Major league baseball: Down the Line

Average attendance is down for 27 of the 30 big league teams entering the weekend, continuing a trend that has seen ticket sales decline every season since 2007.

Business is certain to grow when schools let out and the weather improves, but that may not help much in places such as Toronto, Baltimore and Cleveland, where clubs long have been drawing record-low crowds.

Besides, even Sun Belt teams are struggling. The Florida Marlins played nine of their first 17 home games in front of crowds of less than 14,000, and Tampa Bay, with the best record in the majors, has drawn two home crowds of less than 11,000.

In Oakland, only 12,228 came out on Mother’s Day to see Dallas Braden’s perfect game, while in Seattle, where the stadium has a retractable roof, the slumping Mariners are averaging 10,000 fewer fans per game than the city’s soccer team, which plays next door.

Bowing to the recession and two seasons of declining attendance, ticket prices across the majors rose less than 2% from last season, to an average of $26.74, according to Team Marketing Report. That’s the smallest increase since the group began tracking ticket prices in 1991.

NL West makespitch for improvement

Not so long ago the National League West was arguably the weakest division in baseball. But that’s not the case anymore, especially when it comes to pitching.

“How quickly it re-enhanced itself,” Colorado Manager Jim Tracy said. “It’s pitching-rich. You can look up and down every club in the division, every single one of them, and there’s very good pitching.”

The Padres and Giants, for example, were among the top four teams in the majors in earned-run average entering the weekend while Tracy’s ace, Ubaldo Jimenez, was 6-1 with a no-hitter and a baseball-best 0.93 ERA heading into Friday’s start against Washington.

“Runs are going to be a little bit hard to come by,” Tracy said of the division race. “And so your understanding of 27 productive outs and what you do with those are going to be at a real premium.”

As for his own club, which is off to a slow start after reaching the playoffs last year, Tracy is unapologetic.

“We’re not going to shy away from the fact that we think we have a good ballclub,” he said. “But we’re not going to get so boastful about it or whatever that we create bulletin-board fodder for everybody else. We have to go out and play 162 games.”

But, Tracy said, “on paper it looks really good.”

More musical chairsin Kansas City

The Royals appear to be entering yet another rebuilding stage after axing manager Trey Hillman on Thursday following a 12-23 start.

Kansas City, which recently refurbished its ballpark, has raised its payroll each of the last two seasons but hasn’t been rewarded in the standings, where the team’s record has declined each year under Hillman, who was 152-207 since taking over before the 2008 season.

Former Milwaukee Brewers skipper Ned Yost, who joined the Royals’ front office in January partly, at least, as a manager-in-waiting, will take over. For now.

But it’s unclear whether he, or much of the lineup, will be back next season.

The Royals can cut ties with outfielders David DeJesus and Scott Podsednik and designated hitter Jose Guillen after the season, leaving them with a young core, much of which won’t be eligible for arbitration until 2013.

Royals fans have seen this before, of course. Their team has finished with a winning record only once since the strike-shortened 1994 season.

kevin.baxter@latimes.com