Archive for February 27th, 2008

Feb 27

[HAPPY HOUR] Reid Brignac’s Little Piggy Not Going To Bat

Barry Bonds, PECOTA, Pedro Alvarez, Reid Brignac, Rocco Baldelli, Scott Kazmir Cork Gaines No Comments »

Tampa Bay Rays (33 days until Opening Day)

The injury bug is striking the Rays camp early this year. After earlier scares from Scott Kazmir and David Price, we now get word that Reid Brignac will miss a week with a broken toe.

In other injury news from yesterday’s intrasquad game, Reid Brignac suffered a fractured fifth toe on his right foot when he was hit by a pitch [thrown by Chris Mason]. He is expected to be out for 4-7 days

*mumbling to self* One…Two…Three…Four…Five? Five!?

That’s the friggin’ pinky toe! Seven days for a pinky toe?! In our day we just taped that piggy to the 4th piggy and got our ass back on the field. We wouldn’t even tell the coach.

In brighter news, Kazmir’s MRI results came back and while there is a minor tear, it is officially listed as a “strained elbow”. He is expected to miss two weeks. Andrew Friedman stated that Kid K could miss one or two starts in the regular season. Kazmir has other plans.

“We still think that what we have now is something where it’s possible to get out there and be ready for Opening Day,” he said.

Nice.

Kazmir out ‘weeks, not months’ [Rays Report]
Kazmir: I’ll be ready by opening day [Rays Report]

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…

  • Rocco Baldelli was the DH in this morning’s intrasquad game, going 0-2. [The Heater]
  • We previously mentioned that according to Anaheim All The Way’s CHONE projections, the Rays are projected to win 89 games. Nate Silver of Baseball Prospectus, wrote a guest-column today for SportsIllustrated.com explaining why the Rays are expected to win 22 more games in 2008 based on their PECOTA projections. The biggest improvement is slated to come from the defense. [SI.com]

It’s in the field…that the Rays will make their biggest gains. According to BP’s Fielding Runs above Average (FRAA), the Rays gave up 72 more runs than an average defense last season. Of that total, 56 resulted from poor middle-infield play as the Rays rotated overmatched utilitymen Brendan Harris and Josh Wilson at shortstop and saw Upton commit 12 errors in just 48 games at second before moving him to centerfield. But the acquisition of slick-fielding shortstop Jason Bartlett in the Young trade and the move of sure-handed Aki Iwamura from third to second (to make room for Longoria) has stabilized the infield. As a result the Rays’ defense projects to be 10 runs above average this year, an 82-run improvement, which will allow the improved rotation to work through its innings more efficiently.

  • Jon Heyman today said that one “Rays person” put the chances at signing Barry Bonds at 100:1. They went on to say that it would most likely only happen if one of the Rays current players were injured and even then, there would have to be other extenuating circumstances. A friend of Bonds said he would most likely not want to sign with the Rays as his main goal is to win a World Series. [SI.com]
  • The Rays have the top pick in the June draft. The odds-on favorite to be the first pick, Pedro Alvarez broke a bone in his hand and will be out of action for up to six weeks. [VU Commodores]
  • Rays Anatomy has posted their Rays preview for MVN’s new Roster magazine. [Rays Anatomy]
Feb 27

[RAYS MEDIA] David Whitley’s Column Was Not Only Awful, It Was Unoriginal

David Whitley, The Serious Tip Cork Gaines No Comments »

Earlier this week, in our ever-popular feature “Why The Rays Columnists Suck”, David Whitley made his debut. In his column Whitley emails the Church of Satan in an effort to ask Satan himself how he feels about the Tampa Bay Devil Rays changing their name to the “Tampa Bay Rays.

It was recently pointed out to us that Whitley’s piece was much worse than we originally believed. Not only was the column awful and a poor attempt at humor…turns out the idea for the column was unoriginal.

Whitley attempts to explore the reaction of the Church of Satan to the Tampa Bay Rays’ franchise name change. Regular readers of my blog, as well as visitors from Deadspin.com and RaysIndex.com might remember I wrote about the exact same topic five months ago.

Shame on us for not remembering the original piece as we did indeed link to Jordi’s original piece when it was first posted to The Serious Tip.

We want to emphasize that this is not an accusation of plagiarism. Rather it is an accusation of laziness. As The Serious Tip points out, “David Whitley claimed to have done “much research” in finding the Church of Satan website (www.churchofsatan.com, by the way). Had he simply incorporated ‘Devil Rays’ after ‘Church of Satan’ in his search, he would have easily found my post. It is the first web site listed.”

