Sep 30
Archive for September 30th, 2008
Sep 30
[HAPPY HOUR] Crawford To Start In Left Field In Game 1
Carl Crawford, Edwin Jackson, Eric Hinske, Fernando Perez, Joe West, Troy Percival 6 Comments »[Update: 9:58pm] And the Rays opponent in the ALDS will be the Chicago White Sox after their 1-0 victory over the Twins. This season the Rays were 6-4 against the Sox, going 4-3 in two series at the Trop back in April and May and taking 2 of 3 in Chicago at the end of August.
[Update: 9:05pm] Scoreless through 5 and a half. We are so confused every time they go back to the studio and Ernie Johnson is sitting there. We are expecting Charles Barkley to be there and tell us how ridiculous Nick Blackburn’s pitch selection is.
[Update: 8:49pm] Momentum turning play? With 1 out and a man on third, Michael Cuddyer tried tagging on a very shallow flyball to center. The ball was shallow enough even for Ken Griffey Jr who fired a 1-hopper to home to get Cuddyer at the plate and end the inning.
[Update: 8:01pm] They are underway in Chicago, scoreless in the second inning. Anybody else rooting for the White Sox to win in 17 innings, using all their relievers and a couple of starters?
[Update: 5:51pm] Jonny Gomes is telling the media he is not on the ALDS roster, but will travel with the team. We believe teams can add a player to the roster during a series if an injury occurs.
[Update: 4:35pm] Joe Maddon just announced that James Shields will be the game 1 starter and Scott Kazmir will go in game 2. Matt Garza and Andy Sonnanstine will follow in games 3 and 4, respectively. Edwin Jackson is telling reporters that he is not on the postseason roster for the first round.
[4:30pm] We now know Carl Crawford will be on the postseason roster. That means the final roster spot could come down to Eric Hinske or Fernando Perez, unless Joe Maddon decides to use only six pitchers in the bullpen. That is not likely if Troy Percival is also on the roster. If Percy is on, we are guessing Hinske and Edwin Jackson are off. Check back throughout the evening as we will post roster updates here as well as updates on the Twins-White Sox 1-game playoff.
DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…
- Joe Maddon told the press today that Carl Crawford will be on the postseason roster and will start game 1 in left field. However, he will likely bat lower in the lineup. [Rays Report]
- Carl Crawford went 2-3 in this morning’s instructional league game, hitting a triple off the wall his first time up and adding a single later. He also struck out looking and was caught stealing. [The Heater]
- In case you missed it earlier, Modern West, Kevin Costner’s band, have recorded a song for the Rays’ postseason…And it is as bad as you can imagine. [Rays Index]
- Outs Per Swing is back with another list of pitching performances. This time it is the “Bottom 10″…It is good thing the Rays won the division. Had the Rays missed the division title or even the playoffs by 1 or 2 games, this list would have caused us to repeatedly pound our head on the desk, all while mumbling the name “Edwin Jackson“. [Outs Per Swing]
- The Dodgers “Ain’t S#!t” compared to the Rays. [Bugs and Cranks]
- The books in Vegas stand to lose a lot of money if the Rays win the World Series and even if they just win the AL. [Vegas Watch]
- The Rays first round playoff series will be umpired by a crew led by Joe West. [Rays Report]
Sep 30
Wow. We thought the most embarrassing thing about being a Rays fan was Dick Vitale. Not anymore. Today we learned (via the St. Pete Times) that Kevin Costner and his band Modern West have recorded a song for the Rays playoff run. It is called “It’s All Up To You.”
Warning: The following song is not safe for people with a history of heart disease, pregnant women or anybody that has eaten in the last 24 hours.
Click here to listen to the complete song.
To think that at one point we actually wanted to name our first son “Crash”. Did we just type that out loud?
Kevin Costner loves the Tampa Bay Rays [St. Pete Times]
Sep 30
Last week’s Rays Confidence Graph results.
Below you will see two polls that ask about your confidence in the Tampa Bay Rays. We will present these same polls every Tuesday. The results will be presented in graphical form on Thursday, 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.
Raysiverse events of the past week that could impact confidence levels…
- The Rays finished the regular season 97-65 2 games ahead of the Red Sox and 8 games ahead of the Yankees to win their first AL East Championship. They are only the 10th team to improve at least 30 games over the previous season.
- The Rays still do not who they will play in game 1 of the ALDS on Thursday. The White Sox and Twins will play a 1-game playoff tonight.
- Carl Crawford is participating in Instructional League games without pain and could be activated for the postseason roster.
- For the first time in its 3 years of existence, the Rays did not win the David Price Sweepstakes.
- Both Troy Percival and David Price looked solid in their final regular season appearances in a bid for postseason roster spots. Edwin Jackson did not.
Sep 30
[THE HANGOVER] Rays May Have To Choose Between Crawford And Percival
Andrew Friedman, Carl Crawford, Elliot Johnson, Joe Maddon, Josh Beckett, Tony Dungy, Troy Percival 20 Comments »DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…
- In case you missed it yesterday afternoon, we ran a bunch of “Webtopia” links in the evening “Happy Hour” feature. [Rays Index]
- If the Rays decide to carry Carl Crawford on the postseason roster, they could choose to go with only 10 pitchers (6 relievers)…Although Andrew Friedman has not indicated as much, this could end up being a decision between Crawford and Troy Percival. If they want Percy on the roster they almost certainly will want an 11th pitcher in case he is unable to work back-to-back games. [St. Pete Times]
- Despite a report on one Rays blog, Joe Maddon will not announce his game 1 starter until today. While Shields is the likely game 1 starter, all we know for certain is that Shields and Kazmir will be the first 2 pitchers. The exact order is not known. The blog referenced an ESPN report that is likely based on the probable pitchers listed on the team’s website. It is not unusual for MLB.com to guestimate probable pitchers, but they are wrong quite often. [Ed. note: we would love to link to the "Rays blog" but then we would get pounded for picking on them too much] [MLB]
- 8,000 fans showed up at Straub Park in St. Pete to celebrate the Rays first playoff appearance…Can’t say we have a huge problem with it, but this reeks a bit of “just glad to be here.” [Tampa Tribune]
- The Cubs “Ain’t S#!t” compared to the Rays. [Bugs and Cranks]
- Baseball Analysts say the Rays have only a 36% chance of winning the first round (based on tendencies in previous playoffs). When we saw that, we didn’t even bother reading the rest. [Baseball Analysts]
- John Romano compares Joe Madddon to another former Bay Area head coach, Tony Dungy and wonders what success the Rays would be having now if the front office had not taken a chance on Papa Joe. [St. Pete Times]
- Although we never wish ill will on others, today we link to the latest batch of Fennellyisms. If only because we agree that the tone of the team and the fans changed in Spring Training when Elliot Johnson collided with the Yankees’ Francisco Cervelli, breaking his wrist. The Yankees proved they don’t like getting dirt on their pinstripes and the Rays, for the first time, punched the bully right in the face. [Tampa Tribune]
- Josh Beckett injured his oblique muscle on Friday and will not pitch in the ALDS until game 3. [Boston Globe]
- Marc Lancaster is now Twittering. For those of you that follow us on Twitter, you may want to also follow Marc. [Rays Report]
