance issue the past few seasons as well, and if an NFL team can’t draw there is something truly wrong. Phoenix is pretty similar and they seem to have embraced the D-Backs in the same time period.
It may have to do with the location in St. Petersburg more than anything…fans don’t want to have to make the trek on 275 or US 92.
Wow! I think you could hurt a Jays pitcher by sneezing while standing next to him. The San Diego and Toronto pitching staffs (majors and minors) have had way more than their share of injuries this year. Mostly bad injuries too.
Maybe it’s high time Bud realizes that the Great Florida Baseball experiment is a great, big failure.
The Rays have been one of the best teams in the game for five years, and their attendance is dropping by the year.
The Marlins just opened a shiny new stadium, and nobody cares.
Nobody cares about baseball in Florida. And those who do are retirees who already have a team to cheer for. Just end the madness. Move the Rays to the Meadowlands to break up the New York market* and move the Marlins to San Antonio† and everyone will be happyª.
* The Yankees, Mets and Red Sox will never let that happen.
† There’s no way a team that just built a new stadium is going to move.
ª Everyone aside from the Yankees, Mets, Red Sox and the seven Rays and Marlins fans would be happy.
I disagree. Spring Training is still a very big deal in Florida. I agree that attendance is poor in both Miami and Tampa (St. Pete, actually). Why is that? Good question. It’s a shame either way.
Spring Training is a big deal in Florida because the teams that the baseball fans in Florida actually care about are there for Spring Training.
As you point out, the Marlins just opened up a new stadium, so they’re not moving anywhere for a few decades.
However, I suppose that it’s possible that the Rays could be moved, if they could get out of their lease on The Trop. Moving them to the NYC market would be interesting and potentially profitable, but as you also point out, it’s unlikely that the Yankees and Mets would be happy about it. This also would include any move to Connecticut, which would also have the Red Sox unhappy.
Frankly, unless MLB could shoe horn the Rays into NYC, I’m not sure that there’s any other market out there that’s big enough to really support them. After all, the Tampa market is actually not all that small compared to many other existing MLB markets.
What about sonewhere in North Carolina? That state has a pretty huge population with only minor league teams to show for it. The other place to think about would be Oklahoma City, which has grown exponentially in the past decade and has that pretty good NBA team now. But a nice stadium down by the water in Tampa proper, with a good number of day games on the schedule (to attract retirees) would be a vast improvement.
Actually, OK City is smaller than the smallest market in MLB at the moment, Milwaukee. Milwaukee is the #39 market in the US, while OKC is only the 44th largest market. OTOH, Tampa/St.Pete is the 18th largest market. And Charlotte is the 33rd.
Also, moving the Rays to OKC would cause alignment issues, since OKC would hardly qualify as a geographically central division club. Oh, I suppose that Cleveland and OKC could switch divisions in theory, but I got a feeling that the Indians would NOT want to switch back to the AL East. From a divisional standpoint, NC would be better, but I’m not too sure that the Braves, or the O’s, or the Nats would be too cool with a team in NC. It’s all really complicated when one starts to consider moving into regions that other teams might feel are their own.
Completely valid points, for sure, especially regarding OKC needing a realignment. Charlotte would be a good destination for the Rays if the franchise were ever to move, for a few reasons — mainly because the city is much closer to the other four teams in the AL East and because their AAA farm team in Durham would likely give the area a built-in Rays fanbase already. Braves and Nationals calling dibs on the area would be probable, but not really logical, especially since the Rays are in the AL. But of course, the people who run baseball rarely base anything on logic.
Well, the AL Orioles wanted to block the NL Expos from moving to DC, so I don’t think that league differences matter in this particular regard. But you do make a good point about Charlotte. All in all, it seems like one of the more likely potential destinations IF the Rays were to leave Tampa.
Argh, if Longo misses the rest of the year I’m going to be pissed. I was positive he was going to be a good fantasy investment for this year.
So who’s had more injuries this year the Jays or Red Sox? When the Red Sox are not blaming their shortcomings on Bobby V, it’s injuries.
As for the Rays that’s frustrating. I don’t want them to move to the northeast because the last thing those people need is a loaded team. San Antonio would be a good destination
Injuries to me, are way more dependant on who and in what capacity, than volume.
An example: The Yankees have their 1 and 2 starter out, their elite closer, for awhile their backup closer, their backup two starter never pitched an inning, their left fielder and only speed threat and assorted minor injuries. The reason the Yankees have the best record in baseball is first of all depth, but second of all outside of that temporary period of time where their top two relievers (they struggled during that time) and top two starters (CC only missed two starts), they haven’t really been decimated in one portion of the team.
