[THE HANGOVER] The One Where We Discuss Price Unraveling, Percival Retiring (Sorta) And Aki Returning
Akinori Iwamura, David Price, Troy Percival August 12th. 2009, 7:07am
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 Early. Price did not allow a baserunner until he hit a batter in the 4th. He did not allow a hit until a leadoff single in the 5th. Price consistently hit 96-97 on the radar gun, something we don’t recall seeing in a couple of months. And no walks raises his innings streak to 13 consecutive without a walk.
THE BAD: David Price Late. Once the no-hitter was gone, it all came apart. 3 runs and 4 hits in the 5th and 3 more runs and 4 more hits in the 6th…Anemic Offense. Was the perfect game a fluke? Does this team just take days off? Or are they exposed when they face a good pitcher?
THE TELLING: The Rays were the second-highest scoring team in baseball in the first-half. Since the all-star break they are 14th, down more than half a run a game from 5.3 to 4.7. The pitching staff’s ERA has gone from 10th (4.18) to 18th (4.36).
SUNBURST PLAYER OF THE GAME: David Price. (by default)
DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…
- Troy Percival confirms what Joe Maddon said a couple of days ago, that he has thrown his last pitch…For those that think Percy cost the Rays a lot of money, consider that Percival still hasn’t filled out the retirement paperwork. Of course, that might have something to do with collecting the remainder of his salary this season (~$1 million). [St. Pete Times]
- Aki Iwamura will be back to playing baseball on Friday when he begins a rehab assignment with Durham. He is on pace to join the Rays when rosters expand on Sept. 1. [Tampa Tribune]
- Joe Maddon was asked why the team struggles in the final game of road series (4-13 in last 17 road series, 6-13 overall): “We’ve just got to do better…I don’t have a real good reason for it.” [St. Pete Times]
- We are 5 days from the deadline for draft picks to sign. So far, the Rays have signed 7 of the top 15 and none of the top 5. [Rays Prospects]
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Not just Price unravelling, this whole team is having serious problems. 9 back in the standings now? If I remember correctly, last year we were making fun of the Yankees being so far back, and predicting that they had no shot–we still have the wild card, but man, are these guys inconsistent or what?
I dunno, but Maddon’s comment about the last game of the road series, does it not strike you as desperate? He seems to lack real control over these guys.
Joe’s trust in the Rays is just blinding his judgement. It’s like an abusive relationship. No matter how badly a boyfriend (the Rays) treats his girlfriend (Joe Maddon), the girlfriend still sees the good in his boyfriend and just hopes the good in him comes out sooner than later before the relationship (Playoff race) has to end.
Let’s do what everyone on talk radio is doing…BLAME IT ON B.J.! It’s his fault the team stinks the way they do! **rolls over and goes back to sleep**
Hmm, I don’t think anyone here brought up BJ….
That’s why I said, TALK RADIO.
So basically you’re trying to derail the topic, because no one brought up Talk Radio, or Upton, so what’s the point of brining it up yourself?
Try to stay on topic!
Yeah, what? Who brought up Upton’s name? I love the pre-emptive complaining about the complaining before anyone even says anything. Everyone knows sports talk radio tries to appeal to the absolute lowest common denomenator, so who really cares what’s said on talk radio? What is the point of getting upset about that? It’s like the reaction last year to the sportswriters naming Jason Bartlett as team MVP — is there anything more meaningless to get upset about? It was astonishing.
There have been a number of disappointing performances on this team that have contributed to the disappointing place in the standings right now. However, when one of the guys you were counting on for a big bounceback season posts a wOBA of .305 (fourth lowest for all CFs in the majors after only Willy Tavares, Chris Young, and Ryan Sweeney), how is it wrong to point out that Upton’s been one of the bigger disappointments?
Everyone knows what Upton is capable of, that’s why it’s especially frustrating to see him struggle so badly.
Wow, this started as an early morning joke that has taken a life of its own! I’ll add Sarcasm-Laced So Ignoring before Posting in the future!
The same sharks circled me when I was trying to be snarky earlier in the week… people around here have officialy lost their sense of humor.
25 homers, 80 ribbies, and 50 bags later, the Yankees are laughing all the way to the bank with a CF they sign for the next 7 years. Keep it up guys. B.J. knows he has a problem and he doesn’t know how to deal with it yet. He’s still young. That’s just about it.
I knew Rays fans would change as soon as the Rays started to win games. You all sound just like bad Yankee fans. I mean, if the Yankees can buy their way to a championship, so be it. Maybe we should blame the lack of support of a fan base. How many fans show up to the Trop? ESPN calls the Trop the most affordable ballpark in sports. Maybe it would be extra motivation for them to work harder if they knew they had fans at home that cared about them more than football season. Now all of the die hards don’t attack me, it’s moronic how you think I’m talking about you in the first place, but as for the Bucs fans waiting for football to start while watching the Rays to get their local sports fixes and only going to games when the B52′s are in town, screw all of you.