Why The Rays Columnists Suck: David Whitley [Rays Index]
Who cursed the Rays? Could it be…Satan?! [Orlando Sentinel]
David Whitley of the Orlando Sentinel is neither funny nor original [The Serious Tip]
Church Members Upset Over Devil Rays’ Name Change [The Serious Tip]

Feb 27

[RI CONFIDENCE GRAPH] The Rays Index Confidence Graph: 5 Weeks Until Opening Day

Confidence graph Cork Gaines No Comments »

The Rays Confidence Graph will appear every Wednesday and is a look at how much confidence Rays fans have in the Tampa Bay Rays. The graph is designed to give us a look at how our emotional bias as Rays fans fluctuates through time. The “confidence” in the team is an inexact measure of how fans feel about the team’s current strength as well as how much confidence fans have in the franchise for the next 3-4 years. Notes on this weeks agida-level can be found after the graph..

Notes on the RI Confidence Graph…

  • The most common response for “Confidence in 2008 Rays” was 7 (If things break right, they could be in race for playoffs) with 45.0%
  • The most common response for “Confidence in future of franchise” was 8 with 39.7%.
  • Confidence in the 2008 Rays ranged from 2 (Good shot at having top pick in draft for 3rd straight year) to 10 (The Rays are built/playing like a World Series contender)
  • Confidence in the future ranged from 5-10.
  • 63.4% of respondents feel the Rays have a shot at the playoffs in 2008
  • 91.6% of respondents feel the Rays should be at least a .500 team in 2008
Feb 27

[THE HANGOVER] Scott Kazmir’s Set-back Increases Chance Of Jeff Niemann Making Opening Day Roster

Charlie Crist, Jason Hammel, Jeff Niemann, Joe Maddon, Joel Guzman, Jonny Gomes, JP Howell, Scott Kazmir, Stuart Sternberg, Willy Aybar Cork Gaines 3 Comments »

Tampa Bay Rays (33 days until Opening Day)

Even though the MRI results are not due until today, the St. Pete Times this morning is reporting that Scott Kazmir will be sidelined for approximately two weeks.

The news on Rays ace Scott Kazmir’s left elbow appeared relatively good Tuesday night – no serious injury, but he’s expected to be sidelined about two weeks, which makes it unlikely he’d be ready for the opening day start.

Kazmir, 24, walked off the mound Tuesday after feeling “a little discomfort” while warming up for an intrasquad game and ended up in an MRI machine at Dr. Koco Eaton’s office. Kazmir said “it felt like it just jammed a little bit, kind of like a hyperextension.”

Of course the immediate concern is the status of Kid K’s elbow. In relation to the Rays opening day roster…this set-back for Kazmir may be an opportunity for another starting pitcher.

Joe Maddon has stated the five are fighting for the final two spots in the rotation, with incumbants Edwin Jackson and Andy Sonnanstine the early favorites. If Kazmir does indeed miss two or three starts in April, One of Jason Hammel, JP Howell and Jeff Niemann may get a shot to extend their audition into the regular season.

If one of those pitchers is slated to become a long reliever, Maddon may be more inclined to start that pitcher in the role immediately and fill the hole in the rotation with one of the other two. For example, if Hammel is to be the long reliever, he may not be considered to fill Kazmir’s spot in the rotation.

This set-back for Kazmir now means that we have a significantly better chance of seeing Niemann on the opening day roster.

Rays concerned for Kazmir [Bradenton Herald]
Kazmir checks out [St. Pete Times]

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…

  • If you missed it yesterday, we included a “Webtopia” in the “Happy Hour” segment yesterday afternoon. So you will find a number of links there. This may become more common during Spring Training when the media coverage is at it’s highest. [Rays Index]
  • The Rays held their first intrasquad game yesterday. Not a lot of action, outside of Jonny Gomes making a falling down diving catch. [Herald-Tribune]
  • Joel Guzman finally resolved his Visa issues and arrived at camp yesterday. Willy Aybar is expected to arrive today. We finally get to see exactly how good the super-platoon, Jolly Guzbar, can be. [Tampa Bay Rays]
  • Stuart Sternberg said he would be open to adding payroll to the team in-season if it meant strengthening the team. [St. Pete Times]

“Obviously our payroll has been at or near the bottom. But it’s a big business, and with a business like that you need to have some flexibility,” Sternberg said during his first appearance of the spring at training camp…”So we will always be in a position to add. The question is, at what cost and not just at the cost, but how does that affect us 2009, 2010? The money isn’t endless. It will just have to come from another year.”

  • Florida Governor Charlie Crist supports the Rays proposal for a new stadium, stating that he believes the new park and the redevelopment of Tropicana Field would be an economic boost for the city. [Rays Report]

The new stadium “means a lot. I want to do everything we can,” Crist said, “That is why I wanted to reinstitute the [Governor’s Baseball Dinner], to show how much Florida appreciates what baseball does for the whole Sunshine State. Anything we can do in order to support baseball – and all sports being in Florida – is important…Annually, sports means $32 billion a year for the Sunshine State. That’s a huge economic driver and makes an enormous impact in the production of jobs…[A new Rays stadium is] not just for owners and players but for an awful lot of people that work at the stadium that park the cars and provide the food. It’s very important for all of us and I want to do whatever I can to help.”

  • Fire Jay Mariotti rips apart a piece from The Sporting News that thinks the Rays should sign Barry Bonds. [Fire Jay Mariotti]