Tag: Target Field

Twins tickets today and yesterday

Twins ticketsTarget Field still has a layer of snow and the temperature will reach only 17 degrees today here in Minnesota but in Ft. Myers the Twins pitchers and catchers have already started daily workouts and the position players will be reporting soon. On Saturday, February 16th the Twins will begin selling single-game tickets. The last couple of years when the Twins opened single-game ticket sales the phone lines and web site got over-run and there were sometimes long delays in getting your tickets purchased. Based on the Twins poor showing the last two seasons and low expectations for 2013 I would not expect long waits to purchase your tickets this year.

To me, the question is should you buy your single-game tickets when they go on sale on Saturday or do you wait? The current quoted price for single-game tickets is only good from February 16 through February 22 because on February 23 demand-based pricing kicks in. Haven’t heard about demand-based pricing?  The Twins actually started that policy in 2012 and here is how it plays out in 2013. Beginning February 23, single game ticket prices in all seating sections will be determined on a daily basis according to current market demand. Prices may fluctuate upward or downward based on real-time market conditions. So the question is, will I get better value by purchasing my tickets now or will I be able to get a better price once the season begins. I guess it all depends on how well the Twins play and what the weather is like. Personally; I just find it irritating that the published single-game ticket price is only good for 1 week before the first spring training game is even played. I guess I am old school.

On the other side of the coin you can certainly argue that it is better to sell more tickets even if you have to sell them at a discount than to not sell them at all at full price. The customer benefits because he gets to see the baseball game and the team benefits because they get the fan in the ballpark where it is likely he will spend additional dollars on food and possibly merchandise. Where the rub comes in is that going to a baseball game is getting to be like buying an airline ticket, each person on that flight is going to go to the same destination on that particular flight but each of them may have paid a different fare to get there. I have a problem with that.

The other issue I see is that in order to keep the season ticket holder base happy the team has to sell the demand-based tickets at a higher price than what the season ticket holders pay or that becomes a huge issue in itself. Thus the demand-based tickets can only be lowered to a certain price base level but on the other side if all is going great, the team can jack up the price of the ticket to whatever the market will pay. I see little risk and high reward for the team with demand-base pricing and to me it is another gimmick that costs the fans.

The Minnesota Twins have been here since 1961 and over 81 million fans (through 2012)have come through the turnstiles at the Met, the Metrodome and now Target Field to watch the Twins play ball and most of them have bought tickets. I thought it would be fun to take a look at Twins ticket prices going back to 1961 when the ballclub played their first game at Metropolitan Stadium. I did a lot of research on Twins ticket prices and here are some interesting nuggets that I found.

In 1961 the Twins had 3 price categories, a box seat went for $3, reserved grandstand went for $2.50 and general admission was $1.50. In spite of owner Calvin Griffith’s miserly reputation he did not raise ticket prices until 1968, his eighth season here and he only increased box seats by 50 cents and reserved grandstand by a quarter. Keep in mind that the Twins played in the 1965 World Series during this period and still did not raise ticket prices. Think that would happen in todays world? Not a chance.

By the time the Twins were getting ready to move into the brand new Metrodome in 1982 they had completed 21 years at Met Stadium and the team had implemented ticket price increases just 8 times with the cheapest ticket going from $1.50 to $3.00 and the highest priced ticket jumped from $3 to $7.

In the 23 full seasons that Griffith owned the Twins from 1961 to 1983 (1984 does not count as the team was sold mid-season) he raised ticket prices 9 times (39%) and kept ticket prices at the previous rate on 14 (61%) occasions. During Griffith’s reign the average ticket price went from $2.33 to $6.00, an increase of 157.51%.