That said, starting pitching is more valuable than outfielders so I think the Jays have had the most catastrophic injuries even if not the most in games missed or amount of players. You can’t have enough depth to replace an entire rotation regardless of how much you plan ahead. Nobody has a farm system to do it either so it’s literally a situation where you’re screwed.
The Red Sox had what, seven outfielders out at once? Pedroia and Middlebrooks are out now, Buchholz has missed time, their closer has missed most of the year….They would have been fine except Beckett and Lester have struggled while healthy, Agon hasn’t been the middle of the order bat he needs to be and Melancon and company struggled early on.
To me, I’m sure the Sox have had more injuries than the Yankees and Jays, but the Jays have had it worse.
And another one gone, and another one gone
Another one bites the dust
Hey, I’m gonna get you too
Another one bites the dust
– The voodoo that hates the Jays
Why in hell wouldn’t the Os be offering full slot value for Gausman? They shouldn’t be looking to save a few bucks if that means losing the best pitcher in the draft (at least best in their eyes).
If Selig is serious, a man I do not now nor have ever trusted, he would move the Rays as the Tampa experiment failed. A good team but a shallow fan base. The few fans they do have are passionate though and love the club and I respect them. However an entire city should love the squad not just a few. Now a city like Montreal loved the Expos, went to games and were flat robbed of a franchise. I am sure they would gladly take the Rays in and in so doing the Rays would still be in a city that is close enough to stay in the AL East without having to reshuffle divisions. Just a thought.
Being from this area a stadium by the Fairgounds would be awesome. It would draw from Lakeland and Orlando.
St. Pete had their chance and blew it.
Move it off the penninsula and into tampa and it will be much easier to get to if your not from st pete.
The problem with that is that the Rays are tied to an ironclad use agreement on the Trop that will be hard if not impossible to break…that is only halfway through. Given this and the A’s situation, contraction and/or merger with another team cannot be dismissed.
No one goes to baseball games in Flordia, because they come north in the summer. We get flordians from May to Sept. Baseball season
but flordia people leave the state in the summer to go north where it is not as hot
Baseball isn’t going to merge or contract any team… the union is way to strong and the league is so profitable, no matter what any one owner may claim. Just look at the new local TV deals being tossed around… just move the Rays to New Jersey and the A’s to San Jose and be done with it already… they are the only two clubs that need the help and baseball needs major population/corporate support for the economics to really work. For those of you outside of NJ, you may be shocked, but we are a baseball starved state… Yes we have the Yanks, Mets & Phils all near by, but it is such a nightmare to go into The City and Philly can be a hassle too… North/Central Jersey would be crazy for a team, I’m just not sold on the Meadowlands…. I would actually prefer another site… but who knows.
Just out of curiosity in regards to the A’s… how is the Bay are considered two markets, when NY, LA and Chicago are all considered one…. does it go back the the A’s relocation from KC? I know I have read that San Jose was once considered part of the A’s area, but they basically gave them to the Giants for nothing in some sort of gentleman’s agreement when the Giants want to move the SJ in the early 90s.
PS – I do feel for the true Rays fans who support their team….. I just see this one eventually ending up in another state. Hopefully NJ…..
I bet Kevin Johnson is already making some calls.
I was in Tampa for Opening Day, my first time at The Trop. Impressive at first, the atmosphere quickly disintegrates as the cool dank air makes it seem like rain all of the time, plus, as advertised by other who warned me how loud it was, even with small crowds.
Worse yet, when I went to explore I was stopped a few times being told areas were “restricted” , even 80 or 90 minutes before game time when I wanted to go to the 2nd level and visit the Capt Morgan bar.
The usher treated me like I was a leper because I had upper deck seats.
They didn’t sell single game tickets to a non season ticket holder (full or partial pkg) until well into the year. If you are making travel plans you’re forced to go to scalpers.
I’ll never go back. We have relatives who live most of the year there and never go, even though when they come back here in may don’t hesitate to drive the 200 miles to Boston or New York.
Not very fan friendly. You only get one chance to make a first impression.
However, Ted Williams Hitters Hall of Fame and Museum (inside) is worth the price of admission, but stupidly, it’s only open on game days. You can’t visit “The Kid”s museum unless you buy a ticket. A shame, real nice place.
That said, the Trop is a dump…