Archive for April 20th, 2009

Rays Are Pushing The Envelope With Defensive Positioning

Joe Maddon 10 Comments »

phpKbmnplMost would agree the Rays’ success in 2008 was due in large part to their improved play with the gloves. Not content to with sticking with what works, the Rays have become even more agressive defensively in 2009.

“We talked about being aggressively offensively, being aggressive on the bases, and I think that we’re being aggressive on defense,” manager Joe Maddon said. “Look at the NFL, and even the NBA, and some aggressive defenses, and how that speaks to winning championships, too.”

The aggressiveness can be seen in how they push their outfielders to play as shallow as they can to take away line drive and bloop hits, and encourage all fielders to take chances in making catches and throws…But it’s also in their scheming, as they have started to use significant defensive shifts against more hitters. It used to be that only a few left-handed sluggers, such as Boston’s David Ortiz and Chicago’s Jim Thome, got the special treatment, with 2B Akinori Iwamura going into short rightfield and SS Jason Bartlett crossing over to the first-base side of second…But now the Rays are shifting against more left-handers (Baltimore’s Aubrey Huff, for example) and also against some right-handers, such as Boston’s Jason Bay and Kevin Youkilis, though not as dramatically, with Iwamura up the middle and 1B Carlos Peña in the hole.

We have become very familiar with Joe Maddon’s use of the infield shift. We have seen it work, like earlier this year when Mike Lowell was robbed of an RBI by lining out to Aki Iwamura who was standing behind second base.

But we have also seen the Rays beat with the shift a few times this season. For example, yesterday, Jim Thome grounded to Ben Zobrist playing to the right of second base with the bases loaded. Rather than turning an inning-ending double play, Zobrist was forced to go to first for one out because there was nobody to cover second. As a result, a run scored.

And we have also seen BJ Upton and Carl Crawford get beat by balls over their head late in close games. Rather than play not to give up the extra-base hits, the Rays were trying to take away bloop singles.

What we don’t know is how many more hits the Rays would have allowed had Upton and Crawford not been playing shallow.

On the other hand, we know from Maddon that the Rays are being more aggressive and we know from our own observations that on several occasions this year, that new found aggressiveness has cost the Rays runs at crucial times.

Only time will tell, but let’s hope that at this point, it is just bad luck.

Aggressive Tampa Bay Rays increase use of defensive shift [St. Pete Times]

Apparently Rays Are Being Beaten By Their Own Success

Joe Maddon 4 Comments »

phpDZMOHYJoe Maddon offers his reason for the Rays’ struggles this past week: Blame the rings and banners.

The nine-game road trip that begins Tuesday in Seattle comes at a perfect time. The farther they can get away from here right now, the better. They were 57-24 last season at the Trop but any resemblance to that team is purely coincidental.

Rays manager Joe Maddon conceded as much after the carnage ended Sunday…”With all the dig-me week that just went on, it’s about time we got out of here and just got back to playing baseball,” he said.

Interesting. Maybe somebody can explain to us how Joe Maddon receiving his manager of the year award caused Scott Kazmir to walk six on Saturday night. Or why receiving their championship rings earlier in the week caused the baserunning errors. Or why handing out replica AL Championship trophies led to the hitters not being able to draw a walk or the pitching staff’s ERA to be over 5.00. Somebody please explain why any of those pregame festivities or fan giveaways had anything to do with what we witnessed between the white lines.

The only reason we can fathom is maybe it was all caused by a bloated sense of their own baseball abilities based on what happened last year. And if that is the case, going on the road won’t cure those ills. But all the losing sure will.

Perfect time for Rays to leave town [Tampa Tribune]

[THE HANGOVER] The One Where We Discuss No Walks, Helium-Filled ERAs And Getting Beat With The Shift

Attendance, Ben Zobrist, BJ Upton 19 Comments »

Chicago White Sox v Tampa Bay Rays

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.

click above image for boxscore

THE GOOD: Running Start. For all the bad, the Rays are now 19-20 in steal attempts this season. Before leaving the game yesterday, BJ Upton was on the move during Carl Crawford’s at bat, which avoided the double-play and he kept going when he stole third a few pitches later.

