Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
@LeBatardShow
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"He's done. (Yankees GM Brian Cashman) is done. You don't survive that...this is the beginning of the end." – @DavidPSamson says Cashman's recent critical comments of Giancarlo Stanton will eventually get him fired this year if the Yankees don't perform well
Finally! Official Hot Stove League thread!
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Donn Beach
- Posts: 15411
- Joined: Thu May 02, 2019 1:06 am
Re: Finally! Official Hot Stove League thread!
David Samson
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Donn Beach
- Posts: 15411
- Joined: Thu May 02, 2019 1:06 am
Re: Finally! Official Hot Stove League thread!
Giants gonna sign everyone
MLB Network insider Jon Heyman said Wednesday that he expects San Francisco’s front office, led by president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi, to make a big splash. Heyman reported the Giants are in the mix to sign outfielder/first baseman Cody Bellinger, third baseman Matt Chapman and reigning NL Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell.
"The Giants, they're in on everything," Heyman said. "They're really not happy with the fact that they've had two mediocre years in a row after that one great year a few years ago. They're going big."
Re: Finally! Official Hot Stove League thread!
Interesting op-ed in the Seattle Times:
When I coached summer baseball, the father of one of our players would sit behind home plate and talk about the Mariners to anyone who would listen, keeping score for our team while listening to Sims and Rizzs on the radio. “Something’s got to change,” he would lament with every embarrassing M’s loss. Well, three years later, something did: He became their majority owner.
Since then, John Stanton has nearly doubled the club’s value, from $1.2 billion to $2.2. He’s built a moneymaking machine: aside from marginal losses in 2018 and 2020, the club has steadily increased its income, ranking third in MLB at $71 million in 2021 and leading the league by raking in $86 million in 2022.
Who’s contributing all this money? Mostly you and me.
Single-game ticket prices have skyrocketed 25% under Stanton. Season ticket prices are going up 9%-33% in 2024. And despite the good PR the Mariners got for their Value Menu options hidden around the stadium, nearly all food items are $10 or more, and beers start at $15. Even so, fans have continued to support the club, ranking 10th in attendance this year.
Even non-fans have chipped in, against their will. In 1994, King County voters rejected a measure to raise sales taxes to build what would become Safeco Field, then T-Mobile Park. A month later, the Metropolitan King County Council passed a similar package anyway. We footed $372 million of the $517 million, good for 72% of the bill. Then, in 2018, the council approved another $135 million of our tax money for renovations to their park, on our behalf. Without a public vote.
For those keeping score at home, that’s $507 million we’ve contributed to this private baseball club, paying the Mariners ownership a chunk of everything we buy every day, whether we like it or not. Plus tickets. Plus food and drinks. Think you’re not included because you watch at home, or don’t watch at all? The Mariners own ROOT Sports and cash in off your cable package.
In exchange, the team is supposed to win a World Series. Or at least try.
However, the club has mostly just pocketed our money, running out middling or worse payrolls, hoping to luck their way into a championship. Of that $86 million they made last year, only $8.2 million was reinvested into signing free agents to improve the team. Instead, they spent $55 million on upgrading the fancy suites behind home plate. This is not what trying to win looks like.
A year ago, ESPN’s Jeff Passan called M’s fans “spoiled and greedy” for disagreeing with these tactics. At this year’s season-end news conference, after missing the playoffs for the seventh time in his eight-year tenure, Mariners President of Baseball Operations Jerry Dipoto said they aim to win only 54% of their games and are “doing the fan base a favor” that the team hasn’t risked its financial future to win a championship. (He later apologized.)
That approach has built us a playoff-adjacent baseball club in the Northwest, but they’ve now missed the playoffs 21 seasons of the last 22. They’re the only major sports franchise to never even reach a championship. And this year, their division rival Texas Rangers won a World Series ring by simply signing star players the Mariners didn’t.
And now, just two weeks into the offseason, reports say the Mariners do not intend to pursue 2023 unanimous MVP Shohei Ohtani, one of the greatest free agents of all time, if his services would cost too much of our money that John Stanton now claims as his own.
This falls short of what taxpayers are owed from this publicly subsidized team. Would you willingly donate at the cash register to a program not trying to succeed? Would you buy something that only worked 54% of the time? Are we so passive around here that we’re embarrassed to ask our teams to try?
Perhaps John Stanton is feeling more patient these days. The fans are not. We’ve been keeping score and the Mariners need to start holding up their end of the bargain starting this offseason. It’s time to put our money back on the field.
And if they don’t, it’s time for a refund.
https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/wh ... few-ideas/
When I coached summer baseball, the father of one of our players would sit behind home plate and talk about the Mariners to anyone who would listen, keeping score for our team while listening to Sims and Rizzs on the radio. “Something’s got to change,” he would lament with every embarrassing M’s loss. Well, three years later, something did: He became their majority owner.
Since then, John Stanton has nearly doubled the club’s value, from $1.2 billion to $2.2. He’s built a moneymaking machine: aside from marginal losses in 2018 and 2020, the club has steadily increased its income, ranking third in MLB at $71 million in 2021 and leading the league by raking in $86 million in 2022.
Who’s contributing all this money? Mostly you and me.
Single-game ticket prices have skyrocketed 25% under Stanton. Season ticket prices are going up 9%-33% in 2024. And despite the good PR the Mariners got for their Value Menu options hidden around the stadium, nearly all food items are $10 or more, and beers start at $15. Even so, fans have continued to support the club, ranking 10th in attendance this year.
