May 27
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.
May 27
From time to time we are going to take a look at the 2009 attendance and see how the 2009 season stacks up against last year and whether the Rays can reach their goal of being average (in attendance).
Notes on the attendance follow the graph…
Notes on the 2009 attendance…
- The Rays drew 1.8 million fans in 2008. That was the most since their inaugural season of 1998 when they drew 2.5 million.
- The Rays goal for 2009 is league average which was 2.6 million in 2008 (the median was about 2.5 million). The Rays would need to average about 31,000 per game to reach 2.5 million in attendance.
- Last year the Rays averaged 22,259 over 81 games. After 21 home games, the Rays were averaging 18,344.
- This year the Rays are averaging 23,895, 21st in baseball, and are on pace for 1.9 million, barely more than what they drew last season.
- The attendance has fallen off the pace of league average, no thanks to a recent homestand that featured four games under 15,000 including a Devil Raysian 11,420 against the A’s.
May 27
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: Carlos Pena. Pena hit his league-leading 16th home run for the Rays’ lone score…Carl Crawford. CC stole his 30th base without being caught.
THE BAD: The Offense. No player had more than 1 hit. As a whole, the Rays were 0-12 with runners on base and 0-9 with runners in scoring position. Three times the Rays had a runner in scoring position with less than 2 outs and failed to score…BJ Upton. Remember when everybody was saying not to worry about Upton’s batting average because he is still getting on base a lot? Well, that OBP is now .285, and his wOBA is even worse at .279. Ladies and gentlemen, the worst leadoff hitter in baseball…The Starting Pitchers. The tRAs (think expected ERA based on a pitchers peripheral numbers) for the rotation: Matt Garza 4.85, Scott Kazmir 6.74, Jeff Niemann 6.61, James Shields 5.25, Andy Sonnanstine 6.09, David Price 10.64 (1 start).
THE TELLING: Reid Brignac started at short for the second straight day in the absence of Jason Bartlett and Willy Aybar was back at second…The Rays have lost 3 in a row since we stopped calling them the Devil Rays and they are actually playing more Devil Raysian than ever.
SUNBURST PLAYER OF THE GAME: Carlos Pena. By default.
DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…
- We had co-winners of the contest on the RAYSHEADS Facebook group to guess the date of David Price’s promotion. Both winners guessed May 27th missing the correct date by 2 days. You might recognize one of the winners as the wife of a certain triple-A manager. [RAYSHEADS Facebook Group]
- Also, we never mentioned the winner of the RAYSHEADS Facebook group photo contest. The overall winner of tickets to a regular season game was this photo of the introduction ceremony from the ALCS last October. [RAYSHEADS Facebook Group]
- Jason Bartlett is now the 8th player on the DL. The Rays moved Aki Iwamura to the 60-day DL to open a spot on the 40-man roster for Joe Dillon to be called up. He was the player obtained for Adam Kennedy. Interestingly, Bartlett says the ankle isn’t that bad, but an MRI showed a sprain and the team doesn’t want it to get worse. [Rays Report]
- Pat Burrell had his mid-week return pushed back to at least this weekend as his neck is still stiff and the MRI on Brian Shouse’s shoulder showed that he will be out a few weeks. [Tampa Tribune]
- Her Rays is worried she may have jinxed the Rays and is now trying to unjinx the jinxed with her usual high jinks. [Her Rays!]
- Here is a screengrab from an ESPN.com poll. Even the four-letter is calling them the “Devil Rays” nowadays (thanks Brett). [Image]
- The Rays Party breaks down Andy Sonnanstine’s lefty-righty splits. [The Rays Party]
- Joe Henderson says there is no simple fix for the Rays, but that it could be a lot worse. [Tampa Tribune]
- Keith Law projects the first round of the upcoming amateur draft. He has the Rays taking Tommy Joseph, a high school catcher…The consensus seems to be that the Rays will draft a catcher, but this team isn’t one to draft for need because they know that nobody knows what this team will need in 3-4 years. [ESPN]
If the Rays’ system is light anywhere, it’s behind the plate, and Joseph is a legitimate first-round pick considering his arm and his power.
- Tyler Hissey and Brittany Ghiroli have survived week 1 of “BP Idol.” [Baseball Prospectus]
- The latest “Rank the Rays” is up. [The Rays Party]
- Gordon Edes suggests a couple of players for the Rays to target in trades including reliever Jose Valverde (“Houston would probably ask for Wade Davis) and Cleveland’s Mark DeRosa to play second base (“although they may be able to deal internally with the loss of Akinori Iwamura“). [Yahoo!]
- The St. Pete Times food critic takes on the concession stands at The Trop. [St. Pete Times]
May 27
Rochester 5, Durham 2. James Houser allowed 2 runs on 4 hits and 3 walks in 5 innings. He struck out 2…Justin Ruggiano was 0-4 with 3 strikeouts…Matt Joyce had a triple in 4 at bats.
Carolina 5, Montgomery 4. Ryan Morse allowed 3 runs (1 earned) in 5 innings…Desmond Jennings hit his 5th home run. He finished 1-4 with 2Ks…Rhyne Hughes was 0-4 with only 1 strike out.
Charlotte @ Clearwater (ppd. rain).
Charleston 9, Bowling Green 4. It was a battle of top prospects as Matt Moore faced Andrew Brackman and both pitchers struggled with their control. Moore walked 4 in 3 innings, allowing 3 runs. He struck out 5. Brackman walked an amazing 10 batters in 3.1 innings striking out 1…Tim Beckham was 0-4 with a walk and 3 strike outs.
Notes from Down on the Farm…
