Mar 03
It is never a good day when an ESPN.com writer takes a blog behind the woodshed as Rob Neyer did to Drays Bay. And it is definitely not a good day when an ESPN.com writer puts a blogger over his knee as Rob Neyer did to RJ Anderson.
Was Evan Longoria’s rookie season the best ever by a third baseman? Over at DRaysBay, R.J. Anderson says yes, it was…Well, it’s not true: Longoria’s rookie season was quite probably not the best ever. One problem that no one has solved yet: How do you write a computer program that identifies rookies?…I love the young bloggers. They’re our future. But sometimes old geezers like me and Furman Bisher bring a little something to the table, too.
We were all set to run a post defending Drays Bay (as we have done several times in the past), as it seemed as though Neyer had an agenda and it just so happened that Drays Bay wrote the wrong thing at the wrong time.
(…)
Read the rest of On Second Thought…Oops (152 words)
Mar 03
One year ago on Rays Index we thought it was pretty clear that the Mayor of St. Pete was pressuring the Rays to change the name of the Rays to the “St. Pete Rays.”
Mayor’s Support For New Stadium May Hinge On Name Change To ‘St. Pete Rays’ [Rays Index]
Mar 03
Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Troy Percival campaigned on behalf of the team to bring Jason Isringhausen on board and also campaigned with team on behalf of Izzy. Now that the two closers with a combined 645 career saves are wearing the same uniform, Joe Maddon sees a lot of similarities.
Seeing him and Percy side by side is quite interesting. You could consider them separated-at-birth-kind of guys. There are some similarities there.
Maddon does feel that the two pitchers are good for each other. And Percival says he wants to help Izzy get the 7 saves needed for 300 in his career. When told about this, Maddon was amused.
“Percy is always writing checks his body can’t – what’s the old phrase? – cash,” Maddon joked. “Percy’s good at that.”
(…)
Read the rest of Izzy And Percy, Separated At Birth? (167 words)
Mar 03
Time to bring back the GBT – The Good, The Bad and The Telling sandwich, where The Bad is nice and lean and the The Telling is ripe.
THE GOOD: Wade Davis. 3.2 scoreless innings, allowing only 1 hit and no walks. In two starts (generally better hitters), Davis has now given up only 1 hit and no walks in 5.2 scoreless innings…
THE BAD: Reid Brignac. Another 0-2 for Brignac, who is now 0-11 in the spring.
THE TELLING: Adam Kennedy led off and played second base against his former team. He will start at third today against the Astros. Jeff Niemann will be on the mound with Mitch Talbot starting tomorrow.
DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…
- The Blue Workhorse has their preview for the Rays up. We helped out a bit. [The Blue Workhorse]
- Tim Dierkes of MLB Trade Rumors has put together a list of the 45 worst contracts in baseball for Spring Training ‘09. Why are we mentioning this? Because there is not a single Rays contract on the list. Not even Troy Percival. Of course, all things are relative. [Spring Training '09]
- The Hardball Times put together a composite list of the top 100 prospects based on the rankings of several sources…This is very similar to our Meta-Analysis of the Rays Top Prospects. [The Hardball Times]
- Wade Davis is dominating despite not having his best slider yet. [MLB]
- Adam Kennedy knows that he is fighting an uphill battle for a spot on the Rays roster and Joe Maddon will work him at different positions to give him every chance to make the team. [MLB]
- We forgot to mention this yesterday…Reid Brignac played second base on Sunday. [Rays of Light]
- The Pirates Ain’t S#!t compared to the Rays. [Bugs and Cranks]