The Twins were sold to the Pohlad family in mid-season in 1984. Pohlad’s first full year as team owner was 1985 and his teams played in the Metrodome for 25 years from 1985 through 2009. During the Pohlad era in the Metrodome the Twins raised ticket prices 18 times or 72% of the time. They made no change to the ticket price 4 times, 16% of the time and they lowered ticket prices on 3 occasions or 12% of the time. The first drop took place in 1987 when the ticket price dropped 4% as the average ticket price went from $6.25 to $6.00 based on a $1.00 drop in lower left field seats. The second average ticket price drop occurred as the team entered the 1996 season when the average ticket went from $10.86 to $8.67 but this is kind of deceiving because the Twins added one new ticket category and dropped two high-priced categories and sold them as season tickets only and these category changes dropped the average ticket price when the ticket prices never actually changed. The third drop in average ticket price occurred as the Twins went into the 2002 season fresh off the “contraction” fiasco. The contraction business may have played a role in the ticket price reduction but what about the outrageous 53.58% average ticket price increase that took place prior to the 2001 season? Maybe the Twins realized that they over did it the year before, who knows? Bottom line, from 1985 through the 2009 season in the Metrodome under the Pohlad umbrella the average Twins ticket price went from $5.50 in 1985 to $30.25 which is an increase of 450%.

Between 1961 and 2005 the Twins had anywhere from 2 to 7 different pricing categories each season. Dynamic/variable pricing showed up in 2006 and the price categories jumped to 16, in 2009 it jumped to 24, in 2010 with the move to Target Field it more than doubled to 57 , in 2011 it crept up to 60 and in 2013 it jumps to 95.

I set up a new page called Twins Ticket Price History so if you want to see a year by year look at Twins ticket prices, some charts and tables showing ticketing information, and some ticket images including some interesting “phantom” tickets, check it out.

Happy New Year! Really?

2013-new-yearHappy New Year! The temperature here in Minneapolis got down to a minus 8 degrees early this morning but as the calendar turns to a new month and a new year I know that spring training is not that far away. I wish I could be more optimistic about the upcoming Minnesota Twins 2013 season but I find it very hard to do so with the moves or the lack of moves the club has made so far.

The starting pitching is not much to crow about even after the Twins have traded for starters Vance Worley and signed  free agent starters Kevin Correia, Mike Pelfrey, and Rich Harden. I don’t think Harden will start more than a handful of games and will pitch primarily out of the bullpen when he happens to be healthy, which his history indicates will be rare. I have very little faith in Pelfrey being much of an improvement over what Nick Blackburn has shown us the last few years plus I am not sure he will even be ready when the season opens. I actually like Correia in the back-end of the rotation and he won’t always be pretty to watch but he has shown that he can win some games having won 10 or more games each of the last 4 years pitching for the San Diego Padres and Pittsburgh Pirates. Worley is an unknown to me but he could turn into the best pitcher on the staff if he is healthy. I was disappointed to hear that Scott Diamond has under gone clean-up elbow surgery and I was really frustrated that the Twins did not resign Scott Baker.

I expect Justin Morneau who is still only 31 to have a very good year, not a MVP type season but back to the numbers that he is capable of putting up and showing a lot of Twins fans that he belongs in Minnesota. The rest of the infield is shaky at best, I am hoping that Brian Dozier can take over and play second base day in and day out. At third base Trevor Plouffe is not the answer either as he has shown he can neither field the position nor can he hit on a consistent basis although he does have some pop in his bat. Todate Plouffe has a career minor league batting average of .257 and with the Twins he is hitting .231 so there is not too much hope there. At shortstop I know that Pedro Florimon has not shown much with his bat but he has a good glove and I think the Twins can live with his stick if they are going to play Plouffe and Dozier in the same infield. The outfield is interesting with no center fielder and I would be surprised if Joe Benson himself coming off a very forgettable 2012 season is not the Twins center fielder when the season opens. Willingham is dismal in left field but the Twins need his power and will be forced to keep him in the line-up. I sure wish they could have traded Willingham coming off his career year but that did not happen. Chris Parmelee will take over right and he is young with a good bat and I think he can become at least an average right fielder. Aaron Hicks and Oswaldo Arcia are hopefully going to be pounding on the outfield door as the season moves along to keep everyone on their toes and that gives me some hope. Doumit is perfect for the DH role although I know that makes Gardy nervous when he has his back-up catcher at DH but realistically, how often will that really be an issue? The Twins might carry a third catcher anyway. You have Joe Mauer catching and your main utility guys are Jamey Carroll, Darin Mastroianni and probably Eduardo Escobar. I am big on experience and when you look at the Twins you don’t see a lot here, only Mauer catching, Morneau at 1B, Willingham in left and Doumit at DH and that usually makes for bad baseball.

