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ATTENDANCE DOWN? HMMM, I WONDER WHY. By Jason Martinez sdpadrefan.com UPDATED 04/18/08 John Moores is not a popular guy when his team is losing. Now, if the team would've signed someone like Alfonso Soriano, Vladimir Guerrero, or Carlos Lee to put a big bat in the lineup, would more fans attend the games. Would the team be better? Would more fans go to Petco if the team was better? If anything, the blame wouldn't be put on John Moores at times like this because he would have fulfilled his part of the bargain, accoring to fans, by putting money back into the team. Yes, they have spent big money on pitching. They signed Jake Peavy, the best pitcher in baseball, to a huge contract extension. Does he put fans in the seats? Maybe every fifth day. What they haven't done is spend money on a legitimate power-hitting threat to add to the middle of the lineup. Maybe Soriano, Guerrero, and Lee didn't want to come play in a pitcher's park. How do we overcome this challenge? Do what the Kansas City Royals did. They had to overpay for the services of outfielder Jose Guillen. At first glance, this was a terrible signing. $12 million a year for a guy that's known as a clubhouse cancer. He can hit but was he really worth $12 million? To most teams in baseball, no way. To a team that has been completely awful for a long time, overpaying was necessary to convince any free agent that is a legitimate starting outfielder to play on their team. In the business world, customers like 'new stuff'. We already had Jake Peavy. We already had Khalil Greene. We already had Greg Maddux. Re-signing your own is nice and sometimes a better strategy, but when you're trying to fill seats, it probably isn't going to have a positive effect. We've been watching this great pitching staff for years now. No complaints there. But the no-speed, no-power, no-clutch hitting offense is utterly and completely boring. We need to add something 'new'. Not only are they boring, they are just plain bad. 29th in baseball in runs scored, just ahead of the San Francisco Giants. Dead last in home runs, tied with the Oakland A's. Last in doubles. First in strikeouts. (How can you be last in home runs and first in strikeouts?) 27th in stolen bases. 23rd in walks. Wow, do these guys do anything good? It doesn't take a genius to understand why the attendance is dipping. |