Monday, April 30, 2012 |
Jorge Cantu Exercises His Option, Becomes Free Agent
Related: Mark Saxon asks if there is any relief help in the minors for the Angels.
Angels general manager Jerry Dipoto isn't going to find any All-Star relievers sitting in their living rooms waiting for the phone to ring or dangled by teams in the trade market this early, but he might have some solutions closer at hand. David Pauley, signed to a minor-league deal in March, has some major-league experience, a 2.57 ERA and 1.36 WHIP at Triple-A.A bolder move would be to recall the team's best pitching prospect, Garrett Richards, insert him into the major-league rotation and hope that Jerome Williams could give you a reliable seventh- or eighth-inning option. Richards is 3-1 with a 2.64 ERA at Salt Lake and arguably out-pitched Williams in spring training.
Labels: angels, transactions
Saturday, April 28, 2012 |
Waiting For 100 Losses: Indians 4, Angels 0
- Albert Pujols has about two more games (nine 0-fer at-bats) before he hits the Mendoza line. He has been held hitless in six of the last ten games, for a batting average of .153 over that span.
- Scioscia, on Pujols: "He and Mickey (Hatcher) have shared a lot of information." As Mike DiGiovanna put it, "Add punch line here, Halo fans."
- Because of the team's 6-14 start after Friday, a number of people were comparing this team to the 2002 team which also had the same record in as many games. Big difference: the only thing the Angels have in the minors is Mike Trout, and oops. (0-for-3 at the top of the lineup, with a walk.)
Nice win yesterday, but one win per week will get you 100+ losses.
Labels: angels, indians, recaps
Meanwhile, The Dodgers Keep On Winning: Dodgers 3, Nationals 2
Labels: dodgers, nationals, recaps
Friday, April 27, 2012 |
Can Mike Trout Pitch? Indians 3, Angels 2
The top of the lineup was full of zeros on the H and BB column, as seems to be the case generally, and so the news that the team had released Bobby Abreu and called up Mike Trout amounted to something of a shock. For all the world, I was quite certain that the team would send down Peter Bourjos (who has defensive value, but like pretty much everyone, is horrible offensively), optioning him while he still has them for Trout, if that happened at all. Abreu seems to have no offensive or defensive value, so the team managed to make the right call in that dimension. Yet, I can't help but think it's way too much to hope that Trout can help spark a broken offense, far too much to place on the shoulders of a man not even yet of legal drinking age. And the team's main problem — the bullpen — remains beyond his capacity to aid.
This is as early as I have ever called it, but I think the season is over. The Angels have cratered, and while they may recover some of this deficit (presently nine games out), it is unlikely they will get all of it. I have not done a proper study of teams this far out in the division race, but I would wager that the vast, vast majority of them so bludgeoned this early do not make it back.
Labels: angels, indians, recaps, transactions
Wednesday, April 25, 2012 |
Death, Taxes, And Angels Losses: Rays 3, Angels 2
"You have to dig deep," right fielder Torii Hunter said. "We can't get down in the first two innings and say, 'Here we go again.' We have to fight a little harder. I don't think we believe we're trying that hard. We're just going through the motions. We have to do what we're capable of doing. That's everybody; not just the players."I don't for a moment think bunting there would have been a wise choice, but it's the old-school choice, so if you're Scioscia, that's a real dagger. The fact is this team's offense has utterly shut down. It's perhaps not too surprising considering the organizational chaos they launched with the well-received and very tardy news that on-base percentage was, at last, no longer a stranger in the Angels' arsenal. Unfortunately, they've got a closet full of DHs, a shortstop with a hacktastic bat who looks backwards to the old Angels platonic ideal of clutch two-out hitting (if he was ever good at that — career .268 with two outs), and two first basemen with one of them pretending to play third or the outfield once in a while. Trumbo's continued absence yields the biggest head-scratchers all year, especially considering the Angels pretty much have consigned him to the bench lately, while he's outhitting everyone else.Hunter's remark seemed to be a veiled criticism of Scioscia for not having Maicer Izturis bunt after Hunter and Vernon Wells opened the second with singles. Izturis flied to left. Erick Aybar reached on catcher's interference to load the bases, but Chris Iannetta struck out and Bobby Abreu grounded out.
