Up until first pitch, use the comments section to predict who you think will be the Sunburst Player of the Game. (be sure to use a valid email address while leaving the comment). The commenter that correctly predicts who we will name the Sunburst Player of the Game the most times prior to the all-star game, will win two tickets to a second-half game. Runners-up get their choice of a t-shirt. [Click HERE for rules]
Check Marc Topkin’s blog for the starting lineups.
Recently the St. Pete Times introduced a new feature in their various sports blogs, a video report called the “Midday sports report.“ We were excited. We wondered what might this new feature bring? Might it be Marc Topkin’s musings on various Rays topics? Might Joe Smith reveal his true identity? The introduction of a vlog seemed like a logical step for a newspaper as it tries to keep pace with new age media. The possibilities seemed endless.
Then we watched one. And we watched another. And what did we see? A 90-second promotional video telling us what St. Pete Times reporters will be writing…sometime in the future.
We would rather spend 90 seconds staring at Gabe Kapler wearing a spee…Um. Nevermind.
Midday sports report [St. Pete Times]
[Ed. note: Knowing that our audience is 93.4% male, let us apologize in advance]
Yesterday we linked to an interview in which Andrew Friedman spoke about the Rays ability to exploit defense as an area in which the team could find value without overextending team resources. As more teams are now realizing the value of improving team defense, Friedman admits that while there are other areas the Rays can exploit, those areas are not as “substantive” as defense. And what exactly are these new areas that the Rays can exploit? Based on their off-season acquisitions, one would be sexiness.
Of course, most of us are familiar with this image of Pat Burrell…
Now Fame Watcher brings us this image of the Rays other off-season acquisition, Gabe Kapler, and his, uh, bulge…
Of course, this just supports the age-old baseball cliche, Chicks dig the long ball, and huge pectoral muscles…
Baseball Star Gabe Kapler’s Speedo Bulge [Fame Watcher]
In our quest to prove that there are no more original ideas, we blatantly borrow this feature from The Shutdown Corner, and one of our two or three favorite writers, The Mighty MJD. If you are a football fan and are not reading The Shutdown Corner, we must ask why you hate freedom.
The team in each league with the best record will face the Wild Card winner (shaded) in the first round unless both teams are from the same division. In that case, the Wild Card team will face the division champ with the second best record.
AL Divisional Champs: Yankees, White Sox, Mariners
AL Wild Card: Rays
NL Divisional Champs: Cubs, Phillies, Dodgers
NL Wild Card: Marlins
Notes on the premature playoffication picture…
Gabe Kapler’s divind catch to end the third inning last night was the top play on ESPN’s “Baseball Tonight” Web Gems. Fast forward to 1:08 for Kapler’s catch.
BBTN Web Gems For April 21st [ESPN]
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: Gold Gloves. Typical Rays D in the 3rd. Evan Longoria got a speedy Endy Chavez trying to drag bunt (right when the M’s announcers were trying to tell us that Longo is almost as good defensively as Adrian Beltre). Junior Griffey then grounded right into the shift, which was followed by Aki Iwamura making one of his patented plays on a ground ball behind second base. Just your typical 1-2-3 inning.
THE BAD: BJ Upton’s quad. BJ missed last night’s game with a sore quad. He says there is nothing to worry about. We are worried…7 infielders. Really. 4 infielders is probably enough. Sometimes a 5th is called for. But the way routine fly balls keep landing in the outfield grass it is as if Joe Maddon is using 7 infielders. In the bottom of the 4th two triples got over the heads of Ben Zobrist and Gabe Kapler scoring 3. It took an amazing diving catch by Kapler or else it would have been 3 over-the-head basehits. We think it might be time to double-check the math on that theory…Not Zorilla’s night. With 1 out in the 4th and Pat Burrell on first, Ben Zobrist hit a line drove double off the left field wall. Unfortunately, he hit it too hard. A little higher and it is a home run. A little softer and Burrell scored from first. Instead, The Bat is at third. Eventually the Rays loaded the bases, but failed to score. Later in the game, Zobrist hit a long drive to left-center that was caught just short of the wall.
THE TELLING: The Mariners apparently rearranged their rotation to make sure Jarrod Washburn got a start in this series…What do you think goes through the head of every pitcher each time one of those flyballs lands 20 feet short of the wall without being caught?
SUNBURST PLAYER OF THE GAME: Andy Sonnanstine. Kinda tought to give it to a pitcher that allows 4 runs, but his defense didn’t help on 3 of the runs and there really weren’t any other good options. Besides, 7 strike outs and only 1 walk is a good night and hopefully a sign of things to come from The Duke.
DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…
Durham 7. Gwinnett 3. David Price retired the first 8 he faced including 4 strike outs, but ran into some trouble in the 3rd with a single followed by a home run. Those were the only runs and hits he allowed in 5 innings. He did walk 1 and hit a batter…Reid Brignac was 2-5 with a pair of RBI and Matt Joyce was 1-3 with 2 walks. Brignac has 4 multi-hit games this season…Adam Kennedy was 2-4 with a walk and is hitting .229…Jon Weber had 2 doubles and a single in 5 at bats and drove in 4.
Mobile 4, Montgomery 0. Aneury Rodriguez had his best start since being acquired for Jason Hammel. He allowed 2 runs in 5 innings on 4 hits and a walk. He struck out 3…Desmond Jennings was 0-4 as the Biscuits managed only 4 singles.
Sarasota 7, Charlotte 5. Alex Cobb was touched for 6 runs in 3.1 innings…Matt Fields was 1-5 with 3 Ks and Emeel Salem was 1-5.
West Virginia 9, Bowling Green 2. Matt Moore struck out 7 in 3.2 innings, but allowed 3 runs (2 earned) on 2 hits and 4 walks…Tim Beckham was 0-3 with a walk and Jake Jefferies was 0-3.
Notes from Down on the Farm…
