Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Tampa at the brink

According to Tampa Bay principal owner Stuart Sternberg, the Rays pushed their payroll to the absolute limit this offseason in fine-tuning the 2009 roster.
"We, quite frankly, can't really afford what we've got on the field this year. But at least we were able to spend the money on a lot of value, we think, and pieces that will give us the opportunity to grow the franchise over the long haul and give us the best opportunity for success this year."

The number of season tickets sold and the Rays' attendance as a whole this season could impact the ultimate decision on that front.

Sternberg said season-ticket sales are up from last year (single-game tickets go on sale this week), but the Rays expect only one major-league team - the Marlins - to sell fewer season tickets this season.
The Marlins happen to be the only team to also underspend the Rays on their roster last year. Tampa spent $43,820,597 on personnel in 2008. Florida's players cost $21,811,500.

Making just one major signing in Pat Burrell this offseason, the Rays will have to hope the Yankees and Red Sox aren't that improved. If the World Series runner up struggles to get competitive in ticket sales and payroll, how long can they stay at the top? Tampa's relative youth would seem to offset any precipitous downfall, but downward trends are certainly more likely the harder it is to compete financially.

Prospecting the prospects

Baseball America's top 100 prospects list is out, and I'm a bit surprised that Matt Wieters headlines the group in front of David Price. Price is my pick to make the biggest impact in his career and this year in terms of the top 20 players in the list.

I'm expecting Price, Wieters, Colby Rasmus, Cameron Maybin and Trevor Cahill to make an impact this year at the Major League level. Alicides Escobar is my dark horse for service time, especially if Ricky Weeks falters for the Brewers at second base.

WBC - We Barely Care

World Baseball Classic rosters came out today. I'm finding it hard to care. My only real interest in the games are that players like Roy Oswalt and Jake Peavy do not get injured for fantasy baseball purposes. Call me jaded, but when rosters are hodgepodge consortia of stars and no-names there's no real interest. We're not watching the best of the best, the pitchers haven't had a chance to settle into spring ball and there's no connection to these games except that it's baseball on television.

I'll be watching, so I know whom not to draft when they end up getting injured.

All we have to Fear is Fehr

Donald Fehr says the "steroid problem" has been fixed?
"Everybody understands that there were things which happened in the early part of the decade, which we wish hadn't, that that's not the case anymore," Fehr said Monday at the Florida Marlins' camp in Jupiter, Fla., the first stop on his annual tour of spring training sites.

"We fixed the problem and we need to look forward, as (commissioner) Bud (Selig) has said many times.

"So far as I know, there is not a hint or suggestion that there is anything inappropriate or that it's not functioning right or that it isn't doing the job in 2005, '06, '07 or '08," Fehr added. "And somehow that gets lost in what I can basically call the sensationalism around what happened five years ago."
As long as the chemists want money and the designer drugs stay ahead of the tests, a number of players will be doing steroids. We'll probably only catch their usage when newer tests become available.