but yet, the local media is tighter-lipped about Crane’s intentions and finances than a dead person.
Tim Brown, at yahoo.com discusses whether or not Hunter Pence will be traded – he doesn’t know, but we ALL know that other teams DO want Pence. (by the way, Jon Heyman says that apparently Pance was told last night that he was traded, but then he wasn’t – Drayton???)
But check THIS lil tidbit out:
“What we know is new Astros owner Jim Crane apparently hopes to machete some $15 million from the payroll for 2012.”
You know how bad it’s gonna be next year and the year after and the year after and the year after when even the national media wonders who will bother to come to the ballpark when every actual major league baseball player is gone from the team and we are left with the Brett Wallaces and Chris Johnsons.
I wish that MLB wasn’t set up so it simply doesn’t matter whether or not a team has actual FANS or even people at the ballpark. But Fox wants Yankees/Red Sox every year and so Bud will change the playoffs to make Fox happy. And those self same Yankees Red Sox will finance the Cranes of the baseball world who will make money on a major league baseball team that only cost him 75 mill – and will make sure he gets his 30 mill profit a year (well, minus whatever debt payments he can get away with paying).
There will be SOME people who go to the park to watch a terrible team (see Marlins, Pirates, Royals, Brewers owned by Bud n Wendy) with corporate writeoffs and group sales and groups of little kids who are actually really interested in junk food and junk-shun jack, that stupid mascot, not the game.
I have said a lot of times that the baseball players THEMSELVES are always talking about “confidence” and they talk about how there is a different vibe when they are traded from a listless lifeless team to one in real contention for the pennant. Miz Teeke and O. Rah show up.
It will be interesting to see if Bud Selig is going to finally realize his dream of a nice low paying iron clad slotting system in which a prospect’s only choice will be sign for amount X with team Y or go to college/back to college/indy league. I wonder if we’ll get more of the JD Drew stuff where top TOP prospects will refuse to sign with a welfare team and take their chances on the next year’s draft. Especially if Bud gets his way and has significantly lower bonuses.
I would guess that there will still be plenty of guys who will choose baseball over football and if not, Latin America and Mexico are filled with guys who would LOVE to play even for significantly less money that they earn now – if Bud manages to get all payrolls down.
MLB and the owners have been getting smarter and smarter at “hiding” income – although they aren’t smart enough to outsmart Scott Boras, and so much of the MLB income has gone on-line and is split evenly 30 ways that as long as there is mlb.tv, there will be plenty of income, regardless of the numbers of people who actually GO to see the games. And this is why Bud and Crane don’t care or HAVE to care about the actual numbers of people who actually Go through the gate.
The Astros have gone from being THE sports team here to being as interesting as the WNBA and yeah, they’re gone. I never see Astros caps/gear and the Astros chatboards are occcupied by the same 10 people – unlike 5-7 years ago. And people aren’t wearing Rangers gear (there IS no rivalry, Bud – don’t bother to tell your pal Richard Justice to try to pimp it because it don’t exist) instead, oh no. It’s the (many swear words) Yankees and Red Sox – and these people are Texans, not from Up There.
And I just made Fox’ day happier…
Oh yeah, guess how many prospects the Astros have on mlb.com’s new Top 50 prospect list?
Yeah, you are right. Zero.
Tags: Houston Astros
I hate to sound like a broken record, but it’s really astonishing how awful the Chronicle’s coverage of the Astros sale has been. If they look the other way on such a massive transaction just to save advertising dollars, who knows what else they bury?
The lack of communication from Crane seems troubling. I know he’s not the owner yet and that he needs to be careful about his public comments, but you would think that an incoming owner would at least grant a couple interviews and talk about how excited he is about buying the team, etc. Instead, he’s acting like the bad owners in places like Pittsburgh and Kansas City who hide out of sight and count their money.
I’m not saying Houston needs another guy like Drayton who sits in the front row and shakes hands all day. But it also doesn’t need an owner who’s out of sight and treats his MLB team like any other business asset.
ann
i would guess crane is keeping mouth SHUT until bud gives him the OK. and the media are keeping mouth SHUT because the economy is bad and getting a job with a newspaper is not easy
and i guess that nobody with money who wants a baseball team is gonna say/do anything neither – in case they could get THIS one or at least to stay on bud’s good side
and nobody cares about astros FANS. teams turn very nice profits when nobody come thru the gates (see marlins)
at least drayton WANTED a good team and WANTED to win- or at least compete