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Some things to talk about while we wait for Wilton Lopez to get traded already...
1) Astros TV deal raking in dough
Over at FanGraphs, Wendy Thurm tackled TV deals for all 30 teams in MLB, breaking down how much they get per season for the broadcast rights and whether they have equity stakes in their respective broadcast deals. It's a great breakdown of where all the different teams are at. Where does Houston compare?
Well, the Astros are pulling in $80 million per season as part of their broadcasting rights agreement. They also have a 45 percent stake in CSN Houston, meaning they get a certain amount of profits from the station on top of that $80 million, but that's not freely available data.
How does that rank with other teams? Well, Houston isn't making as much as the Yankees, Angels or Dodgers and they're tied with the Rangers as far as broadcasting rights money each year. Other than that? No other team comes close to the Astros.
Now, you may ask, they don't actually get all of that money, right? They have to pay in some to the revenue sharing system, right? That's exactly correct, and that percentage is about 35% of TV revenue plus a bunch of other stuff. So, they don't exactly have an $80 million cash infusion each year, but it's pretty darn close, especially when you add in that money from the equity stake in CSN Houston.
What does all this mean? Well, Houston is a big money team who can support big payrolls. They might also have the lowest payroll in baseball next year. Draw your own conclusions from there.
2) Kathleen Clark gone
Don't have much to say here, other than it's not entirely surprising that Houston's head of marketing and strategy stepped away from the club and back into her consulting firm providing the same services.
This isn't too surprising for anyone who followed the team in the second half of the season. The problems with Twitter, leaking the new uniforms and even the traffic situation for Paul McCartney were not all Clark's fault, but as head of that area of the team, she's the logical place to have accountability land on.
We haven't talked much about the McCartney concert. Did any of you go? From what I heard, the traffic around MMP was insane, with no cops or traffic guidance at a time when the Houston Dynamo were also hosting a playoff game down the street. Once guy I heard from missed five or six songs from McCartney's set because of all the jams. Anyone else run into that problem?
3) Considering Brennan Boesch
I saw a FanPost a while back wondering if Ryan Raburn, the recently released Tiger, made sense for Houston. I was considering the same thing with another Tiger who may or may not be available right now. Brennan Boesch is a possible non-tender candidate with the Tigers that they may be trying to trade.
Boesch is interesting, entering his Age 28 season, and can play on the outfield corners. He also has some pop, hitting at least 20 doubles and 12 homers in each of his three big league seasons. While you'd expect that power to be depressed some by Detroit's home field, Boesch has actually hit better power-wise at home in his career.
It doesn't make a lot of sense to trade for Boesch, but if he does get released, he might make a nice free agent candidate. What do you think? Does Boesch hold up as a Luhonw buy-low candidate, or is his OBP suspect enough to make him not worthwhile?