Apr 30
Archive for April, 2010
Apr 30
[THE HANGOVER] The One Where We Discuss Jaso, Briggy Baseball And Navi’s Future
James Shields, Joaquin Benoit, John Jaso, Reid Brignac, Sean Rodriguez 19 Comments »
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: JJ And Briggy Baseball. Is there any reason why both John Jaso and Reid Brignac shouldn’t be in the lineup every time a righty is on the mound? In the past, Joe Maddon has been loyal to his starters to a fault. And maybe Jaso and Briggy are just in a groove. But they both look like big leaguers, and JoeMa needs to see how far he can ride this wave (the Rays are 7-0 when Jaso starts and 9-0 when Brignac starts). And there is almost no chance now that Dioner Navarro will be back with the Rays in 2011. And you can make an argument that Jason Bartlett shouldn’t be either. Moving those two players would save the Rays $7-9 million next year…Joaquin Benoit. Benoit made his debut with the Rays and looked impressive, consistently hitting 94-95 on the gun. When JP Howell returns, the Rays’ one weakness will once again be a big strength…Truffle Shuffle. We will never cease to enjoy watching Pat Burrell “run” full speed around the bases.
THE BAD: Unbalanced Schedule. How is it that Major League Baseball approved a schedule in which the A’s travel to the Trop for one 2-game series, and yet the Rays have to travel to Oakland for a 3-game series and a 4-game series? (thanks Amanda)…John Jaso’s Hitting Routine. We don’t mean to rain on the Jaso parade. But if there is a reason to temper the excitement about Jaso it is his fidgety hitting routine. Unless you are a great hitter, that much movement usually leads to a swing with holes in it. Hopefully Jaso’s excellent command of the strikezone will overcome those holes…Sean Rodriguez. With the emergence of Briggy Baseball, might Rodriguez be better served playing everyday in Durham? That would open up a spot for Hank Blalock as a lefty bat off the bench and occasional DH.
THE TELLING: Dioner Navarro returned from his suspension and the attendance jumped nearly 20% from the night before to 12,766. Clearly we have underestimated Navi’s popularity…John Jaso got the start despite the availability of Dioner Navarro. Until Kelly Shoppach returns, we expect Navi to get all the starts versus lefties and Jaso to get about two-thirds of the starts versus righties…The Rays have now won 14 of 16 after starting season 3-3…If the Rays complete the sweep of the Royals, they will match the Mariners 20-5 start in 2001. That team went on to win 116 games (thanks Thad)…The Rays are already 12 games over .500. If they play .500 baseball the rest of the way, they would still win 87 games. Once they reach 26 games over .500, they can play .500 baseball the rest of the season and still reach 94 wins which would be an almost guaranteed playoff spot.
WHERE THEY STAND: The Rays are 17-5, 2.5 games ahead of the Yankees and 4.5 games ahead of the Tigers in the Wild Card race. After 22 games in 2008, the Rays were 11-11.
DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…
- Joe Maddon visited a Hot Topic look for some new hoodies. [The Dugout]
- Rays Renegade has the rundown on James Shields, T-shirt designer. [Rays Renegade]
- “John Jaso…he should buy Navi chili con queso.” [Her Rays!]
- Dave Scheiber writes about John Jaso’s emergence. [SunSports]
- Gary Shelton writes about Evan Longoria’s leadership. [St. Pete Times]
- Dock of the Rays offers some marketing suggestions to the Rays. [Dock of the Rays]
- Rise of the Rays explain their selections for the Rays Trade Pool. [Rise of the Rays]
- Does anybody remember when Joe Maddon “threw a temper tantrum, and whined about how sad it is, and that he felt he did nothing wrong, and he was really upset” about not being to wear a hoodie? We don’t. But hey, why should somebody let a little something like “facts” get in the way of a good story. [The Daily Sports Vent]
- Rays Rev has their latest podcast up. [Rays Rev]
DOWN ON THE FARM…
- Check out “The Rundown” from Rays Prospects for boxscores and more detailed recaps. [Rays Prospects]
- DURHAM: Heath Phillips pitched 8 innings, giving up 4 runs (3 earned) on 8 hits and no walks. He struck out 3…The Bulls were held to 1 hit, a leadoff single by Fernando Perez. Durham would not get another baserunner against the knuckleballer RA Dickey.
