I don't believe the tickets have gone on sale yet. There's a "lottery" for the privelage to buy tickets to see the oh so wonderful Red Sox. Oh joy!

I should be going to 2 or 3 of the Sox games. With our season tickets we got our standard 2 tickets plus an opportunity to buy 3 sets of 4. I grabbed 2 tickets for the first game in the draft of tickets and I will probably be partaking in the extras as well. Wade is a Sox fans, so hpoefully he can go with.

Anyway, the state of the Nationals is a mess. There are teams that are probably worse, attendance wise (Florida for instance) but it's pretty rough. It is a new team, but I would hope in a market like this that they would be doing better. They just need to win and maybe people will start to care.

Hm, I just looked it up and the Nationals were 15th last year in PCT attendance (69.2%). 19th in AVG attendance (29,005). It's not as bad as people think, but you would expect more in a season with a new stadium. They were well ahead of Baltimore in both categories, which is an important number, particularly considering the attendance Baltimore gets for New York and Boston games.

The real question for the Nats:

1) How much will the pay for Strasburg

2) Will they bring him up immediately

It's weird- for as much crap as everyone gives the Royals, I can't remember the last time they didn't sell out Opening Day within an hour or two of single game tickets going on sale. It's harder once the season gets started because there's just not the same population base to draw from so the numbers drop but you can never get Opening Day tickets.

SI

Why is Jay Bruce not playing center?

This will indeed be interesting. Obviously whether they bring him up will depend on how he plays -- I can't imagine them calling him up without first playing a few starts in the minors, but maybe Boras is going to attempt to make that part of the deal somehow. I've mentioned it before, but I think the Nats have to tread lightly here -- they lost their 1st RoundDraft pick last year because they couldn't sign a deal. AS others have mentioned, the reality is that it doesn't hurt the team much, but I worry about the image it gives to potential fans.


I think I would rather average 29,000 in attendance and not sellout opening day than have a 20,000 average attendance and sell out opening day. :) KC barely cracks 1.5mil in attendance for a year.

I fnothing else it is, again, an image thing. At the end of the year I can load up espn.com and get these numbers, and it tells me nothing about opening day. In addition, as I alluded to, "we" want to sell more tickets than the Orioles. There's a quote around somewhere from Angelos where he says that a team would not be successful in Washington. So I get joy each year when the Nationals have a higher attendance number.

Having said that, I just looked and KC spends JUST a little more on their payroll, so take that for what it's worth (KC #25, $58m, WAS #26, $55m). That's 2008, though, and 2009 includes, if nothing else, Dunn and the aforementioned Strasburg.

Maybe it seems sad because it's the Nats & they're still relatively new in town or something but you can get two in the field level just past first base for the Braves home opener right now. Then again, you could say that pretty often.

Why anybody would pay $45 buck a pop ($40 + $5 to Ticketmaster), plus parking plus concessions to watch this incarnation of the Braves escapes me frankly. And it's about $10 more per ticket in DC for a similar, or slightly worse, location. $55 for starters for a team that lost 102 games last year? Who in their right mind?

Living in a city with a minor league team, I'm stoked that we can get 4 seats behind home plate for $40 and have a great time. I haven't been to a major pro league sporting event in years. I've been wanting to go to a Reds game just because we live close enough, but haven't gotten around to it. But we'll hit 8-10 Lexington Legends games this year, I'm sure.

I miss the Macon Braves. Gwinnett is about as close but hasn't opened, would really like to hit the Rome Braves at some point (where my dad is from) but it's on the opposite side of the state for me now & a bit of a pain.

What we do have here in Athens though, and I'm planning to check out for the first time this year, is one of those semi-pro/summer league teams, the Athens Pirates.
Mostly departing college seniors looking to up their chances of being drafted or signed, as they call it "pre-professionals, some JUCO kids trying to get scholarship offers to finish their college careers. The Great South League
has now expanded to include 20 teams across 6 states. My hope is that it'll be reasonably competitive ball, which is the biggest thing for a good baseball game to watch.

In one of those odd things that apparently happens with teams like this, the upcoming roster includes 4 players from Siena, 4 from NY Tech, and 3 from Alcorn State. Previous alums of the team include Washington's John Lannan and top Twins prospect Mike McCardell.

