Archive for May 18th, 2008

May 18

[WATERFRONT STADIUM HYPOCRISY] Herb Polson Will Not Have You Rush If You Do Not Agree With Him

Herb Polson is a friggin' hypocrite Cork Gaines 2 Comments »

Herb Polson is a member of the St. Petersburg City Council. Polson is experienced with stadium proposals and feels that the other members should not rush to a decision on the Tampa Bay Rays proposal for a new stadium along the St. Pete waterfront. Of course that hasn’t stopped Herb Polson from making up his own mind.

With less than three weeks to go before the City Council decides whether to move forward with a downtown waterfront stadium, one council member has a message for his colleagues: Slow down.

Herb Polson, the only elected official to publicly oppose the Tampa Bay Rays’ stadium plan, is speaking from experience.

In other words, Polson, one of the only (the only?) council members to publicly declare a stance on the new stadium is telling his fellow council members to not rush their decision. So, it is OK for Polson to rush to oppose the stadium, but nobody else should make up their mind yet until they agree with Polson.

This is why we love sports so much. Because politicians suck.

St. Petersburg council member: Go slow on new Rays stadium [St. Pete Times]

May 18

[THE SUNDAY MORNING REVOLUTION] Rays Find Way To Lose Despite 18 Hits

Akinori Iwamura, Alex Rodriguez, David Price, Jason Bartlett, Joe Maddon, Monte Kiffin admin No Comments »




DRG here again to get you through the weekend. I can be reached here..

  • The Good: 2-out RBI and an offense that didn’t quit. 5 of the 8 runs were scored with 2 out and the Rays bats rallied from down 8-4 to tie the game in the 8th inning. The big blow was Carlos Pena’s 9th home run, a 3-run shot in the 7th. Pena also walked twice which is a good sign that he is regaining his confidence within the strike zone.
  • The Bad: The Baserunning, again. I admit, I actually lost count of how many runners were thrown out on the basepaths. 2 runners were picked off first base in the first 2 innings. BJ Upton was once again thrown out at 3rd base, TWICE. Gabe Gross didn’t get thrown out, but he did forget how many outs there were, getting hung up between 2nd and 3rd when there were two outs. He should have scored easily. Gross did have a caught stealing, as did Carl Crawford. That is how a team can manage 18 hits in 10 innings and LOSE…Why the hell is Jason Bartlett trying to sacrifice bunt with a runner on first and no outs in the 4th inning? Yes, it was a 1-run game at the time, but the Rays already had 9 hits in the first 9 outs of the game and Joe Maddon is playing the game like run #4 is going to win the game. As well as the Rays were hitting, Maddon should not have been playing for 1 run with the top of the order due up. And the stupifying point of all this is Papa Joe doesn’t ever sacrifice bunt. All of the sudden the Rays are playing in a NL park and he changes his philosophy when he doesn’t need to?… Can’t blame the bullpen for the loss despite the home run off of Dan Wheeler. The ‘pen held the Cards to 2 runs in 5 innings. They did their job.
  • The Telling: I thought the team had gotten past their poor fundamentals, especially on the basepaths. At times, they look like a little league team. The way they were hitting yesterday, they should have scored 13-14 runs. If the Rays want to be serious contenders, they cannot give away games like they did yesterday. The Rays lead the AL in steals with 40, but they are only 10th in sb% at 67.8%. They are 3rd in the AL in runners picked off with 7, and that does not include all the runners that were thrown out trying to advance an extra base.

DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…

  • Would you trade the 25-man roster of the Rays for the 25-man roster of the Yankees? Gary Shelton says ‘No’. [St. Pete Times]
  • Akinori Iwamura is one of only 2 everyday major leaguers without an error. [Sign On San Diego]
  • Jason Bartlett and Akinori Iwamura are quickly molding into one of the best double-play combos in baseball. [MLB]
  • Monte Kiffin called Joe Maddon to praise the team’s new commitment to defense. Papa Joe has invited Kiffin to address the team. [St. Pete Times]
  • Alex Rodriguez was impressed by David Price after going 1-4 with a home run and 2 strike outs against last year’s top pick. [ESPN]

“I wish he was on our team,” Rodriguez said. “He has a very bright future.”

  • One Red Sox blogger fears the Rays. And not just in ’08. [wicked clevah]

My real concern, however, isn’t this season. Not that I relish the thought of a resurgent Rays club, but Tampa making a single season run like the Marlins of yore I could live with. The longtime laughingstock positioning itself for years of competitive play, I’m not sure I can.

May 18

[RAYS BLOGOSPHERE] Rays Blogs Rule The Blogosphere

Uncategorized admin 2 Comments »

Please allow me a moment to say “job well done” to a couple of Rays’ blogs.

According to StrikeTwo.net, which tracks and ranks baseball blogs, both this site, Rays Index and DRays Bay rank in the top 20 of all baseball blogs. These rankings are based on “influence” in the blogosphere. I am not sure exactly what that means, but i am pretty sure they use the same formula used by People Magazine for their “Sexiest Man Alive” issue.

In fact, if you look a little closer, these Rays blogs have done even better than that. Take away all the general baseball blogs and look at team-specific blogs, these two sites rank #5 and #6 overall. And two of those blogs (The LoHud Yankees Blog and Extra Bases) are associated with local newspapers. Take those two out and all of the sudden two of the top 5 baseball team blogs cover the Tampa Bay Rays.

I think this says a lot about the job that The Professor and the guys at DRays Bay have done. But more so, I believe this is indicative of the growing interest in the Rays among fans of the team as well as a recent surge in interest in the Rays among baseball fans in general.

So while attendance figures at The Trop haven’t grown as fast as some would like, these numbers show that interest in the Rays is at an all-time high and I have to believe the attendance figures will follow this trend very soon.

May 18

[DOWN ON THE FARM] Posey And Beckham Ranked 1-2 By John Sickels

Buster Posey, Tim Beckham admin No Comments »

Durham 8, Charlotte 4. Jeremy Cummings won his 2nd game in 2 starts. He gave up 2 runs in 5 innings. Fernando Perez, Justin Ruggiano and Chris Richard sparked the offense with 3 hits each. Richard had 2 home runs and srove in 5.

Montgomery 2, Tennessee 1. Rhyne Hughes scored the game-winner in the 9th on an error. James Houser started for the Biscuits and only allowed 1 run in 6 innings, despite walking 4.

Vero Beach 11, Palm Beach 3. Brandon Mann improved to 2-3 despite being roughed up for 10 hits and a walk in 6 inning. 3 runs scored. Chuck Tiffany pitched 1 inning and didn’t allow a run, but did surrender a hit and 2 walks. Garret Groce, Ryan Royster and Nevin Ashley each added 3 hits. Royster drove in 3.

Augusta 2, Columbus 1 (10 inn.). Augusta took the win on a wild pitch by Travis Barnett in the 10th…Alex Cobb started and worked 6 innings, allowing 1 run, striking out 3. Mike McCormick went 2-4 to raise his average to .221.

NOTES FROM DOWN ON THE FARM…

  • John Sickels ranks the Top 30 prospects available in this year’s draft. He has Buster Posey #1 and Tim Beckham #2. [Minor League Ball]