[THE HANGOVER] The One Where We Discuss King David’s Newfound Efficiency, The Truffle Shuffle And More On Pedro And Kazmir
David Price, Evan Longoria, Joe Maddon, Pedro Martinez, Scott Kazmir June 18th. 2009, 6:59am
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: David Price. The 3-run home run was not good. And he basically took a dump on the mound in the second inning, but we saw a lot of positive signs moving forward. Better pitch efficiency (he worked 7 innings), he threw strikes (71 of 99) and he wasn’t overthrowing his fastball. Most were 93-94 occasionally touching 95. Recently he has been 94-96 with the occasional 97 or 98…The Truffle Shuffle. We just love it anytime Pat Burrell does something that involves running “full speed.” As in, he had a straight steal of second base last night (above). It just looks so painful and somehow he stole the bag without hurting anybody, including himself…Back-to-Back and Belly-to-Belly. Carl Crawford and Evan Longoria went yard in consecutive at bats.
THE BAD: The Second Inning. It was bad. It was ugly. It should never happen. It did. Let’s move on…Looking For Glove In All The Wrong Places. Pat Burrell indeed started in right field. Ugh. Although Burrell may have had the quote of the month when he said prior to the game, “I’ve got the chalk, BJ has everything else.”
THE TELLING: With the Rays sweeping the worst team in baseball, it meant nothing unless the Nats could come through against the Yankees and they did, winning last night. That loss by the Yankees is as good as picking up a game in the standings…It has been pointed out to us that in the first game of this series Gabe Kapler and Gabe Gross combined for the first Gabecycle in MLB history. We hope you will forgive us for our oversight (thanks John).
SUNBURST PLAYER OF THE GAME: Evan Longoria
DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…
- In case you missed it in the earlier segment, Scott Kazmir made his first rehab start last night and it was a good one, throwing 4.2 scoreless innings, striking out 5 and walking just 1. He allowed 3 hits. [MiLB]
- Joe Smith reports that Scott Kazmir will next pitch for Durham on Monday. Smith also has quotes from Kaz on his night. [The Heater]
- Pedro Martinez confirms that his agent has spoken with both the Cubs and the Rays and Pedro says there is a good chance he will sign soon. [AP]
- Marc Topkin still calls a deal with Pedro Martinez “unlikely.” [The Heater]
- Marc Lancaster also calls a Pedro Martinez signing “unlikely.” [Rays Report]
- Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times says it is doubtful the Cubs have room in the payroll to add Pedro Martinez. [Chicago Sun-Times]
- Rays the Stakes puts The Trop and Coors Field in a head-to-head battle to the death. Click through to see the winner. [Rays the Stakes]
- Joe Maddon named his coaching staff for the all-star game and in a case of Joe being Joe, he went against the grain with his picks. [Tampa Tribune]
- A story on how one Rays fan became a sports marketing intern for the Rays. [University of Richmond]
Related posts:
- [THE HANGOVER] The One Where We Discuss Burrell’s Truffle Shuffle, Momentum And The ‘New’ Edwin Jackson
- [THE HANGOVER] The One Where We Discuss Kazmir’s Newfound Pitch Efficiency, Nelson Giving Up A Bomb To A Singles Hitter And JP Howell’s WBC Teammates
- [THE HANGOVER] The One Where We Discuss Unanswered Questions About Pedro, Joyce’s Demotion And Upton’s Sucktitude
99 in 7, for Price, is a pretty significant improvement, and maybe he’s learning to settle down a little better after rough early innings. Don’t know if you’ll be able to view this photo unless you are one of my buddy Matt’s Facebook friends, but here’s a link to it anyway – taken from right behind the Rays dugout Tuesday. http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/photo.php?pid=2812208&id=500156418 And one more link – to Dickson’s Baseball Dictionary on Google Books – http://bit.ly/cV5xY Could be an invaluable resource, at least until I get around to buying the book.
So Pedro’s been talking to the Cubs & Rays, expects to sign soon, but it’s unlikely the Rays will sign him and it’s unlikely the Cubs will sign him?
Strange things are afoot at the Circle K.
My guess is that Pedro isbusing Rays and Cubs to try and get other teams to stop dragging their feet. I think Pedro needs the Rays more than they need Pedro. But then again, Rays LOVE cheap talent and if Pedro can be had cheap it is better than trading a prospect.
live blog today? 1 time?
second that
sorry guys. Have a couple of side projects that take up a lot of my free time right now. But def want to start them up again, just not sure when.
we can just live blog it in the sunburst thread…
After hearing that Maddon selected Hillman and Wakematsu to join him at the All-Star game my first thought was that this would probably drive Red Sox and Yankee fans nuts. Has anyone seen any negative reaction from fans of those teams or any others from around the blogosphere? Or is this such a non-issue that nobody really gives a crap?
Now what if Ian Kinsler gets voted in as the starter at 2B by the fans and then Maddon picks Aaron Hill and/or Zorilla ahead of Pedroia as the reserves? Now that would be sticking it to Red Sox Naiton.