Asked if the game could have changed with some early execution, Hunter said, "You mean if we bunted in the second? What can we do? All we do is play the game."
Helen: Is Trumbo sick?
Me: The working theory seems to be that Scioscia hates the number 44.
Seriously, Abreu got a leadoff double — supplanting the hapless Aybar in the leadoff spot — and then nothing the rest of the night. The team's desperation is not quite so deep, however, that they feel obliged to call up Mike Trout, who is tearing up AAA presently, hitting a torrid .419/.483/.689 as of publication time for that Times story (presumably, this morning). In a sense, I get that, because if Albert Pujols isn't going to do anything for you, is it fair to throw that failing on Trout? On the other hand, if they wait another couple weeks, the team, already down 8.5 games, could be well into double digits by mid-May.
Update 4/26: A vital question:
Q: Who’s more useless to their team right now: Pujols or Aquaman?ESPN BoxOof. Rough times for El Hombre right now.
Tuesday, April 24, 2012 |
Vernon Wells Part II: Rays 5, Angels 0
But this wasn't entirely his doing, as the top four Angels in the lineup were 3-for-15, a terrible showing under any circumstance. The Angels end the days 7.5 games back of the Rangers, and April isn't even over. David Price may have been at the top of his game, but Ervin Santana gave up more home runs in one game than any Angels player has hit all year.
Update: Per a tweeted suggestion last night by David Williamson (@StolenMonkey86 on Twitter), Albert Pujols: .232/.284/.333. Mariners collectively: .233/.284/.353. Embarrassing.
Monday, April 23, 2012 |
Some Linkies
- The Dodgers are down to their last homestand with Frank McCourt as owner. And that's a good thing, mostly.
- Albert Pujols has gotten pull-happy in his stint with the Angels. Pujols' infamous quest for HR #1 as an Angel is part of an overall power outage plaguing the team, which trails the league in home runs.
- Tracy Ringolsby wonders if the Pujols acquisition represents the Angels following their own history with free agents, overspending on guys on the way down.
Labels: angels, dodgers, mccourts, sabermetrics, transactions
Sunday, April 22, 2012 |
A Win! A Real Series Win! Angels 6, Orioles 3
So, the Angels finally found a pitcher having a bad day, and capitalized in a big way, so go, them. Albert Pujols contribution to the proceedings was a walk and a run scored; he came close to a home run, again, on a foul ball near the left field pole, but it, too, succumbed to its foulness.
Jered Weaver gave up a two-run shot to Matt Wieters in the top of the fifth, and a single run in the seventh on Adam Jones' triple and a scoring groundout by Wieters again. But otherwise he was pretty damned solid, going the distance and sparing the Angels the use of Scott Downs again, finishing the night on an economical 114 pitches.
First series win all year. I still want the first 12 games back, though.
Labels: angels, orioles, recaps
Saturday, April 21, 2012 |
Philip Humber Tosses 21st Perfecto In ML History Against Seattle
Update: ESPN video postgame interview. Cool.
Labels: mariners, recaps, white sox
A Win That Feels Like A Win: Angels 6, Orioles 3
That said, so many things went right that it scarcely seems sporting to speak of anything else. The Angels got off to a 2-0 lead in the first on a combination of back-to-back doubles by Torii Hunter and Mark Trumbo, and they never looked back. In fact, if anything, Trumbo's exit in the eighth inning felt like a cheap shot by Mike Scioscia; he had been playing left field with some credibility, actually retiring J.J. Hardy in the fifth with a bit of effort.
The big score of the game was on Howie Kendrick's bases-clearing double in the sixth thanks to another error against the O's by Adam Jones (throwing) that allowed the team its margin of victory. Baltimore came back on a Nathan Reimold two-run shot in the top of the seventh that made it a game again, but no more, and so it stayed to the end, thanks to Angels closer Jordan Walden. For some reason, previous wins felt tenuous and slippery; this one was much more substantial to me. I can't put a finger on why, but I really think this is the start of the season for the Halos.
Labels: angels, orioles, recaps
Friday, April 20, 2012 |
A's Claim Rich Thompson
Update: Distantly related: the Mariners have signed ex-Angels OF Chris Pettit to a minor league deal, per Jerry Crasnick. He was released by the Dodgers at the end of spring training.
