Oct 13
Archive for October 13th, 2008
Oct 13
FIRST INNING (A look back)…
In game 1 the Rays were shutout and didn’t get a hit until the 7th inning. In game 2 the Rays scored 8 runs in the first 5 innings, including 3 home runs…Which offense are we more likely to see the rest of the series?
We expect game 3 to be low scoring with Jon Lester and Matt Garza. But the 8 runs scored is closer to the real Rays than the 4-hit shutout. David Ortiz said the Rays looked nervous and Joe Maddon agreed. For the first time this season, the Rays looked like a young team that snuck into the adult club and then had no idea what to do. One day after the heart of the order (Upton, Pena, Longoria, Crawford) went a combined 2-13 with 3 walks and 5 Ks, the quartet went 8-19 with 1 walk, 3 Ks and 8 RBI. There have not been too many games in which all four of those guys were available. Once the Rays get past the lefty tonight, we should see more of game 2 the rest of the series…RAYS ARE STARTING TO CLICK
SECOND INNING (Headlines)…
Scott Kazmir once again struggled early on in game 2 and recently has looked more like Casey Fossum than the ace he should be. Now Joe Maddon may move Kazmir up a spot in the rotation bringing him back in game 5, and holding James Shields back to game 6…Is this a good idea?
We need to look at this from the point-of-view of both Kazmir and Shields. For Kazmir, he would be on normal rest. He does have a history of big starts in Boston (3.15 ERA in his last 7 Fenway starts), so the atmosphere shouldn’t affect him. Also, we wonder if the crowd noise and pressure will actually be a good thing for Kaz. Right now Kazmir seems to be struggling mentally. By his own admission he becomes fixated on solving mechanical issues during the game. In Fenway, the crowd and the pressure of the situation may actually distract him from his mechanics and help him focus on the task at hand. As for Shields. Shields pitches much better at home, so holding him back for game 6 could be a good idea. The downside is getting too much rest. If Shields does not pitch until game 6, that would be 7 days of rest. Occasionally a pitcher will be too strong if he has too much rest. Normally being stronger is a good thing. But if the pitcher’s best pitch is a changeup, being “too strong” can keep the changeup up in the strike zone…WORRIED MORE ABOUT SHIELDS THAN KAZMIR
THIRD INNING (Headlines)…
Troy Percival is not with the team this series, choosing to be at home with his family…What does this mean for Percival and the Rays moving forward?
This is a very surprising move. Especially considering everybody else that was left off the roster is with the team and even participating in pregame warmups with the active squad. The Rays have Percy under contract for ’09. Based on the slew of injuries this season, being left off the postseason roster and now this, we have to wonder if his heart is still in the game. We would not be surprised if Percival retires after the season. The Rays have a closer-in-training with Grant Balfour and even if he is not deemed ready at the beginning of next season, they could still go with Dan Wheeler for the time being…WE MAY HAVE SEEN THE END OF TROY PERCIVAL
FOURTH INNING (Headlines)…
Evan Longoria has apparently apologized for comments he made during an interview last week (Recap can be found here)…Was the apology necessary and why hasn’t this been a bigger issue with the mainstream media?
As a follow-up question in which Carlos Pena’s Dominican heritage was brought up, Longoria said of Pena, “I don’t even look at him as Dominican, and that’s nothing against Dominicans, but he’s been in the States for so long — he went to high school and college here — in the States. He’s very well educated and it’s tough for me to look at him and think he came from the Dominican.” It seems to us that Longoria is not saying Dominicans are uneducated. Rather Longoria is just pointing out that Pena was educated in the United States so English really isn’t a second-language to Pena. In other words, because of his upbringing Pena sounds more American than somebody that has only been here a few years and is still learning the English language. That being said, we completely understand why Dominicans and Latinos would be offended by this statement. But what he said and what he was trying to say were two different things…YES AND NO, IT WAS JUST A SIMPLE CASE OF MISSPEAK
FIFTH INNING (Headlines)…
There is a lot of talk about how great Jon Lester has been for the Red Sox, especially in the postseason…Is he as good as advertised?
