[THE HANGOVER] The One Where We Discuss Nothing…There Is Nothing Worth Discussing
Joe Maddon, Willy Aybar May 29th. 2009, 6:35am
DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…
- Well, apparently Joe Maddon thinks this is funny and wants to blame the Rays 17 straight losses in Cleveland on “negative spiritual influence” from some building. [Rays Report]
- The Rays lone run yesterday came on a Willy Aybar home run that was upheld by replay. [Yahoo! Sports]
- John Romano says it is time to drop BJ Upton in the order and time to remove Andy Sonnanstine from the rotation, but wonders if Joe Maddon is too loyal to his players. [St. Pete Times]
- Chris Bahr of Sporting News says it is too early to panic…Hey Chris, we’re panicking. [Sporting News]
- A replica AL Championship trophy was recently rescued from a thrift store in Chicago. [Big League Stew]
- The latest quartet of Greatest Devil Rays ever. They are up to #96-93. [Bugs and Cranks]
- A Red Sox fan’s take on the Rays recent struggles. [Sully Baseball]
SUNBURST PLAYER OF THE GAME: Willy Aybar with his 3rd home run. All have come in the past 9 games, and each one was a solo home run in a loss.
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From the John Romano article, “This team needs more than that. It needs to play with the confidence, focus and intensity it had last season. The Rays won 97 games in 2008 without a .300 hitter, without a 15-game winner and without a 30-save guy in the bullpen.”
We all know the statistics, these are the same stats we quoted to Red Sox and Yankee fans to tell them that Rays would be better next year, but the lack of of consistency and Maddon’s unwillingness to make some changes is hurting the club. Here’s a better question, What should be done with the starting rotation, because Sonnestine is an “L” waiting to happen, so where do we go from here?
Last year at this time, we were 30-20 and half a game up. Now it’s 23-27, 6 games back, tied for last place. The Red Sox meanwhile are playing at almost exactly the same pace as they did last year even with a few guys on their team underperforming.
So yeah, it’s time to panic. It’ll be June next week. Six games is not too much to overcome generally, but it is too much to overcome when you’re basically fielding the Bad News Bears without the girl who can really play.
Everytime Upton leads-off an angel loses its wings.
Woot! A little something for the ladies!
(And now that I’ve made all the guys uncomfortable) …
I’m sort-of with Charles, but I can see them recover from it. I’ll call it at 50-50 whether they can recover or blow it all to smithereens. And that’s not so I can later go “Hah … I called it” if they either get back on track or have the wheels fall of. They’re doing this right when the Blue Jays and Red Sox aren’t playing too well either. Now if the Red Sox go on a tear like the Yankees did, then you can call it a season.
btw … lol @ Dirtbag Fan
We’re not even a third into the season. We’re not at the point where we should start panicing. We’re going to win a third, lose a third and what makes the difference is that final third. There’s 112 games left to go. It is pointless to panic this early.
Although, we really need to do something about our pitching staff.
Assessment of season. As the Prof notes, using a couple different models, one can say the Rays record is between 4 and 6 games below the what it should be. Given the performance of the offense / defense of the Rays in terms of hits / runs, the Rays should be closer to 27 and 23. Now let us assume this is a more accurate measure of their ability. Given the remainder of the season, what is the probability they will make the playoffs? According to Baseball Prospectus, who calculate this value every day, the Rays are now down to about 20%. This value has bounced between 15 and 30% during the season. The reason it isn’t worse is that the Yankees actually are not as good as they look and real – the Blue Jays have been too lucky.