Labels: angels, athletics, transactions
Thursday, April 19, 2012 |
Another Day, Another Series Lost: A's 4, Angels 2
Angels Announce 4-Year/$35M Deal With Erick Aybar
Labels: angels, contracts, transactions
Infinite Series: A's 6, Angels 0
Labels: angels, athletics, ex-angels, recaps
Wednesday, April 18, 2012 |
Hobson's Choice: A's 5, Angels 3
Pleasant surprise: Vernon Wells homering in the ninth, a solo shot that didn't affect the game thanks to the Jepsen crater. Aybar and Kendrick in the 1-2 holes were both 0-fers, while Kendry Morales proved he can hit (yay) but can't run (boo), trying to leg out a double from a single. His feet are still quite slow (Ken Arneson on Twitter wrote that he's "as slow as a Molina"). Ouch.
Labels: angels, athletics, recaps
Why The Mariners Might Get Sold
If you were to profile a club that was a prime candidate to be sold, however, the Mariners would be right there at the top of the list, very much looking the part of a club for sale. They are perfectly positioned. They have owners that seem to be in need of selling. And they’re sitting within a near-perfect atmosphere to be unloaded in the wake of the Dodgers sale. The Mariners may not be on the market at this time, but you’d be hard pressed to find a team more suited for it.The current majority owner, Hiroshi Yamauchi, is old (84), needs the cash (Nintendo is off considerably from its peak), and has no interest in attending games anymore. The local minority owner, Microsoft shareholder Chris Larson, is in a Moores-style divorce, and has likewise seen his net value decline along with Microsoft. The valuation of the team comes as a shock, but then the Dodgers set a benchmark for shock franchise pricing (he thinks a valuation of $750M, arrived at by Larson's estranged wife's attorney, "is well within reach"). Much more there, of course, and the whole thing is worth a read.
Labels: dodgers, mariners, owners
Tuesday, April 17, 2012 |
A Coda On Jim Tracy's Career By Chris Jaffe
The [Rockies in Tracy's second year are] going backward, not forward, with him. You can all but hear the “Told ya soes” coming from Pittsburgh. Not only are the Rockies stalling from year to year, but also within years. In 2010, the team was in the pennant race until late, but it then dropped 13 of its last 14 games. Last year, they were better, losing only 11 of their last 14. For that matter, in his final season in Pittsburgh his team was 2-12 at the end. Tracy's teams weren’t normally bad in the past, but that’s a pretty impressive trio of season-ending performance over his last four years on the job.
Labels: ex-dodgers, managers, pirates, rockies
And Now For The Rest Of The Schedule: Brewers 5, Dodgers 4
That goes double for an offensively able team like the Brewers. Right now, they're about mid-pack in the NL at 4.30 runs/game, but the Dodgers' appearance on that list ahead of them is a small sample size aberration. The Dodgers got a couple runs each off Yovani Gallardo and K-Rod, who seems less likely to whiff batters he faces and more to give up home runs — as he did to Andre Ethier.
Unfortunately, it wasn't enough, as Javy Guerra came in to give up the losing runs to pinch-hitter George Kottaras on a walkoff double for the Brew Crew. Should Mattingly have left in Kenley Jansen for the ninth? I have no idea but would likely vote against. It's a long season, and overusing one guy is a recipe for catastrophe in August.
Get 'em tomorrow, paraphrasing @skinnyswag9, AKA Dee Gordon.
Labels: brewers, dodgers, recaps
Low Comedy: MLB Overrules Official Scorer, Charges Delmon Young With An Error
Getting Better All The Time: Angels 6, A's 0
In fact, the closest the A's got to scoring was in the ninth, when twice Angels infielders botched what should have been game-ending plays; Howie Kendrick and Erick Aybar made successive errors on grounders by Cliff Pennington and Kila Ka'aihue. LaTroy Hawkins bumbled through one more batter, walking Eric Sogard, but finally got Jemile Weeks to strike out on a high fastball.
