Sports Radio Service


		Both Bay Area teams not very good By Joe Cronin May 24, 2009

	The San Francisco Giants are now 21-23 and the Oakland Athletics 17-25, one very average team and the other with the third worst record in major league baseball. Interestingly, they both have about the same problem: lack of offensive fire power. Each west division has a team playing unusually well. Perish the thought, but the Dodgers have jumped off to the best record in baseball. We are approaching the end of the third part of the season, 50 games, so it is still early. But the hated Dodgers look very good, and will be better when Manny Ramirez comes back in June. The Texas Rangers would lead any other division but the N.L. West as they have the second best record as we speak. Texas is good, too. I haven't seen attendance figures for 2009, but my thinking is they are down ten to fifteen per cent. This is the worst economy most of us have ever seen. My guess is that most teams are just hanging on, waiting for better times. There are some good things about our bay area teams, and, maybe, some bad things. First the good, both teams have good farm systems. If they don't panic, each team will produce some good 'position' players. But that takes time. Both teams can get into trouble if they go out and buy players on the open market who may only have an offensive side. The price will prove to be very high, say a couple of strong arms in the farm system. And, two bad things happen. You don't have the pitching, but your opponent does. In 2009 the word for sports franchises is 'survival'. NOTE: The Sacramento Kings might be at a fork in the road. The time it is taking finding a new head coach might mean something. The Kings have already said they expect to lose 15 to 20 million dollars this year. Putting that together with the loss of value in their big casino in Las Vegas, that might make the Kings available for sale, or possibly moving to Anaheim. The Pond is a great facility, and many people think the Los Angeles area would support three NBA franchises. Getting fourth pick in the draft will be very hard on the Kings, there are what appears to be only three potentially great players in this year's draft.