Catherine Trammell - contributing reporter
(started this series last season with an NL team so going AL this year.)
Dear Owner of the New York Empire,
How is it for a City that never sleeps, this franchise has been dormant the last three seasons? As of this open letter the franchise is a combined 209-599, that's less than a .260 winning percentage across all levels. Not a single minor league team was remotely close to a winning record. How is it that bad from top to bottom? And that's down from last year's .293 winning percentage across the franchise and on par with S56's .254 win%. Even Tim Horton's finds a way to operate successfully in the Phillipines! Gone are the glory days of 100+ win seasons that the fans were used to for 10 straight seasons from S40-49. And never have the Empire fans been this upset with ownership, even during their initial rebuild years. For the love of the game, the fans, and the league; the franchise should be doing better!
A 3rd straight year with a #1 pick, it's almost like ownership is trying to be bad! But what do they have to show for three awful seasons? Internationally they've signed 3B Hector Pascual ($38.6M), RP Charles Suzuki ($22.6M), and C Rio Duran ($10M) while drafting RF Bronson Yamakzi (S57 #1) and P Chris DeMichele (S58 - #1); but also missed out on signing S56 #9 overall draft pick - also missing out on a Type D pick for not signing him. The blog hasn't been too impressed with either draft picks or the IFA signings but hey; trust the process right? We all know the formula works, and we've predicted another 3-5 seasons of being in attendance while the franchise stocks up for another big run.
What we, the fans of the league, want to see is a franchise that changes course and pushes to do better, to play better, to play within position, to not give up during the winter meetings. The Empire have seen ticket sales and merchandise drop over the years and many of them are moving their support and fan base to Boston. Can you even imagine that, New Yorkers giving up on the hometown team and supporting a red team!
-an Empire fan through and through