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Three Game 5s: ALDS is most expensive by far

The Yanks will square off against the Tigers tonight in the Bronx, and the two remaining NLDS series are slated to end tomorrow night with their respective Game 5s in Milwaukee and Philadelphia. The secondary ticket market is seeing incredibly high asking prices across the board for these series, but tonight’s Yankees tickets are far and away the most expensive amongst the other series’ MLB tickets.

The get-in price for the NLDS games are $68 in Milwaukee and $118 in Philadelphia, but Yanks fans will have to shell out over $150 a ticket for a seat in the nosebleed-ish right field Grandstand. In terms of average price, the Yankees-Tigers Game 5 has an even bigger lead – $606 vs $314 (Cards-Phillies) and $167 (D’Backs-Brewers).

These three series are still anyone’s game, but with Yankees fans paying top dollar to see their team, the pressure is definitely on for the Bronx Bombers.

As we start another week of baseball action, , the Red Sox continue to the top spot for most demanded tickets. Nearly $6.00 more on average than the second place Cubs, the Red Sox hold a commanding lead on the rest of the MLB. As they are currently leading the AL East, this is no big surprise.

1. Boston Red Sox $83.13
2. Chicago Cubs   $77.38
3. Philadelphia Phillies $69.39
4. Baltimore Orioles  $68.91
5. San Francisco Giants $67.65
6. Toronto Blue Jays $66.96
7. Chicago White Sox $66.93
8. New York Mets $64.53
9. Minnesota Twins $61.29
10. New York Yankees $58.44
11. Pittsburgh Pirates $47.32
12. St. Louis Cardinals $46.31
13. Milwaukee Brewers $46.18
14. Arizona Diamondbacks $46.01
15. Detroit Tigers $43.58
16. Seattle Mariners $41.26
17. Texas Rangers $39.71
18. Oakland Athletics $38.84
19. Houston Astros $37.28
20. San Diego Padres $36.98
21. Washington Nationals $35.72
22. Colorado Rockies $32.77
23. Tampa Bay Rays  $31.89
24. Atlanta Braves  $30.11
25. Los Angeles Angels  $29.66
26. Cleveland Indians  $29.56
27. Kansas City Royals  $29.36
28. Los Angeles Dodgers  $28.26
29. Cincinnati Reds  $25.68
30. Florida Marlins  $24.80

It’s nearly mid-May, which means that the Yankees are set for two of their biggest regular-season weekends in the Bronx: the first home series against the Red Sox beginning on Friday, May 13, and the first home series against the Mets starting the next Friday night.  Everyone’s talking about the Yankees’ batting order going into these games, which puts additional pressure on Joe Girardi to manage the lineup’s instabilities and put all controversy to rest ASAP.

Let’s take a look at the changes we’ve seen over the season thus far by comparing opening day and the most recently announced batting order to the most frequently seen lineup:

The heart of the order -  Teixeria, Rodriguez, Cano – has remained fairly consistent throughout the season, as has Posada’s DH spot. But what about everyone else?

Who’s In First?:  Jeter and Gardner

• If you have ears or eyes, you know that concerns about Derek Jeter’s power at the plate have plagued him since the beginning of the season. His on-base percentage (.308) and batting average (.250) are far below his career numbers.  But resting Jeter in Detroit on Thursday in favor of Eduardo Nunez (who promptly committed two errors at shortstop) may have cost the Yankees the game, which made for their third consecutive loss – a season low.  And many seem to consider a move down in the order an insult to the venerable captain.
• Given all of that freaking out surrounding that leadoff spot, it’s sort of funny to recall that Jeter batted second on Opening Day.  Gardner was in  #1 in the order against rightie Justin Verlander.
• Moreover, it’s not clear who could move up in the order to compensate. While Brett Gardner appears to be coming back from an earlier strikeout extravaganza (season batting average .225), but he’s still not considered a reliable leadoff man – in fact, Girardi’s given him the last slot in the batting order for the opener at Texas while Jeter returned to the top of the order.  One thing’s for sure: both Gardner and Jeter’s performances in this series will be closely watched.

Hot and Cold: Granderson and Swisher

• Curtis Granderson continues to dominate at the plate and is most often placed in at #2 in the order.  Granderson is 2nd in the AL with 8 home runs, and 6th in slugging (.573).
• Granderson’s move to the two spot can be directly traced to Nick Swisher’s unimpressive offensive production as of late (he’s hitting .214).

So, the lineup as it stands today is significantly different from Girardi’s original vision.  It will be interesting to see how performances in the next few games affect the lineup going into the Red Sox/Mets stretch.

In case you were buried under a rock for the past few weeks, Alex Rodriguez had been one home run away from becoming the seventh player in MLB history to hit 600 career home runs for what felt like forever. It had been 46 at-bats, and twelve games, but A-Rod finally hit 600, on August 4th versus the Blue Jays. His home run landed in Monument Park, so no fans were able to catch the ball, and potentially sell it for at least $100,000.

During A-Rod’s 600th home run chase, SeatGeek and Hit Tracker had predicted where he may hit the historic ball. While the home run did not end up landing in “The Money Seat” in Yankee Stadium, it did land in the area in which it was estimated that there was a 12.8 percent chance that the ball would land there. Click here to see the full report for Yankee Stadium!

All the while, thousands of fans in New York, Cleveland and Tampa Bay had taken trips out to the stadium to see the Yankees play, and hopefully see and/or catch A-Rod’s 600th home run.

As reported by CNBC’s Darren Rovell (follow him on Twitter @DarrenRovell1) and calculated by SeatGeek, fans had spent more than $1.2 million more than they would have to see the Yankees play during A-Rod’s milestone chase, which began on July 22 when he hit 599 – and that number doesn’t even include the Yankees most recent games versus the Blue Jays!

Note: these figures were calculated by multiplying the additional secondary ticket market volume by the average ticket prices, to get the additional money spent on tickets, plus the non-ticket ballpark expenses as determined by Team Marketing Report. These numbers do not include the games in which the Blue Jays played at Yankee Stadium.

As the number of fans that has purchased Yankees tickets on the secondary market has increased, so too has the attendance for recent Yankees games, both at home and away.

According to ESPN.com, the average attendace for Yankees home games in 2010 is 46,094 (as of 8/4). However, the average attendance for series versus the Kansas City Royals from July 22 – 25 was 47,578. While this attendance increase is only a three percent increase, it is still compelling given the Yankees’ opponents. Historically, Royals games are not as popular, given the Royals mediocrity, and attendance is generally down from the average. Yet, as A-Rod was going for 600, the attendance was higher than normal, as fans wanted to see him hit the home run.

At the Yankees away games, attendance increased as well. At Progressive Field in Cleveland, the season average attendance is only 17,499, while the series average attendance for the Indians is 28,015. At Tropicana Field in Tampa Bay, three consecutive games in a row were sold out for the first time in Rays history! The attendance for all three games was 36,973, while the season average is 22,560.

Undoubtedly, when the Yankees come to town attendance tends to rise, as they are a very desirable opponent to watch. However, the large increases (60 percent increase at Progressive Field; 63 percent increase at the Trop) were certainly driven up by A-Rod’s milestone home run chase.

For more information, or if you have any inquiries, feel free to email me at justin[at]seatgeek.com. Also, don’t forget to follow us on Twitter @SeatGeek and ‘Like’ us on Facebook!