Poke the Bear (Updated)

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Rabble-rousing, one Tweet at a time.

Update: As you may be aware, the Rays are meeting today with the Pinellas County Commission and the St. Petersburg City Council. Noah Pransky noted on his blog, that he’ll be live tweeting the meeting here. We’ll sum things up later on. Also, we added a couple of interesting links below. 

…Because sometimes you’ve got to poke (or Tweet) the bear. I’m consistently blown away by the lack of responsible and/or objective reporting by the Times columnists, like John Romano. He wrote another antagonistic piece which you can see here.

In a perfect world, or in a vacuum, the Times would approach the stadium saga with an equal amount of criticism; after all, blaming the city of St. Pete solely allows the franchise to shirk off any responsibility for the way they’ve handled themselves in this convoluted situation we find ourselves in.

We’ll have more on this tomorrow after the Rays meet with the Pinellas County Commission.

Links For Finks

  • Jonah Keri wrote a nice piece on the stadium saga titled, The Rays Threats Are More of the Same. We can’t recommend it highly enough.
  • We wrote about a Tampa Bay Times Q&A piece with sports economist Andrew Zimbalist last week. A little sleuthing has uncovered that Zimbalist is paid by Major League Baseball, a fact that wasn’t initially disclosed by the Tampa Bay Times in their original piece. I’d imagine that the absence of this fact might be particularly relevant to people as they form their opinions in the stadium saga. I’m no conspiracy theorist, but…
  • More on Zimbalist’s paid consultancy for Major League Baseball. 

     

Hot-Stove: Rays Sign INF Kelly Johnson

INF Kelly Johnson in Spring Training with the Blue Jays
INF Kelly Johnson in Spring Training with the Blue Jays

The news broke Monday that Tampa Bay signed former Blue Jays infielder Kelly Johnson to a one year contract. The terms of the contract have not been released. The 30 year-old infielder posted a .225 BA/.313 OBP/.365 SLG/.678 OPS slash-line with 16 homers in 581 plate appearances for the Blue Jays in 2012. His biggest year at the plate came in 2010 when he bashed 26 homers while driving in 71 RBI.

Fangraphs noted that,

Johnson has had trouble both making contact and driving the ball since his spectacular 2010 campaign. Perhaps that is the reason why Johnson started hitting the ball on the ground with more frequency last season, as he posted a 1.34 GB/FB, which was his highest rate since his rookie campaign in 2005. It wasn’t a strategy that worked necessarily — his 3.8% infield hit percentage (IFH%) was among the league trailers, and was the worst mark of his career. Only 19 players had a lower IFH%, and they were mainly guys you would describe as lumbering — Adrian Gonzalez, Chris Davis, Jason Kubel, Paul Konerko, Ike Davis, Adam LaRoche, Ryan Doumit, Miguel Cabrera, Justin Smoak, etc.

The question begs, how will the Rays use Johnson? This acquisition could open up more options for Joe Maddon, allowing Ben Zobrist to spend a substantial amount of time in right-field, while also allowing uber prospect Wil Myers to mature at a normal pace in Triple-A Durham. As Fangraphs put it,

It’s an interesting match, as Johnson provides the Rays with the one thing that they like — a player who has been very good in the past but who still comes at a modest cost. He also gives Tampa manager Joe Maddon the thing that he likes best — options.

It’s likely that they’ll platoon Johnson with Ryan Roberts at second base. He may also log some innings in the outfield, something Johnson hasn’t done since his debut season with the Braves in 2005.

This leaves Sean Rodriguez to battle it out with Elliot Johnson for the that coveted infield utility spot. Keep in mind that Tampa Bay is going to have to make room for Kyle Farnsworth, Luke Scott, and now Kelly Johnson on the 40-man roster. Who they remove from the roster in order to make room for the above mentioned players could serve as a clue as to how the Rays may use Kelly Johnson in 2013. There’s been some speculation that six players are on the bubble, that is at risk of removal from the 40-man roster: pitcher Dane De La Rosa, catchers Chris Gimenez, Stephen Vogt, and Robinson Chirinos, and infielders Elliot Johnson and Reid Brignac. I’d imagine that Kelly Johnson and Yunel Escobar will leave Reid Brignac and Elliot Johnson in the cold…not that that’s a horrible proposition.

