Our first spring in El Paso
The final cosmetic touches are being put now to our new stadium as we sit in our new swanky offices up on the top floor of Brother Allred’s Church of the All-Inclusive. Everyone is currently heading out to spring training camp; we are currently expected to have just 44 in camp this year. Most of our top prospects are already on the 40-man roster so we have added just four non-roster invitees this year.
In camp will be our two new FA signings, Ross Quicker & Mike England, the fans were very pleased that they signed but neither are projected to be a 100% full-time starter. England will more than likely platoon with Jeremy Webb while Quicker doesn’t have the range I don’t think to be a regular third baseman, so he will probably end up as backup toJim Gouzzie as well as joining the queue for AB’s at first. It may well be that this year we see a lot more platooning at various positions than previously. I feel we have a few better options than we have had in the last few seasons, the best of our prospects have finally arrived at BBA level and our move to El Paso has enabled us to finance our signings of several class FA’s.
While the positional players are all more or less set, baring injuries or standout performances, the real Spring battle will be among the group of young arms competing for a rotation spot. We have around eight pitchers in camp who have a realistic chance of breaking camp with a rotation spot. Maybe two to three slots are already pencilled in, Gerald Sizemore’s post season performance in Albuquerque has probably earned him a rotation start while Ramon Guerrero’s rookie season performance will be enough for a spot at the back of the rotation. Jorge Garcia seems to have really improved following his BBA cup of coffee and is looking at a mid-rotation slot. Augusto Ramirez has successfully taken the stopper role and will be looking to improve on his 141 K’s in 84 IP. New signings Chase Walter, Jose Torres & Adrian Garcia are all expected to be major contributors to the bullpen innings this year.
Meanwhile an update on our finances following our move into a brand new 55,000 stadium. Selling season tickets at an over 60% markup on our prices in Wichita, we have sold nearly 17,500 tickets which is 2,500 more already than our 2044 total. Our analysts are projecting that our average attendance will rise from 31,295 in 2044 to around 46,000 in the coming year, making the expense of the larger stadium worthwhile straightaway. Revenue per game with shoot up from $288,000 to somewhere around $700,000. Brother Allred has been so impressed by these projections that even before the season has started, he has raised by budget from $94 million to 110 million. All we have to do now is win more to maintain our fan interest. Rome (or El Paso) wasn’t built in a day, but I would like to be raising our 56-59 win tally to a 65-70 win tally. If we can do that I think our FI will hold up to a great extent and with our new finances we can build on our player improvements next year.