At only 24, Lester could very well be the Red Sox’ ace already, and he is even better in the postseason. Dating back to last season, Lester has made 3 playoff starts and has yet to allow a run. He has worked 19.2 innings (as a starter), giving up 13 hits and 6 walks, while striking out 14. On top of that, he is a lefty and the Rays struggle against lefties. But let’s keep in mind that his three starts came against the ’07 Rockies and the ’08 Angels, two highly overrated ballclubs. He is good. But we need to see a little more before we stamp his ticket to Cooperstown…GOOD? YES. GREAT? WE’LL SEE
SIXTH INNING (A look outside the box)…
[Red Sox fan running on the field delay: Queue the tasers]
SEVENTH INNING (Over/Unders)…
1.5 runs by the Rays off of Jon Lester tonight:
We wouldn’t be surprised if the score is 1-0 or 1-1 or 2-1 after 6 innings. In other words, Matt Garza needs to keep the game close and hope the Rays have another one of their late-inning rallies…UNDER
1.5 stolen bases for the Rays tonight:
This is an area that the Rays need to step up. In the first two games combined, the Rays combined for 1 stolen base. Jason Varitek threw out only 22.2% of would-be base stealers this season. Unfortunately Jon Lester has an above-average pickoff move so opportunities will be scarce. Rays will only steal tonight if they get to Lester early and get into the bullpen…UNDER
6.2 innings for Matt Garza tonight:
Garza is capable of working late into the night, but we wonder if the length (time) of these games will push a manager to take a pitcher out earlier than he would normally. Also, with the off-day yesterday, most of the bullpen should be well-rested. Once Garza gets past the 5th inning, Joe Maddon will likely pull him at the first hint of trouble…UNDER
EIGHTH INNING (On deck)…
Many are talking about the game 3 matchup between Jon Lester and Matt Garza as if it is a guaranteed win for the Red Sox…Is there any chance the Rays could take a 2-1 lead in this series?
We don’t do a lot of gambling, but this game is starting to sound an awful lot like the sure-thing bet that everybody jumps on. Those games always seem to go against the public. Garza is capable of pitching a 2-hit shutout if he can keep his emotions in check. And much of the Rays struggles against righties this season came before the return of Rocco Baldelli who will be in right field tonight. The key will be Evan Longoria and BJ Upton. They have both had big games in the postseason. The Rays will need at least one of them to step up tonight…SURE THINGS HAVE A FUNNY WAY OF BEING SOMETHING ELSE ENTIRELY
NINTH INNING (Putting out the fire)…
Joe Maddon drinks wine after every game…Should Papa Joe keep the red wine in the rack during this series?
Maddon drinking red wine while playing the Red Sox in the ALCS is almost as bad Ferg’s serving Sam Adams during the series…JIM HICKEY NEEDS TO GET PAPA JOE A BEER
Rocco Baldelli will start in right tonight with Willy Aybar at DH and Fernando Perez on the bench…Are the Rays stronger with Perez in right and Rocco at DH?
We like Perez doing what he should have done in game 1 and what he did do in game 2. Pinch-running. That is a lot of pressure on the basepaths late in the game…NO
The Red Sox flew home after game 2, arriving in Boston at 7am and then had a workout at Fenway later in the day. The Rays chose not to leave until 2pm the next day and Joe Maddon canceled a planned workout…Was this the smart move?
It is two days later and we are still beat up from game 2. The extra rest will do them more good than a sluggish workout…YES
Oct 13
[CARL CRAWFORD] Carl Crawford Is Apparently ‘Gangster’ Because He Reads His Horoscope
Boston Red Sox, Carl Crawford, Pink Hat Nation 24 Comments »
[UPDATE] We are shutting down comments on this post. We have already deleted several comments in which somebody who came to this site from a link on another site has used the N-word to refer to either Carl Crawford or BJ Upton or both. Anymore comments on this post will be deleted immediately.
[Ed. note: This post was originally written last week and then shelved when the author gave a mea culpa in the comments section. But then the author's tone changed after some readers jumped on us after we expressed our concerns with the wording in the comments section.]
We can be pretty hard on Red Sox nation around these parts. Most of the time it is just good-natured ribbing, as we truly believe that 99.9% of Red Sox Nation is composed of good baseball fans that know the game and understand the nature of a friendly rivalry. Besides, our sister, with her idiotic Red Sox tattoo, is the biggest Red Sox fan we know. It is the other 25.1% that give Red Sox Nation a bad rap.
Unfortunately, one Red Sox blogger tried to single-handedly revive the stereotype that all Bostonians are racist when he explained why he hates the Rays.
Maybe it’s because of Jonny Gomes and his endless string of cheap shots. Or Carl Crawford’s gangster neck tattoo.