Outside of his first, Brandon McCarthy actually pitched fairly well, save for plunking Peter Bourjos in the second. You do have to wonder why Bob Melvin stuck with McCarthy in the eighth after giving up a leadoff double to Albert Pujols with Morales, who had homered earlier, up next; but I don't question gifts. The Halos got a couple more runs off Andrew Carignan, someone I had not heard of but who looked like a linebacker converted to the mound, and pitched about as well, too. A fine game for the Angels, who needed one after their really bad start.
Labels: angels, athletics, recaps
Monday, April 16, 2012 |
An Excellent Start: Dodgers 5, Padres 4
Despite what turned out to be a locally bad outing for Clayton Kershaw — his three walks surrendered in the sixth doomed his chances of getting a win — he nonetheless wasn't terrible. The game's highlight surely had to be the 2-5-6-3 triple play turned in by a quick-thinking A.J. Ellis. Dee Gordon, in the middle of that, later hit a two-out walkoff single to end the game. It may not last, but it's fun while it's going.
As a sidebar, here's a 2007 piece by Colby Cosh on the topic of Jackie Robinson:
On conventional offence alone, he would be a credible Hall of Fame candidate -- but he created his runs while playing mostly at the key defensive position of second base, and he probably won as many games without swinging the bat as any non-pitcher who ever played. His baserunning feats are the best-known part of his game. Teammate and Brooklyn hero Johnny Podres tells a story of Robinson reaching first base, announcing to Cub pitcher Sad Sam Jones "I'm stealing second, Sam," breaking with the next pitch, and immediately doing the same thing at third and home, shattering Jones' nerves so badly with his soft-spoken threats that the hurler concluded the sequence with a wild pitch. It's the kind of tale that gets told often by old ballplayers, and it may not be literally true, but it is universally agreed that Robinson's basestealing exploits had a crippling effect on the opposition. He was also a superb bunter, and despite the early knocks on his unpolished defence -- the Dodgers played him at first for a year before switching him to the pivot -- his fielding statistics have held up to analysis at four different positions, and he was clearly in a near-elite class with the glove at second.
Labels: dodgers, padres, recaps
Sunday, April 15, 2012 |
Fail: Yankees 11, Angels 5
Jerome Williams was a nice story last year, and just another fifth starter this year. He didn't get out of the third. Takahashi and Carpenter continued last years' story of bad (or at the very least, inconsistent) bullpen pitching.
Labels: angels, recaps, stupid ideas, yankees
Saturday, April 14, 2012 |
Angels Continue Weak Early Showing: Yankees 5, Angels 0
It really pains me to see them struggle like this, especially with all the money sunk into the team. Hiroki Kuroda did very well in this game, eight innings of shutout ball, and I have to wonder what the Dodgers could possibly have been thinking when they let him walk.
In related news, the Angels designated Rich Thompson for assignment and called up Brad Mills.
Labels: angels, recaps, transactions, yankees
Friday, April 13, 2012 |
Dodgers Sale Approved
Levity: Judge Gross (and known Phillies fan) intimated he might insert language preventing the Dodgers from signing Cole Hamels.
Labels: dodgers, mccourts, phillies
ESPN Closing Page 2
Scott Downs Will Need No DL Time
Mike DiGiovanna has more, including the not-too-surprising news that the Angels are continuing their search for bullpen help.
“There are 30 teams, and I bet all of them are not particularly satisfied with the depth of their bullpen,” Dipoto said. “The next team that utters the words, ‘We have a perfect bullpen,’ will be the first.”
Thursday, April 12, 2012 |
It's Early, So The Games Don't Mean Anything (Not): Twins 10, Angels 9
Kendrick, Pujols, and Hunter all went 0-fer, which is depressing enough; but when your team leader on RBIs is Peter Bourjos, usually skulking around at the bottom of the lineup or thereabouts, something is going terribly wrong with your offense, nine runs or no. One bad outing by the bullpen sank the Angels, with Rich Thompson and Kevin Jepsen blowing up, somewhat predictably. Too many things going wrong at once.
I heard the other day that the Angels are offering season ticket holders special deals on suites, which has been happening a lot lately. If they keep playing like this, marquee player or not, there'll be a lot more empty seats. The Twins are a beatable team. The Angels should be playing better.
