Archive for June 1st, 2009

Rays Stadium Issue May Get Worse Before It Gets Better

New Stadium 26 Comments »

Aaron Sharockman of the St. Pete Times, who is to the Rays new stadium as Rachel Nichols is to Brett Favre, has the latest on the quest to find a home for a new Rays stadium. And if this latest report is any indication, things do not sound promising.

All four sites that have been considered in mid Pinellas would require major and sometimes massive infrastructure improvements. At least two would require building thousands of parking spaces. And three could need road upgrades and possibly a new interstate exchange…The group studying the possible locations, A Baseball Community, has yet to consider the potential problems with any of the mid Pinellas sites, and declines even to talk about them. But the Rays recent acknowledgment that they prefer a location closer to the population center of the Tampa Bay area will no doubt trigger questions about the feasibility of such a move.

The benefit to moving to a mid-Piniellas location is the proximity to a larger population.

A team study determined that roughly 1.2 million people live within a 30-minute drive of the Gateway (north St. Pete) area, compared to 600,000 who live that close to downtown St. Petersburg. The team also says north St. Petersburg has almost twice as many employed people within a 30-minute drive…The Rays say only 19 percent of the area’s population is within a 30-minute drive of their current home, Tropicana Field. In Milwaukee, Cleveland, Cincinnati, San Diego, and Minneapolis, the percentage is closer to 60 percent, the Rays say.

Of course, all of this comes on the heals of the failed attempt to land a new stadium at the site of Al Lang Stadium along the St. Pete waterfront. And don’t think the Rays won’t remind everybody that the waterfront would have cost the taxpayers a lot less.

One reason the Rays originally pitched Al Lang Field as a new stadium site was because it was the cheapest option available, said Rays executive Michael Kalt…Cost estimates for the other sites do not exist, but comparatively, the Rays and others acknowledge they will be more expensive.

At this point, the Rays are waiting for A Baseball Community to conclude their study before moving forward with a specific plan. But the silence coming from the offices at Tropicana Field is deafening.

The Rays understand that they need to work with the community to find a solution that is best for everybody, but they are also not about to settle for something that doesn’t maximize the potential revenues for the team. Besides, we don’t get the impression that Stuart Sternberg is somebody that is just going to let somebody else tell him what is best for his business. And right now, all the decisions are being made by people outside the organization.

In the end, the more the city of St. Pete drags their feet, the closer they are coming to losing their one professional sports team to the city on the other side of the Bay.

[St. Pete Times]

Introducing The New And Improved Edwin Jackson

Edwin Jackson 12 Comments »

phpcPQzVDEdwin Jackson threw 135 pitches in his last start prior to Sunday. How tired was his arm yesterday in the follow-up start? So tired he threw 8 shutout innings to lower his ERA to 2.30, second only to Zach Greinke in the AL. He gave up 2 hits, 1 walk and struck out 7

What is interesting about Jackson’s improvement in 2009 is that his control isn’t any better. Last year, 38.0% of his pitches were called balls. This year, the number is actually up a little to 38.5%.

So what is the difference? So far in 2009 his fastball, slider and changeup are all being thrown harder. His fastball is up from 94.8 to 95.4. His slider from 85.4 to 87.1 and the change from 86.5 to 87.1.

But more telling is the confidence he now has in those secondary pitches. Last year Jackson threw 67.7% fastballs, with 23.5% sliders and 8.8% changeups. This year he only throws the fastball 61.0% of the time while his slider is up to 27.3% and the change is up to 11.7%.

All of these numbers add up to a 20.6% increase in swinging strikes.

We have long said that one of these years Jackson would put it all together and contend for a Cy Young award. But nobody could have foreseen that it would happen this quickly.

Edwin Jackson throws eight shutout innings in Tigers’ win over Orioles [Mlive.com]

The McDLT: Where Hopefully The Hot Stay Hot And The Cool Don’t

Carl Crawford, Carlos Hernandez, Evan Longoria, Jeff Niemann, JP Howell, Justin Ruggiano, Tim Beckham 2 Comments »

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The Daily Poll

Your thoughts please 2 Comments »

[THE HANGOVER] The One Where We Discuss Props For Maddon’s Correct Lineup Card, Burrell Still Needing A Week Or Two And Percy’s Return

Ben Zobrist, Chad Bradford, Matt Joyce, Pat Burrell 4 Comments »

Twins Rays Baseball

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: JP Howell. Where would the pitching staff be right now without JP Howell’s recent work. In his last 12 appearances, he has only allowed an earned run once. Over that span he has thrown 13.1 innings and allowed just 2 earned runs on 7 hits and 4 walks with 19 strikeouts…Matt Joyce. Think this guy wants to be in the big leagues? Playing only his 4th game with the Rays, he homered for the second time and beat out an infield single.

THE BAD: Gross Day. Gabe Gross took one pitch to the wall and another was lined back up the middle. Both should have been hits. Both were outs and he finished 0-3…Youth Is Not Serving. With so many young players receiving playing time right now it is to be expected. But it still hurts to give away outs in a 1-run loss when somebody like Reid Brignac is picked off first base with 1 out in the 3rd…Evan Longoria. One reason he is leading both leagues in RBI is that he has come to the plate with more runners on base than anybody else. Yesterday he left 4 of them stranded in his 0-3.

THE TELLING: Willy Aybar started at third with Evan Longoria at DH and Joe Maddon managed to get the lineup card correct. With BJ Upton getting the day off it was Ben Zobrist leading off and playing second base. He moved to short later in the game. Reid Brignac started at short. And it was only 1 game, but Matt Joyce was not called up to play right field on Sunday. He was in center…The Rays won’t face Zach Greinke in the upcoming Royals series.

SUNBURST PLAYER OF THE GAME: Matt Joyce

DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA

  • Pat Burrell says he is “hoping to be playing some games — somewhere — hopefully by the end of this week, or next week.”…Also, Chad Bradford will begin his rehab assignment with Montgomery today. [St. Pete Times]
  • Troy Percival was back with the Rays and in uniform on Sunday and has decided to try and get his shoulder fixed to pitch again this season. [The Heater]
  • It was a whirlind couple of days for Matt Joyce and his family. [Tampa Tribune]
  • Ben Zobrist says he is adjusting to the grind of playing everyday. [Tampa Tribune]
  • John Romano says that the Rays decision to pick Josh Hamilton over Josh Beckett ten years ago today could end up being the right choice over the next 10 years…Maybe, but you can’t take away the fact that Beckett is still one of the great postseason pitchers. Ever. Even with his struggles a year ago. [St. Pete Times]
  • The Rays Party shows that Lance Cormier has been most effective working on short rest. [The Rays Party]
  • Landon Evanson over at Bugs and Cranks doesn’t understand why Raysheads boo Delmon Young. [Bugs and Cranks]

Down On The Farm: Hughes And Jennings Hit Home Runs

Jake McGee, Jeremy Hellickson No Comments »

Durham, Buffalo. James Houser picked up his 2nd win despite giving up 8 hits and 4 walks in 5 innings. He allowed only 1 run with the help of 3 double plays in those 5 innings…Ray Olmedo and Ray Sadler each drove in a pair. Speaking of which, isn’t it amazing that there are two “Rays” playing for the Rays’ triple-A squad?…Justin Ruggiano was 2-4 and is now hitting .254.

Montgomery, Jacksonville. A home run to lead off the top off the 10th off of Calvin Medlock was the game-winner…Ryan Morse gave up 4 runs (3 earned) on 7 hits including 2 home runs in 6 innings…Desmond Jennings was 1-6 with a strikeout. Rhyne Hughes hit his league-leading 14th home run. He was also on base 5 times, going 2-3 with 3 walks.

Tampa 3, Charlotte 2. Darren Downs struck out 5 and allowed only 2 runs on 7 hits in 7 innings, but came up short when Tampa scored in the bottom of the 8th…Emeel Salem is heating up with his third multi-hit game in the last 6. He went 2-4 to get his average up to .212.

Rome 5, Bowling Green 3. Michael Jarman was knocked around for 9 hits in 4 innings that led to 5 runs (2 earned)…Tim Beckham homered and was 2-3. It was his 3rd home run. He also committed his 13th error.

Notes from Down on the Farm

  • Jake McGee’s return from Tommy John surgery has been pushed back a month and now he hopes to be pitching at the end of June. [Biscuit Crumbs]
  • Jeremy Hellickson returned to the team after a death in the family and threw from a mound for the 3rd time. There is still no timetable for his return. [Biscuit Crumbs]
  • Rashad Eldridge and Chris Mason have been promoted to triple-A Durham.
  • The Rays have signed Joe Gaetti and assigned him to double-A Montgomery. Gaetti is the son of former big leaguer and former Bulls hitting coach Gary Gaetti. The Rays are Gaetti’s 5th organization and he has twice reached triple-A.