- MONTGOMERY: Matt Fields was 2-4 with a double, an RBI and 2 strikeouts.
- CHARLOTTE: Chris Andujar pitched 5.1 shutout innings. He gave up 2 hits and 3 walks…Tim Beckham was 0-3 with a walk…Henry WrigleyB was 3-4 and Matt Sweeney was 1-4 with a double…Michael Sheriden hit his first home run of the year.
- BOWLING GREEN: Alex Colome struck out 9 and walked just 1 in 8 innings. He allowed 2 runs (1 earned) including a solo home run…The Hot Rods managed just 3 hits.
Apr 29
The Rays Confidence Graph is a look at how much confidence Rays fans have in the Tampa Bay Rays. The graph is designed to give us a look at how our emotional bias as Rays fans fluctuates through time. The “confidence” in the team is an inexact measure of how fans feel about the team’s current strength as well as how much confidence fans have in Joe Maddon and the franchise for the next 3-4 years…
Apr 29
MY Fox Tampa Bay spoke with Matt Silverman who said that he expects the Rays to become more active in stadium talks this year. Silverman was asked who the Rays would involve in those conversations…
“When the talks begin the talks will begin and we’ll see — but the first conversations will be with St. Petersburg,” Silverman said.
But is St. Pete the Rays first choice for a new stadium? Not necessarily.
Rays Vice President Michael Kalt recently attended a public meeting in St. Pete, and when asked if the Rays are committed to the city of St. Pete, his response was very telling…
“I don’t think that’s a question we are prepared to answer at the moment,” Kalt said. “We want stay in the Tampa Bay area. We haven’t ruled out any locations.”
If there is anything we have ever learned about the Rays, it is that they never commit to anything until they absolutely have to. Do the Rays prefer to be in Tampa? Probably. But will they rule out the possibility of staying in St. Pete. Absolutely not. If that turns out to be where the best deal it, that is where the Rays will be.
Apr 29
[THE HANGOVER] The One Where We Discuss James The Greater, JoeMa’s New Hoodie And Producing When It Matters
Joe Maddon, JP Howell, Ryan Royster 24 Comments »
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: James the Greater. He had the changeup working as good as ever and the end result was a career-high matching 12 strikeouts. He had 9 in the first 5 innings…Belly-to-Belly. Evan Longoria and Carlos Pena hit back-to-back home runs in the 6th (Pena’s nearly landed in the Ray tank). It was the first back-to-back home runs for the Rays this season…Jason Bartlett. Bartlett gave the Rays their first lead with a bloop double. 10 of his 24 hits have come with runners in scoring position, giving him 13 RBI from the leadoff spot. He also teamed with Carl Crawford on a relay to nail a runner at home in the 5th to preserve a 2-2 tie…Yet Another Big Inning. This time it was a 6-run 6th that broke a 2-2 tie started by Evan Longoria’s rulebook double.
THE BAD: Attendance. Just when you thought it couldn’t go any lower. 10,691 last night.
THE TELLING: Rocco Baldelli took batting practice with the Rays prior to the game…Former top pick Matt Bush has been activated by the Rays and will pitch for high-A Charlotte.
WHERE THEY STAND: The Rays are an MLB-best 16-5, 2.5 games in front of the Yankees and 4.5 games ahead of the Tigers in the Wild Card. After 21 games in 2008, the Rays were 10-11.
DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…
- We add a couple of entries to the 2010 Rays Trade Pool and made the corresponding adjustment to the rankings. [2010 Rays Trade Pool]
- JP Howell’s bullpen session went well. We are still looking at a late-May return. [St. Pete Times]
- John Romano offers his 2 cents on the Rays attendance woes. [St. Pete Times]
- On Tuesday we pointed out that the Rays run production was due in large part to their league-leading success with runners in scoring position. Roger Mooney takes a closer look at the team’s efforts at the plate in those situations. [Tampa Tribune]
- Joe Maddon received a gift from Bill Belichick. [Tampa Tribune]
- The Baseball Opinion takes a look back at the trade that brought Ben Zobrist to the Rays organization. [The Baseball Opinion]
- The Baseball Notebook takes an early season look at the Rays and what we can expect the rest of the way. [The Baseball Notebook]
- Ryan Royster will have surgery on his back and will miss at least 6 weeks. [Rays Prospects]
DOWN ON THE FARM…
- Check out “The Rundown” from Rays Prospects for boxscores and more detailed recaps. [Rays Prospects]
- DURHAM: Jeremy Hellickson picked up his 4th win after allowing 2 runs in 5.1 innings. He struck out 5 and walked 1…Mike Ekstrom, Winston Abreu and Dale Thayer combined for 3.2 scoreless innings of relief…Hank Blalock was 2-4 with a double, walk and 3 RBI. He is now 23-57 (.404) in 13 games…Rashad Eldridge, Chris Richard and Angel Chavez homered for the Bulls…Dan Johnson drove in 3 with a single and a double.
- MONTGOMERY: Jeremy Hall struck out 5 in 5.1 innings, allowing 2 runs on 4 hits and a walk…Matt Fields was dropped to 6th in the lineup and responded with his 5th home run and 3 hits overall.
- CHARLOTTE: Tim Beckham had a bases-clearing triple in the second and a 2-run triple in the 5th for 5 RBI overall. He also drew a walk.
- BOWLING GREEN: Kyle Lobstein allowed 2 runs (1 earned) in 5.2 innings. He struck out 3 and walked 3…Brett Nommensen had 3 hits and 2 RBI.
Apr 28
Second Annual Tampa Bay Rays Trade Pool
Andy Sonnanstine, Carl Crawford, Carlos Pena, Dan Johnson, Dan Wheeler, Dioner Navarro, Fernando Perez, Hank Blalock, Jason Bartlett, Justin Ruggiano, Matt Sweeney, Pat Burrell, Rafael Soriano 30 Comments »Welcome to the 2nd Annual Tampa Bay Rays Trade Pool where members of the Rays blogosphere determine who is the best at predicting which members of the Rays organization will be traded this season (this contest is based loosely on the “Dead Pool“).
The Rules:
- Each blogger submitted a list of 5 players they believe have the greatest chance to be traded this season. All players in the organization are eligible.
- The bloggers ranked those 5 players, giving the highest rank (#1) to the player they think is most likely to be traded.
- If one of the players they chose is traded prior to the end of the season, that blogger will receive points based on where the blogger ranked the player. If Carl Crawford is traded and a blogger has CC ranked first, they will receive 5 points. If they have CC ranked second, they will receive 4 points and so on.
- The blogger with the most points at the end of the season wins.
- We also want YOUR lists in the comments. Let’s see if you guys can beat the experts. And by “experts” we of course mean a bunch of people with too much free time on their hands.
First let’s sum up all the results and see who the group as a whole thinks is most likely to be traded. We summed up the ballots with an MVP-style ranking. A player received 5 points for each 1st place vote, 4 points for each second place vote and so on…
Three of the 10 bloggers picked Hank Blalock as the most likely player to be traded, and three picked Andy Sonnanstine. Twenty-three different players showed up on at least one list.
Now let’s look at each blogger’s ballot…
Notes on the rankings
- The difficulty in these rankings is predicting whether the Rays will be “buyers” or “sellers” this season. If they are in the playoff hunt, they are more likely to trade prospects. If they fall off the pace they are more likely to try and move expensive veterans.
- Hank Blalock and Andy Sonnanstine each appeared on the most lists (6).
- 10 different players appeared on more than one list.