I said I lived 2 hours away from the Trop a while back ago, but now thanks to my dad’s job opportunity, I live in St. Pete and I take 20 bucks (30-40 when Yankees/Red Sox in town) to go to each game since I’ve lived here. StubHub tickets have very good seats for cheap btw. I’m tired of the excuses. Of the traffic, I freakin get a good work out walking to the ballpark now and I’m losing weight. Went from 250 to 240 since moving here in July. btw I’m 17. Have fun attacking how you’d be too old to walk to the ballpark or how the streets are too dangerous. That was my rant of the day, thank you very much.
“25 homers, 80 ribbies, and 50 bags later, the Yankees are laughing all the way to the bank with a CF they sign for the next 7 years.”
What the heck are you talking about? Brett Gardner? Huh?
Just point this poster to draysbay.com and be done with it. I have no idea why Upton is even a point of discussion here.
I’m just saying. It’s like a bad Yankee fan who’d post on a message board, “FIRE THIS GUY!” Not talking about B.J. in general, he’s just been the most picked on. My biggest vendetta is against Pat Burrell, but that’s not fit for this post. But the reason I posted this rant here is because I think the one thing the Rays are missing is motivation. They just look like last year’s Yankees. Just bored and just playing for a paycheck. If one guy loses, they’ll call it a mechanics issue and just move on to pitch another bad game. Or a batter is in a slump, says he’ll get out of it and start hitting 30 homers and 80 RBI’s like Pat the Bat is supposed to do (had to say it). I just think the home crowd isn’t all of it, but a chunk of the motivation that the Rays could use right now. Biggest thing the Rays need to do is talk to each other more. Motivate each other get on each other. Get into hitting streak competitions with each other. Pitchers trying to out perform each other. Just give the young guys something fun and competitive to do and if they get a bad start, they rag on each other. That mindset has to show up. I’m big on the mental side of things, and I know that all of these guys are talented. They all just need to have fun.
P.S.
I type so much because I think while I’m typing.
Maybe the Yankees have won more championships than any other team because their fans EXPECT their players to play like winners, and they’re not shy about letting their team and their media know about it. (Damn, it hurts to say that line, but it’s the doggone truth!) The people who “pick on” players (ooooh, how sad, we’re making fun of them! we’re hurting their feelings! ooooh … whaaaaaa!! ooooooooh … my bleeding heart aches!! ooooooh!! WHAAAAAA!!!!) may not be picking on them at all, and maybe they expect them to play up to their potential and are disappointed in them when they don’t. And this awesome blog gives us a chance to speak our minds.
I’ll be the first one to say that baseball players are human, and just because they’re superb athletes and millionaires doesn’t mean they don’t make mistakes, don’t have hard days, and dont have personal problems that distract them from performing their best day to day. That said, they’re men, and they’re more than capable of taking and dealing with constructive criticism. (Well, except maybe BJ, who seems to think that a .210 batter is a better leadoff hitter than a .330 hitter; but even then, I saw him paying attention to Zaun the other day when Zaun was explaining something to Garza, so I know BJ has it in him to want to learn and want to be a better player.) We’ve got to get away from this notion that criticism = hate or dislike or meanness.
You know, I get that the area needs to support the team, but to say the Rays are playing badly because they are not supported by fans is about the silliest thing I’ve ever heard.
First, their attendance is higher than it was last year. So why isn’t the level of play higher?
Second, this is the MLB, not little league, and you don’t get to blame your 0-4 performance on the fact that mommy didn’t come to the game. Players earn these big salaries because they are able to reproduce high level performances under a number of different circumstances: with fans rooting for them or against them; in hot weather and cold weather; at midday and at night. This is what professionals do. And when professionals fail to get hits or to prevent runs, at the very least they need to own up to their short-comings and not blame it on the fans.
I don’t understand the business with Percival. Can he stay on the payroll indefinitely? Do MLB contracts have any provision that if you can no longer play you move off the payroll? I’m not saying injured players should be forced onto food stamps….but in most jobs, if you can’t physically do the work any more you collect disability or a pension. Do MLB teams have to honor contracts even if the athlete is no longer physically capable of playing?
Many (most?) times a team will get insurance on their player contracts so that if a player has a career-ending injury, the insurance company steps in. But I also have heard that sometimes teams can’t get insurance on certain players. With Percival’s injury history he very well might have been one of those players. Baseball contracts are guaranteed so if it was not insured, Rays have to pay.
Well this is like whipping a dead horse…but maybe one more time…
“I don’t have a reason for it” Says our mgt.. Mr Maddon…. What’s that Joe…lack of effort…. or lack of ‘ability’ of the players…. or lack of Mgt of those players…Which is it?….does this mean you really admit :
“you don’t have a clue”?????
Oh, I forgot….I heard Kapler is starting in CF tonight..
Let’s play..what will Joe do next??
Say Kapler: gets 2-3 hits tonight and the Rays win!
Who does Maddon start the next game (Fri)??
I know my guess!
I know the whole offense was anemic, but I feel like Jason Bartlett should take the golden star since he contributed half of Ervin Santana’s strikeouts.
You can’t complain about Bartlett striking-out a few times last night when he’s been shouldering a huge portion of the load during this abysmal road trip
Not sure a pitcher giving up 6 runs is worthy of the SBPOTG
If you’d have stayed up and watched the game you’d know that his stuff was filthy during innings 1-4, and that was just about the only positive of the game, so just like Prof said: he was the SPOT-G “by default”