Wednesday, April 11, 2012 |
Times Files Brief With Bankruptcy Court Over Dodger Stadium Land Use
Labels: dodgers
Stuff I Felt Like Mentioning On The Day After The Dodgers' Home Opening
- The Angels proceeded to lose two of their first three games, so Monday's 5-1 win over the Twins came as a refreshing change. It did not go unnoticed that last year, the Angels won the first game of the opening series against the Royals and then lost the rest.
- Fox and MLB have filed objections to the Dodgers sale, mainly stemming from questions of whether Time Warner is involved in the sale. Chad Moriyama has a good rebuttal for why these concerns are not of particular interest to Dodger fans (though I tend to think this is an issue for Guggenheim's insureds).
- Speaking of the Dodgers, they won beat the Pirates 2-1 on the strength of an eighth-inning solo homer by Andre Ethier. Jon on opening day, the worst of which was a day without Vin Scully, who called in sick and will miss the whole series.
- The Padres are back up for sale. I was sure the new TV deal would keep them in Moores' hands. but I wonder if this isn't a sort of shot across the bow for the Dodgers sale: the TV deal isn't really as rich as it looks, and Moores' losses are bigger than imagined.
Labels: angels, dodgers, recaps
Saturday, April 07, 2012 |
Opening Day, Finally: Angels 5, Royals 0
The same can't be said of the Angels, who most definitely reloaded in the offseason. That did not, of course, mean the Halos' spring was without doubt. Jered Weaver's 5.40 ERA wasn't exactly confidence-inspiring, and even though the clock resets on the bus back to Anaheim, it's still somewhat unnerving as a fan to watch him struggle, even despite the dry, hot Arizona air.
Judging by today's effort, I needn't have worried. He surrendered two hits twice, but nobody ever even reached third base. In fact, perhaps the scariest thing you could say about the game was the two errors by "third baseman" Mark Trumbo, and both times Weaver bailed him out. Both resulted in a new baserunner:
- In the second inning, in Trumbo's first chance as a major league third baseman, he cleanly fielded Yuniesky Betancourt's routine grounder — and promptly threw the ball away. Pujols was able to recover — not for nothing does he have those Gold Gloves — but the comic sight of him tapping a toe blindly around the bag, hoping to stumble into it, was unbelievable.
- In the seventh, Betancourt was once more at the plate, when he hit a pop foul that Trumbo should have had — and simply muffed. I don't care what Terry Smith thought of it, that play is the third baseman's all the way and not the catcher's, because the third baseman is facing the ball.
All the scoring hit like a tsunami in the eighth, when Kendrys Morales stroked a one-out single to get things rolling. That brought in pinch runner Alexi Amarista, and two batters later, the Angels managed to load the bases on Chris Ianetta's single. That it was not an RBI single did not escape the crowd, and not a few boos went in Dino Ebel's direction as a consequence.
Angel fans got what they were hoping for in the next at-bat, for Peter Bourjos tapped a 40-foot infield single off reliever to short; such was Betancourt's haste to get to the ball and Bourjos' speed that the former had no time to make the play. Erick Aybar, who hitherto had seen a grand total of nine pitches in three at-bats, managed to make this one count, clearing the bases in what seemed to me a generously scored triple. The out attempt, wild and offline, was made at the plate, upon which Aybar continued motoring to third. It was an unpleasant day for Royals reliever Aaron Crow, who previously has schooled the Angels.
Torii Hunter drove in the last run of the game with a single against the inning's second reliever, Greg Holland. The top of the Angels lineup definitely performed below expectations on opening day, garnering a mere 3-15; but that beat the Royals, whom Weaver and Scott Downs skunked (0-16). In all, a fine game to start the season.
Finally, a few comments on food, as I am wont to do this time of year:
- Ruby's is gone. I consider this a net positive, as their truncated menu left me nothing I could eat.
- The Katella Grill is downsized and moved from its former endcap position on the first base side to a location just a few dozens of feet away. They have a very nice chicken salad that I tried, and enjoyed.
- The sushi place on field level is gone, as is the old Mexican stand. Chronic Tacos has a prominent stand in the latter's place.
- The last of the Home Run Grills at home plate and on the first base side have been replaced with a beer stand. This means Clyde Wright has the only barbecue franchise in the entire stadium.
