Washington Nationals: Great Story, Lousy Ownership
The Washington Nationals have been a pleasant surprise this season; they've played .500 baseball despite having one of the most challenging early season schedules in the National League. This may not sound all that impressive until you remember that the team has lost 100+ games in back-to-back seasons, posting the worst record in the league both years. As a fan, I'll tell you that the biggest difference is the eyeball test: watching the team on the field no longer hurts. Over the last two seasons their defense and the fundamentals were painfully awful; the team was losing on merit. But although the team is better now and hope is on the way with some highly touted players, team management is still painfully tone deaf to their customer base while squeezing every last dollar out of the team. This short term thinking is building anger in the fans, and if there are no fans the team cannot survive.
This year, even when the Nats lose, they're competitive almost every game. They have some players who seem to be building blocks for the future in Ryan Zimmerman, Ian Desmond and Josh Willingham. With new GM Mike Rizzo, the team is at least arguably heading in the right direction. And they have a new pitcher on the way, you might have heard of him: Stephen Strasburg. The buzz about him is pretty amazing; he's considered the best pitching prospect in the past 20 or so years. Drafted #1 overall, he signed seconds before the deadline last August, was the team's best pitcher in spring training already, and has blazed his way through the minor leagues. With another #1 overall draft pick this year the Nats are also in line to draft another player who has generated a lot of buzz - Bryce Harper. Wonder of wonders, the Nats may have perfectly timed their collapse so that they have not only received the #1 overall pick in back-to-back years, but in each year there was a truly special player available at that slot. Hope, which hadn't been seen in Natstown for the past couple of years, has come to town.
Bryce Harper won't be up for at least 2-3 years; he's only 17 years old (he actually got his GED in order to make himself eligible for this year's draft). But Strasburg's callup is imminent. He's been kept out until now for complicated money reasons. That impediment is now gone. If the team actually spent any money on marketing (the team is largely invisible in the DC area) then Strasburg's arrival would be a golden opportunity. If you don't want to put that much pressure on a 22 year old player who has never pitched in the big leagues, the team would overtly discourage hype and keep their plans mum. But Nats ownership seems intent on making lemons out of lemonade. What they've done instead is split the difference, allowing hype but not directing it; seeing speculation without correcting it - until it was most advantageous for them to do so. All of which at least creates the impression that they're just trying to play the fans for suckers.
It has long been rumored that the plan was for Strasburg to make five starts at AA, five at AAA, then be called up after June 1. This Saturday is his fifth start in AAA, and he's been great. From ESPN to the WaPo to the blogosphere, speculation ran rampant that the Nats' first home game in June, June 4 versus the Reds, would be D-Day. The Nats largely maintained a dignified silence ... until the tickets for the June 4 game were sold out. Within hours AFTER the sellout, the team finally issued strong statements - that no date had been selected, but that they're looking to the next series, June 8-10 against the Pirates. How convenient. At least I have tickets to the June 10 game, so it's no skin off my nose. But it still stinks.
It stinks because it's really hard to see any baseball reason for holding Strasburg back unless he gets shelled in his next outing. But with a late shift, the team gets a “bait & switch” near-sellout on the 4th, PLUS a good crowd (probably not a sellout, although it’s possible) on a weeknight game against an unglamorous opponent that would otherwise draw squadoosh. And Strasburg gets two starts in the NEXT home stand against the White Sox and Royals after a road start at Cleveland. From a "take the money and run" standpoint it all makes sense - but it's still fan abuse. Not as bad as the Opening Day fiasco where the team overtly marketed its Opening Day tickets to excursion groups from Philadelphia, the opposing team's city.* But a poke in the eye, albeit not with a pointed stick, to any casual fan that the team may have someday wanted to turn into a passionate fan.
