May 05
Last week’s Rays Confidence Graph results.
Below you will see two polls that ask about your confidence in the Tampa Bay Rays. Please take a moment to answer each question. We will present these same polls every Monday. The results will be presented in graphical form on Wednesday, and will be displayed permanently in the sidebar. The goal of the Confidence Graph is to get a feeling of how Rays fans feel about the team and the franchise and track how that level of confidence changes through time. Thanks!
Raysiverse events of the past week that could impact confidence levels…
- The Rays won 2 of 3 from the O’s and then dropped 3 straight to the Red Sox in Boston. The Rays are now 16-15 and sit 3 games behind the Sox in the East and 2 games behind the A’s in the Wild Card.
- Matt Garza and Scott Kazmir finally worked their way back to the Rays rotation, while Jeff Niemann is apparently injured although nobody knows exactly what the injury is or how long he will be out.
May 05
THE GOOD: Carlos Pena hitting his first home run in almost a month (Apr 12).
THE BAD: With 2 on in the first, Evan Longoria hit a ball in left-center that would have been a sure double, IF Manny Being Manny was in left field. Instead he was DHing with David Oritiz getting the day off. Jacoby Ellsbury made the catch costing the Rays 2 runs early in the game…Shawn Riggans. 2 passed balls, an error and 0-2. Not good. Anybody think Mike DiFelice will be back sooner rather than later?…Jonny Gomes being robbed of a double on a ball that was clearly fair off the Green Monster and nobody appeared to even question the call, much less ask for help from another umpire…
THE TELLING: We guess the positive spin would be that if entering last weekend’s series, and somebody offered us 3 wins in 6 games against the Sox, we probably would have taken it and ran.
DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…
- BJ Upton was in the lineup after missing the last 2 games with a sore shoulder, but Joe Maddon said that Upton “didn’t want to turn it loose.” And Upton admitted to some hesitation in his approach. [Tampa Tribune]
- Akinori Iwamura is one of only 2 starting second basmen in the majors without an error. [USA Today]
- Marc Lancaster takes a look at the upcoming draft and wonders who the Rays will draft. RJ Harrison says that the choice is not nearly as clear-cut as it was last year with David Price. As a side note, does anybody know why it is OK in baseball for a player to select an agent while they are still competing in college, as Pedro Alvarez has with Scott Boras and yet it is not OK in basketball and football? This one really stumps us. And yes, we realize that the player doesn’t actually “sign” with the agent yet, but they are still aligned with one. And we are pretty sure that would still be illegal in baseball and football. [Tampa Tribune]
- Fox Sports list the Rays as only the 4th worst franchise in sports and only 3rd in baseball behind the Pirates and the Royals. [Fox Sports]
May 05
Scranton 9, Durham 5. Chris Mason has yet to adjust to life in AAA, dropping to 1-4 with his latest outing. In 6.1 innings, he struck out 7 but gave up 6 runs (5 earned)…Reid Brignac was 2-4 and hit his 3rd home run, a 2-run shot…Joel Guzman is sudenly hitting the ball. After a 2-5 yesterday, he has an 8-game hitting streak and 4 multi-hit games in that span.
Huntsville 11, Montgomery 3. Mike Wlodarczyk was bombed for 8 runs (6 earned) in 3 innings. He gave up 11 hits and 2 walks, and added a throwing error for good measure…Ronnie Merrill has been red hot for the Biscuits and has been rewarded by a move up to the 3rd spot in the lineup. Yesterday he was 3-5 with a triple and an RBI. He is 14 for 32 (.438) in the last 9 games
Vero Beach 2, Dunedin 0. Ryan Morse improved to 2-0 with 6 shutout innings. He struck out 1 and walked none…Cesar Suarez had 2 of the Devil Rays’ 7 hits…Garrett Groce had his 7th double.
Greenville 5, Columbus 0. Jason Ragan dropped to 4-2, giving up 3 runs in 5 innings on 7 hits and 4 walks…The Catfish were shutout on 4 hits, 3 singles and a double.
NOTES FROM DOWN ON THE FARM…
- Evan Meek was DFA’d by the Pirates. Meek was a Rule 5 selection by the Pirates from the Rays organization. If he clears waivers the Rays can purchase the contract back from the Pirates for $25K. If he is clamied on waivers, he must remain on the next team’s major league roster for the rest of the season or be offered back to the Rays…Meek appeared in 9 games for the Pirates allowing 10 earned runs in 13 innings. He struck out 7 and walked 12. [Biscuits Batter]
