May 29
Durham 8, Rochester 7. Making his first start with the Bulls, Matt DeSalvo allowed 3 runs in 4 innings…Matt Joyce was 0-2 with 3 walks…John Jaso was 0-4 and is now hitting .221.
Carolina 7, Montgomery 2. Heath Rollins is now 5-3 after giving up 5 runs in 5.2 innings on 10 hits and a walk…Rhyne Hughes was 2-4 and did not strike out…Desmond Jennings was 1-4 with a double. In his first dry patch of the season, Jennings is only 3-28 in his last 8 games to drop his average to .360.
Clearwater 10, Charlotte 1. Jesse Darcy dropped to 0-5 after allowing 6 runs in 5.1 innings…Greg Sexton hit his 3rd home run for the Stone Crabs.
Bowling Green (no game scheduled).
Notes from Down on the Farm…
- The Bulls signed Matt DeSalvo from the Independent Atlantic League. DeSalvo made 6 starts for the Yankees in 2007 and 2 relief appearances for the Braves last year.
May 28
David Laurila of Baseball Prospectus recently interviewed Andrew Friedman about many of the Rays’ organizational philosophies, the importance of specific individuals and true to the team’s M.O., he skirted a number of topics…
On Joe Maddon:
One of Joe’s biggest strengths is his ability to relate to each player on the team. He appreciates that there are 25 players with 25 personalities, and he approaches each one of them personally. He gets to know them, he cares about them, and he is very good at motivating them and getting the most out of them performance-wise…He is a student of the game who isn’t afraid to try new things. One of Joe’s pet phrases is “Tell me what you think, not what you’ve heard.” It is something he employs in his life, and he challenges every person in the clubhouse to approach the game the same way.
On Don Zimmer:
There’s no substitute for institutional knowledge…Zim has forgotten more about the game than most know about it, and he hasn’t forgotten much. He’s a great resource for our clubhouse. With the experience that he can draw from, he’s been a great sounding board for some of our younger players.
On Branch Rickey:
Read the rest of this entry »
May 28
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 28
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: Ignorance is Bliss. A 2-hour rain delay before the start of the game probably left most of you thinking the game had been canceled and you probably never had to watch that embarrassing performance. You’re the lucky ones…Dirtbag returns. Evan Longoria was 2-5 and hit his first home run since May 9…Zorilla. Ben Zobrist was 2-3 with a double and a triple and walked twice.
THE BAD: Andy Sonnanstine. Sonny now has the third worst VORP (-10.0) of all starting pitchers. The only pitchers with at least 45ip with worse VORPs are the 46-year old Jamie Moyer and Scott Kazmir. If Sonnanstine was actor, he would be doing Celebrity Rehab by now…The Duke vs Francisco. Maybe it is time Andy Sonnanstine just start intentionally walking Ben Francisco every time up. In his first at bat last night Francisco homered for the 4th straight at bat against Sonny, a 3-run blast. He followed that up with an RBI single and is now 8-9 with 5 home runs off Sonnanstine. If this was Manny Ramirez you would just tip your cap. But it is Ben Francisco! A nobody hitting 8th for the Indians! …Dropping Turds. We don’t know who took more dumps on the field last night, the birds hovering in the outfield all night or the Rays pitching staff. Apparently Andy Sonnanstine wasn’t comfortable pitching with a 5-run lead so he decided to give it all back in the 2nd inning, and then 3 more in the 3rd. Joe Nelson’s Vulcan pitch looked more like a BP fastball. And the 7-8-9 hitters for the Tribe were a combined 7-12 with a walk and 6 RBI.
THE TELLING: Ben Zobrist started at shortstop and later moved to the outfield when Reid Brignac came into the game. Willy Aybar started at second for the third straight day.
SUNBURST PLAYER OF THE GAME: Evan Longoria.
DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…
- Joe Maddon had a telling quote on how playing time might shake out once Jason Bartlett returns from the DL. In short, expect to see a lot of Reid Brignac at second base and Ben Zobrist and Willy Aybar back in their accustomed part-time roles. [St. Pete Times]
“I love our bench, I think we have a great bench,” Maddon said. “I also like playing the bench in a manner where they’re not playing too often, and Zobrist I thought we had given him the right number of at-bats, and the same thing with Willy. And all of a sudden, you get more at-bats…There’s a fatigue factor — I know it’s early and I know they’re young — I know all that stuff. But when you’re not used to doing it for a while, it can present a bit of a problem.”
- It looks like Evan Longoria has an excellent shot to be voted to the AL All-Star starting lineup and is a close second to Derek Jeter for the most votes overall. [Rays Report]
- Lots of new faces on the roster and Rays Revolutionary puts the names with some info. [Rays Revolutionary]
- Steve Herrick has some quotes from one of the new faces, Joe Dillon, on his latest big league opportunity. [MLB]
May 28
Durham 13, Rochester 2. Mitch Talbot evened his record at 4-4 after working 6 innings. He gave up 2 runs on 8 hits and a walk. He struck out 5…Justin Ruggiano was 0-2 with 3 walks…Matt Joyce hit a trio of doubles and drove in 6. He was 3-5 with a walk and is now hitting .322.
Montgomery 3, Carolina 0. Brandon Mann was perfect until a 2-out triple in the 7th. He finished with 8 shutout innings, allowing only 2 hits and no walks…Desmond Jennings was 0-3 with 2 walks.
Clearwater 8, Charlotte 7 (11; gm 1). Charlotte gave up back-to-back home runs in the bottom of the 7th to tie the game (minor league double-headers are 7 innings), took the lead with 2 runs in the top of the 9th and then allowed Clearwater to tie the game again in the bottom half. Clearwater finally won the game with a 2-out single in the 11th…Alex Cobb allowed 3 runs (2 earned) in 5 innings. He struck out 5…Matt Fields homered twice and drove in 5 runs.
Charlotte 2, Clearwater 1 (gm 2). Rayner Oliveros started the nightcap and worked 5 shutout innings, striking out 4 and walking none…Matt Fields hit his 9th home run, his 3rd of the double-header.
Charleston 7, Bowling Green 2. Tyree Hayes allowed 3 runs in 3 innings…Tim Beckham had the night off.
Notes from Down on the Farm…
- The Rays roster is not the only one with a lot of turnover recently. Watching Durham Bulls Baseball has details on who is taking the field for Durham. [Watching Durham Bulls Baseball]
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]