The short-term financial benefit is an obvious temptation for the team, but mistreating your fan base is a crappy way to build a foundation for future success. Look, they don't have to worry so much about me. I actually like baseball, I’m already a Nats fan and happily go to between 8-12 games a year. I love Friday nights at Nats park because it’s baseball, it’s Friday, and it’s fireworks night. But it’s the 25,000 extra people pulled in by the always deniable coy-to-the-point-of-cuteness whisper campaign who the team can ill afford to piss off after dropping back-to-back 100+ loss seasons on the town. If the team goes 2-8 on their current road trip and then the 4th is a non-Strasburg sellout that turns into a bad loss, then you may hear a couple of innings of loud booing followed by silence as the fans leave the building. THAT is your disaster scenario, and it is UGLY.
I understand that there's been no actual promise by the team when Strasburg will debut, and legitimate baseball reasons to keep him down another start or two may develop. I have no objection to Strasburg not starting in DC on the 4th, IF the reason is an actual, sensible baseball reason. If Strasburg gets roughed up Saturday and they want to give him another start in Syracuse, or weather moves his schedule, no problem. But don't keep him down on the farm to generate a few thousand dollars in extra ticket sales. You don't need the money short term, and you DO need the fans long term.
If this was an incident in isolation, that would be one thing. But this whole debut process has been of a piece with the impression of an ownership group that only cares about short term profits and couldn't care less about its own fans. The Nats won't spend the money to make the team visible in the DC market, but instead go to Philadelphia to sell tickets to Philadelphia tour groups? The team nickles and dimes the city over payments for a stadium they are already playing in? The team hires Bowden and fields a team based on cheap gimmicks and retreads that loses 100+ games a year? Lovely. This cheapness makes fans irate when they read in Forbes magazine that the Nats have the third highest positive cashflow in MLB and that the team's owner, Theodore Lerner, is one of baseball's richest owners. Between running on a team on the cheap while cashing revenue sharing and MLB TV contract checks while esconced in a lovely $625 million ballpark paid for by taxpayers, even other baseball teams are becoming angry with a Nats management that sits in a top 10 market and acts like a small market team. The Lerner family is even in a position to dismiss dismal TV ratings because, what the heck, MASN is Angelos's problem anyway. But in squeezing every last dollar of hope today, Nats team management may well find that they've managed to kill the goose that laid the golden egg.
*As a note, Philly fans clearly have the highest asshole contingent of any fandom. I've seen a lot of visiting fans take over DC for sporting events; Steeler fans famously embarrassed the Redskins a couple of years ago. But for boorish behavior, rude drunkenness, fights and overall mayhem, fans of any of the Philly sports teams are clearly #1 and no one else is really close. My BIL got hit by an empty beer bottle at Opening Day thrown by a Philly fan; no one was surprised.
This year, even when the Nats lose, they're competitive almost every game. They have some players who seem to be building blocks for the future in Ryan Zimmerman, Ian Desmond and Josh Willingham. With new GM Mike Rizzo, the team is at least arguably heading in the right direction. And they have a new pitcher on the way, you might have heard of him: Stephen Strasburg. The buzz about him is pretty amazing; he's considered the best pitching prospect in the past 20 or so years. Drafted #1 overall, he signed seconds before the deadline last August, was the team's best pitcher in spring training already, and has blazed his way through the minor leagues. With another #1 overall draft pick this year the Nats are also in line to draft another player who has generated a lot of buzz - Bryce Harper. Wonder of wonders, the Nats may have perfectly timed their collapse so that they have not only received the #1 overall pick in back-to-back years, but in each year there was a truly special player available at that slot. Hope, which hadn't been seen in Natstown for the past couple of years, has come to town.
Bryce Harper won't be up for at least 2-3 years; he's only 17 years old (he actually got his GED in order to make himself eligible for this year's draft). But Strasburg's callup is imminent. He's been kept out until now for complicated money reasons. That impediment is now gone. If the team actually spent any money on marketing (the team is largely invisible in the DC area) then Strasburg's arrival would be a golden opportunity. If you don't want to put that much pressure on a 22 year old player who has never pitched in the big leagues, the team would overtly discourage hype and keep their plans mum. But Nats ownership seems intent on making lemons out of lemonade. What they've done instead is split the difference, allowing hype but not directing it; seeing speculation without correcting it - until it was most advantageous for them to do so. All of which at least creates the impression that they're just trying to play the fans for suckers.
