[THE HANGOVER] The One Where We Discuss Zuper Zorilla, Captain Hook And Navi’s Motivation
Ben Zobrist, Dioner Navarro, Willy Aybar September 29th. 2009, 8:00am
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: Zuper Duper Utility Zorilla. Ben Zobrist is so awesome, he started the game at first base, hit a home run and made a catch near the right field wall to possibly save the game in the 9th. He has now started a game this season at every position except catcher and pitcher. Now if we can get him to start a game at manager. That would be cool…Willy Aybar. Aybar has played more games in September (21) than any other month and the regular PT is serving him well, as he is hitting .302 with a .407 OBP. Last night it was a pinch-hit 3-run HR in the 8th to tie the game.
THE BAD: Jeff Niemann. 10 baserunners in 3+ innings. Joe Maddon on Niemann: “He just had no command today, and I truly believe a large part of it is fatigue.” But we bet he still makes his last start later this week…3:17. As in the time it took to play a late-September game between two not-in-contention teams. Why? Ask Captain Hook, Joe Maddon. He used 6 pitchers to get the final 9 outs.
THE TELLING: The Rays 4 home runs set a team record. They have now hit 193 this season. Three of them were of the solo variety which is standard for the Rays this season. Of the 193 home runs, 124 (64.2%) have come with the bases empty…
SUNBURST PLAYER OF THE GAME: Willy Aybar.
DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…
- That post we wrote yesterday defending Wins as a viable stat? Rob Neyer of ESPN.com chimed in. He agreed, but thought we shouldn’t be “picking on the little fellas.” [ESPN]
- 10Connects.com explores whether the Rays could leave St. Pete and if they could, would they leave St. Pete. [10Connects.com]
- Here is something to hang your authentic Rays cap on…The Rays are only the second most disappointing team this season. [Big League Stew]
- Remember when Dioner Navarro showed up to camp in the spring having lost something like 450 lbs and was supposedly in the best shape of his life and he was going to hit .400 and throw out 120% of basestealers? Didn’t happen. And Navi doesn’t know why but he is sure as heck motivated to be better. We assume that means he will start by eating a whole lot of Hot Pockets this off-season. [St. Pete Times]
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Captain Hook is out of control and needs to be stopped. I have been harping on this subject for awhile now (perhaps too long), but the last couple of games he seems to be getting worse. On Sunday he pulled Balfour with two out in the nineth and brought in Cormier for the final out. Last night the roles were reversed with Balfour replacing Cormier for the last out. There is absolutely no reason to do this especially in meaningless games.
Unless Maddon changes his ways, or the team picks up a couple of bullpen arms who can work every game without losing effectiveness, this team wil be in trouble in 2010.
Nice to have the foresight that management doesn’t see on their own team:
I have said Zobrist was one of the Rays best players when everyone else was calling him a “utility” player…He’s legit for MVP..
Plus…since the Burrell flop at DH early in the season…Aybar should have been the DH….He is definitely in top 4or5 hitters the Rays have….
JB, CC, Longo, and Zobrist are better… NO one else on this team can hit better than Aybar…This could be the early part of the order for lots of scoring! (and no…Not Pena with his .220 batting avg.)
While at the game last night, I was trying to come up with a reason for the bizarre bullpen decisions and maybe (though it’s a stretch) maddon is trying to collect data points on all the relievers to test reverse splits and the like????… otherwise he’s bored, hurting for camera time, or having trouble at home…