[THE HANGOVER] The One Where We Discuss Zorilla Under The Radar, Uncharacteristic Shields And Mythical Defensive Stats
Ben Zobrist, Carl Crawford, Pat Burrell May 15th. 2009, 6:47am
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: Zorilla! We wish we could better appreciate the season that he is having. 6 home runs in 75 at bats ain’t too shabby.
THE BAD: James Shields. When Shields retires and we look back on his career we will remember how he often gave up an early run or two, usually a home run, but then settled down and shut the opposition out over the next 6 or 7 innings. Last night, looked like it was going to be a gem. He survived his typical early scare in the first by getting out of a 1st and 3rd situation. He then cruised through the 2nd and 3rd with the greatest of ease. And then? 8 hits in the next 2 innings. And it wasn’t the home run. It was 6 singles and 2 doubles.
THE TELLING: Cleveland has the worst record in the AL…Pat Burrell, Carl Crawford and Dioner Navarro were all out of the lineup…This team is in trouble. They are at home with their ace on the hill and trailed 9-0 before a too-little-too-late rally. The Rays are now 6-8 at home after going 57-24 a year ago. If they are to match that mark, they would have to go 51-16 the rest of the way. Not likely.
SUNBURST PLAYER OF THE GAME: Ben Zobrist.
DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…
- Pat Burrell received a cortisone shot to the neck to try and avoid the DL and Carl Crawford should be available to play tonight. [Rays Report]
- If you listen to Peter Gammons he will tell you that every team is now neck-deep into defensive stats, an art the Rays may have perfercted. Apparently the Phillies didn’t get the memo. To quote Phillies GM Ruben Amaro: “I do not buy numbers defensively. At all. But that other business? I don’t buy it a lick. I think defense is subjective.”…Wow. Just wow. How did that team win a World Series? [We're the Team To Beat]
- Jesse Spector goes “Nine Innings” with Joe Nelson. On playing himself for the first time in a video game and getting knocked around after 3 pitches: “This is a really realistic game!” [New York Daily News]
- Tom Jones had a Q and A with Tim McCarver about the Rays and their early season struggles. [St. Pete Times]
- The Top 177 Devil Rays ever, #104-100. Zorilla seems a little low to us. Less Valuable than Trever Miller? For shame. [Bugs and Cranks]
- Gabe Kapler reads books…without pictures! [Boston Globe]
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It’s really not looking good right now for the Rays, they better start winning now or their season may be over by the all-star break. The big part in this game though was when Aki messed up on that grounder, he doesn’t do that it’s only 2-0 not 5-0 (i think it’s 5 could be 6). If Shields gets out of that jam who knows what happens.
Hate to do it, but I’m leaving a link to Rays the Stakes
Check out my plan for Burrell and Joyce:
http://raysthestakes.blogspot.com/2009/05/plan-for-pat_14.html
Re: Amaro’s idiocy, he only took over this year.
True, but wasn’t he the asst GM last year? And he makes it sound like an organizational philosophy that has been in place for a while. I guess I should say how did *they* win?
The Telling: with Navi and Pat “the limp noodle” out of the lineup, the quality of the lineup improved. OUCH!
Recommendation – trade Crawford now! He will never have a higher perceived value. Claim it is because of they don’t have the revenue to keep him. They can then use the finance argument to blame the politicians for not giving them a new ball park.