Stats, Facts and Thoughts (2036-1)

[Fat Nige]

October 1st, 2035

So that’s it, the 2035 season is done and dusted. The Sluggers finally finished the 12-game road trip with a make-up game at Nashville where two runs on four hits was enough for the Goats to take a 2-1 win and leave Louisville with a .500 season, 81-81. It could have been worse, despite their poor road record the Sluggers were able to pick up five wins from those 12 games, but it could have been better as they were three games over .500 halfway through September.

Their record of 81-81, 13 games behind Jacksonville, was Sluggers’ first year below 90 wins since 2028 and snaps a seven-year playoff streak. Louisville’s 10-17 record in July was the worst month where six of those 10 wins came in the last 10 days of the month. The best was from August 10th to the 20th when Sluggers won 10 start, outscoring their opponents 52-15. The team did keep injury free, only losing 27 days to injury, 14 of those being down to a dead arm for Kevin Morales. The only repeat injured soul was Martin Herbert of the International Complex who lost two days to flu and three to a cold. The worst injury of the season was to back-up third baseman Felix Arrojo who suffered a torn abdominal muscle running the bases in Spring Training and eventually sat out five weeks, joining the Sluggers in Louisville a few weeks late.

At the start of the 2035 the front office announced a 2.3% hike in ticket prices to an average of $22.50. Sales of Season Plans fell 14.4% to 17,126 and the average home attendance for the year dropped to 30,730 (a fall of almost 30% from 2034’s 43,600 odd). All of this left the Sluggers with a near $300,000 drop in gameday revenue, but they still made over $21 million in profit abet 3.4 million down from the previous year. These figures were buoyed by around a $26.5 million cutback in payroll levels. The payroll of $71.8 million was the lowest since Louisville spent just over $42 million in 2011 while the total attendance of 2,489,126 was the first below 3,000,000 since 2028, following the overall drop in attendance almost right across the board in the BBA, Louisville’s 1.1 million being one of the biggest drops though.

Efforts now switch to plans for 2036. Due to the number of young players already on the 40-man (and indeed playing in the Sluggers team) there are limited places available on the 40-man roster so there will be a plethora of players exposed to the Rule V draft. Thankfully not many are of a quality that would be able to play an active role on a BBA level squad according to the franchise analysts, leaving Louisville reasonably confident that they won’t be hit too hard in the draft. With the few spare places on the 40-man expected to be filled Louisville are not scouting the Rule V pool. With the success of the many rookies that debuted for the Sluggers in 2035 the Front Office of the franchise has let it be known that they are not expecting to be a player in the free agent market and most of their efforts will be concentrated on off-field activities amid rumours of more minor league affiliate relocation and even plans afoot to reach out feelers for potential partners in a new stadium plan that has been touted around the local government and business communities.