I guess that the core of the 2013 Twins is in place and spring training will have a few battles for the open positions but I just find it hard to get really enthused about this bunch of players. To me it seems like the Twins are afraid to pick a side, either go young or get some better experienced players and try to field a competitive team. I feel bad that Ron Gardenhire finds himself in the position he does but life is not always fair and this team could easily end Gardy’s reign as a Twins manager and I think that will be a bad thing for both the team and the fans. There has been speculation that Paul Molitor is waiting in the wings to take over as the Twins new skipper but I for one hope that does not happen. Molitor has no managerial experience and does not seem to be the least bit interested in earning a manager’s job by working his way up the minor league chain but instead appears to send a message that his hall of fame playing career qualifies him to be the Twins next manager. I don’t see Molitor as a great communicator or even a great teacher for that matter. What has Molitor done over the years to qualify for the job? Nothing and I think hiring Molitor to manage the Twins would set this franchise back for years to come.

In spite of their new ballpark and the 2014 All-Star game on the horizon the Twins are dropping like a rock in the eyes of many Minnesota fans with the basketball Timbewolves moving up, the Vikings making the playoffs, and maybe even the NHL players and owners will agree to a new deal soon and the Wild will once again be relevant. There are only so many entertainment dollars to go around and if the Minnesota Twins don’t put a decent product on the field they will be left in the dust. Todays Twins fans are not the Twins fans of the past and will not tolerate the bad play of past Twins teams, they will simply find another place to spend their money and it will not be fun to watch the Twins play to a meager fan base with a lot of empty seats in Target Field. Twins management seems to have forgotten the old business axiom that it is easier to keep your existing customers than it is to get new customers.

Even their August 2012 announced move to the Pohlad owned FM station KTWN 96.3 station in 2013 seems like a slap in the face to Twins fans. Many baseball fans listen to Twins games on the radio and now even that access may be harder to find. In July of 2012 KTWN did not even make the Twins Cities top 20 radio stations with a measly 1.4%  share of the listening public. Both of the previous stations that carried the Twins games since the team moved to Minnesota back in 1961 WCCO from 1961-2007 and KSTP from 2007-2012 had an AM transmitter power rating of 50,ooo watts and while the Twins new home at KTWN is an FM signal, its transmitter power is a paltry 19,000 watts. The WCCO signal was rated to extend about 90 miles, the KSTP signal was rated for 60 miles during the day and 30 miles at night and the Twins new home at KTWN is rated for 20 miles.

KTWN FM signal coverageI know all this sounds depressing but that is the sad and sorry state of the Twins as they prepare for the 2013 season. The team has done nothing that I can see to get the fan base excited about the up-coming baseball season and that disappoints me. I will follow the Twins in 2013 but sadly, many former Twins fans will not. Hard as I try, I don’t see the Twins finishing anywhere except in the AL Central division basement once again this coming season.

This Day in Twins History – June 26

1964 – Gerry Arrigo pitches the Twins first ever one hitter when Mike Hershberger singles to right leading off the ninth inning and breaks up Arrigo’s no hit bid but the Twins prevail 2-0 over the White Sox at Met Stadium in the first game of a doubleheader. This is the first time a Twins pitcher has thrown a one hitter and the first time a Twins pitcher has accomplished this feat at the Met.

1985 – Minnesota’s Ken Schrom one-hits Kansas City at the Metrodome, but needs a 2-run single from Roy Smalley in the bottom of the 9th to secure the 2-1 victory. Willie Wilson’s 3rd-inning single is the only Royals hit. The is the first one-hitter that a Twins pitcher has thrown in the Metrodome.

Maybe Liam Hendriks can make history tonight by becoming the Twins first hurler to get a one hitter at Target field, I will be out there watching. Twins pitchers have thrown 15 one hitters over the years and the last one was thrown by Scott Baker on August 31, 2007. Bert Blyleven has thrown the most one hitters, three, while pitching in a Minnesota Twins uniform. There have been 26 one hitters thrown against the Twins over the years with the last one thrown by Zach Stewart of the Mighty Whitey’s at Target Field last September.

