[THE HANGOVER] The One Where We Discuss Blalock’s Near Signing, Aybar’s Near Return And Joyce’s Sore Leg

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: Kelly Shoppach. Shoppach is showing the one thing Dioner Navarro can’t do even in a good year, hit home runs. Shoppach went deep for the second straight game…Jake McGee. McGee retired 4 of the 5 batters he faced, striking out 2…Justin Ruggiano. Ruggy’s nailed a runner at the plate to end the 8th and keep the score tied…Reid Brignac got two more hits and is now 6-10 this spring.

THE BAD: Pat Burrell. In the third inning with the bases loaded, one out and a rookie on the mound, The Bat grounded into a double-play to end the inning…Heath Phillips. Phillips blew a 2-run lead in the 8th and has now allowed 6 runs in 3.2 innings…Gabe Kapler. He got off to a slow start in 2009 and 2010 is not much different. He led off yesterday going 0-4 and is now 0-8 this spring.

THE TELLING: Desmond Jennings returned to action and went 2-2 with a a single and a double. He is expected to get his first start today…Sean Rodriguez got his first start at second base and his third start at three different positions…RJ Swindle is not expected back for a while…

DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…

• The Hardball Times has introduced their “THT Forecasts” for the 2010 season. We did the write-ups for the Rays players. [The Hardball Times]
• Marc Topkin writes that the Rays are very close to a deal with Hank Blalock. [The Heater]
• Marc Topkin says Willy Aybar will be taking batting practice soon and that Matt Joyce is being hampered by a sore leg. [St. Pete Times]
• In the same piece, Joe Maddon still hasn’t decided whether Evan Longoria will bat 3rd or 5th, with Ben Zobrist taking the other slot. [St. Pete Times]
• The Rays are working with Randy Choate to be tougher on righties so that he can be called on to work through those tough lefty-righty-lefty situations. [MLB]

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