Links from the AL East before some of the division's top pitchers – Josh Beckett, C.C. Sabathia and Ricky Romero – start for their respective teams…
- Red Sox owner John Henry told John Tomase of the Boston Herald that chatter about GM Theo Epstein and the Cubs shows "how highly regarded Theo is by the media and baseball in general.”
- Prospective free agent David Ortiz tells Yahoo’s Jeff Passan that his ability to tune criticism out helps him perform on the field. “I’m not a five-tool player. I may be a two-tool player. But one of them tools is this one right here,” he said, pointing to his head.
- Bartolo Colon has slowed down, so the Yankees figure to rely on Phil Hughes and Ivan Nova more than ever, Joel Sherman of the New York Post writes.
- MLB players consider Joe Maddon of the Rays the manager they'd most like to play for, according to a recent Sports Illustrated poll. Red Sox manager Terry Francona placed second in the poll and Yankees manager Joe Girardi placed seventh. Having a popular manager in place no doubt helps teams trying to attract free agents or sign players to long-term extensions.
I figured Girardi would be lower on the list than that
No matter what…it’s still the Yankees.
Perhaps Sergio Mitre was able to vote multiple times.
Can you please clarify which head Ortiz was pointing to?
Weak.
Hahaha..
Ortiz actually pointed to his very tool-esque chin strap when he was talking about “tools,” not his head.
David Ortiz’s most used tool seems to be his mouth, would be nice to not hear it for at least a week or so.
Did he bad mouth you or something?
Surprised Charlie Manuel is so high on that list. Meaning I would think he would be closer to #1.
Tony La Russa at number 8? huh?
Rasmus’ dad stuffed the ballot.
I don’t have much of an opinion on who players would like to play for, but Maddon certainly seems to be the best at teaching fundamentals and then motivating players to execute them. He has always struck me as a guy who gets a lot out of his team.
It’s really sad. Rays have been one of the most exciting teams in baseball for a few years now and they still have some of the worst home attendance records in baseball. Just for perspective, Kansas City has a better average home attendance record this year.
Their likeability quotient increased infinity-fold when they shipped Garza out of town.
At least the bald guy with the black shades and weird blazer is there ever game…
(if you dont know what im talking about, watch a Rays game. He sits behing home plate every game and wears the same thing)
Florida has issues in general with attendence and support of its franchises. Its just not a very good sports market imo.
I agree, purple. As much as some people suggest that the Rays would be better off with a more centrally located new park in Tampa itself, I’m just not sure whether it’s a good economic gamble, bad times aside. I mean, sure, people say that attendance would be better in a better location, etc., but is it worth a multi-hundred million dollar gamble on that? (Heck, I thought that it was a pretty iffy gamble to build the Marlins a new park on the state’s dime as well.)
The problem is that I don’t think that there are any larger media markets without teams right now. There may be some of fairly similar size that might be more interested in baseball. But I also have a hard time seeing them being allowed to move either.
Things just look grim for the Rays on this front.
Especially when your major league stadium is worse than the Yankees minor league stadium in the same town.
Sad truth. Right down to the Heat, no less.
Not a very good baseball sports market*
True that, the Rays have been one of the most winning teams in the league but that city is not a great market. Not a lot of people call Florida their home, its just a place to retire or visit, so people do not fall in love with the teams there. Look at the Tampa Bay Lightning, they made the playoffs as a top 3 contender for the Stanley Cup and has one of the most exciting young players in the game, but yet they could barely sell a good playoff ticket for $15. The Leafs never made the playoffs for 7 years now but they have no problems selling the same ticket for $200 in the regular season.
Check that. I think he only attends the Tigers games vs the rays at the trop… There seems to be more Tigers fans there than Rays fans…
Nice, but I ain’t even mad though. I just see a ton of David Ortiz quotes on here pertaining to free agents, contract extensions, etc, he seems to have something to say about everything.
cam’ron? lol talk about blast from the past
That O’Reilly interview with Damon Dash and Cam’Ron started that whole YOU MAD meme, didn’t it?
baseball market**
its more than just baseball.. basketball, hockey, baseball.. pretty much everything except footbal
bigpat, you see a lot of Ortiz quotes because he’s usually a friendly, chatty guy with the press. Do you really want every athlete to be a sourpuss that won’t say a word to sports reporters?
I think you have to give Montreal another try, a better stadium and a winning team will get a lot of fans on board. Some will just be fans so that they can hate on the Toronto Blue Jays. Other than that Indiana, Portland and another team in Texas would be better options than Tampa.
Bla, I’ve got to give you props. Montreal didn’t occur to me. I’m not sure that it’s a good option, given the Expos history, but what the heck, Washington DC got a 3rd bite at the apple with the Nats, why couldn’t Montreal get another shot? I do think that they’d have to do better than that crappy dome that the Expos were stuck playing in, though. MLB would probably want something much better suited to baseball before they’d approve a move up there. And like you say, having a Montreal team in the AL East might make things interesting for the Jays.
Another location you don’t mention that could be an interesting option, though difficult to ram through, would be NYC, i.e. Brooklyn. NYC supported 3 teams in the past, and it’s so much larger than any other city, with the possible exception of LA, that there’s a large enough population base and media market to support a 3rd team. Of course, the Yanks and Mets would scream bloody murder. Also, I’m not sure that adding an *AL* team there would be such a great idea. It’d probably be better as an NL team.
Portland OR, and Indianapolis aren’t terrible options, though if the A’s can’t get a new stadium built in the bay area, they may want to head on up to Portland, or over to Sacramento. Another location to consider could be Charlotte, NC. One also has to consider that if the team moves, there could be re-alignment issues. A move to Charlotte or Montreal would cause no alignment issues, but a move to Portland would.
The thing is, aside from the NYC option, and possibly the Montreal option, the remaining cities mentioned aren’t really any bigger than the Tampa media market. OTOH, they may be better baseball markets. I don’t know.
One might say that for Miami, but that’s not really the case in St. Pete/Tampa area. I’ve been to the area four or five times and it seems to be predominantly retirees.
I’m not sure if I’m more surprised, relieved or disappointed that there is no wikipedia article specifically dedicated to the UMADBRO? meme.
Actually Montreal is building a new football stadium, they can probably use the stadium for baseball. Montreal has a big market, its not going to be anything like hockey but a winning team would get a lot of people interested. They have a lot of pride and i guarantee that they would not let the team fail and have Toronto fans making fun of them. The Canadian Economy is stronger than it was when the Expos were here, but there is still a lot of risk involved after all hockey is their religion.
I dont think having another team in New York is a good option, there are alot of baseball teams close by to the area and it would cost a riot (Philly, Mets, Yanks, BoSox, ChiSox, Cubs, Pitts, and Toronto would not approve it).
I think maybe realignment is needed in the future but having teams in Indianapolis or Portland would be ideal as both have shown that they can support their teams (Blazers and Colts, Pacers). A team in Texas would be ideal, it has one of the most largest populations in North America and every team in every sport has been sucessful in Texas, maybe a team in Dallas. Vancouver would also be a good option as there are alot of fans there and they develop alot of great baseball players. Everytime the Jays play Seattle there are 10 000 fans that come from BC to see them play.
I would rank them as this
1.Montreal
2.Texas
3.Indianapolis
4.Vancouver
5.NYC (unlikely)
6.Portland
arlington is a half an hour from dallas, so i doubt they’d put one there. but holy crap would i love a stadium in austin
Good reply, Bla. I wouldn’t be opposed to giving Montreal another shot. That said, the idea of another multi-use stadium doesn’t fill me with warm feelings. Mixed use football-baseball stadiums never look particularly good for baseball. I’d rather see a strictly baseball park. Also, another reason I wouldn’t like a multi-use stadium is that it seems likely that it’d have plastic grass. I seriously dislike plastic grass for baseball. It’s not so bad for football, increased risk of injury aside. But to me, baseball is meant to be played on real grass. But even with a grass field for a mixed use park, football teams have a strong tendency to tear up the turf something fierce. Also, parks that really want to be very multi-use (like concerts and truck rallies, etc.) tend to want to have plastic grass because real grass doesn’t hold up as well when those other uses occur.
As for NYC, it would cost a “riot”? A riot? Regardless, I don’t see as how any teams but the Yanks and Mets really have that much of a say (well aside from the vote to allow the move of course). A 3rd team would be affecting the regional rights of only 2 teams, the Mets and Yanks.
I’m actually not so sure that Texas would be the best location. It just seems like such a football-crazy region. Still, you are right that there’s certainly a large population base. But it just doesn’t seem like the 2 teams down there are particularly strong long term powerhouses. Another issue is that it’s so darned hot down there that it’d be best to have a domed stadium. The Rangers suffer to some degree (pardon the temp pun) for not having a domed stadium.
Indianapolis seems like it might not be a terrible place, though there are a pretty fair number of teams surrounding it in relatively close proximity (2 Chicago teams, Detroit, Cleveland, Cincy, and Milwaukee, I suppose). Portland doesn’t have as many teams in nearly as close proximity. As for Vancouver, I’ve actually joked on whiny Blue Jays fans that if they hate the AL East so much, they should move the team to Vancouver and demand entry into the AL West!!!
Of the list (you made no mention of Charlotte NC as a possibility), I may like Montreal the best, at least if the team could get its own park, not a wretched multi-use stadium.
Bla, this is a 2nd reply, but I thought that I’d mention it. A guy replied to my earlier message but for some reason it hasn’t shown up here on MLBTR. I got the Email notification from Disqus. Anyway, he suggested Puerto Rico as a possible location.
Personally, I don’t think that PR is a good location for economic reasons. It just doesn’t seem like there’s enough money down there to support a team. I mean, sure they’re probably crazy about baseball, and could probably easily fill a stadium if the tickets were cheap enough. But could a team in PR raise anywhere near enough money in gate receipts as media revenues to make it at all competitive? I’m really not sure. It might also make for a rather long flight to get there from pretty much anywhere in the US other than FLA, though supposedly you wouldn’t need a passport.
Just thought that I’d add this to the discussion.