Thanks to all who chose to participate including…
- Tommy Rancel, Steve Slowinski and Ricky Zanker of DRays Bay
- Michael Weber of RaysRev.com
- Michael Emdeyar and Devon Rogers of Rise of the Rays
- Doug Milhoan and Kevin Gengler of Rays Prospects
- RaysRenegade
- Jason Collette of Dock of the Rays.
Also, you might be asking “What does the winner receive?” We have no idea. Any suggestions?
Apr 28
OR (that’s Original Rayshead) Jenn Sterger is suddenly everywhere. She is a host of “The Daily Line,” a new show on Versus (weekdays @6pm). And here is a very short clip of Sterger during a recent appearance on “Sports Soup.”
It probably would have been better if we told you about this before the show aired, but the episode will re-air several times in the next few days on Versus. You can see a full schedule here.
Here is a link to a second clip.
Apr 28
[THE HANGOVER] The One Where We Discuss Pat’s Occasional Bat, Jaso’s Production And Triple-A Attendance
Attendance, John Jaso, JP Howell 39 Comments »
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: Pat’s Occasional Bat. Even if Pat Burrell occasionally does something good, that will be more than many of us expected from him this season. Yesterday it was a big 3-run home run in the bottom of the 3rd inning after Wade Davis had just coughed up a 4-0 lead…Catcher Production. 3 hits from the catcher’s spot? Huh-wha? John Jaso went 3-4 with an RBI. Is his defense and ability to handle the pitchers that much worse than Dioner Navarro?…Bottom of the Order. The Rays 7-8-9 hitters combined for 5 hits, 2 home runs and 5 RBI…Rafael Soriano. There will be some rough patches for certain, but right now, Soriano looks like he is in a groove. He has retired the last 11 batters he has faced.
THE BAD: Wade Davis. After being staked to a 4-0 lead, Big Dub gave it right back with 4 runs in the 3rd, 3 on a home run. Joe Maddon will tell you it was one mistake (the HR), but he can’t make a mistake there and needing 41 pitches that inning suggests more than one bad pitch.
THE TELLING: Attendance. It was a battle of two first-place teams and only 10,825 people showed up, or about 5,000 LESS than they had for the triple-A Omaha Royals last night
WHERE THEY STAND: The Rays are 15-5, 2.5 games ahead of the Yankees in the East and 4.5 games ahead of the Tigers in the Wild Card. After 20 games in 2008, the Rays were 9-11.
DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…
- JP Howell will throw a bullpen session today. [Tampa Tribune]
- Dock of the Rays looks at Ben Zobrist’s home run dry spell and projects what might still be to come. [Dock of the Rays]
- Gary Shelton writes about the Rays hot start. [St. Pete Times]
- Martin Fennelly writes about the Rays efforts to keep up the hot pace. [Tampa Tribune]
DOWN ON THE FARM…
- Check out “The Rundown” from Rays Prospects for boxscores and more detailed recaps. [Rays Prospects]
- DURHAM: Carlos Hernandez gave up 5 runs in 4 innings on 7 hits and 3 walks. He struck out 1…Joaquin Benoit allowed 1 run in 1 inning…Chris Richard hit his 3rd home run…Hank Blalock went 2-5 with a double and an RBI.
- MONTGOMERY: David Newmann threw 7.2 shutout innings with 7 strikeouts and 1 walk…Matt Fields was 1-3 with a double, 2 walks and 2 strikeouts.
- CHARLOTTE: Joe Cruz allowed 2 runs in 5 innings, both on solo home runs. He struck out 6…Matt Sweeney went 1-3 with a walk and an RBI…Tim Beckham was 1-3 with a walk, a strikeout, his 2nd stolen base and his second error.
- BOWLING GREEN: Wilking Rodriguez picked up his first win with 6 strikeouts and 2 walks in 6 innings. He allowed 2 runs (1 earned).
Apr 27
Four years ago on Rays Index we wrote about Delmon Young throwing his bat at an umpire. The move would cost him a 49-game suspension.
Delmon Young Sticks Up For Striking Minor League Umpires [Rays Index]
