[THE HANGOVER] The One Where We Discuss Matt Joyce’s Shot At Opening Day And Fennellyisms!
Matt Joyce March 27th. 2009, 6:40am
No GBT today, but we do have a couple of programming notes…
We have another interview coming later today.
It is Mancation weekend with the boys, so we are actually on the road and will be attending the Rays game against the Twins today. But thanks to Twitter, we will still be on the Grid. So check in from time to time. As for the site, expect updates to be sparse this weekend, and poorly edited. Well…more sparse and more poorly edited than normal. Geez, tough crowd.
DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…
- Remember that Carlos Pena interview from earlier this week? Turns out this interview was actually conducted on behalf of and originally published by Big League Stew. We originally gave credit to another website that stole the piece. Unfortunately that happens a lot in the internets. We see our pieces copy-and-pasted to other websites all the time, usually by some frauds trying to sell Rays gear or tickets and pretending to be a legit Rays blog. Our apologies to ‘Duk and the rest of the crew over at the always entertaining Big League Stew.
- Dioner Navarro had a big game yesterday but Andy Sonnanstine was a little off his game. [MLB]
- A couple of weeks ago a commenter convinced us that Matt Joyce still had a shot at the opening day roster, albeit a small one. We were skeptical but we played along with our 25-man roster projection. Now Joe Maddon is laying down quotes everyday that make it sound like Joyce has a very good chance of being on the roster in place of BJ Upton. [Tampa Tribune]
- Matt Joyce’s former teammates had some very strong compliments for the former Tiger. [St. Pete Times]
- If you were to ask us to guess who was the one local columnist that wouldn’t be able to see the logic in having David Price start the season in the minors, our first three guesses would have been Martin Fennelly. We would have only needed the first guess. But as we were reading the column, one thing made us smile. We noticed that Martin seemed to be cutting way back on his Fennellyisms (one sentence paragraphs that are often not even a complete sentence). But then we got to the end of the story and Fennellyisms reigned supreme once again. [Tampa Tribune]
- BJ Upton stole 2 bases in a minor league game yesterday. [St. Pete Times]
- Troy Percival pitched in back-to-back games for the first time this spring and said he had “no problems.” [Sarasota Herald-Tribune]
Related posts:
I’m typically not overly critical of other people’s grammer or poorly written material… unless they’re a professional writer- in which case it drives me insane!
Fennelly actually gets paid to write like that? Seriously? As a struggling freelance writer it kills me to see the pros write so poorly.
Example: in the David Price story, not only does the article have no flow what-so-ever it also has sentences like this:
“This season just got slightly less exciting” … really? come on!
How about, “has just gotten” or “just became”? Anything other than “just got”
After our pounding today, Kapler played the whole game in CF, and goes 1-4, and Joyce plays most of the game going 1-2 with a BB. I’m starting to think that if Joyce can play everyday for a week or so, at the MLB level until BJ is healthy, that even after his late spring start that he might have a shot at making the roster until BJ is healthy.
It’s not as if the Rays don’t have some depth with Ruggy, and even Webber. Not that i’d want to see Webber on the roster too much, but I think that he’s done enough to earn his cup of coffee. You’d still have Zobrist to platoon in RF too.
I think the Rays have options outside of Kapler in CF/RF at least as a starter, if they want to go that way.
I’m sure that the Rays will place BJ on the retoactive DL (to clear a roster spot if he cant make the first Road trip).
How soon we forget…”If Joyce can play everyday for a week or so”….. or “he MAY be able to make the roster” Hell.. we gave up a 14 game winner to get “what”?
Don,
I can almost guarantee you that Joyce is your starting RF next season, and I’d also venture to say he will be for a handful of seasons thereafter.
He obviously has the skill, but the Rays have people in place that can hold down the fort until he can be a more polished day-in/day-out player.
I’ll take a consistant roll player over a wildly inconsistant 5th starter anyday. Keep in mind that during the ’07 season E-Jax didn’t get his first W until July (if I remember correctly)! And as prof often says No-win Jackson will pull off a couple of 20 win seasons before all is said and done, but he’ll also have some amazingly horrific years sprinkled in as well.
The Rays have better options coming through the system and were smart to let him go (although, at first blush I too was surprised at how little they got in return).
It was a win-win trade. The Tigers needed pitching and the Rays had too many pitchers. The Rays needed OF help… tah-dah, everybody wins.
If “everyboby” will win is for the future?
Plus even your own comments contradict themselves!
Joyce needs more time to become “polished”..
but you bring up Jackson in 2007 instead of 2009 with 14 wins…
and even you admit he will get better!
All I saying is we would have been better off with Jackson #5
(forget Nieman/Hammel) and we have 4-5 outfielders better than Joyce..
that I CAN guarantee you!
Name me 5 outfielders on the 40-man roster that are better than Joyce.
Are you forgetting that there is a pretty good chance that David Price will be the number 5 guy at some point this season? And if you think E-Jax is better than him than you’re way off.
E-Jax had a pretty good season in ’08, but with Price, Davis, Niemman, Hammell all waiting in the wings there is no reason to keep him. Let’s not forget that E-Jax was drafted by the Dodgers as….wait for it… an outfielder. He’s not a pure pitcher and never will be. Even Niemman has a better upside.
Let me try for 6/7 outfielders, NOW better than Joyce:
Crawford, Upton, G Kapler, Pat Berrell,F.Perez, Zobrist, G Gross
and Ruggiano( yet to be determined in Majors)
I’m probably forgeting somebody but thats 8!
Now YOU Name me how many 5th man pitchers won 14 games last year,
and will probably win 20 a year in the future.. as per your & prof’s prediction?
Why bring up Price he was NOT going to play this year early in the season!
One more guarantee for you:
Jackson will win more games this year and in his career than Nieman/Hammel combined!
This conversation is going to end, because the second you said that Burrell is a better outfielder all bets were off… Kapler and Gross combined make one Joyce!
Let me guess, you thought Gomes was a great outfielder too.
Perez (soon), Zobrist (although he’s an infielder), Upton, Crawford… are equal or better- that’s it.
You’re giving Jackson waaaaay to much credit. You make it sound like a 14 game winner is the pick of the litter…
I’m waiting for those 5th man pitches that won 14?
Give him away….for what! Matt (what have you done) Joyce!
The End.
You’re beating a dead horse… he won a “whopping” 14 games last year, but what else has he done? So he can throw the ball 95 mph, so what? the strike zone should carry some importance. He’s a decent pitcher at best, number 5′s are easy to come by, especially with the depth the Rays have at the position.
You stand alone in wishing that No-Win Jackson was still here, and that should be a hint to you that you’re wrong…
Don’t presume to have the authority to decide when this conversation is over… your superiority facade may work with your sister, but it isn’t gonna work with me.