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[THE HANGOVER] The One Where We Discuss A Big Start For Hellboy, Pushing The Pitchers And CC Is Upset
Carl Crawford, Desmond Jennings, James Shields, Jeremy Hellickson, Matt Garza, Wade Davis September 21st. 2009, 1:20pm
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 TELLING: With one more loss or one more Red Sox win, the Rays will be officially eliminated from playoff contention.
SUNBURST PLAYER OF THE GAME: Carl Crawford
DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…
- Tomorrow night in Oklahoma City (on ESPN2) is the triple-A championship game. Jeremy Hellickson will start for Durham. MiLB.com has a preview. [MiLB]
- Jeremy Hellickson and Desmond Jennings were named the Rays minor league pitcher and player of the year. [Tampa Tribune]
- Joe Maddon says no more players will be called up from Durham and he has no plans to scale back James Shields and Matt Garza despite high innings pitched totals. [St. Pete Times]
- Marc Lancaster writes that allowing Wade Davis to throw 124 pitches in his last start is part of the grand plan to allow him to mature into a 215 inning pitcher. [Tampa Tribune]
- Carl Crawford feels umpires are missing too many calls on his stolen base attempts. [St. Pete Times]
- Carlos Pena feels the Rays will be better in 2010 because of the struggles the team experienced this season. [St. Pete Times]
- This is from a fantasy perspective, but it does raise an interesting issue: Is Carl Crawford more valuable than Jacoby Ellsbury? [ESPN]
- Wade Davis threw 124 pitches in his last start. You knew that. But did you know 8 teams have not had a single pitcher throw 120 pitches this season? Or that 3 of those teams haven’t had a 120-pitch performance in two years? [Chicago Tribune]
- Dan Tobin of Bugs and Cranks interviewed a lady who sang “God Bless America” at a Rays game. [Bugs and Cranks]
- A Eulogy for the 2009 Tampa Bay Rays and deciding where the blame must lay. [Sports of Boston]
Related posts:
- [THE HANGOVER] The One Where We Discuss The Duke’s Role, A Window For Hellboy And Rodriguez’ Brainfart
- [THE HANGOVER] The One Where We Discuss A Slow Start, King David’s Big Start And Another Strong Start For Aneury
- [THE HANGOVER] The One Where We Discuss A Familiar Foe For Garza, Davis’ Minor Future And One Hell Of A Start
OK, Maybe I’m crazy here, but after the extended season last year and the high innings totals this year why aren’t we shutting some of these guys down? What’s the benefit of letting them finish up the season? The only thing we are chasing now is a .500 or better record. Oh well, next year holds a lot of promise.
It does seem very odd that a manager who was pulling out effective starters after 100 pitches back when games actually mattered is now letting them go well over 100. I can think of a few games that might have had different outcomes if, say, Garza or Neimann had gone the extra inning. Maybe he was conserving their arms when the playoffs were a possibility and now he might as well let them go? Well, as someone who has tickets to a few remaining games, I’m selfishly pleased that I might see some good baseball and hopefully won’t see much of Chad Bradford.
I think guys want to pitch for arbitration reasons really. Stats matter; plus they can see the finish line and we are only talking one or two more starts anyway.
I do think it is kind of important that they don’t finish with a September where they lose 22 of 30.
Was there any news on the CC-Bradford fight? Sometimes you find out months later that those types of disputes were pretty serious. 4-0 since that dispute I think.
If they trade CC, it will be a total and complete debacle. That guy has the respect of his fellow players. Trade a gamer like that in his prime, and it says you are jokers. Note: If they can’t extend him beyond 2010, you still pick up his option and try to win with him and you never know what happens (injury, bad year, emergence of Jennings). But they have to try and win in 2010 and CC has to be part of that effort. Season tickets are a tough sell in this environment.
I thought Crawford had exchanged words with Burrell. Is that what you meant, or was there an argument with Bradford as well?
Freduian slip — Burrell natch.
The only “no touch” players on the Rays this off season……
CC, JB, Longo, Zobrist, Price, Niemann, and Davis…..
A winning team can be built around these seven players……
Others should be shopped around to improve some positions
ie. catcher, relief pitching, another top hitting (CF) outfielder…
Another idea would be to trade Burrell and eat half his salary..
someone would take him for 3mil +/-, Rays eat the rest…
the cancer is gone!
I agree with you on that core of players, still very hard to give up on someone like BJ, we’ve all seen what he’s capable of. But then again, there’s no telling what he’ll do next year. As for Burrell, I think he’s due for a big year in 2010. He is settling into the DH role (yes, finally, only took an entire season) and he’ll be playing for a contract for 2011. He’s still a very good, professional hitter with a lot of power and other than the CC fight, I haven’t heard anything bad about his locker room presence. Anybody think the Reds would be willing to give us back Gomes? Maybe if we send them some baseballs and a bucket of sunflower seeds.
I’ll send the Reds…. Burrell right now for Gomes….
Consider…Gomes hit more home runs, hit for a better avg., and is the “man” in the clubhouse..
Imagine Aybar/Gomes as DH and no Burrell on the team….in 2009…
guarantee we would have won more games…
And for those hoping for Burrell to have a “big year” in 2010…
let me say this…once you start getting older skills start to diminish..
they don’t get better…I would bet you Burrell will be same or worse in 2010….unload him for 1/2 his salary…we HAVE hitters for DH!
Also BJ is Bj….dumb is dumb…He will NOT be an impact on this team!