Even non-fans have chipped in, against their will. In 1994, King County voters rejected a measure to raise sales taxes to build what would become Safeco Field, then T-Mobile Park. A month later, the Metropolitan King County Council passed a similar package anyway. We footed $372 million of the $517 million, good for 72% of the bill. Then, in 2018, the council approved another $135 million of our tax money for renovations to their park, on our behalf. Without a public vote.
For those keeping score at home, that’s $507 million we’ve contributed to this private baseball club, paying the Mariners ownership a chunk of everything we buy every day, whether we like it or not. Plus tickets. Plus food and drinks. Think you’re not included because you watch at home, or don’t watch at all? The Mariners own ROOT Sports and cash in off your cable package.
In exchange, the team is supposed to win a World Series. Or at least try.
However, the club has mostly just pocketed our money, running out middling or worse payrolls, hoping to luck their way into a championship. Of that $86 million they made last year, only $8.2 million was reinvested into signing free agents to improve the team. Instead, they spent $55 million on upgrading the fancy suites behind home plate. This is not what trying to win looks like.
A year ago, ESPN’s Jeff Passan called M’s fans “spoiled and greedy” for disagreeing with these tactics. At this year’s season-end news conference, after missing the playoffs for the seventh time in his eight-year tenure, Mariners President of Baseball Operations Jerry Dipoto said they aim to win only 54% of their games and are “doing the fan base a favor” that the team hasn’t risked its financial future to win a championship. (He later apologized.)
That approach has built us a playoff-adjacent baseball club in the Northwest, but they’ve now missed the playoffs 21 seasons of the last 22. They’re the only major sports franchise to never even reach a championship. And this year, their division rival Texas Rangers won a World Series ring by simply signing star players the Mariners didn’t.
And now, just two weeks into the offseason, reports say the Mariners do not intend to pursue 2023 unanimous MVP Shohei Ohtani, one of the greatest free agents of all time, if his services would cost too much of our money that John Stanton now claims as his own.
This falls short of what taxpayers are owed from this publicly subsidized team. Would you willingly donate at the cash register to a program not trying to succeed? Would you buy something that only worked 54% of the time? Are we so passive around here that we’re embarrassed to ask our teams to try?
Perhaps John Stanton is feeling more patient these days. The fans are not. We’ve been keeping score and the Mariners need to start holding up their end of the bargain starting this offseason. It’s time to put our money back on the field.
And if they don’t, it’s time for a refund.
https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/wh ... few-ideas/
Re: Finally! Official Hot Stove League thread!
I just read that over my wallburger lunch.
Good stuff keep the pressure on.
Good stuff keep the pressure on.
dt
Re: Finally! Official Hot Stove League thread!
That article resonated with me - it pulled together numbers in a way that really made the greed and indifference of the owners stand out.
Depending on what happens this offseason, I may be taking a hiatus from being an earnest fan. I'm not a bandwagon jumper - I have been an enthusiastic M's fan most of my adult life. I've stood by them during the lean years. I've been patient during the rebuild. But one, abbreviated stint to the post season in 21 years is no longer enough to sustain my enthusiasm for the team.
Sure, I'll stand behind them. I'll root for the players, and hope they do the best with what's given to them. I'll read the headlines and passively follow the progress of the team over the regular season. I'll hang out on this board and soak in opinions of fellow fans, and even speculate a little myself.
But I don't feel like contributing to the profits of ownership that does not have any intention of giving back to the fans. I will be canceling plans to go to spring training. I will not attend regular season games when they play in the Bay Area. I will not buy merch. I won't renew my subscription to mlb.com so I can watch games live. I had planned a trip to Seattle this summer to take in a few games - not wasting my money.
The Rangers and the Astros have rewarded their fans for their patience and their patronage. Stanton prefers to buy another yacht and flip the bird at us from the owner's booth.
Depending on what happens this offseason, I may be taking a hiatus from being an earnest fan. I'm not a bandwagon jumper - I have been an enthusiastic M's fan most of my adult life. I've stood by them during the lean years. I've been patient during the rebuild. But one, abbreviated stint to the post season in 21 years is no longer enough to sustain my enthusiasm for the team.
Sure, I'll stand behind them. I'll root for the players, and hope they do the best with what's given to them. I'll read the headlines and passively follow the progress of the team over the regular season. I'll hang out on this board and soak in opinions of fellow fans, and even speculate a little myself.
But I don't feel like contributing to the profits of ownership that does not have any intention of giving back to the fans. I will be canceling plans to go to spring training. I will not attend regular season games when they play in the Bay Area. I will not buy merch. I won't renew my subscription to mlb.com so I can watch games live. I had planned a trip to Seattle this summer to take in a few games - not wasting my money.
The Rangers and the Astros have rewarded their fans for their patience and their patronage. Stanton prefers to buy another yacht and flip the bird at us from the owner's booth.
Re: Finally! Official Hot Stove League thread!
The number that really stood out for me and was 55 million for luxury suites and 8 million on free agency.
dt
Re: Finally! Official Hot Stove League thread!
Perhaps an initiative in King County to rescind the portion of the Public subsidy we give to the M's is in order. I believe even the threat of that initiative would be enough to get them to perform better than 54%. If not, I seriously doubt the initiative would fail.
Re: Finally! Official Hot Stove League thread!
FWIW Sponsors reportedly contribute 37 percent of the sports revenues worldwide, comparing to 24 percent from media rights, 18 percent from gate revenues, 12 percent from merchandise and 8 percent from venue construction. Yes, outside funding, often from taxpayers, for venue construction is considered a revenue source.