Times Have Changed....

It was about this time last season that the Senators were 12-5, with a 4 game winning streak and had the 4th best winning percentage out of the 32 Double-A teams. The major issue was attendance. Times have changed…

This season the Senators are 2-14 and are in last place in the Eastern League. To take this a step further, out of the 136 affiliated minor league teams (A, Advanced A, AA, and AAA) Harrisburg ranks 135th in win percentage (.125) and overall record (2-14); only Buffalo in the AAA International League has a worse record (2-15) and worse win percentage (.118). However, Harrisburg does own the worse losing streak in all of baseball (MiLB and MLB) at 10 games.

As you might expect the Senators rank last in the EL in many offensive categories including team batting average, runs scored, hits, RBI’s and stolen bases. 6 players are hitting below .208. Only two are over .300; Bynum (.400) was promoted after 4 games and Desmond (.346) who has only played 7 games.

They also rank near the bottom in many pitching categories as well, including next to last in ERA (5.05) and have allowed the most homeruns (14). Not many opportunities were available but the Senators have only 1 save (Zinicola).

Of the Senators 14 losses, 8 of them were by 2 runs or less. The main reason for the losses is leaving to many runners on base (which I initially reported about weeks ago and has since been reported on by everyone else, for more information click here).

One topic that has not received much press is attendance, which was a big topic last season at this time. Maybe the reason for this is that media tends to feed off of negativity and there is nothing negative to report about the attendance, at least not yet. Granted there has only been five home games so far this season but average attendance is not one of the categories the team ranks last in; that title belongs to Erie. Harrisburg is averaging 3,563 fans per game early on, good for 6th place in the EL (out of 12 teams). At this rate Harrisburg could see close to 300,000 fans this season.

I know it is not fair to judge attendance by only 5 games but it’s something positive to build on. By comparison to last season, at this point date wise (even through they had 10 home games last season) Harrisburg was averaging only 1509 fans per game. To see attendance jump 2,000 per game is a very positive thing for Senators owners and front office. It shows, at least initially, that the stadium renovations, the addition of the video entertainment and the improved in-game entertainment is working. Watching a last place team is not easy but the Senators front office is doing their best to keep fans entertained.

Senator’s fans have to keep the faith that at some point the on field performance will improve. At some point the hits will start to fall, runs will score and the Senators will start to win games. Besides, it can’t stay this bad all season, can it?