It could be argued that Kelly Johnson may not be a member of the Rays in the second half of the season. Fangraphs put it best,

If he is, he might very well be a utility guy. If Myers comes up and wrests away a starting gig, there will be precious little playing time for him. But until then, he may be the quintessential Rays free-agent acquisition — one who has shown the ability to be above-average in the past but doesn’t come with that price tag because of recent underperformance.

Regardless, this is yet another example of the patented low risk/high reward move that the Rays have been successful with in the past.

On the City Council and Economic Redevelopment in St. Petersburg, and How it May Pertain to the Rays

Sweetbay certainly isn't the Trop, but many of the outcomes and policies surrounding the closing of the Mid Town grocery store are applicable to the Rays stadium saga.
Sweetbay certainly isn’t the Trop, but many of the outcomes and policies surrounding the closing of the Mid Town grocery store are applicable to the Rays stadium saga.

I’d reckon that this is indicative of how our local government handles situations, here in St. Petersburg. I cannot speak to Mayor Foster’s part in the matter. I will say however that Councilman Newton, Councilwoman Curren, and the Midtown resident that spoke toward the end of the video all have valid points.

The fact of the matter is, had Mayor Foster (and Baker before him) emphasized economic development in the Midtown region of St. Petersburg, we might not be faced with the zero population growth conundrum surrounding the Trop; a problem that is effecting the viability, and future, of baseball in St. Petersburg.

To be fair, purely from an anecdotal perspective, the revitalization of St. Petersburg seems to be greater than that of Tampa. That’s something that needs to be taken into consideration when discussing the future of the Rays in St. Petersburg.

If that carpetbagger across the bridge, Mayor Buckhorn, has done anything, it’s sell the promise of redevelopment. That’s something that has been very enticing to those that would find the Rays in the Channelside district.

I do have to hand it to Councilman Kornell for actively trying to entice businesses in Tampa to relocate to St. Petersburg. Though it isn’t outwardly in reaction to Tampa’s pandering to the Rays, it is a bit funny that they are getting a taste of their own medicine.

Moving forward, our local government absolutely must put economic redevelopment on the front burner, especially in those economically strapped neighborhoods. It is a moral imperative to do so, and it also stands as an economic leverage point in the battle to keep the Rays on this side of the bay.

 

Times Loves Regional Efforts; Hates Bill Foster (Repost from Shadow of the Stadium)

I decided to repost this piece (written by Noah Pransky) which was published in the excellent blog, “(the) Shadow of the Stadium.” I felt that it was important enough to post here as well. Pransky’s blog is a wonderful place to start, if you’re looking for a competent counter voice in the Rays stadium saga. Highly recommended.

On the eve of the Rays’ meeting with the Hillsborough County Commission, the Tampa Bay Times has penned another editorial pleading for a regional approach to keep the team.

Echoing what I said last week, today’s editorial points out upcoming talks are lacking regional collaboration; but the Times was hopeful the two commission boards would overcome “Mayor Bill Foster’s foolish threats of lawsuits.”

The Times never misses an opportunity to bash Foster, but they’ve been calling on Rays Principal Owner Stuart Sternberg for years to “make a reasonable offer to St. Petersburg” if he wants to explore new stadium sides.  Yet Foster gets 100% of the blame for lack of progress while Sternberg continues to get a free pass.

I’m also not sure how valid the Times’ premise is that “The Rays need a new stadium soon if they are to remain in the Tampa Bay market.”

But I couldn’t agree more that if the Tampa Bay region wants to help the Rays build a new stadium, the only way to do it is coming together as the Tampa Bay region.  I said back in 2011 that the easiest pill to swallow from a financing standpoint would be a multi-county tax effort.