[THE HANGOVER] The One Where We Discuss The AL East Emulating The Rays, Townsend’s New Home And The Quest For The Elusive Catching Prospect
Heath Phillips, Joe Nelson, Wade Townsend February 3rd. 2010, 8:41am
The Red Sox have made a concerted effort this off-season to improve their run prevention. John Tomase of the Boston Herald says the Red Sox philosophical change can be traced back to a 14-5 loss to the Rays back in May.
The 14-5 defeat that afternoon against the Rays was mostly characterized as a poor showing from starter Jon Lester, who served up a two-run homer to Evan Longoria in the first inning and was chased in the fifth after allowing a career-high eight runs on 10 hits…The Sox knew better than to pin the loss on Lester. They knew that while the lefty hadn’t pitched his best, he didn’t lose that game. The gloves did.
Yikes. So now it is a $120 million payroll, one of the top farm systems in baseball and they now understand the value of run prevention.
Meanwhile, the Orioles are now implementing a plan similar to the one used by the Rays to compete in the AL East (thanks Amanda).
The Rays are screwed.
DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…
- The Rays have brought back Heath Phillips on a minor-league deal. Phillips, who made six appearances with the White Sox in 2007, was in the Rays organization in 2008, making 3 starts for Durham. He spent the 2009 season with the Royals’ triple-A club, making 25 starts and posting a 4.99 ERA.
- Wade Townsend has signed a minor-league deal with the Blue Jays. [Rays Prospects via Twitter]
- Joe Nelson, the Vulcan Tripod, has signed a minor-league deal with the Red Sox. [WEEI]
- Most have picked the Rangers, but for the third time in four years, the Rays have the top organizational talent according to Baseball America and their just-released “Prospect Handbook.” Marc Topkin also provides their list of the top 31 prospects. [The Heater]
- It is behind the pay wall, but Buster Olney looks at the Rays next wave of prospects and how important they are to the Rays continued success. [ESPN Insider]
- Rob Neyer discusses the Rays top prospects and how it is loaded with pitchers. Some of whom could be moved for a catcher, something sorely lacking in the system. [ESPN]
- One ranking in which the Rays are ahead of the Red Sox, is team nicknames. Of course, that is not saying much as the Sox are last and the Rays come in at #24. [The Hardball Times]
- The guy that wants to bring a baseball team to Orlando has dropped out of his congressional race to concentrate on his effort to bring a team to Orlando. [Shadow of the Stadium]
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On the team name bit: I can’t respect any ranking system that does not have the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim dead last. That name defies logic and geography. It basically says, we want the status of being in LA but we don’t want the hassle. Maybe the Yankees could move to the NJ Meadowlands and be called the New York Yankees of East Rutherford.
Or like the MLS tried to do: The New York/New Jersey Yankees of East Rutherford.
Agreed. Baseball has a lot of bad nicknames. I think the Rays would be higher on that list if they didn’t try and confuse people with that damn sunburst logo. Nobody knows if we’re a sun ray or a fish anymore. I think 90% of fans prefer the stingray, or “Devil Ray” or whatever you want to call it.
But yeah, there are a lot of question marks on that list. The Angels should be last, and the Yankees should be towards the bottom. Like someone on there pointed out, New York tried to align themselves with the Confederacy during the Civil War. From a historical context, there is nothing “yankee” about New York.
I was actually at that Red Sox game and it was awesome just watching ball after ball go through that infield. Couple other Rays fans in my section & I were having a blast. Surprisingly little heckling from “The Nation”.