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]
True Story: We once spent a summer doing nothing but watching Gorillas. Wonderful creatures that often get a bad wrap.
That being said, they do still seem a bit peaved about the movie “Gorillas in the Mist.” It seems as though the royalty checks are still in the mail. And don’t even bring up “King Kong” unless you want a pile of poo to the face.
On the other hand, when a slow, no-glove, no-power do-gooder reinvents himself as a power-hitting super-duper utility guy, the Gorillas are more than happy for the association and the positive press.
In that honor, we have introduced a new shirt to the Rays Index Store. Just click on the above image to be taken directly to the product.
Below you will see two polls that ask about your confidence in the Tampa Bay Rays. We will present these same polls every Tuesday. The results will be presented in graphical form on Thursday, and will be displayed permanently in the sidebar. The goal of the Confidence Graph is to get a feeling of how Rays fans feel about the team and the franchise and track how that level of confidence changes through time.
Raysiverse events of the past week that could impact confidence levels…
In the past week, the Rays split 2 with the O’s, swept 2 from the Yankees and lost 2 of 3 to the Red Sox at Fewnway. Overall, they are 15-18, 6.5 games behind the Jays in fourth place in the East.
The Rays are 9-6 this season against the Red Sox and Yankees combined.
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 photo at right comes from this Flickr photstream which includes lots of great shots from Evan Longoria’s college days with the Long Beach State Dirtbags, including this shot of Evan after taking a pitch to the head.
DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…
We get a lot of questions from readers and media members, so we have decided to add a common questions section to the “About Rays Index” page. We shall call them “Frequently Asked Questions” or FAQs. We just made that up. Hopefully it will catch on. [About Rays Index]
If you fast forward to about the 9:00 mark of the 5/11 episode of “Baseball Today,” you will hear an interview with Evan Longoria aka Dirtbag aka The Man. (thanks Dustin) [ESPN]
In the weekly installment of “Rank the Rays,” the Rays average rank is 10.9. [The Rays Party]
The Rays Party looks at whether Joe Maddon should consider skipping Jeff Niemann’s next start to allow the rest of the rotation to pitch on regular rest (Ed. note: for the record, this is something that Maddon never does). [The Rays Party]
Rays Revolutionary went shopping for Rays gear on the off-day. [Rays Revolutionary]
Gwinnett 4, Durham 0. Mitch Talbot allowed 3 runs in 5 innings on 6 hits and 4 walks. He is now 3-3 with a 4.10 ERA…The Bulls managed only 3 hits, 2 by Ray Sadler…Reid Brignac was 0-4 with 2 Ks and Matt Joyce was 0-4 with 1 K. Brignac also committed his 8th error on the young season.
Montgomery, Mobile. Brandon Mann allowed 4 runs in 3 innings…Eddie Morlan pitched 2 scoreless innings of relief and has a 2.37 ERA this season…Jason Perry homered for the second time in 5 games since being plucked out of an independent league. He is 7-19 overall (.368) with 2 doubles and 2 home runs.
Jupiter 7, Charlotte 4. Daren Downs allowed 7 runs in 3.1 innings for his first loss of the season…Cody Cipriano homered for the third time in 6 games.
Bowling Green 5, Savannah 2. Frank de los Santos gave up 1 run in 6 innings, striking out 4 and walking only 1…Tim Beckham was 2-4 with an RBI double and a bunt single. He is now hitting .314 but has 27 strikeouts in 27 games with only 4 walks…Jake Jefferies (above) hit his 3rd home run, a 3-run shot.
Notes from Down on the Farm…
David Price says his slider has been “bad” early in the season and we learn from Stacy Long that Price is working on a new pitch, a spike curveball (Ed. note: a spike curveball is just a chic name for a knuckle curve. The issue is some pitchers use different grips on the knuckle curve. Back when the knuckle curve first became popular, many pitchers used the fingertip of their index finger, like a knuckleball. This is the same as the spike curve. Nowadays a lot of pitchers throw the knuckle curve with their index finger curled and the first joint of the index finger on the ball, like so). [Biscuit Crumbs]
Jeremy Hellickson and Desmond Jennings were named the Rays minor league pitcher and player of the month, respectively. [Montgomery Biscuits]
Here is an interview with Jason Isringhausen, in which he discusses his future with the Rays or “another team.” Maybe we are reading to much into it, but even though he says all the right things, he just doesn’t sound like he is very happy about being in Durham. (thanks Chris) [AUDIO]
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]