Are the Twins pitchers in trouble in Cincinnati?

Located on the winding banks of the Ohio River in downtown Cincinnati, the GABP (Great American Ball Park) serves as the home of the Cincinnati Reds, baseball’s first professional franchise. The ballpark officially opened for the 2003 season, making 2010 its eighth big-league season.

At least 1 home run has been hit in each of the last 59 games at Great American Ball Park, dating back to a homer less game vs the Giants on July 29, 2011, making it the longest active ballpark homer streak in the major leagues and the longest home run streak in GABP history. There have only been 60 homer less contests in the ballpark’s 764 games. Only twice in the park’s 10-year existence has there been a streak of 2 straight games without a home run by either team and there never has been a 3-game homer less stretch at GABP. Earlier this season, there were 29 home runs hit during the home stand from May 21 – May 27 (Reds 17, Braves 6, Rockies 6), a new GABP record for HR during a home stand of 7 games or fewer and including a single-game record 9 homers in the finale (Rockies 5, Reds 4).

The GABP is a bandbox and in 2012 it ranks second to Arizona’s Chase Field (1.84) in home runs allowed at 1.80 per game. Safeco Field in Seattle is the toughest place to hit a home run with on 0.45 long balls per game. This year Target Field ranks 18 out of 30 as far as home runs hit is concerned and their ratio stands at 0.90 . With Twins pitchers having given up a major league leading 93 home runs this season it could be a long week-end for Rick Anderson’s chuckers. The Twins physical therapists better be ready to massage some of those Twins pitchers neck muscles as they might suffer from whip-lash before this 3-game series comes to an end.

Good, Bad, and Ugly

Yesterday was an interesting day for the Minnesota Twins and their fans with the news being good, bad and ugly.

GOOD – On a cool crisp spring evening at Target Field the Twins finally got off the snide and posted their first victory of 2012. After a 0-4 start to the season and not having the lead in any game since the season began, the Twins finally took their first lead of the season in the fourth inning on Josh Willingham’s third home run of the season.  Willingham by the way, has a hit in every game this season. With the 6-5 victory the Twins became the last team in major league baseball to post a “W” in the win column. Hopefully the Twins can now relax a little and start playing some good baseball. I can see it taking a some time for this Twins team to gel as it has a number of new pieces as Chris Parmelee or Joe Mauer covers first base, Jamey Carroll gets acclimated over at short, Josh Willingham takes over left field and Ryan Doumit, Trevor Plouffe, or Ben Revere play in right field. Not counting the changes to their pitching staff, that makes four new players in the eight positions on the field. It takes time to learn each other strengths and weaknesses and to play well as a team. The Twins will need to play some good ball because the Texas Rangers come to town on Friday and then Gardy’s boys play the Yankees and the Rays on the road before returning home to face the Red Sox and the Royals.

Bad – The bad news is that the Twins honeymoon at Target Field is over. Yesterdays crowd of 31,413 was the smallest crowd in Target Field history. With the team coming off a 63-99 mark a year ago and a tough 0-4 start in 2012 the fans have not been beating down Target Fields gates to buy tickets. You could see this situation developing late last season when the Twins were playing out the string and there were empty seats all over but at least those seats were bought and paid for and the fans stayed out because they had better things to do on nice fall days then to follow a baseball team that was playing poorly but the empty seats this year are just that, empty seats. If the Twins don’t put a winning team on the field, the empty seat count will rise, the revenue will decrease, and in turn the payroll will have to shrink. Twins fans have become accustomed to winning baseball and last years losing season was a tough pill to swallow but yet the fans still had hope entering this season as they expected their walking wounded in Mauer, Morneau, and Span to return true to form. Then the 2012 season opened and the Twins lost their four games. A tough break for the Twins for sure but it was not the poor start to this season that is causing the empty seats, it is last years record and the off-season acquisitions or lack there of that has the fans hesitant to open their wallets for Twins tickets in 2012. The new ballpark “smells” don’t last forever and now the Twins have to earn their ticket sales on the field.

