M’s make money, Safeco Field to repay city in 125 years
Money! from Tracy O‘s flickr stream, cc-licensed
Jim Street, at mlb.com, writes on M’s reported a $17.8m profit last year.
Note that that’s reported profit, and subject to its own accounting hijinks. Still, yay money. As much as I may whine about the team’s spending habits and whatever else, as fans we’re obviously better off with a stable, financially viable team here and not playing in Jersey or something ridiculous.
“We had a good year, both on and off the field,” Mariners President Chuck Armstrong said. “The fan response to the team’s improved performance was outstanding. Our ownership has always invested all profits back into the team, the franchise and the ballpark, and did so again in 2007.”
Ummmmmmmmmm…. okay.
Anyway, the fun part (besides Street repeating the M’s “we spent $113m on payroll last year, sixth-highest in baseball” line) is the profit sharing, where Street talks about how once the team’s $200m in losses (snort) since 1999 are paid off, the team starts to pay profit-sharing to the Public Facilities District. 10%, which is still absurdly low considering the sweetheart rent the M’s get, and amazingly low considering the role the city played — but it’s a better deal than some cities got.
The thing I find most impressive is his professionalism
In the Times, Baker Romero writes about McLaren and that last roster spot (or two):
“Everyone of these guys has impressed us some way or another.”
McLaren has had a meeting about team needs and how the roster is shaping up. He said he and the coaches broke down each candidate and what he can bring to the team. McLaren also didn’t rule out GM Bill Bavasi searching the waiver wire for a player.
What in the world has Miguel “I can’t believe it’s not Bloomquist” Cairo done to impress anyone? He’s no defensive wiz, he’s hitting .269 with an awesome .269 OBP, he only has one RBI despite leading the team in at-bats… meanwhile, they’re waffling on whether they might carry another bat that can play first in Morse… or carry 12 pitchers?
Really?
Your choice of games today
The M’s play two split-squad games. I know we haven’t been putting up game threads for spring training games, and I’d say there are two reasons:
1) these games, especially this early in spring training, are good to watch some baseball and not much else
2) we’re really busy and spring training games are inconveniently scheduled for hanging out with the USSM readership
I haven’t been able to psyche myself up to tune in for some of these horrible lineups, but then I also wasn’t excited about those tone-setting McLaren-is-serious games against the Angels where he threw everything at them for no reason.
Also, because the M’s have gone into spring training with nearly every position set, there’s not a lot of drama to see if someone might force their way onto the starting lineup. Mike More could hit .600 all spring training and they’re not going to play him at first over Sexson. The most interesting question is whether Dickey will stick with the team, and given the amount of time they’re spending on him, that seems almost like a done deal too. Knuckleballs are cool.
Two games today:
@ Arizona
@ Milwaukee (Or, as Scrappy Do would sing, “Milwaaaaaaukeeee/Milwaaaaaaukeeee/Everybody talkie ’bout Milwauakee”)
No word on what the lineups look like yet. I assume they’re both pretty awesome.
McLaren uses numbers on hitters
From the Times blog:
McLaren plans to hand out a sheet of paper to hitters with some figures to illustrate patience, or lack thereof, at the plate. For example, what each hitter did on the first pitch, what he did on a 1-1 count, 2-1 count, etc.
“It will paint a picture for each of our hitters and they’ll see that they don’t hit well in certain counts,” McLaren said. “Sometimes it tells you that they’ve got their minds made up for that pitch no matter what it is. It’s an ongoing process. It’s not going to happen overnight.
“You’d be surprised what some of our hitters hit in certain counts. There’s one in particular who just stands out, and you shake your head and don’t know how it happened,” McLaren added.
Raul Ibanez on 1-2? .177/.128/.156?
Beltre on 0-2? .151/.149/.342?
Betancourt on 2-0? .160/.154/.280? Or 2-1? Or 2-2?
Kenji on 1-2? .214/.236/.257?
Lopez on 2-2? .159/.171/.246?
Sexson on 1-2, 2-0, 2-1, 2-2?
Bloomquist on any count?
Vidro, interestingly, is generally fine.
We’re In The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal. Seriously. Go look.Yea, the Felix story has been told before, but it’s the Wall Street Journal.
And, if you haven’t heard about it yet, the story about what the Cardinals are doing with their fans is pretty remarkable. Can you even imagine the Mariners doing something like that?
Tonight’s Cactus League Report
As msb writes:
Tonight—listen with awe as Rizzs and Sims try to ask Mat Olkin what he does….
Yes! KOMO has your evening entertainment covered!
Cactus League Report
every Wednesday from 7-9pmHosts Rick Rizzs and Dave Sims keep you updated on all the Spring Training news LIVE from McDuffy’s Sports Bar in Peoria, AZ.
This Weeks Guests
Jarrod Washburn
Norm Charlton
Greg Norton
Ryan Rowland-Smith
Mike Morse
Brant Ust
Matt Olkin (Player Personnel Management Consultant)
Art Theil
Come on, you can’t spell Mat (one T) or Art Thiel’s name correctly? Or make “week” possessive?
All the media guides are online! Good hunting!
It’s not just the Mariners: MLB.com has every team’s 2008 media guides available.
Your task: find the most inaccurate player information. Most egregious examples of height and weight fudging win a year’s subscription to USSM. We will also award prizes for unanticipated categories (like the Julio Franco Memorial Age Gap).
Go!
Tales from spring training
From the Seattle Times: The reason why Balentien and Ibanez were on the ground in the fifth inning in the outfield was indeed a swarm of bees buzzing around them.
“Hey, Raul!”
“Do I know you?”
“I’m Wlad. You know me, from last season?”
“I don’t want to know your name until you make the 25-man.”
“Last inning? No? You’re just going to stand there and chew tobacco. Okay, whatever. Too bad about Jones, huh Raul?”
“Whatever. You’re all just prospects to me– WAAUUUGGGHHH!!”
(Two bees cc-licensed by wolfpix)
Unintentional headline comedy
MLB.com: “Morse’s code for success is all positive”
Previously: “Morse suspended for positive drug test“
A.L. West Roundtable
I participated in a roundtable about the A.L. West in 2008 with Patrick Sullivan, Rich Lederer, and Sean Smith. It has been posted over at The Baseball Analysts website. Much to my chagrin, people quote ERA a bunch when talking about pitcher abilities, but beyond that, there’s some interesting stuff in there, even if I don’t agree with all of it.