- There's a place in the outfield that sells street tacos; I haven't been there, but Helen has. I may try them one of these days.
Labels: angels, recaps, royals
Friday, April 06, 2012 |
MLB Concern Over Lack Of Details In Guggenheim Dodgers Bid May Derail Team Sale
Several individual owners have joined baseball officials in questioning why the Guggenheim group, led by Mark Walter, Stan Kasten and Magic Johnson, has not filed a more detailed Purchase and Sale Agreement more than a week after the group was selected from among three finalists by Frank McCourt, the outgoing owner who is selling the club through U.S. Bankruptcy Court.Previously, we have heard that McCourt may retain ownership but not control of the parking lots. My suspicion is more along the lines of something I missed a week or two ago from Ross Newhan (h/t MSTI), namely that the other owners are getting itchy about the possibility of a public company owning a share (and particularly, a majority share) of a baseball team. The idea that the Dodgers might be subject to SEC reporting requirements can't sit well with the other owners, who only too well know that the principle reason for wanting McCourt out was not so much that he was a bad and spendthrift owner as the fact that he lifted the curtain on the inner workings of the Dodgers.The group was expected to file a Purchase and Sale Agreement with MLB earlier this week, but postponed the filing for two days before submitting a short form agreement that lacked what MLB regards as most of the necessary details. Of particular interest to MLB is a breakdown of where the money is coming from to cover the $2.15 billion sale price and what role McCourt has in the ownership, control and profit-sharing of the Dodger Stadium parking lots.
Until MLB knows and reviews those details, according to sources, concern mounts about how the deal is financed and especially if McCourt stands to continue to profit from Dodger-related operations under the new ownership.
Related: Bill Shaikin reports that the sale agreement forbids the new owners to make comments disparaging to the McCourts. This scumbag cannot go away fast enough.
Wednesday, April 04, 2012 |
The Slow Death Of Cable: 3.58M Projected To Drop Cable/Satellite In 2012
According to the Convergence Consulting report, “The Battle for the North American Couch Potato: Bundling, TV, Internet,Telephone, Wireless,” 2.65 million American multichannel subscribers cut their cords between 2008-2011 and switched to over-the-top (OTT) services like Netflix (NSDQ: NFLX) to get their video programming. The report says that only 112,000 cable, satellite and telco TV service subscriptions were added in the U.S. last year — less than a third of the 380,000 added subscriptions that Leichtman Research Group reported last month while auditing only the top multi-channel programming services.There is an argument that Fox and the other RSNs will simply eat the losses if all their contracts go sour, but I find this difficult to believe. It is the same argument that said the Titanic couldn't go down because it had so many watertight compartments. Such a view fails to consider massive and systemic breaches. That's what this projects.Regardless of whose number you use, the news isn’t great for the cable and satellite business, which from 2000-2009 added an average of around 2 million subscribers a year. Convergence Consulting believes migration of consumers to over-the-top services to is blame for this sudden drop-off and says the trend will only accelerate further in 2012. In fact, the firm projects the number of folks ditching their cable or satellite service in 2012 for OTT services to reach nearly 3.58 million.
Labels: tv
Police Pull Guns On Torii Hunter In His Own Home
Update: Torii clarified that the cops did not have their guns trained on him. So there is that.
Labels: angels, stupid ideas, suck
More On RSN Contract Valuations
Team | Network | 2011 Subscribers (millions) | $/subscriber |
---|---|---|---|
Yankees | YES Network | 12.0 | $2.80 |
Braves | SportSouth | 8.7 | $0.57 |
Rangers | Fox Sports Southwest | 8.1 | $2.66 |
Mets | SportsNet New York | 7.4 | $2.38 |
Angels | Fox Sports West | 7.1 | $2.66 |
Dodgers | Prime Ticket | 5.8 | $2.33 |
Red Sox | New England Sports Network | 4.1 | $3.35 |
Phillies | Comcast SportsNet Philadelpha | 3.1 | $3.03 |
The surprises, of course, are that the Dodgers have less market penetration than the Angels. (The lower per-capita price is a direct function of their current TV deal.) Regarding the Dodgers' next contract, the article makes this unbelievable bit of speculation (as usual, emboldening is all mine):
Analysts say a Dodgers network could command a monthly fee of about $3.50 per home beginning in 2014 and reach a market that could stretch as far east as Las Vegas and north to San Luis Obispo.I say that's unbelievable because of the news from BGR (nee Boy Genius Report) that one million US adults discontinued cable TV service in 2011, representing more than a third of the estimated 2.65 million who have done so since 2008. The trend of cable-cutting is accelerating, but these ridiculous deals presume that the costs of RSN contracts will continue to be amortized over a larger customer base. That seems implausible if satellite and cable TV viewers continue to conclude those services aren't worth the money.That could translate into nearly $300 million in revenue annually before the network sells a single ad spot. Another bonus: Proceeds from regional sports networks aren't subject to baseball's revenue-sharing rules, which seek to maintain competitive balance among the MLB's 30 teams.