THE BAD: Rays Not Down With OBP. The Rays are now 9th in the AL with a .333 OBP. On top of that, Rays hitters are second in the AL, having struck out 109 times, but are only 9th in walks with 43. Yesterday it was 9 more K’s and not a single walk…Helium-Filled ERA Baloon. The Rays starters now have a 5.26 ERA (9th in AL) and the bullpen’s ERA is 5.59, good for 8th in the AL…Getting Beat By Wrong Guys. The bottom 3 in the White Sox lineup went 7-14 with a walk…Defensive Shifts. Call it bad luck? Once again Joe Maddon had one of his defensive alignments come back to haunt him. With one out and the bases loaded and Jim Thome up, Maddon had shortstop Ben Zobrist shifted to the rihgt side of second base. Thome hit a ground ball directly at Zobrist. Zobrist was unable to turn two and end the inning because there was nobody to cover second base. Instead, a run scored.

THE TELLING: Today is the Rays first off-day of the season…On this date last year, the Rays had a losing record and were in last place of the AL East after 18 games…Joe Maddon had a makeshift lineup yesterday with Michel Hernandez behind the plate, Evan Longoria at DH, Willy Aybar at third and Ben Zobrist at shortstop.

SUNBURST PLAYER OF THE GAME: Ben Zobrist. He didn’t get the start on Saturday, but he did come through with 2 hits on Sunday and the Rays only 2 RBI.

DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA

  • BJ Upton tweaked his quad muscle and was pulled from the game. He is not expected to miss any more time.
  • From Marc Topkin: Pat Burrell was an option quarterback in high school and claims he could run back then…Joe Nelson was a high school basketball teammate of Jason KiddBJ Upton bought the entire Charlotte team dinner at Outback Steakhouse and gave the team new speakers for the clubhouse and weightroom. Nice gesture for a player still making near the big league minimum. [St. Pete Times]
  • Joe Maddon spoke about his decision to start Gabe Kapler in right on Saturday one day after Ben Zobrist hit the go-ahead grand slam off of a lefty. Maddon said that this is why Kapler was brought in and they’ve “got to get him going.” [Tampa  Tribune]
  • John Romano explains why it is too early to panic. [St. Pete Times]
  • The Rays averaged 28,986 in attendance for the first 7 home games. At the same point last year the average was 18,159. [St. Pete Times]

Down On The Farm: Bulls Need 12 innings And 3 Extra-Inning Home Runs For Win

Desmond Jennings, Reid Brignac No Comments »

Durham 5, Charlotte 4 (12). The Bulls got 5 shutout innings from Jason Cromer, but needed solo home runs in the 9th, 10th, 11th and finally the game-winner in the 12th…Ray Sadler tied the game with his home run with 2 outs in the 9th. Reid Brignac’s solo shot in the 10th gave the Bulls the lead, but Jason Childers gave it back in the bottom half. Matt Joyce led off the 11th with another home run, but again Childers gave it back in the bottom half. Finally, Jon Weber’s blast in the 12th with 1 out gave the Bulls the lead as Dewon Day pitched a perfect bottom of the 12th for the save. Despite blowing the lead twice, Childers struck out 6 in his 2 innings of work, but did give up 6 hits…Brignac finished 3-6 with 2 doubles and the home run…Justin Ruggiano was 0-5 with a walk and 2 strike outs. He is 0-19 in his last 4 games. He is hitting .154…Matt Joyce finished 1-5.

Montgomery (off-day).

Charlotte 6, Palm Beach 3. Darin Downs pitched a complete game for the Stone Crabs, striking out 7 and not walking a batter. He allowed 2 earned runs on 6 hits…Emeel Salem was 2-5 with a triple and his second steal. He is hitting .237…Matt Fields was 2-4 with a pair of RBI.

Bowling Green vs. Kannapolis (ppd. rain).

Notes from Down on the Farm

  • John Torenli spoke with Desmond Jennings about his recent 5-hit game and his hot start to the season. [MiLB]
  • Edwin Jackson has cut down on his walks in Detroit and manager Jim Leyland says it is because he is maturing…In 21 innings, Jackson has only allowed 12 hits and 5 walks. [Detroit Free-Press]