[THE HANGOVER] The One Where We Discuss A Rotation That Is Coming Together
David Price, Joe Nelson, Pat Burrell August 1st. 2009, 11:12am
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: Rotation. Gotta love that the Rays two biggest question marks in the rotation had great starts this week…Carlos Pena. Long before the Rays added Pat Burrell, they had their own streaky hitter. Let’s hope a hot streak comes now after Pena’s 3-run home run in the first inning.
THE BAD: Better To Be Lucky? We’d prefer Pat Burrell was good. In the 5th, with runners on first and third, Sidney Ponson threw 3 straight pitches out of the strikezone, down and away. The fourth pitch was a belt-high 90mph fastball middle-in. If a power hitter has a green light on 3-0, that is their dream pitch. Burrell was jammed. Luckily the ball landed in left field for an RBI single. But that pitch shows how far away Burrell is from being a good hitter again.
THE TELLING: Joe Nelson was demoted to Durham after the game. The Rays have not yet announced a corresponding move. Not including Nelson, the Rays have 5 pitchers at Durham on the 40-man roster: Wade Davis, Andy Sonnanstine, Dale Thayer, John Meloan and James Houser. It is too early for Davis and Thayer cannot be recalled for 5 more days (he has to stay in minors for 10 days). The Rays could promote Sonny to the bullpen, but that would seem strange. Right now, Sonnanstine is the Rays “backup” starting pitcher if somebody gets hurt. A starting pitcher that is moved to the bullpen usually takes 3-5 starts to get their starting pitcher arm back. Maybe the transition would be easier for The Duke. If not, that would leave Houser, who was recently moved to the Durham bullpen or Meloan.
SUNBURST PLAYER OF THE GAME: David Price
DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…
- Joe Nelson was demoted to Durham after the game. The Rays have not yet announced a corresponding move. Not including Nelson, the Rays have 5 pitchers at Durham on the 40-man roster: Wade Davis, Andy Sonnanstine, Dale Thayer, John Meloan and James Houser. It is too early for Davis and Thayer cannot be recalled for 5 more days. The Rays could promote Sonny to the bullpen, but that would seem strange. Right now, Sonnanstine is the Rays “backup” starting pitcher if somebody gets hurt. A starting pitcher that is moved to the bullpen usually takes 3-5 starts to get their starting pitcher arm back. Maybe the transition would be easier for The Duke. [Tampa Tribune]
- Joe Smith and Marc Topkin have some quotes from Andrew Friedman about the Rays decision to not make any trades at the deadline. [St. Pete Times]
- Matt Garza dodged a bullett when he was fined by MLB but not suspended after admitting that hit Mark Teixeira on purpose. [Tampa Tribune]
- Evan Longoria icons! It’s like Christmas and our birthday all wrapped up in one! [LiveJournal]
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On the other hand, he really clobbered that triple. On the other hand, it was off Sidney Ponson so we might have to deduct a little bit off the congratulations. Note that Pena also swung at a 3-0 pitch and hit a pop fly to medium CF. I was behind home plate but could not tell exactly where the pitch was; it looked pretty fat though.
Interesting thoughts on who will replace Nelson (who looked ok last night, but again, it is the Royals). I had not considered the issue of Sonnanstine being less able to move quickly from the bullpen to a starting role, and I am not sure that is so, but it might be a factor. I still think he is the one. Houser has been awful this year, although in his brief bullpen time he has been decent. And Meloan has also been ok in Durham’s bullpen, but not particularly reliable. It seems unlikely the Rays would trust either even in mop-up roles which are handled nicely by Cormier anyway.
Nelson was particularly prized because he was effective against lefties. Houser has actually been better against righties this year, a reverse split.
Apparently we both guessed wrong, for the moment. I am a bit surprised at the Bennett acquisition as he has been despised in Atlanta for more than his recent ineffectiveness and his wall-punching stupidity. But he is cheap and gets ground balls, so if he flops it will be no problem replacing him. And he does throw pretty hard.
I had hopes for Houser. Only saw him in spring training workouts, but he looked like a potential lefty killer, a lean, lanky pitcher with pretty good stuff. But he has been very disappointing this year. I bet someone picks him up.
Houser released, recently ex-Brave Jeff Bennett signed.