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Jul 21
Dave Scheiber of the St. Pete Times has a great must-read on BJ Upton, written after spending some time recently with Bossman Junior away from the baseball field. Below is the accompanying video. Click through for the entire story.
Archive for July 21st, 2009
Jul 21
Last week’s Rays Confidence Graph results.
Below you will see two polls that ask about your confidence in the Tampa Bay Rays. We will present these same polls every Tuesday. The results will be presented in graphical form on Thursday, and will be displayed permanently in the sidebar. The goal of the Confidence Graph is to get a feeling of how Rays fans feel about the team and the franchise and track how that level of confidence changes through time.
Raysiverse events of the past week that could impact confidence levels…
- The Rays are now 51-42 after sweeping the Royals and losing the first game to the White Sox. They are 4 games behind the Red Sox and Yankees in the East and 4 games back in the Wild Card.
- Carl Crawford was named the MVP of the All-Star game.
- Jake McGee is back on the field.
- The Rays don’t look any closer to a new stadium.
Jul 21
[THE HANGOVER] The One Where We Discuss Price Maturing, The Importance Of Stop Signs And Injury Updates
Carl Crawford, Scott Kazmir 14 Comments »
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: CC’s HR. The most exciting moments in baseball include stealing home, the 9th inning of a no-hitter and the inside-the-park home run. CC was the only Rays hitter with more than one hit and one was a doozy, his 9th home run…David Price. 4 runs in 6 innings is never good, but you can see the kid maturing. We usually hate the excuse that it was “1 bad pitch,” but for a rookie going through growing pains, that can be a good sign. Last night it was a slider that didn’t slide. He’ll learn. And only 2 walks (3 in last 2 starts), shows that he may have gotten over his tendency to come unhinged for short spurts.
THE BAD: Do Rays Need A Stop Sign? We love aggressive baserunning, but you have to be smart about it. With 1 out in the 8th and men on first and second, the Rays were primed to tie the game with BJ Upton, Carl Crawford and Evan Longoria due up. But Jason Bartlett and BJ Upton ran the Rays out of the inning. Bartlett was caught stealing third and Upton failed to follow on the steal, remaining at first…Willy Aybar. Ben Zobrist will likely never be a gold-glove middle infielder. That is not a knock. He has actually become a very good second baseman. But watching Willy Aybar play second base this season makes Zobrist look like a gold-glover. 2 errors last night in the 7th somehow did not cost the Rays a run…Solo HRs Are Lonely. The Rays scored 3 runs. They also hit 3 home runs.
THE TELLING: The Rays are now 4.5 back in the East with the Red Sox and Yankees tied for first…Jeff Niemann will be the starter tonight on 9 days rest. Niemann has 7 starts this season on extra rest and he is 6-0 with a 2.44 ERA…Carl Crawford’s inside-the-park home run was the first at Comiskey since 2000. It was also CC’s third of his career, which ties him for the lead among active players and it was the 8th in team history.
DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…
- Scott Kazmir feels he can go on Thursday, but Joe Maddon is hesitant to name him the starter. If Kaz can’t go, Marc Topkin speculates that it would either be Matt Garza on short rest or Wade Davis from triple-A…Topkin also ponders potential moves to make room for the return of Brian Shouse. [St. Pete Times]
- Martin Fennelly says that if the Rays want to go to the playoffs, they need to win more games…Brilliant! [Tampa Tribune]
- Not using Twitter? Or even if you are, here is a great guide to the Rays coverage in the Twitterverse. [Rays Revolutionary]
- Bill Marshall makes a case for Ben Zobrist as the AL MVP. [mlive.com]
- Is Jonny Gomes, the ‘09 version similar to Gomes, the ‘06 version? [MLB Notebook]
Jul 21
Down On The Farm: Jennings Top SL Hitter For Week
Brian Shouse, Desmond Jennings, LeVon Washington, Shawn Riggans 1 Comment »Indianapolis 3, Durham 1. Carlos Hernandez gave up 2 runs and was pulled after just 3.2 innings…Both Reid Brignac and Matt Joyce had the night off…Rhyne Hughes was 2-4 and hit his 6th home run since being promoted.
Montgomery. (no games scheduled)
Charlotte 7, Lakeland 2 (gm 1). Darin Downs is now 10-4 with a 2.21 ERA after holding Lakeland to 1 run in 5 innings…Brian Shouse allowed 1 run on 4 hits in 1 inning of work on his rehab assignment…Shawn O’Malley went 0-4 and Shawn Riggans started at catcher and went 0-1 with a walk.
Lakeland 2, Charlotte 0 (gm 2). Brian Flores dropped to 0-4 after giving up 2 runs in 3.2 innings in just his 3rd start of the season…Shawn O’Malley went 2-4 and Mike McCormick was 1-3.
Bowling Green 5, Delmarva 2 (11). Chris Andujar allowed 2 runs in 4.1 innings, striking out 6 and walking 1…Jake Jefferies went 2-5 with a strikeout.
Williamsport 2, Hudson Valley 1.
Notes from Down on the Farm…
- Desmond Jennings was named the SL hitter of the week, amazingly, for just the first time. [Rays Prospects]
- Rays Prospects has some updates on unsigned draft picks, including top pick LeVon Washington. [Rays Prospects]