Scott Baker

UGLY – The ugly news yesterday was the announcement by Twins starting pitcher Scott Baker that he will undergo season ending surgery to repair the flexor pronator tendon in his right elbow before he has even thrown a single pitch that counted in 2012. The expected recovery time for this type of surgery is about six months.

The 30 year-old Baker was drafted by the Twins in the second round of the 2003 amateur draft and made his big league debut in May of 2005. Scott has a 63-48 career mark in 159 starts during hs seven seasons in a Twins uniform. Although I have gotten on Baker for his lack of emotion and how he slows the game to a crawl when he gets runners on the bases, I consider Baker to be the Twins number one starting pitcher. Francisco Liriano probably has better stuff that Baker does but he does not seem to be as mentally savvy on the mound as Baker is. Sure, Baker takes a trip to the DL now and then but when Baker is healthy, he is a very nice pitcher who unlike most Twins pitchers can strike out a batter when needed. From Baker’s point of view, the timing couldn’t be worse as the Twins hold a 2013 option for $9.5 million that is now really in question. The risk to pick up the option is huge but can the Minnesota Twins who always seem to struggle to find starting pitching pass on a proven big league pitcher?

The Twins will miss Scott Baker in the starting rotation but there is always a silver lining, when one door closes, another opens and we will have to wait and see who will latch on to Baker’s spot in the starting rotation and run with it.

How Twins have fared on Opening Day

When the Minnesota Twins open the 2012 season in Baltimore on Friday, April 6 it will mark the 32nd time in 52 season openers that the team has opened their baseball season as road warriors. As a cold weather team, the Twins have only played the seasons first game at Met Stadium five times (63,65,66,71,81) and fifteen times at the Metrodome. In their short history at Target Field the Twins have never opened the season at home. The Twins have not charged out of the gate on a winning note over the years winning only won 24 and losing 27 season opening games. You can make a strong case that their first ever game as Minnesota Twins on April 11, 1961 in Yankee Stadium when Pedro Ramos shut out the New Yorks Yankees 6-0 on just 3 hits was their greatest season opener ever. The most frequest opening day opponent for the Twins has been the Oakland A’s. The Twins have played the Oakland A’s on opening day ten times (the last time in 1990), eight times in Oakland and twice at home (at the Met in 1981 and at the Metrodome in 1987) and the opening day series between these two teams is tied at five game each. The Twins have drawn the Seattle Mariners as opening day opponents four times, twice at home and twice on the road and the Twins have yet to beat the Mariners on opening day.

Pitcher Brad Radke has taken the mound for the Twins on opening day nine times including seven in a row between 1999 and 2005. Radke’s record on opening day was 4 wins, 2 losses, and 3 no decisions. Kent Hrbek has started 12 games at 1B on opening day, the most games that any Twins player has played at any position on opening day. A number of players have started opening day at their position nine times but Hrbek is still the leader in that category.

The Twins have opened the season in Baltimore only once before and that was back on April 11, 1967 in Memorial Stadium when Jim Kaat took the mound for the Twins but before he retired a single batter, the Orioles plated four runs and held on for a 6-3 win. The Twins only other season opener against the Baltimore Orioles occurred on April 2, 2007 at the Metrodome when the Twins behind starter Johan Sanatana and home runs from Torii Hunter and Justin Morneau won 7-4.

Here is who the Twins have faced and how they have fared on opening day.

TEAM WON LOST HOME AWAY YEARS
Yankees 2 2 2 2 61,65,88,89
Indians 2 1 2 1 63,64,04
Orioles 1 1 1 1 67,07
Royals 2 1 0 3 69,74,02
White Sox 1 1 1 1 70,93
Oakland A’s 5 5 2 8 72,73,77,79,80,81,86,87,90,91
Rangers 1 1 0 2 75,76
Mariners 0 4 2 2 78,82,05,09
Tigers 4 2 4 2 83,84,96,97,01,03
Red Sox 0 1 0 1 95
Blue Jays 1 3 1 3 98,99,06,11
Rays 0 1 1 0 00
LA Angels 1 1 1 1 08,10
Cal. Angels 1 1 1 1 85,94
Brewers 1 1 1 1 71,92
Senators 1 0 0 1 68
KC A’s 1 1 1 1 62,66
TOTALS 24 27 20 31