The one thing I do miss about living in Norfolk was going to go see the Tides for such a rediculously low amount of money. I think it was something like 7 bucks, and you could basically sit anywhere, as long as it wasn't packed.

We do have a rookie ball team around here, but I've at least heard of a few of the AAAers. I'll probably try to check out a game though, this year.

I'd wager they won't want him throwing much more than 200 innings this year. So, I'd guess 2 minor league starts, and assuming he doesn't look retarded, he'll be around for about 5-6 major league ones before getting shut down for the year.

...and I got in on the lottery, so on April 2 I can buy up to 4 tickets to each of the 3 games.

The Phillies have named Chan Ho Park the #5 starter today.

Well, that World Championship was nice while it lasted. :(

Has anyone started the "Chan Ho Park Blows, Year X" thread for this year yet?

SI

It's much more fun to just bump the prior one...you don't know what kind of stat line you're about to see.

I agree- that's why I said it's all about numbers- KC doesn't have the people in the metropolitan area to draw 45K or even 30K nightly with a bad team. It just seems odd to me that they have seats for Opening Day when they average 29K per year- those ~15K extra fans should be easy to find for a premium game. Then again, it's a week after the season starts so that probably has something to do with it.

SI

Phillies are looking at Sheffield

awesome. if you're offering then i'll check dates and prices and all that shit tomorrow.

if you want them all then i can just always buy them on stubhub i'm sure

I'm going to buy 4 for each game no matter what. I will probably do best available with some possible adjustments based on location. If you're used to fenway prices this would be a cake walk. ;) I should end up with extras, though. It hsouldn't be hard to unload them -- I think I've had enough friends ask to fill it almost, so I'm not worried about being stuck with tickets. If you need to work something out early, we can talk. If not, I can let you know what's going on when the games get closer, but it's a very good possibility that I can make 2 or 4 tickets available for you.

who knows, maybe someone will pitch a no no

you ass-face! :D

sounds good. really good. i may sound out a friend or something just for shits.

Eh, sure, why not. That would unquestionably give them the best defensive outfield in the league, when he's paired with Ibanez.

Still, very humorous that Sheff got cut with 499.

I think Amaro just likes acquiring players whom are on his favorite baseball cards

Ross Gload banished from the Royals to Florida today so Trey Hillman is not tempted to use "grit" as too much of a determining factor when he puts together his lineup. He still has Willie Bloomquist to pencil into the starting lineup too much, tho.

SI

What do bad hands have to do with how much ground he can cover? And whether he's infinitely better than Willy Tavaras?

20 year old Rick Porcello makes the Tigers rotation, as does 2008 1st rounder Ryan Perry. Perry will pitch 6th/7th inning most likely. Features a 100 mph FB and so far seems tough as nails.

Going to be interesting.

Defensively he's almost certainly not better than Taveras. Taveras is average to slightly above average in range, while Bruce is better suited to a corner spot. Certainly a combo of Taveras/Bruce is far better defensively than Bruce/Griffey. The issue isn't Bruce or Taveras, or IMO even having Taveras on the team, the issue is letting one of the worst OBPs on the team bat first just because he can steal bases.

Sidney Ponson and Horacio Ramirez are the 4th and 5th starters for the Royals.

Who on earth thinks they are a sleeper team if 40% of their starts are going to be made by this duo or by people that couldn't beat them out for the spots?

Is there honestly nothing better in the Royals' system?

Brian Bannister and Luke Hochevar would be better but hey, if the Royals want to throw Ponson and Ramirez out there to start the season only to realize they were wrong in about a month and a half, that's fine by me.

The "good" news is that Ramirez will get all of one start in April and will pitch mainly out of the 'pen. Banny has looked bad this spring- he needs something to get his confidence back and head on straight as neither has been true since last April. Hochevar- I dunno. I think they might be trying to stretch out his arby clock but that's the best I can guess. Both of them in the rotation is a joke.

SI

I fully expect Hochevar to be the 5th starter by early to mid-May and Ramirez will be in the bullpen. If that happens, Ramirez will only make two or three starts. My impression is that they want Hochevar to get consistant starting work every 5th day in April.