Update: Deadspin, whom I find myself with increasing respect for these days (they have been on the side of the angels in both the Michael Vick and Penn State stories), has a fantastic piece about this very subject that echoes my feelings about the situation, and provides additional clarification:
Read the whole thing.We're now learning that that cable providers are tired of RSNs' bullshit and perfectly willing to yank telecasts. Non-fans—against their will—subsidize telecasts for fans. Consider the MSG-Time Warner standoff in winter (and what's going on in San Diego now). According to reports (because none of this is transparent), Madison Square Garden wanted Time Warner customers to pay a 53 percent increase on its $4.65-a-month fee. That's $7.11 a month—or $85.32 a year, from every Time Warner subscriber in New York—for the Knicks, Rangers, Islanders, and Devils. Time Warner naturally balked, and might have held out longer if not for Jeremy Lin. In San Diego, Fox Sports San Diego is reportedly seeking a 400 percent fee increase from Time Warner Cable. Time Warner wisely has said no.
MLB could also face competition from First Row Sports or some other outlaw streaming enterprise. The pirate feeds don't cut out nearly as much as they used to, and, so far, the feds haven't been able to sue them out of existence.
As for a customer revolt: One gets progressively likelier, as cable prices climb while the economy lags and the market develops viable alternatives. One doesn't need cable anymore to fall under a screen's spell. There's Netflix and Hulu, video games are better than ever, and there's all kinds of other stuff to watch on the internet. Why should someone who buys cable just for the occasional movie write the Knicks such a big check? As the bills get bigger and bigger, people will check out. As for FCC intervention—forcing à la carte cable, or some such thing—it's not likely, but it's not impossible.
Labels: angels, dodgers, padres, tv
Tuesday, April 03, 2012 |
Drinking The Kool-Aid On TV Contract Valuations
Baseball is changing, evolving into a massively moneyed game in which a group spends $2.15 billion for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Or the Cincinnati Reds, the team with the smallest television market in MLB, guarantees Joey Votto $251.5 million for the next 12 years. Or Matt Cain, he of the career 69-73 record, nets the biggest deal ever for a right-handed pitcher with $127.5 million over six seasons.Wait a minute. The Reds' TV deal is currently among the worst in the business at $10M/year through 2016, barely enough to pay for a free agent reliever and the signing bonus for a first-round draft pick. The Josh Bethel article above says the Reds have the smallest TV market in MLB, but some of the highest viewership, with 7.2% of the audience watching on average. Ratings from the first half of 2011 showed the team with a 7.82 share representing 71,800 households. That's about two-thirds the Dodgers' figure from 2009, when the team was drawing well. Assuming the same insane figure of $750/household*year I calculated for the Dodgers floated deal, and rounding up to 100,000 viewers, that amounts to $75M/year — or a more than seven times increase. (If you just use the numbers directly, it's only $54M/year.) But ... really? It's hard for me to imagine those viewers are worth as much as (say) Angels or Dodgers viewers. A large piece of this is a function of what Fox can sell advertisements for. Teams with proven track records will get better deals. And at the moment, the Reds have spent a long time not winning.The economy stopped growing. Baseball’s never did. And it won’t anytime soon.
Labels: angels, dodgers, reds, tv
Giants Extend Matt Cain Through 2017 On $127.5M Deal, Richest Ever For A RHP
Labels: giants, transactions