2016 MLB Season Thread Baseball • Page 14

Can't say I'm feeling badly for them.

In all seriousness, the Phillies aren't much better. It could just as easily be them right down in the basement with the Braves.

 

NL East baby!

 

I'd much rather have DooDoo's extreme hyperbole then deal with j4callen, that dude just got under my skin so bad.

 

Just look for the unknown dude saying RIP Braves three games into the season.

 

you could reasonably say RIP braves right now

 

I'll wait till until at least May before I say that.

 

I mean, ya never know...but don't go giving me false hope Anthony

 

Will Drew come in here and rant about the Brewers? It just wouldn't be the same unless he did.

 

I want to try all of these

 

What on earth is that Cardinals one?

 

I am DETERMINED to try that pizza burger and eat it all by myself.

 

"Satisfy your sweet tooth with these fresh fried mini-donuts, served warm and topped with your choice of ingredients; including chocolate icing and rainbow sprinkles."

 

Is Aaron Blair supposed to be in the rotation at any point this season?

 

Oh man, I can just picture the overweight masses at Busch scarving that down right now.

 

It's likely. They are pretty much locked in with the top 4, so he's competing for a spot with a few other guys. I'm sure he will be in the rotation at some point. Maybe sooner rather than later.

 

Looks
Like tater tots?

 

This is hilarious because cutting Swisher meant that Jeff Francoeur got the last roster spot, ha.

 

That's gotta sting.

 

I haven't had much time to research it, but is attendance down in baseball comparatively to other major sports? I know Cleveland has had an attendance issue despite being a middle of the road team for a few years.

 

Baseball attendance is far below the other sports in % figures. Median attendance is somewhere around 70% for the league. They are going to sell more tickets than an NHL or NBA team would, but it's still down comparatively.

 

It's somewhat expected when they play 2x as many games as any other major sports league.

 

I don't think Cleveland is the best team to make comparisons with mainly because they're attendance hasn't ever really been the best has it?

 

To the overall attendance topic, what @Chris Yates said makes sense and is in line with what I am seeing.

To Cleveland's attendance specifically, it is a complicated matter. In the 90's and early 2000s, Cleveland set the record for consecutive sellouts at 495, I believe. In the mid aughts, Boston beat that record. Also, I don't have the numbers to back me up, but there was a TV ratings release and the Tribe had some of the best numbers. Let's just call it competitive with the top ratings.

While the Tribe is no longer the top dog since the Browns returned, the city is still passionate about the team and actually does support them. The main problem the fans have is with ownership. The Jacobs family sold the team to Dolan in the early 2000s and that's when the fire sale began with Manny, Robbie Alomar, Thome, Belle, etc. That pissed a lot of fans off right or wrong. The big issue was that they got little in return for those players. Cleveland went from spending when it made sense to cutting costs pretty quickly. To this day, the fans don't think that ownership puts up enough money towards the roster. They site stats like the fact the Indians are one of the most profitable MLB teams according to Forbes, but have a middle of the road, trending towards the bottom half of the league in payroll.

The fans have become frustrated lately with the front office as well because when they did get the go ahead to spend, they did so on Swisher and Bourn. Generally the FO has been praised for turning around its pipeline, finding value free agents, and having a great medical team that has resurrected careers. Bottom line is that fans are frustrated with the mediocrity, but still watch the team on TV. The past two winters have been long and cold, that impacted their early season attendance, and then the team struggled out of the gates. Bad combo for attendance.

 

that must suck when your sports team gets preempted by the browns

 

It's pretty annoying. Football tends to be king in the midwest. Cleveland is no different. I got why the fans went back to the Browns because as they were returning, the Tribe was going into cost cutting mode. Makes sense. What doesn't resonate with me is how they are still passionate about the Browns after all of this time. Meanwhile, the Cavs and even the Indians have been competitive franchises of late.

I do think the city is approaching a breaking point with the team and Haslam. The city felt blindsided by the Piliot J circus that is still going on and Haslam has continued to run the team like someone who does not know how to run a team despite learning from the Rooney family in Pittsburgh.

I am not the typical Cleveland fan because my first love was the Cavs back in the '90s. The Cavs are generally the third banana in the ciry, but are probably about even now with Tribe, given the LeBron eras. I definitely think the younger generations are more Cavs focused, but the 30s and up crowd is still football first.