Ponson will do until Bannister gets his head screwed back on straight again.

Royals now have 56 homers in spring training with Teahan hitting one every 9 at-bats. I don't care who you're facing. That's a lot of homers and the other teams are facing the same pitching fodder that the Royals are seeing.

So you're saying he's on HGH?

Banny just hasn't had his head on straight in a year and he needs to be in Omaha working things out so I'm just fine with that move- it had to be done or he's going to get lit up. Also, in the end, it's easy to say that it's just 2 or 3 games tops and gaining an extra year of Hochevar's MLB service while sticking it to Boras is always good. But I don't think that's the truth.

Problem is that Hochevar is our 4th best pitcher, not 5th best so he should get that #4 spot not number 5 spot. Having him out there for 30 games in a season and innings sponges Ponson, Duckworth, Ramirez, whoever for 20 would be what's best for the Royals. However, having Ponson out there for 30 and Hochevar out there for 20 is a big difference.


I could hit 56 home runs off my sister in a little league park but it doesn't mean much. I could also sit there and take walks all day if my paycheck isn't really on the line and I'm being told to do it so it looks like I'm working with coach like I'm supposed to. But when it counts, let's see what they do. If Teahen would like to revert back to 2nd half 2006 Teahen, I would be really happy- he was everything you could want in a hitter: power, average, took walks, even had the look of being "clutch" (I know, it doesn't really exist).

SI

The Royals are know as one of the cleaner organizations during the steroid era. We obviously need to cheat more.

Obviously, the Royals were not good enough at cheating ;)

SI

I'll be shocked is Strasburg pitches in the majors this year. Hell, I'll be shocked if he signs any sooner than August 15 at about 11:59 PM. By that point he won't have pitched in a game in months, so it'd be in their best interests to hold him back until next year.

Also, I saw it mentioned that the Nats didn't sign their first round pick last year, but didn't see it mentioned that they get that pick again this year. They'll have two picks in the top 10, since they picked at 9 last year and get slotted right behind the 9th pick this year. While I highly doubt that will factor into their decision with the first pick, it will be interesting to see if they go cheap with their second pick. If they don't, they could receive quite the influx of talent into their system this year.

Strasburg may be the exception for Boras as far as getting his picks signed quickly. If he can get Strasburg in the majors this year it gets his service clock ticking and the big payday is that much closer.

I guess that's possible, but I don't think it'll play out like that. Boras is going to try and get the most money possible, bottom line. He's going to try and set the bar for rookie contracts. Just look at the rumored $50 million/6 year deal. There's no way he gets that, but he's going to get the most money in draft history. He'll sign a major league deal, which will ensure he moves fast. Plus, MLB doesn't like it when deals are made for above slot, so they try and hold the announcements back until right before the deadline. I think, taking all these factors into account, that he'll debut sometime in late May/early June 2010.

Dude, the Giants lead the ML in homers during spring training. This is the same team, with the same players, that hit less than 100 all season last year. Spring stats don't mean anything.

Ichiro has been held out the last few days with what has been reported as fatigue, presumably from his effort in the WBC. The team sent him to a doctor today as a precaution, and they announced earlier tonight that they'd present the results to the media tomorrow. One would think if the results were routine and there was no news, they'd have said that, but who knows.

Obviously M's fans are crossing their fingers that the news tomorrow isn't bad on Ichiro.

This is great news. Can you say "Strasburg"?

EDIT: NM..I forgot that this seasons draft is based on last seasons record. Bad news, indeed.

The news on Ichiro - he's been suffering from a bleeding ulcer and will start the season on the 15-day DL.

So Sheffield sounds like he'll be a Met soon ... Not sure wtf the Mets are doing. Sheff is an all time favorite of mine, but this has bad news written all over it.

Scapegoat of 2009 ;)

Not sure why this is bad for the Mets. They need corner OF help and he may be able to provide it. If its a cheap incentive laden deal, I say go for it.

Are there any racists on the Mets?

He cannot play the field. At all. Plus Sheff is not going to be happy once his role is limited, which it will be, and sure they can cut him, but I won't be shocked when he poisons the room before it happens.

and he's a roid-head right?

fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck