As the All-Star break continues, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:
1. A’s stadium plans to be revealed:
The Athletics are preparing to take a noteworthy step toward their long-term goal of moving to Las Vegas. According to Mick Akers of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the Las Vegas Stadium Authority will meet today to discuss the development agreement drafted by the A’s, which will impact how the stadium will be financed as well as construction plans. As Akers notes, the agreement being discussed today is the final one the club needs to reach with the stadium authority in order to unlock the public funding the club secured in negotiations with Nevada lawmakers in May of last year.
2. Rays stadium funding vote:
The Rays’ proposal for a new stadium in St. Petersburg is scheduled for 11:00am local time today, as noted by Colleen Wright of the Tampa Bay Times. Today’s vote among members of the St. Petersburg City Council, should it pass, will approve a combined $429.5MM in spending for both the new stadium as well as an assortment of community benefits such as housing and an African American history museum. That’s not the entirety of the public funding the Rays’ stadium plan involves; they’ll still need the Pinellas County Commission to approve $312.5MM in funding on July 30, which coincidentally is the day of this year’s trade deadline. The Rays announced their plans for a new stadium back in September, which expected a total contribution of $600MM in public spending between St. Petersburg and Pinellas County.
3. Depth starters hitting free agency:
Yesterday saw veteran left-hander Dallas Keuchel and veteran right-hander Domingo German return to the open market after Keuchel cleared waivers following his recent DFA by the Brewers while German opted out of his minor league deal with the Pirates. Both hurlers have enjoyed success in the big leagues previously but have struggled in recent years. Keuchel won the AL Cy Young award back in 2015 and pitched to a 3.25 ERA with a 3.55 FIP between the Astros, Braves, and White Sox from 2014 to 2020. German, who tossed a perfect game against the A’s just last season, has generally been a reliable back-end starter throughout his career with a lifetime 4.41 ERA and 4.50 FIP at the big league level — although that production came with a number of off the field issues.
The recent track record for both pitchers is less encouraging. Keuchel has been picked up a handful of starts for the Twins and Brewers over the past two years, pitching to a 5.80 ERA and 4.88 FIP in a combined 54 2/3 innings of work. German hasn’t pitched in the majors this year and owns a lackluster 5.13 ERA in 11 minor league starts, though his 3.60 ERA in the past month is far more palatable. With the trade deadline just around the corner, both Keuchel and German are candidates for minor league deals. Either would at least provide an innings-eating depth option for teams that miss out on more impactful arms on the trade market.
I’m sure there will be a casino attached where you can bet on the games courtesy of BetMGM or DraftKings.
Managed by Pete Rose.
That is Jerry Reinsdorf’s dream in Chicago with the White Sox. He is salivating at the thought.
The Pale Hosers should have really moved to Tampa Bay, instead of just using it as a threat.
Actually, moving to Vladivostok would be a better choice for Reinsdorf and gang.
F@ck John Fisher
John Fisher makes Jerry Reinsdorf look benevolent…
A first class jerk, but I don’t think pleasing baseball fans is really his goal.
Baseball will never make it in Florida. Both those teams need to relocate. Nashville and Charlotte!
It will make it in Florida. Just needs to move to Orlando and get an owner who isn’t a penny pinching cheapskate.
Neither Nashville nor Charlotte could support an MLB franchise. They’d be gone in 10 years to greener pastures.
Pay back Montreal for Bud Selig’s r*pe of the Expos.
It would make, people are moving in groves to both areas.
I passed by the old Trop last week. The building is pretty gutted, but not blown up. A bit sad, since that was a nice looking joint in its day.
But still looking forward to the day when I can catch a RS game there.
It took me a second to realize you were talking about the Tropicana hotel in Vegas, not the Rays home field.
The nice thing about the Trop is that it doesn’t smell like nickel beer night at a college bar nor has it had to deal with rat infestation problems for a hundred years like Fenway. Hopefully, the next stadium will find a way to hoodwink fans and authors into thinking catwalks are a cute quirk that never come into play like how people perceive the Green Monster, which impacts half a dozen or more balls every single game.
A bit careful when comparing parks. Trop, with it’s phony grass, sometimes 10′ high bounces on balls from rock hard surface underneath that is comparable to old Olympic stadium in Montreal. Not many places in the league worse.
Fenway, with it’s unique angles in the OF, brought about by the addition of Bullpens 70y ago we don’t hear many complaints of, nor the infamous 100yo LF wall. We also never heard to many of the boxes overhanging the playing field in the upperdeck in RF, old Tiger stadium, nor the massive flag pole.. On the playing field itself in center field there..
We don’t here many complaints regarding weeds growning all over the walls at wrigley field.. Which has been going on for decades.. Hint.. Ivy is a in the wild growing weed..
Rats in a stadium? Puhlease.. Old Astrdome and old Yankee Stadium were the 2 players always complained about the most with the most and biggest running about and those not scared of anything.
They literally can’t blow it up. They have to tear it down floor by floor, with asbestos remediation at every step of the way.
Las Vegas was not accepting of “blow up the building and spread asbestos dust all over greater Las Vegas.”
They said they are keeping the name, but they have lied before. If they change the name, I’m out as a fan.
I dont live in Oakland or California so them leaving doesn’t affect me as much as it does other fans, in fact them playing in Vegas is a plus since I cover that area.
They’ve gutted the inside, presumably removing the asbestos, but I believe blowing up the skeleton is still in place.
I know, JoeBrady, I can’t wait to see the rival Red Sox play (and hopefully get beat) at the Trop when I visit St. Petersburg as well.
Have they announced if they are keeping the Athletics team name / brand? Would be tragic to lose such a storied franchise, on top of leaving Oakland.
The A’s name should remain in Oakland, to be used for a new and viable franchise.
Let Vegas and Fisher market some trendy vapid name instead. How about the Interruptuses: pull out and leave a mess.
The name should stay with the team no matter where they go. It didn’t remain with Philly or KC when they left those two cities.
Agree, franchises unfortunately move… but they should stay consistent with their brand/mascot/etc. The Green/Gold is iconic, so I’m hoping it stays.
An owner asking for a publicly financed stadium is just a legal Ponzi scheme. It’s quite brilliant actually.
Take this level of umbrage to the defense contractors making billions of dollars off taxpayers. Wish we got a vote on whether or not innocents all over the world were to be incinerated or left alone.
Well said, Jason.
I’m not sure anyone gets alone. Oftentimes it is a choice between the lesser of two evils. Do you want Putin taking over your country, or do you want 100,000 dead with a decent amount of physical destruction.
A ponzi scheme is when you pay off previous investors’ money with new investors’ money. Not sure how public investments qualify.
Yeah, people seem to think Ponzi scheme means any financial decision they disagree with. Using taxpayer dollars to finance a sports stadium is dumb, but under no interpretation of the term could it be called a “Ponzi scheme.”
There is no doubt in my mind that NYC is better off with the city and the Yankees coming to an agreement.
Not entirely sure about the “no doubt” part, JoeBrady, as I’d rather ask a Yankees fan in New York City how the Yankees agreeing with city officials impacts them more than a Bronx-born Las Vegas resident who’s also a Red Sox fan… but that’s just me.
So much public money… stop giving money to the rich!
Corporate welfare is the American Way!
Would you rather be Oakland, with the lost jobs and prestige, or LV in this scenario?
With that owner? Oakland by a mile.
Quite unfortunate that the A’s aren’t moving back to Philly. Rebuild Connie Mack Stadium as well.
But seriously, that would be truly awesome.
I thought Max Kepler was the only GERMAN in MLB.
Come to find out now that Domingo is also a GERMAN !!
If the Rays are building a new stadium in the parking lot of the old one, it means that they don’t think the location is the problem with getting fans to buy tickets. Why not just remodel the old park?
