[THE HANGOVER] Garza And Navarro Scuffle In Dugout After Exchange On Mound
Dioner Navarro, Gary Glover, Grant Balfour, Jason Hammel, Matt Garza, Troy Percival June 9th. 2008, 9:49am
THE GOOD: After Friday and Saturday wins, the Rays were playing with house-money. Winning series is the key, especially on the road and that is what the Rays did.
THE BAD: Matt Garza AND Dioner Navarro. Garza was removed from the game after the 4th inning when he and Navi got into a shoving match in the dugout after an inning in which Garza gave up a 2-run home run to the #9 hitter. The dugout incident was preceded by a heated exchange on the mound between Navi and Garza. Although most reports laid all the blame on the usually feisty Garza, it seemed clear to us that Navi was the instigator on the mound. Navi came to the mound, with his mask still on and was clearly getting in the face and screaming at Garza. Garza wouldn’t look at Navi and kept repeating “I got you”. Prior to the meeting on the mound, Garza had shaken off several pitches from Navi, including the pitch that was hit for a home run. However, it did appear that Navi called for Garza to shake him off on that particular pitch. It is not unusual for a catcher to want his pitcher to shake off a sign as a means to confuse the batter. Just before the home run pitch, Navi shook his head ever so slightly and Garza then shook his head. Whatever the problem Navarro had, the mound was not the place to embarass his pitcher. He should have waited until the dugout. It seems that the altercation in the dugout was about Navi screaming at Garza on the mound. Garza is a hot-head, but Navarro also lost his cool…The defense let the Rays down yesterday. An error by Jason Bartlett was followed by miscommunication in the outfield between BJ Upton and Gabe Gross. After a stolen base in the 7th, a run scored on a ground ball single up the middle that probably should have been stopped by Aki Iwamura as the ball appeared to go under his glove.
THE TELLING: Cliff Floyd was out of the lineup for the 2nd straight game…The Rays have a 3 game lead in the AL Wild Card over the Oakland A’s with a magic number of 97…
DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…
- Don’t forget to VOTE for Carl Crawford to start the all-star game. If you haven’t voted yet today, go NOW! [MLB All-Star Voting]
- When Troy Percival returns from the DL at the end of the week, the Rays will most likely lose a reliever. Grant Balfour, Jason Hammel and Gary Glover are all out of options and one will have to be DFA’d. [MLB]
- The Herald-Tribune wonders if the Rays have surpassed the Bucs as the darlings of the Tampa Bay area…There is much to love about the Rays and the Bucs seem to be spinning their wheels a bit right now, but one thing they did not consider: Florida is football country. And the Bucs gave us a Super Bowl. It has been said that there is a 5-year grace period after a team wins a Super Bowl before fans are allowed to be truly angry at a franchise. This will be year six. Maybe the Herald-Tribune is starting the transition early. [Herald-Tribune]
- The Rays drafted the fewest number of small college players in the draft, one. Other teams drafted as many as 9. [Beyond the Boxscore]
Related posts:
I blame both Navy and Garza for this, but honestly, Garza, really doesn’t impress me very much. His lack of control makes me think we have Edwin Jr., and would be up for trading him while his value is still pretty good…
I can not think of another team that has such difficulties with the communication between fielders on pop-ups and fly balls. Now I understand it is good that every player wishes to contribute and assure they are helping the team (and a dropped ball between fielders because no one took charge is pretty embarrassing), however for the Rays everyone appears to want to take charge. Could it be the over exuberance of youth?
Also, I fail to understand why people are not pleased with Garza. With a 4.38 ERA, he is pitching just about what one would assume given his record. His 3.69 ERA last year was too optimistic since many of his runs were labeled un-earned. (10 out of the 44 in 83 IP). He is, at the moment, a more than adequate #3-#4 starter.
Finally, while Maddon may not win Manager of the Year award, good money can be bet on Friedman winning executive of the year award. He completely fleeced Minnesota in the Garza/Bartlett trade. Even though Bartlett has not hit the way one would expect, his defense has been a huge step up from last year. While in Twinky-land Young has been a barely above the level of a AAA player and Harris has hit worse (with negative defense – and I liked Harris.)
[...] Two years ago on Rays Index we wrote about Matt Garza and Dioner Navarro’s very public spat against the Rangers. [...]