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[THE HANGOVER] The One Where We Discuss King David’s Debut, A Vomit-Inducing Loss And A Crowded DL
Akinori Iwamura, Brian Shouse, David Price, Jason Bartlett, Randy Choate May 26th. 2009, 6:41am
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: King David. He showed flashes of brilliance. After a walk and a double to start the game, Price struck out the next 3 batters to get out of the jam without allowing a run…Carl Crawford. 1-4 with a walk, and he is now 29-29 on stolen bases…Gabe Gross. Drove in 3, was on base 3 times and added his second home run in 3 days.
THE BAD: Prince David. It is a learning curve, and there is much to learn. First and foremost, batters leading off an inning were on base 3 of 4 times, twice via walk. The biggest disappointment was the leadoff walk in the second inning on 4 pitches. He was just staked to a 5-0 lead and that was the worst possible start to the inning. At that point he should be pitching to contact. He also seemed a little too amped up. As a starting pitcher, Price is likely to be most effective throwing his fastball 94-95. Last night he was consistently throwing the fastball 97-98, topping out at 99. He can do that in short stints but not over 6-7 innings. Last night, you could see the toll as his fastball was 92-94 in the 4th inning. Which leads us to his pitch efficiency. Price had to be pulled in the 4th inning after throwing 100 pitches, due in large part to 5 walks…The Bullpen. We don’t have the time, the space or the inclination to properly express how Bad the bullpen was last night and we don’t have the heart to list out every culprit. Let’s just say it was ugly, Don Mossi ugly and that sound you hear? That is us pounding our head on the keyboard…Red. We are all for honoring fallen troops on Memorial Day. God knows the sacrifices my family has made. But David Price makes his 2009 debut and we have to see him wearing a red cap (above)? Atrocious.
THE TELLING: This is just not a good team. Good teams do not blow 10-run leads. They don’t blow 6-runs leads in the 9th innings. And they do not blow ANY leads to bad teams.
DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…
- As feared, Akinori Iwamura will be out for the year with a torn ACL. [The Heater]
- Add Brian Shouse to the list of players on the DL. Randy Choate was added to the 40-man roster and promoted to take Shouse’s spot. Shouse has a strained elbow and does not expect to be out very long. Fernando Perez was moved to the 60-day DL to allow for the addition of Choate to the 40-man roster. The Rays now have 8 players on the DL. [Rays Report]
- Jason Bartlett is expected back in the lineup tonight after missing one game with a mild ankle sprain. [St. Pete Times]
- Joe Maddon’s new contract is now official and will keep him in a Rays uniform through the 2012 season. [Rays Report]
- Baseball Analysts breaks down David Price’s first start. It reads an awful lot like “The Bad” from above, only more detail and several hundred more words. [Baseball Analysts]
- Gary Shelton and John Romano discuss the Memorial Day Massacre and the slide that ended Aki Iwamura’s season. [The Point After]
- An amazing read on the thought process behind Fernando Perez’ walk-up music and we love the fact that he used the theme song from “The Price Is Right” while playing in college. [New York Times]
- Randy Choate made his first appearance in the big leagues since 2007, and still hasn’t retired a batter since 2006. [Rays Report]
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Disgusting. The whole bullpen should get the “Devil” back until they straighten up and fly right. Cormier is the only one performing so far this year. Everyone else needs to step it up.
But hats off to Fernando for another great piece. Honestly, I always just thought that players picked their favorite song du jour to walk out to. The thought process Fernando describes is pretty fascinating.
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Only one comment after Vomit Induced performance of “pitchers”….on the Rays!
There is no (need) space on a major league team for a “pitcher” who can not throw the ball over the plate (strikes). Period!
fuck.
…i don’t have the time or energy to express myself any other way
Is regurgitory a word… if so then that’s the word for that ridiculousity last night.
PROF:
Who won the David Price Sweepstakes?
FYI: Because of last night we’ve extended the “Devil Rule” at RTS. We’re just going to reinstate it everytime they dip below .500 and suspend it when they rise above.
The David Price callup contest was originally scheduled for today, but it had to be bumped til tomorrow. Too much on the plate today.
I do not recall a more upsetting regular season loss. If you do, don’t remind me.
The weird thing is that the normal thing for me to do while watching a game like that would be to scream at the TV and then go outside and tear through trees like I was the black smoke monster from LOST, but I sat, and I watched, and waited for us to lose, and I think I died a little bit inside because of it.
felt same way. Just sat there and waited for the axe to drop.
Yep, haven’t taken a loss this badly since the Steelers lost Super Bowl 30 to Dallas (and I was just a pup then).
The difference is I had an entire off-season to get over that one. I’ve got a few hours to finish digesting this one (could be a good thing with a nice well-played win tonight, but I’m not holding my breath).
While yesterdays loss can be pinned on the bullpen, the reason the Rays are below 500 is not because of the bullpen, which is near average for the league, nor the offense, which is near the top if the AL, but rather the starting pitching. When 2-3 of a team’s starters are worse than replacement level, the team is in trouble.
I agree that small sample size can distort one’s impression of a player, but we are now beyond the 1/4 mark of the season. Hopefully Price can at least pitch through 5 innings.
Think they could trade for Edwin “Nuke” Jackson?
They’re not the Rays at all, I wouldn’t even call them the Tampa Bay Devil Rays at this point. Even all those bad Tampa Bay Devil Rays teams could hold onto a 10-0 lead or atleast a 6 run lead in the 9th. I’m going to think of them as the Princeton Devil Rays team after this game. And also if Bartlett and Aki are in the game they win cause they would have turned the double play that Brienic threw into right field.