[THE HANGOVER] Jonny Gomes Might Be Demoted To Durham
Andy Sonnanstine, Ben Zobrist, Dioner Navarro, Evan Longoria, Grant Balfour, Houston Street, Jason Bartlett, Jonny Gomes, Roberto Hernandez, Willy Aybar July 23rd. 2008, 11:07am
THE GOOD: Sometimes you watch a game and you just know early on that it is not the Rays’ night. It is easier on the liver.
THE BAD: Andy Sonnanstine against the A’s this season. The Rays have only played the A’s 5 times and yet two of their worst losses are at the hands of the green and gold. In addition to last night’s 8-1 drubbing, the A’s got the beat-down on May 21 in Oakland to the tune of a 9-1 score. Sonny was the starting pitcher in both games. The only game worse than either of those was the 13-2 pounding just before the break in which we were thankfully in St. Lucia sans baseball. Oh yeah. Sonnanstine started that game also.
THE TELLING: Why was Houston Street brought into the game with an 8-1 lead? Might it be because he was being auditioned for the Rays brass? Managers will often bring closers into non-save situations if they have not been used in a while, but it had only been 3 days since Street last pitched. We counted 15 times this season in which Street had more than 2 off-days. The only explanation is that the A’s wanted to make sure that Andrew Friedman and Co. got a first-hand look at Street before the trade deadline.
DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…
- Jason Bartlett will likely be activated after today’s afternoon game. It looks like Ben Zobrist will not be demoted after all which means Jonny Gomes could be the odd-man out. That would leave Zobrist or Willy Aybar to play right field against lefties. [Bradenton Herald]
- And yet Marc Lancaster tells us that some in the organization think that Jonny Gomes can be the right handed bat that the Rays desparately need against lefties. [Tampa Tribune]
- As per our assertion in yesterday’s “Hangover” that Grant Balfour screamed “fastball!” to Dioner Navarro in the 8th inning of Monday’s game…Someone close to the team told us that Balfour says that he yelled “Fuck!” and not “Fastball!”. We went back and looked at the tape and it looks to us as if there are either two syllables or two words. So, either Balfour is thinking of a different situation or he does yell the F-bomb with a second word attached. [Rays Index]
- Outs Per Swing is doing a great job keeping up with all the Rays trade rumors…Normally we would be more on this stuff, but we would be surprised if the Rays make a move for anybody significant. Maybe a middle reliever and maybe a utility infielder. The rest is just speculation because the Rays are in contention and have a deep farm system. [Outs Per Swing]
- Brittany Ghiroli points out that the Rays have still been able to score runs with several top hitters struggling thanks to their speed on the basepaths. [MLB]
- Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports gives the Rays 2/5 odds of making the playoffs. That is 3rd in the AL behind the Angels (a lock at this point) and the Red Sox. [Yahoo! Sports]
- ESPN is running one of their silly “Sports Nation” specials looking at the all time best player for each team. They are taking votes for each team. Follow the link for your chance to vote for the Rays’ all-time greatest player…It is pretty sad when Roberto Hernandez is considered one of the five best Rays in franchise history. And it might seem silly, but one could make an argument that Evan Longoria is already the best player in franchise history. [ESPN]
- Reader J.J. pointed us to this auction for the game-used uniforms and equipment from the Rays turn-back-the-clock game recently in which the Rays donned the threads of the St. Pete Pelicans. [MLB]
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I’ll have what Mr. Lancaster is having…unless the “some” that he’s talking to are janitors, who haven’t watched a game in 3 years.
…maybe Balfour throws a “Fuckball”
maybe in Australia “Fuck” is 2 syallables??
St. Pete Times article today says that Trever Miller has only allowed 3 of 21 inherited runners to score. So maybe I’m crazy. I thought I remembered the Yankees knocking him around earlier in the season. And that, combined with his last three starts, should have seriously messed with his stats considering how few innings he has logged. What I do know is that Miller and Reyes have not inspired much confidence in me all year.
Bartlett and Glover coming off the DL this week. Even if Gomes goes, what’s the other move?
What are the odds that Ruggiano gets called up sooner rather than later (Floyd to the DL?)? Hitting .300 at Durham, with 7 homers and 20 SBs. And when he was up, he hit .290 and played good defense. Are we truly not better all around with Bartlett back and Hinske and Ruggiano in place of Gomes and Floyd? That would keep Hinske and Jonny out of RF and replace it with a Gross/Ruggiano platoon.
Lastly, if Zobrist is staying up, I would like to posit a new nickname: The Wizard of Zo. He is (mostly) a SS and it’s humorous due to the difference between he and Ozzie. Plus, when he makes a play, you can say “Wizard!” like the kids in the Altel commercial. I’m just sayin’.
Bring back the live-blog-a-baloo immediately please
I gotta say I was looking forward to the blog today…had to fight back the tears when it wasn’t there.
Zobrist was sent down.
Sonnanstine pitched pretty well last night. He made the one bad pitch to Hannahan; otherwise he was solid with 7 innings of 5 hit, 1 walk, 5 K ball and just those 3 runs.