To which we wonder: Is it “gangster” because it is the symbol of Leo? Because you guys know, one stereotype of gangsters is they read their horoscope everyday. Or is it “gangster” because Crawford is black?
If that one statement wasn’t so ignorant we would tear apart the rest of his idiotic post, like the hypocrisy of a fan for a team that sucked for 86 years, making fun of another team for sucking for 10 years.
For the record, Crawford has the tattoo on his neck because Leo is his horoscope sign and it is a symbol that represents him as a person.
“People always want to know what it is, what it means. Some think it’s the Omega sign. Some people think it’s a snake or something. I always have to explain it. It’s my Zodiac sign. Leo. It’s the sign for Leo. When I got it, I wanted it to be about me. I look at my sign every day, my horoscope, so I figured that would be cool. I didn’t want it to be nothing crazy. I wanted it to be nice and elegant looking.”
Little did Crawford know, it is also apparently “gangster” looking.
[Ed. note: Here is the response from the author. "Let me explain the “gangster” comment. Obviously being black and having a neck tattoo doesnt make you a gangster. Al Capone was white and tat-free, and he was the original gangster.’Gangster’ was a poor choice of words, I should have described his neck tattoo as ugly, or unprofessional. Having a tattoo on your neck, regardless of what it is, is stupid. If it makes you feel better, I think Allyssa Milano’s neck tat is pretty ridiculous also."...This statement only proves our original point. The author does not describe the tattoo as "ridiculous" and as far as we can tell, the author never describes Milano's neck tattoo as "gangster". In fact, we did a search for "Alyssa Milano" and "gangster neck tattoo." The results were as expected.]
Love to Hate [The Foul Line]
Oct 13
[THE HANGOVER] Troy Percival Mentors Young Players From California
Carlos Pena, Dan Wheeler, Evan Longoria, Joe Maddon 1 Comment »
Click on above images to be taken to full standings, box scores or schedule…
THE GOOD: Dan Wheeler. All we can do is tip our cap. The second inning of work scared us. The third inning terrified us. But four innings? Huge…Evan Longoria. Longoria rediscovered his confidence between games 1 and 2. In game 1 Dirtbag was guessing. In the 8th inning of game 1, with the tying runs on base and 1 out, Longoria had a 2-0 count and then swung at a breaking ball in the dirt. He would eventually ground into a double-play. In the first inning of game 2, and the Rays already facing a 1-0 deficit, Longoria once again faced a 2-0 count. Again the Red Sox gave him a breaking ball. This time Longoria took the pitch. Even though the pitch was a strike and once again the count was 2-1, it marked a world of difference in the at bat from the day before. In game 1 Dirtbag was guessing and had made up his mind to swing before the pitch. In game 2 Longoria was waiting for his pitch. He eventually got it and hit a 2-run home run to give the Rays the lead…We said this before the series, but it is worth repeating, anybody that says the regular season means nothing now just isn’t paying attention. With the Rays winning the second and third game of the September series in Fenway and maintaining their lead in the AL East, it proved to the players that they can win in Boston.
THE BAD: Criticizing Joe Maddon for green-lighting Carlos Pena with a 3-0 count in game 1. This is something that would have bothered us to no end in ’06 or ’07. But Maddon pushes some odd buttons from time-to-time and most of the time this season it has worked. Maddon gives his players green lights on 3-0 quite often. We can’t start second-guessing him now. Papa Joe trusts his players and we trust Papa Joe…Getting old. We have recently noticed that the the most telling sign of aging is the amount of time needed for recovery. We are now over 30 hours removed from game 2 and we are still sore as hell and can barely talk.
THE TELLING: Troy Percival who was signed in part to be a mentor to the young Rays pitchers and is one of the few players with postseason experience, decided not to stay with the Rays during the ALCS and chose to fly home to be with his family. We think it is safe to say we can now squash any talk of Percival pitching in the World Series should the Rays win the ALCS…While the Rays waited until 2pm Sunday to fly to Boston, the Red Sox flew home after the game on Saturday and arrived home at 7am…David Price’s picked up the win in game 2 for his first major league W…Rocco Baldelli is expected to be the right fielder with Willy Aybar at DH. If Joe Maddon feels Rocco can’t handle outfield duties tonight, he will DH with Fernando Perez in right…The chances of the Rays winning the ALCS are now 45.4%…It is the quiet ones that always scare us. On the field before the game chatting with Stuart Sternberg and Andrew Friedman without issue. But then Matt Silverman joined us, the triumvirate was complete, and the situation suddenly became intimidating. Of course we shouldn’t be surprised with this Rays team that the whole is greater than the sum of the individual parts.
DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…
- No promises, but we are going to try and get a “Pepper” post up this afternoon specifically for games 3, 4 and 5. We are also hoping to do another for the final 2 games back at the Trop (assuming the Rays don’t sweep the 3 in Boston). We will also have a “Live Blog-A-Baloo (Lite)” for tonight’s game 3.
- Remember that Evan Longoria interview from last week that was so strange the first time we read it that we thought it was satire? Well, Evan Longoria has issued an apology, but only to Spanish speaking press because English speaking press don’t care. [Shysterball]
- With Matt Garza pitching tonight and Andy Sonnanstine ready to go in game 4, Joe Maddon could shuffle the rotation for games 5 and 6 with Scott Kazmir going in game 5 on normal rest and James Shields being held back to throw in game 6 at the Trop. [St. Pete Times]
- We didn’t think any writers would be silly enough to start with the Cinderella cliches after the game 1 loss. It was only 1 loss right? Hadn’t the Rays twice recently lost a game 1 to the Red Sox only to come back and win games 2 and 3? Certainly nobody would be idiotic enough to start predicting imminent doom. But then we remembered that the world still has people like Bill Madden writing about baseball. [New York Daily News]
- We know there are a lot of unwritten rules in baseball, but we had no idea that it is “unprofessional” to have the “Ray Team” working the crowd during the game while standing on the dugouts. At least that is the sentiment of Kevin Youkilis…Seriously? Maybe we should change his nickname to “The Greek God of Wearing Panties”…Just shut up and play. (Thanks JJ) [NY Post]
- Dan Wheeler thinks he will be ready to go in game 3 if needed, despite throwing 3.1 innings in game 2. Joe Maddon wants to wait to see how Wheeler feels today. [MLB]
- Raymond and Wall E. Monster chat it up in “The Dugout”. [Fanhouse]
- Fire Brand of the American League takes a look at who should be starting in center field for the Sox. [Fire Brand of the American League]
- Transcript from yesterday’s press conference with Joe Maddon and Jim Hickey. [Providence Journal]
- Gary Shelton says game 2 was par for the course for the Rays. [St. Pete Times]
- Marc Topkin takes a look at how the Rays won game 2. Our favorite quote comes from Fernando Perez on tagging up from third on a shallow fly ball to win the game: “I wanted to go no matter what. When you see an owner holding a very dangerous dog back, that’s kind of how I felt with [third base coach] Foley there.” [St. Pete Times]
- Dennis Maffezzoli takes a look at the challenges of playing the Monster at Fenway Park. [Sarasota Herald-Tribune]
- Since when did Jon Lester suddenly morph into Sandy Koufax? According to one blog, Lester is a “sure bet” in game 3. [Josh Q. Public]
- Josh Beckett insists that he is OK. [Boston Globe]
- Big League Stew has the final numbers from game 2. [Big League Stew]
- Prior to game 2, Joe Maddon told Evan Longoria to be more selective. [Rays Report]
- The Serious Tip has some images from his trip to game 1. [The Serious Tip]
- Big League Stew thinks it was a mistake for Joe Maddon to give the Rays green lights on 3-0 counts in game 1. [Big League Stew]
- Since Joe Maddon took over the Rays, only three teams have swung and put a 3-0 pitch in play more than the Rays. [St. Pete Times]
- Joe Maddon said he felt that for the first time this season, the players were impacted by the pressure during game 1. [Rays Report]
- Just because there are no state lines between St. Pete and Miami doesn’t mean there is any correlation between what has happened with attendance for the Marlins and what will happen with attendance with the Rays. By that thinking, one should be able to predict the attendance of Brewers games based on Cubs games, seeing as how the distance from Milwaukee to Chicago is half the distance from St. Pete to Miami. [MVN Outsider]
- If you were about to be interviewed after an LCS game by a reporter about the game, what would you say? We can’t imagine “I sat in gum” would be high on many people’s lists. [Red Sox Monster]
- Big League Stew examines the tale of the tape for the GMs of the Rays and Red Sox. [Big League Stew]
- A look at how the Rays prospects are performing in the Arizona Fall League. [Tampa Bay Rays Prospects]
- Demond Jennings, who missed most of the season with a shoulder injury, is now listed on the AFL roster. [Tampa Bay Rays Prospects]
