Justin Verlander Is Still A Must-See Pitcher, According To The Wall Street Journal

By: Evan Jankens
@kingofthekc

Paying to see your favorite team play will be a hard sell in upcoming years, in my humble opinion. With the constantly decreasing prices for high resolution, mammoth TVs, it's pretty tough to justify paying $50 per seat to see a game live. And that doesn't even take into account the price for beer.

Having said that, the Wall Street Journal put out a statistic about how much ticket sales increase based on the particular pitcher taking the mound for that game.

And according to the list, the Detroit Tigers very own Justin Verlander has the second highest percentage jump in Major League Baseball, only behind Masahiro Tanaka. I understand Tanaka's appeal, it was his first season with the Yankees and he plays in New York, of course people want to see him live.

I'm a little confused about Justin Verlander, especially this season. Verlander has an ERA of 4.79, which is his highest since 2008. It's not like it's 2011 or 2012, and fans think they could see a no-hitter every time he steps on the mound.

Maybe kids still really want to see Verlander pitch and parents are buying tickets for that game? Others on the list are Jeff Samardzija, Chris Sale, David Price and Clayton Kershaw to name a few.

Do you buy tickets based on the day's starting pitcher?

In:
• Justin Verlander
• Detroit Tigers