Happy Birthday to TC Bear

 

TC Bear just does not seem to age at all

TC Bear was introduced as the Twins new mascot on April 3, 2000, and that my friends makes today, TC’s 12 birthday. Happy Birthday TC! The TC stands for Twin Cities. A case could be made that TC Bear “bears” some resemblance to the Hamm’s Beer Bear “Sascha”, a mascot that was used in advertisements for Hamm’s Brewery, an early sponsor for the Twins dating back to the early 1960’s. I did a piece a couple of weeks ago about Hamms’s Beer and Sascha that you can check out here. TC used to be an indoor bear but in 2010 he moved outdoors. TC loved his trees that you can make out in the background at Target Field but the players said the trees had to go. Is that anyway for folks in Minnesota to treat a bear?

Did you know?

  • In addition to heavily scouting Australia, the Minnesota Twins also have the biggest presence of any team in Europe, so it was no surprise when they landed Max Kepler-Rozycki for $800,000, the largest bonus ever given to a European.
  • That Max Kepler-Rozycki is the son of two members of the German Ballet?
  • Joe Benson was committed to play running back for Purdue before he signed with the Twins?
  • Fort Myers has had more World Series-winning franchises train in it than any other city either in Florida or Arizona, Five franchises have won it all after training in Fort Myers in the spring: Athletics, Pirates, Royals, Twins, and Red Sox.
  • Target Field’s footprint is only 8.5 acres large, the smallest in major league baseball but it covers a total of 10.5 acres when looked at from above because portions of it extend over surrounding roadways.
  • That the Twins charge $10 for parking for a spring training game at Hammond Stadium? The Twins are tied with the Yankees, Phillies, and Rays for the highest parking rates while all the other teams in Florida range from free to $9.
  • The pen Joe Mauer used to sign his eight-year, $184 million contract belongs to Joel Lepel, the minor league field coordinator for the Minnesota Twins. Lepel was born and raised in Plato, Minn., and has worked for the Twins for 23 years, mostly as a scout. All of the amateur players he has signed, including Mauer, have used the same pen.
  • That one time Twins player Andy Kosco replaced Mickey Mantle at 1B in Mick’s final game on September 28, 1968.
  • Former Twins catcher Earl Battey who was not known for his speed was a star basketball player in high school and was offered a contract to play for the Harlem Globetrotters but he decided to play pro baseball instead.
  • Former Twins infielder and now the Texas Rangers manager Ron Washington replaced Cal Ripken as the Orioles shortstop in the eighth inning of a Sept 14, 1987 game ending Cal Ripken’s record consecutive-innings streak of 8,243, spanning 904 games.

Twins Tickets – Value, Select and Premium

Wait, is that one of the Pohlad's?

Like many other baseball teams, the Twins have categorized their tickets the last few years into value home games, select home games, and premium home games or categories similar to this. The value games are the lowest price and then the select games are usually about $2 more and finally on the high-end we have the premium games that are about$3 more than the select and $5 more than the value games. I thought it would be interesting to see how the Twins designated their tickets since 2009 so here is what I found.

YEAR Value games Select games Premium games
2009 60 (74%) 14 (17%) 7 (9%)
2010 27 (33%) 39 (48%) 15 (19%)
2011 22 (27%) 36 (44%) 23 (28%)
2012 20 (25%) 38 (47%) 23 (28%)

