Oct 06
Archive for October 6th, 2008
Oct 06
[MATT GARZA] The Hitchiker’s Guide To Understanding Matt Garza
Dioner Navarro, Jim Hickey, The Matt Garza Complex 2 Comments »
We may have figured out why Matt Garza and Dioner Navarro are communicating better these days…Is that a Babel Fish in Garza’s ear? How else would Navi’s logical orations be understood by Garza. Jim Hickey is a pitching genius.
Oct 06
[EVAN LONGORIA] Dirtbag Didn’t Study His Cliches In The Minors
Eva Longoria, Evan Longoria, Evan Longoria is a Dirtbag 1 Comment »This interview of Evan Longoria is a few days old, but we have a good excuse. We are big fans of “Big League Stew” over at Yahoo! Sports, but we don’t remember ‘Duk conducting any interviews before [Ed. note: Interview was not conducted by 'Duk. Rather it was David Brown, and the "Answer Man" series is a regular feature]. Couple that with some of the strange questions and answers and honestly, we thought this interview was satire. Apparently we were wrong.
On Eva Longoria:
I’m done talking about that. I did it all through the minor leagues. That’s all I had to hear was her name associated with mine. I think we’re kind of past that.
On who would play him in a movie:
Mark Wahlberg.
On which member of the Rays should not get a mohawk:
Well, he still doesn’t have one. Carlos [Pena]. And I told him not to. He asked me multiple times if he should get one. I just don’t think he’ll look good with it. He’s the clean-cut Latin guy on our team. I guess it’s debatable if he’s Latin or not. He is Dominican. I told him not to.
On the difference between being from Tampa and from St. Pete:
It’s almost like — from my perspective — the difference between being from Long Beach and being from L.A. I don’t want to say there’s a — I don’t want to say “stuck up” — but the St. Pete natives come to the game dressed as baseball fans. Tampa people come dressed to go out. There’s girls in heels dressed up and ready to go out. Usually, the St. Pete people that are fans, are FANS. They’re there to watch the game and support us.
Apparently Dirtbag needed a “Crash Davis” in the minors to mentor him on learning cliches.
One of the nice things about rooting for a small-market team, is that an interview like this will not become a national story. If Longoria played in New York, he probably would have been crucified for some of his answers. But he plays in St. Pete and our reaction is, Meh.
Answer Man: Evan Longoria talks Tampa Bay, Dick Vitale and Eva [Big League Stew]
Oct 06
[THE HANGOVER] Upton Rediscovered Stroke, Longoria May Have Lost His
BJ Upton, Delmon Young, Dioner Navarro, Evan Longoria, Greg Maddux, JP Howell, Troy Percival No Comments »
Click on above images to be taken to full standings, box scores or schedule…
THE GOOD: Split against 2 tough lefties. It is no secret that the Rays do not handle lefties well. During the season, the Rays were only 25-24 against lefties. Prior to the series, if you were to tell us that the Rays would split games 2 and 3 against the lefties and be up 2 games to 1 we would have signed immediately and said let’s go to game 4…BJ Upton. After starting the series 0-8 and swinging scared for 3 months, Upton appears more confident and less tentative. His triple at the end of game 2 and the easy swing on his 2-run home run yesterday were classic Upton that we have not seen in a while.
THE BAD: Letting Ken Griffey Jr tag up in the 4th inning. With the bases loaded and no outs, a fly ball to BJ Upton in center scores a run and advanced the runner from second. Upton’s throw went to the cutoff off man allowing Griffey to tag up from first. Upton could have easily thrown through to 2nd. If he does, Griffey likely does not score on the double…Carlos Pena to end the game. With the 2 outs in the 9th, Pena was the tying run and Pena seemed to just miss 2 pitches right down the middle. It is not often that Pena is late on a fastball, but he seemed just a fraction late on each pitch…Evan Longoria is 1-7 since he was seen with the “0 for 4″ girl at the USF game…Momentum is only as good as tomorrow’s starting pitcher and the White Sox have now won 4 straight elimination games and have 17-game winner Gavin Floyd on the mound tonight. The good news is that outside of last Monday’s makeup game against the Tigers, Floyd has given up at least 4 runs in 4 of his last 5 starts.
THE TELLING: According to CoolStandings.com the Rays still have a 79.6% chance of winning the ALDS…If the Red Sox would have won last night and eliminated the Angels, tonight’s game time would have been moved to 8pm…Based on Back of the Napkin calculations, the Yankees have spent $1.38 billion (with a B) in player salaries since they last won a World Series. The Rays have spent a total of about $405 million trying to win their first.
DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…
- YES! They’re baaaccckkkkkk on the bandwagon. [
MetsRays Geek] - Dioner Navarro won’t admit that he is playing in a considerable amount of discomfort. [Tampa Tribune]
- Troy Percival pitched an inning in an instructional league game on Saturday and “felt pretty good”. He will throw again today and still hopes to return in the ALCS. [St. Pete Times]
- The Rays’ bullpen was thankful for the day off. [MLB]
- Buster Olney compares JP Howell to a left-handed version of Greg Maddux, noting that very few left handers utilize a two-seam fastball the way Maddux does. [ESPN]
In the ’90s, Maddux popularized the use of two-seam fastballs against left-handed hitters, particularly as a pitch to finish off hitters with two strikes. He throws the ball at the hip of the batter, so far inside that the batter often gives up on it. But at the last second, the ball veers back over the inside corner, and such movement often freezes the hitter as the pitch becomes strike three…But rarely do you see a left-hander who employs a similar pitch against right-handed hitters…”
- With the Rays still 1 game from the ALCS, John Romano does not want Rays fans panicking. [St. Pete Times]
- Might the Twins be ready to trade Delmon Young already? [MLB Trade Rumors]