It has long been rumored that the plan was for Strasburg to make five starts at AA, five at AAA, then be called up after June 1. This Saturday is his fifth start in AAA, and he's been great. From ESPN to the WaPo to the blogosphere, speculation ran rampant that the Nats' first home game in June, June 4 versus the Reds, would be D-Day. The Nats largely maintained a dignified silence ... until the tickets for the June 4 game were sold out. Within hours AFTER the sellout, the team finally issued strong statements - that no date had been selected, but that they're looking to the next series, June 8-10 against the Pirates. How convenient. At least I have tickets to the June 10 game, so it's no skin off my nose. But it still stinks.
It stinks because it's really hard to see any baseball reason for holding Strasburg back unless he gets shelled in his next outing. But with a late shift, the team gets a “bait & switch” near-sellout on the 4th, PLUS a good crowd (probably not a sellout, although it’s possible) on a weeknight game against an unglamorous opponent that would otherwise draw squadoosh. And Strasburg gets two starts in the NEXT home stand against the White Sox and Royals after a road start at Cleveland. From a "take the money and run" standpoint it all makes sense - but it's still fan abuse. Not as bad as the Opening Day fiasco where the team overtly marketed its Opening Day tickets to excursion groups from Philadelphia, the opposing team's city.* But a poke in the eye, albeit not with a pointed stick, to any casual fan that the team may have someday wanted to turn into a passionate fan.
The short-term financial benefit is an obvious temptation for the team, but mistreating your fan base is a crappy way to build a foundation for future success. Look, they don't have to worry so much about me. I actually like baseball, I’m already a Nats fan and happily go to between 8-12 games a year. I love Friday nights at Nats park because it’s baseball, it’s Friday, and it’s fireworks night. But it’s the 25,000 extra people pulled in by the always deniable coy-to-the-point-of-cuteness whisper campaign who the team can ill afford to piss off after dropping back-to-back 100+ loss seasons on the town. If the team goes 2-8 on their current road trip and then the 4th is a non-Strasburg sellout that turns into a bad loss, then you may hear a couple of innings of loud booing followed by silence as the fans leave the building. THAT is your disaster scenario, and it is UGLY.
I understand that there's been no actual promise by the team when Strasburg will debut, and legitimate baseball reasons to keep him down another start or two may develop. I have no objection to Strasburg not starting in DC on the 4th, IF the reason is an actual, sensible baseball reason. If Strasburg gets roughed up Saturday and they want to give him another start in Syracuse, or weather moves his schedule, no problem. But don't keep him down on the farm to generate a few thousand dollars in extra ticket sales. You don't need the money short term, and you DO need the fans long term.
If this was an incident in isolation, that would be one thing. But this whole debut process has been of a piece with the impression of an ownership group that only cares about short term profits and couldn't care less about its own fans. The Nats won't spend the money to make the team visible in the DC market, but instead go to Philadelphia to sell tickets to Philadelphia tour groups? The team nickles and dimes the city over payments for a stadium they are already playing in? The team hires Bowden and fields a team based on cheap gimmicks and retreads that loses 100+ games a year? Lovely. This cheapness makes fans irate when they read in Forbes magazine that the Nats have the third highest positive cashflow in MLB and that the team's owner, Theodore Lerner, is one of baseball's richest owners. Between running on a team on the cheap while cashing revenue sharing and MLB TV contract checks while esconced in a lovely $625 million ballpark paid for by taxpayers, even other baseball teams are becoming angry with a Nats management that sits in a top 10 market and acts like a small market team. The Lerner family is even in a position to dismiss dismal TV ratings because, what the heck, MASN is Angelos's problem anyway. But in squeezing every last dollar of hope today, Nats team management may well find that they've managed to kill the goose that laid the golden egg.
*As a note, Philly fans clearly have the highest asshole contingent of any fandom. I've seen a lot of visiting fans take over DC for sporting events; Steeler fans famously embarrassed the Redskins a couple of years ago. But for boorish behavior, rude drunkenness, fights and overall mayhem, fans of any of the Philly sports teams are clearly #1 and no one else is really close. My BIL got hit by an empty beer bottle at Opening Day thrown by a Philly fan; no one was surprised.