It appears to be getting tougher and tougher to find “value” games year after year. These so-called “value” games were once upon a time the going price for attending a baseball game. In 2012 only 25% of the Minnesota Twins home games will be “value” games, the remaining 75% of the tickets are marked up as “select” or “premium games”. Like many other businesses, baseball is looking to raise revenue but doesn’t want to irritate the fan base by raising ticket prices so they just pick certain games that they categorize differently and charge a higher price for them. This is just a fee that is not called a fee. Baseball assumes that the general public is too dumb to realize what is going on. Who or how games are determined to be “value”, “select”, or “premium” at the beginning of each season would be interesting to know. These higher fees for “select” and “premium” games do not apply to season ticket holders here in Minnesota. Let’s do some math for the fun of it and let’s start with a couple of assumptions, first that the Twins have about 25,000 season tickets sold for each game and that the capacity of Target Field is 39,000 as a nice round number. That means you have about 14,000 tickets sold to the general public for each home game. So, if you have 38 “select” games in 2012 these 14,000 tickets at a $2 premium over a “value” game would bring in an extra ($2 x 14,000 x 38) $1,064,000. If you look at the 23 “premium” games in 2012 these 14,000 tickets at a $5 premium over a “value” game will bring in an extra ($5 x 14,000 x 23) $1,610,000. The numbers I am using I think are very conservative so the total extra dollars brought in through this ticket categorization are very likely higher that what I have here. These kinds of things just frustrate me to no end, ticket prices are already based on seat location meaning that better seats cost more and I understand that but why should I have to pay more to see the Yankees or the Cubs play or why should I pay more because the game is being played on a Saturday night? The Twins are no better and no worse at this than the other MLB teams but in my mind this is just not right. It is these kinds of things that cause baseball fans to jump off the home team bandwagons and stay off until the team is a winner. The bad part is that the teams don’t want to spend money to get good players unless they have the fans support and the fans don’t want to spend their hard earned money watching a crappy team. So it becomes a “what should happen first scenario”.

So what happens over the next few years to the “value” games? They are already down to just 25% of the home games. I guess when the “value” games drop to next to nothing, the “value” category will be eliminated, and the “select” category become the lowest price category and a new category for the high-end will be invented and called something like “platinum” and the game goes on. MLB best be careful, their ticket prices in all these new stadiums are getting out of hand. In most cases the taxpayers are footing a huge chunk of these ballpark costs and it will be sad when the fans get priced out of going to watch their home team play in a ballpark that they paid for to begin with.

I understand that baseball is entertainment and that salaries are extraordinary in the entertainment industry but when does it reach a point of no return? The average salary for a Twins player according to USA Today in 2011 was $4,509,480 and we are talking about a team that lost 99 games. The Kansas City Royals had the lowest average in 2011 and that was still at $1,338,000 and the Yankees were of course the highest with a $6,756,300 average.

I know this blog won’t change anything but writing it does make me fell somewhat better knowing that I have gotten it off my chest. I just hope that Twins fans in 2032 will still be able to attend a Twins game in person at Target Field and get to enjoy baseball the way it should be enjoyed, outdoors at your local ballpark in person. Hell, by then everyone will probably have some kind of igadget that puts everyone out in the field of play so we all get the same view as the players do.

Jason Kubel moves on too

Jason Kubel

The Twins lost another free agent when outfielder/DH Jason Kubel, 29, signed on with the Arizona Diamondbacks for two years and $15 million with an option for 2014. The left-handed Kubel has been in the Twins organization since he was drafted by Minnesota in the 12th round of the 2000 amateur draft. Kubel has played in 753 games for the Twins over seven seasons between 2004 – 2011. Jason sat out the entire 2005 season due to a broken ankle. Kubel’s best season was in 2009 when he hit .300 with 28 home runs and 103 RBI’s. Like may other Twins, Kubel was injured in 2011 and appeared in only 99 games. Kubel made $5.25 million in 2011 and was not a fan of Target Field so I think moving on was a top priority for Jason.

If you check some of the D-Back blogs like Call to the Pen, this is not being looked on very well by some Arizona fans who feel that the D-Backs over paid for Kubel and feel that the Arizonans already have a solid outfield trio in Jason Upton, Chris Young, and Gerardo Parra. So it will be interesting to see how Kubel will fit in, then again maybe Arizona just signed Kubel to move him elsewhere in a deal. Parra seems to be the most likely to losing playing time with Kubel’s arrival in the desert.

I liked Kubel but I saw him primarily as a DH and did not like him as an outfielder and I would not have liked to see Minnesota pay him $7.5 million either. It looks like Kubel and Michael Cuddyer will be playing against each other on a regular basis now since they are both in the NL West.Good luck in Arizona Jason.