[THE HANGOVER] The One Where We Discuss A Hot Big Dub, A Red Hot Briggy Baseball And Big Papi To Tampa Bay?
David Ortiz, Joaquin Benoit, Rafael Soriano July 26th. 2010, 6:15am
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: Wade Davis. Big Dub picked up his 3rd straight win and worked into the 7th inning for the 3rd straight start. He struggled early, but rebounded to retire 10 of the final 12 batters he faced…Joaquin Benoit. Most are focused on the Rays losing Carl Crawford and Carlos Pena after the season, but the two most important pieces in the Rays bullpen, Rafael Soriano and Joaquin Benoit, could also be gone. Benoit came through again on Sunday. This time in the 7th inning. With the tying run on 2nd, Benoit got Shin-Soo Choo and Carlos Santana to ground out…Reid Brignac. Big game for Biggy Baseball who homered for the 4th time in his last 5 starts. He also helped Benoit out in the 7th with a diving stop in shallow right field on a ground ball to end the inning.
THE BAD: Baserunning. After the game, Joe Maddon said he had no problem with the “aggressive” baserunning even though it cost the Rays 4 outs in the 7th and 8th innings when the outcome of the game was still in doubt. The three pickoffs/caught stealings? Maybe. But John Jaso getting thrown out at third on a groundball in front of him was absolutely a mental mistake.
THE TELLING: Ben Zobrist started in center field…In 6 career starts versus the Tigers, Matt Garza is 0-4 with a 5.65 ERA…According to CoolStandings.com, the Rays have a 78.7% shot at making the playoffs. The Red Sox are only at 20.4%.
WHERE THEY STAND: The Rays are 59-38, 3 games behind the Yankees and 5 games ahead of the Red Sox in the Wild Card. After 97 games in 2008, the Rays were 57-40.
THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…
- Buster Olney speculates that the Red Sox will re-sign David Ortiz, in part because they are worried he would sign with the Rays next season at a discount just for the revenge factor (behind the Insider wall; thanks Thad). [ESPN]
- Roger Mooney doesn’t see the Rays making any big moves before the deadline. [Tampa Tribune]
- John Romano writes that the Rays should be willing to take a greater risk at this trade deadline than they would typically. [St. Pete Times]
- Joe Maddon calls Rafael Soriano and Joaquin Benoit his co-MVPs. [St. Pete Times]
DOWN ON THE FARM…
- Check out Rays Prospects for boxscores and more detailed recaps. [Rays Prospects]
- DURHAM: Richard de los Santos tossed 6 shutout innings to lower his ERA to 3.86. He struck out 7 and walked 1…Elliot Johnson hit his 7th home run…Dan Johnson went 0-3 with a walk…Desmond Jennings (2006-10) had a triple in 3 at bats with an RBI…Dioner Navarro was 2-4 with a double and 2 RBI.
- MONTGOMERY: Alex Cobb (2006-4) struck out 8 and walked 2 while giving up 3 runs (1 earned) in 6 innings…Henry Wrigley (2005-14) went 2-4 to raise his average to .313.
- CHARLOTTE: In the first game, Nick Barnese (2007-3) struck out 5 in 6 innings and gave up 2 runs on 3 hits and 2 walks. His one blemish was a 2-run home run in the 4th…In game 2, Joe Cruz (2007-30) picked up his 8th win giving up 2 runs (1 earned) in 5 innings on 6 hits and 2 walks. He struck out 4…Tim Beckham (2008-1) was 3-6 with 2 walks and his 19th steal…Rocco Baldelli (2000-1) DH’d in the nightcap and had a 2-run single in the first, finishing 1-3.
- BOWLING GREEN: Jason McEachern (2008-13) dropped to 4-9 after giving up 5 runs in 4.2 innings including 2 home runs.
- HUDSON VALLEY: Devin Fuller (2009-6) allowed 4 runs in 3.1 innings with 1 strikeout and 2 walks…Robby Price (2010-13) was 2-3 to raise his average to .314…Derek Dietrich (2010-2) was 1-2 with a walk…Phil Wunderlich (2010-12) added a double and 2 RBI. He is hitting .346.
- PRINCETON: Andrew Bellatti (2009-12) picked up his 2nd win holding Bluefield to 3 runs (1 earned) in 6 innings with 7 strikeouts and no walks…Three different Rays had 4 hits including Kevin Keirmaier (2010-31), Bryan Fogle (2010-32) and Cesar Guillen. Fogle had 5 RBI.
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LOL @ Buster Olney. I didn’t read that article, but it’s probably along the same lines as my “Manny to the Rays dream trade” article. If the Red Sox front office is making decisions based on what the Rays “may do,” then the Rays are in good shape for the near future. Unfortunately, I don’t really believe it.
As for the trade deadline, Romano made some good points… but, it’s more pandering to the Talk Show callers crowd. I expect a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth this week as the Rays don’t make a move before the deadline. Think about this, the Rays played sick baseball in April w/ pretty much the squad they’ve got. If the Rays FO thinks they’re capable of playing that kind of ball during a stretch run, why would they mortgage the future for what could amount to a game or two here and there. Pitching trumps hitting in the playoffs. I don’t expect the Rays to mortgage for a RH’ed bat.
Agreed on both points
PS Happy Birthday. I told Andrew you wanted Manny Ramirez wrapped in a bow for your bday.
Thanks. It is also Mr. Benoit’s birthday today. According to the media guide, he’s 3 years younger than me. But, you know how some of those birth years from the DR can get lost in translation….
Love Briggy Baseball! I think the nickname is great also…everytime I see him do something good, that nickname goes through my head
Oh, are you talking about “The Cajun God of Baseball”?
Rays best lineup I think contains Brignac, S-Rod and Bartlett and has no Upton. Kind of what we saw yesterday But maybe S-Rod for Joyce or some type of platoon). BJ in for defense late in games with a lead.
We are seeing the future at SS and 2B with Sean and Reid…
It should be exciting as they are very much the future there, even better is that they already have huge range for those positions. And their bats are still developing and haven’t came close to their upside.