[THE HANGOVER] Grant Balfour Admits Pressure Is Tough On Him
Chris Mason, Evan Longoria, Glenn Gibson, Grant Balfour, James Shields, Jim Hickey, Scott Dohmann, Xavier Hernandez March 28th. 2008, 8:32amTampa Bay Rays (28 days until Opening Day)
Yesterday: Tampa Bay Rays 9, Indians 7.
The Good: Scott Dohmann retired all 4 batters he faced, including the final out of the 6th inning with the bases loaded…Another errorless game for the Rays who have 21 in the spring. Only 6 teams have committed fewer…
The Bad: Rays pitchers had their streak of 21 innings without a walk end in the 3rd and then proceeded to walk 7 on the day including one with the bases loaded by Grant Balfour and hit a batter by Andy Sonnanstine….
The Telling: Elliot Johnson got the start at third base over Joel Guzman as Willy Aybar continues to nurse a sore hamstring. Either Johnson or Guzman will get the opening day assignment if Aybar is not ready to go.
DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…
- Obligatory Public Service Announcement: We will be hosting the 2nd Annual Opening Day Tampa Bay Rays Live Blog here at RI. So feel free to stop by and join in on the shenanigans as participation is certainly welcome.
- Want a good indication that Scott Dohmann will be named to the roster over Grant Balfour? Try this quote from Balfour: “It’s tough to go out there and pitch every time knowing that you’re either on the team or off the team…It’s tough, having that pressure on you, I must admit.” Excuse me? You know what else is pressure? Coming in to the game with a 1-run lead and runners on 2nd and 3rd. Funny…We thought pressure was something a relief pitcher needs to be able to handle. The whole point of this battle for the final spot in the bullpen is to send you guys out there every time knowing a job is on the line and seeing how you handle it. [St. Pete Times]
- The Rays are tied with the Cubs and White Sox for most hit batters in spring training with 17. James Shields has 4 all by himself, which is the second most in the spring. As per a discussion in the comments section a few days ago, on the surface it appears like Joe Maddon and Jim Hickey are emphasizing the importance of pitching inside with the benefit outweighing the occasional hit batter. Now we see that this is also being implemented at the minor league level as Durham pitching coach Xavier Hernandez is preaching the same method to the minor leaguers, in particular Chris Mason who was the AA pitcher of the year last year. Mason has hit 5 batters in camp this spring. [Montgomery Advertiser]
“I’ve always emphasized it,” Hernandez said. “Being at the Triple-A level and going to the major leagues at the end of last year, I realized that it’s not only important, it’s imperative.”
- Acording to Outs Per Swing Evan Longoria already has more AAA experience than all of the following third basemen combined: Albert Pujols, Alex Gordon, Ryan Zimmerman, Miguel Cabrera and Kevin Kouzmanoff. He also has the same experience as David Wright and is only 3 games short of Ryan Braun. [Outs Per Swing]
- Rays of Light picked up a nice not-very-surprising tidbit about Elijah Dukes. Apparently he went MIA from the Nats for “non-baseball matters”…We’ve said it before, we will say it again. We don’t care if Glenn Gibson never throws another pitch, the Rays made a great trade to get rid of that ticking time bomb. [Rays of Light]
- The Sports Illustrated Baseball Preview issue is out and here is a link to the Rays preview. [ESPN]
- David Pinto goes to PECOTA to show that the Rays have the best rotation in the AL East, and that takes into consideration that starting pitchers will miss time and uses Jason Hammel in place of Edwin Jackson. [Yahoo! Sports]
- Here is another projection for the Rays pitching staff. [Baseball Musings]
- RJ Anderson answers 5 questions about the Tampa Bay Rays at The Hardball Times. [The Hardball Times]
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Thank God Dukes is gone. I can sort of understand the Nat’s gambling on him, but you just knew it would end up badly.
Thanks for the hard work you put into Rays Index and with the Raysheads stuff. After reading that nightmare of a thread on Facebook, it’s always irritating to realize that people will bitch about everything, especially a good idea, if it gives them something to be unhappy about.
that guy on facebook is fucking idiot. and who the hell thinks CORE is a good idea for a fanbase name or THE BLUE MAN GROUP? The Blue Crew is not bad, but that has already been used in baseball with The Brew Crew.
I just went to the Facebook page for the first time, but I didn’t see anything about CORE or Blue Crew. Where is that discussion?
“Acording to Outs Per Swing Evan Longoria already has more AAA experience than all of the following third basemen combined: Albert Pujols, Alex Gordon, Ryan Zimmerman, Miguel Cabrera and Kevin Kouzmanoff. He also has the same experience as David Wright and is only 3 games short of Ryan Braun. [Outs Per Swing]“
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It is interesting that you are absolutely correct about what he says, but as you state it, the implication is exactly the opposite of his point. Focusing on the comparable AAA experience suggests the Rays have seen enough of him in the minors to have promoted him. But the point of the article, as expressed in the title, was “Evan Longoria starting season in AAA isn’t so crazy” and is emphasized by the last lines of the article which read “So to say the Rays are being cheap and are holding Longoria down isn’t really justified by this list. This doesn’t mean that the Longoria move wasn’t money motivated, but shows the Rays have a history of getting their players more time at the MiLB level before promoting them.”
clayton, go to the group “Tampa Bay Rays Fans United” apparently there was some discussion of merging the two groups and they are discussing it on that group page.
go down the “discussion board” the first topic is “uniting the fans” in which you will see there are people that are clearly against uniting the fans.
nick/anon, thanks for the support. believe me, we got a good laugh about it considering they approached us.
RR, when i said “according to outs per swing” i really just meant that I did not go back and verify their numbers. yes, that is not the tone of their piece and they don’t even make the same observation that I made. I just found that tidbit to be fairly interesting.
I am not taking a side for or against the demotion. just thought it was some interesting math. let others do with it what they will.
I did not assume any differently, but it is further evidence, if any is really needed, that “facts” with no context or in simplified fashion are really not particularly significant. What is significant is how they are interpreted, and to what extent they support those interpretations.
Many discussions center around isolated factual statements or simplistic interpretations of facts or irrelevant or insignificant facts, all of which lend credibility to arguments that are in fact not really credible. So in Longoria’s case, references to his spring training record or his minor league career or to the facts of free agency and arbitration eligibility may be useful to help understand the situation, but unless they are framed within a fuller appreciation of the organization’s philosophy, its statements and actions of the past 2 years and much more, they are more misleading than enlightening.
For example, one of the more egregious misuses of facts is the reference to Niemann’s spring ERA as evidence that he deserved a spot on the roster ahead of Jackson or Hammel. That bit of tomfoolery combines all the worst uses of facts: irrelevant information, incomplete information and misleading information as well as misinterpretation of information.