The real problem is that Florida is mostly retired old farts who lived elsewhere and are fans of other teams. There have also been studies that show that 90% of ticket sales come from a 50 mile radius of the park. With a ballpark in St. Pete or Tampa , it will always have half of that radius in the Gulf of Mexico. The answer is to move the team to Orlando/Kissimmee near Disney. It will still draw true Rays fans from Tampa/St. Pete as it’s less than an hour drive. It will attract fans from Orlando, and other cities within an hour drive like Daytona. People on vacation going to Disney will come out for a game as well. You’ll always have the problem with retired farts not being fans, but the longer the team stays in Florida, the more of a fan base they will get. They could also do a way better job branding the team. I’ve been to Shea Stadium, Comiskey, Fenway, Houston, Wrigley, Detroit, Washington, and Pittsburgh, and all of those stadiums had tons of team-related signs within a few blocks of the park, they had block parties in the same area with tons of venders selling jerseys and stuff. In Tampa you finally start seeing Rays signs maybe 100 yards from the park. Not exactly pimping out their brand. Spend some money $ternberg!!!!!
In reference to the Athletics-how the stadium will be funded and construction plans. Shouldn’t this have been ironed out before MLB approved the relocation? And isn’t Fisher still looking for sources for private funding? Seems a lot of questions still need to be answered. This should have been worked out before Manfred allowed the move. While I expect the A’s will get their funding what happens if it falls through? They will be like the Coyotes and evicted from their own stadium
As much as i disliked Bud Selig this would have all been done before ever announcing a move. The thing Manfred cares about is putting clocks on everything
It has been at least a year since they said they were talking to Goldman-Sachs, known as ‘large-scale lender of last resort’ because GS won’t loan unless it’s sure to make money (or applicant has enough seizable collateral to cover it).
They haven’t mentioned them since, which means Goldman-Sachs looked at the lending risk and collateral, made a judgement, and showed Fisher the door.
So far, the only known funding is what NV is giving them *contingent on approval of construction and financing plans much more detailed than “guess I’ll ask Mom if she’ll cover the rest.”*
That doesn’t sound right. First, GS is a top-tier lender, not a lender of last resort. Secondly, unless he’s already taken out loans against the A’s stock, then the ~ $1.2M market value of the A’s should be enough collateral. And there is usually an interest rate that will make any transaction profitable.
Hope for the A’s sake they’re worth more than $1.2M. Guessing you meant “B?”
LOL! Yeah, maybe it should’ve been a “B”.
He has ALREADY borrowed against the A’s and Earthquakes, and those loans haven’t been repaid.
And new information on how (part) of the team’s contribution is to be acquired:
Personal Seat Licenses
Yes, really, that’s part of their ‘plan’ along with “we’ll contribute a total amount to be determined … later-ish.”
Mick Akers is not a credible source, his reporting on this has been biased beyond belief. His company is also active defending the public money which when it came out Mick was unable to comment on any stadium/A’s news for a long period of time. My prediction is that documents introduced in today’s meeting will not include financial information which is the primary hurdle that needs to be overcome.
If EVERYTHING is complete and final sign off can be achieved today then I have been wrong about Mick the whole time, but let’s see how this plays out.
Of course all that should have been done beforehand. But Mighty Manfred doesn’t wait on any money grabs.
IMHO, construction was the priority. If Fisher can’t find investors, Manfred will replace him tomorrow.
Eat the rich!
Sports gambling is a nuisance at best, a plague in more realistic terms. It should not be tolerated.
250 years from now, the precipitous rise of value in sports will be seen as one of the early indicators of the decline of America. The pairing of gambling with those sports will be seen as an accelerant on the flames.
Gambling used to be illegal and it was used to grow the mob. Outlawing vices that people are in favor of doesn’t usually work. Same as alcohol and pot.
ps-I just returned from LV and had a great time.
Counterpoint- prohibition does work. The average American age 15+ consumed over 7 gallons of pure alcohol every year. Post-prohibition and the culture shifted enough that we will never reach that level again.
And you can’t tell me that it’s better for the people with gambling addiction to have gambling in their pocket and advertised everywhere than it was back when you had to know a guy who did books and had to play on the scale they offered.
Even beyond gambling addiction, the constant short term gratification of quick bets is just hitting the Dopamine button too much, man. That’s the kind of thing that leaves you a husk.
Will the Rays fans show up even with a new stadium. This column is unique: Both teams play in the worse dumps in Baseball. The Loyal fan’s of both teams have been taken advantage of for years!