May 24
Tonight’s game at the Trop between the Rays and the Orioles will not be seen on the MLB’s “Extra Innings” package.
Why? Because of The Commodores.
Tonight is the first of several scheduled postgame concerts that the Rays will feature following Saturday home games. To accommodate the concerts, the Rays have moved the start times of Saturday home games up to 6:10 (as opposed to the normal start time of 7:10).
Of course the new start time falls within the Fox Network’s national exclusive broadcast window.
From MLB.tv…
National Live Blackout (Regular Season): Due to Major League Baseball national exclusivities, for each Saturday game beginning April 19, with a scheduled start time after 1:10 PM ET or before 7:05 PM ET, and for each Sunday game that begins after 5:00 PM ET, all scheduled webcasts of such games will be blacked out.
Therefore, even though all of the Fox games broadcast in the Eastern Time Zone will be over long before 6:00 pm, the “Extra Innings” package still cannot broadcast the game, because the Rays want to subject fans at the game to the arthritic stylings of The Commodores.
Although I cannot find an explanation, the game appears to still be available on MLB.tv, even though the same blackout rules apply.
For those of you that rely on the “Extra Innings” package to follow the Rays, please be advised, you will not be able to watch another Saturday home game until August 30th.
May 24
Earlier this week The Professor told you about the first ever Spots Illustrated cover to feature the Tampa Bay Rays (and it was not making fun of the Rays!).
Yesterday, Roger Mooney of the Bradenton Herald got the reactions of a few of the Rays, and oh so subtly dropped this little bomb on us:
It is the first time Sports Illustrated used a cartoon-themed cover in its nearly 54 years, and the idea isn’t exactly a winner inside the Rays clubhouse.
Oh really?
You would expect Mooney to then provide us with a quote from Crawford or somebody else as to why the cover “isn’t exactly a winner inside the Rays clubhouse”. Nope. He then immediately goes into a quote from Carl Crawford on how “nice” it was to be on the cover.
So, the Rays are on the cover of Sports Illustrated for the first time ever, in a historical issue (first ever cartoon cover) and yet some of the Rays didn’t like the idea and Mooney doesn’t tell us why.
Crawford, Rays happy to be on cover of Sports Illustrated [Bradenton Herald]
May 24
One year ago on Rays Index we wrote an open letter to Elijah Dukes.
[Rays Index]
May 24
DRG here again to get you through the weekend. I can be reached here..
The Good: Matt Garza is still walking too many (4 last night) but he was better about getting ahead of batters. You can always tell when Garza is going to have a good night by his ability to get strike-one. Last night, he was strike-one to 18 of 30 batters (60%). Not great, but definitely improved. In his last start, when he allowed 7 runs in 4.1 innings, he was only strike-one to 10 of 25 batters (40%) …Aubrey Friggin Huff finally got what was comin’ to him. After torturing the Rays for the last year-plus, and after hitting a triple earlier in the game, Huff appeared to hit a run-scoring, game-tying double in the 8th inning with 1 out, but the drive was called foul. Huff would then ground into an inning ending double play.
The Bad: Flavored Tequila
The Telling: All five of the Rays starters now have at least one start in which they did not allow a run…The Rays have a 2.5 game lead in the Wild Card standings over Oakland and 3.5 games over Baltimore.
DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…
- YouTube video of the day: Weezer’s new video featuring many of your viral video faves. [You Tube]
- John Heyman reviews last winter’s “biggest trades” and doesn’t even mention the Matt Garza/Jason Bartlett/Delmon Young deal? I call “do over”. [SI.com]
May 24
Durham 4, Richmond 1. The forgotten prospect, Joel Guzman (can I still call him a prospect?) hit a 3-run home run in the 2nd inning and that was enough for Jeremy Cummings who improved to 3-0 in 3 starts for the Rays, since coming over from Australia Taiwan. He struck out 7 and did not walk a batter in 7 innings. He gave up 3 hits and 1 run. He retired the last 18 batters he faced.
Montgomery @ Mobile (ppd Rain). This game will be made up as part of a double-header on Saturday.
Clearwater @ Vero Beach (ppd Rain). This game will be made up as part of a double-header on Saturday.
Hickory 12, Columbus 2. Glenn Gibson dropped to 1-7 after allowing 8 runs in 3 innings. That’s OK. That is still more wins than Elijah Dukes would have provided for the Rays organization this year.
NOTES FROM DOWN ON THE FARM…
- Jake McGee and Reid Brignac both make this week’s Baseball America “Prospect Hot Sheet”. BA shows that McGee struggles in the 5th inning and beyond. “In the first four innings of games, McGee has a 1.85 ERA in 34 innings. In innings 5-7, McGee’s ERA stands at 7.90 at 13 2/3 innings...McGee has a 39-9 K-BB ratio in innings 1-4 and a 9-10 K-BB mark in innings 5-7.” Say it with me…The closer for the 2010 Tampa Bay Rays: Jake McGee. [Baseball America]
