[THE HANGOVER] The One Where We Discuss Bartlett As An All-Star, Izzy As Percy And The Unwritten Rules
Jason Bartlett, Joe Maddon May 19th. 2009, 7:28am
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: Jeff Niemann. A strange but pleasant start. At no point did we think Niemann was pitching that well, but next thing we knew, he was in the 8th inning and had only allowed 2 runs. It was just the second time this season a starter went 8 innings, and the big number was Zero, as in zero walks. And the big moment came in the first when he got out of the inning having allowed only 1 run. If the A’s put up a crooked number there, it could have been a different game…Jason Bartlett. We guess we should stop being surprised. 3 more hits and 5 RBI. It was Barty’s 10th 3-hit game of the year…Ben Zobrist. The catch in which Zorilla flipped over the wall in right field and held on to the ball was very good. But what made it great is that he did it in a blowout. Peter Gammons on Zorilla last night: “Is there another player in baseball that can play 7 positions well, hit home runs and run?”…Jason Isringhausen. 17 pitches, 14 for strikes. But man, he looks like Troy Percival’s little younger brother. Is that a good thing?
THE BAD: Unfortunately, the Devil Rays ($19) have been unable to pick up any ground during the 4-game winning streak as the Jays have also won 4-straight and the Yankees have won 6 in a row.
THE TELLING: Dioner Navarro was on the bench for the second straight night battling pink eye…The Devil Rays ($20) did not steal a base last night for the first time in 20 games, ending the longest streak in the AL since 1914…
SUNBURST PLAYER OF THE GAME: Jason Bartlett. With Joe Maddon managing the AL All-Star squad, Bartlett is a near-lock to make his first all-star team
DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…
- It takes Martin Fennelly a while to get to it, but he has Joe Maddon’s rant on the “unwritten rules of baseball.” It is an excellent read. [Tampa Tribune]
“That book needs to be burned because the game has totally changed since that particular moment,” Maddon said. “To me, rewrite the book. Do what you think is right as an organization. … And it’s not necessary for another organization to tell the other organization how to do their business – ever.”
- Marc Lancaster wants you to grade the Rays. [Tampa Tribune]
- Tyler Hissey, who we have linked to a few times around here, is one of 10 finalists in Baseball Prospectus’, “Prospectus Idol” competition. [Baseball Prospectus]
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solid all around game for the rays, they just gotta keep playing like this and not worry about the teams in front of them and they be fine
Toronto plays the first of three against Boston tonight. It sucks to be rooting for a team 6.5 games ahead in the standings but I certainly can’t root for Boston to win. Toronto has still played only 6 games against the AL East while we’ve played 2 series each against the Sox, Yankees, and O’s, so it truly remains to be seen just how good this Jays team is. I’ll have to take comfort in the fact that if the Rays take care of business against the reeling A’s then they’ll make up ground one way or the other. I think I’ll be rooting for a 2 – 1 Toronto series victory (and seeing Boston get swept won’t hurt my feelings too bad) and wait out the (hopefully) inevitable Blue Jays collapse.
I hope you are right but it is starting to no longer be early. We are almost to the point where even if the Jays just play .500 the rest of re way they would still win 90+ games. But yeah, can’t root for Sox.
The Jays have played very well so far, but there’s still a long ways to go and the schedule makers were extremely generous to the Jays. Let’s see where they are in August. Starting at the end of June they have a stretch where they play the Phillies, the Rays, at the Yanks, at the Rays, at Baltimore, and then start up after the All Star Break with the Red Sox, Indians, and Rays again. August is similarly loaded with AL East opponents, including two series each against the Rays, Red Sox, and Yankees.
Again, they’ve played very well against the schedule they’ve been given so far while the Rays have missed plenty of opportunities to beat up on some weaker opponents, but let’s see if their offense and young/inexperienced pitching continues to hold up through August.