[THE HANGOVER] The One Where We Discuss Davis’s Needed Performance, The High-Water Mark And Rocco’s Debut
Jon Weber, Rocco Baldelli July 20th. 2010, 7:08am
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. If anybody needed a start against the Orioles, it was James Shields. If two pitchers needed a start against the O’s it was Shields and Davis. Big Dub tossed 8 innings giving up just 1 run on 7 hits and 1 walk. It was Davis’ longest outing since his shutout versus the Orioles last September…BJ Upton. His single in the 2nd moved John Jaso into scoring position prior to scoring the first run. And his walk in the 3rd loaded the bases just before the floadgates opened…Evan Longoria. 3 more hits and an RBI. He is now hitting .306.
THE BAD: Season-High. The win last night put the Rays 20 games over .500, matching their high-water mark of the season. Of course that means the Rays are just 24-24 in their last 48 games.
THE TELLING: Charlotte lost in 19 innings last night. Rocco Baldelli started at DH and struck out in all 4 plate appearances…Dan Wheeler took a line-drive off of his foot and is considered day-to-day…Matt Garza’s start tonight will be his first in 10 days…
WHERE THEY STAND: The Rays are 56-36, 2.5 games behind the Yankees and 3.5 games in front of the Red Sox in the Wild Card. After 92 games in 2008, the Rays were 55-37.
THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…
- Joey Johnston wore a Rays jersey and cap into Replica Yankee Stadium and lived to write about it…While Johnston’s experience was mostly positive, we can promise you, he was not sitting in the bleachers. The results would have been different (thanks Andrea). [Tampa Tribune]
- Now we know why former Rays minor leaguer Jon Weber retired a few days ago. Yesterday, MLB gave Weber a 100-game suspension. [MLB]
- Tampa Sports History interviewed third base coach Tom Foley about playing in Tampa, coaching in St. Pete and everything in between. [Tampa Sports History]
- The Rays are still second in ESPN.com’s Power Rankings. [ESPN]
- But they are only 5th in the Fox Sports Power Rankings. [Fox Sports]
- Eliazer Suero was named the Appalachian League pitcher of the week. [Rays Prospects]
DOWN ON THE FARM…
- Check out Rays Prospects for boxscores and more detailed recaps. [Rays Prospects]
- DURHAM: Jeremy Hellickson (2005-4) had one of his roughest outings of the year, giving up 6 runs (5 earned) in 3.1 innings. He struck out 6, but walked 5…Desmond Jennings (2006-10) went 1-3 with a walk…Justin Ruggiano hit his 11th home run and Dioner Navarro added his 2nd.
- MONTGOMERY: Alex Cobb (2006-4) gave up 4 runs in 5 innings on 7 hits and 2 walks. His ERA is now 2.99…Leslie Anderson went 1-3 with a double…Henry Wrigley (2005-14) was 2-2 with a walk…Matt Sweeney went 0-2 with 2 strikeouts.
- CHARLOTTE: Nick Barnese (2007-3) allowed 3 runs in 7 innings. He struck out 1 and walked none…Rocco Baldelli DH’d and went 0-4 with 4 Ks…Tim Beckham (2009-1) was 2-6 with a double and 3 walks. He is only hitting .231, but his OBP is up to .329. He also committed his 14th and 15th errors.
- BOWLING GREEN: Jason McEachern (2008-13) allowed 4 runs in 5.1 innings on 8 hits and 2 walks. His ERA is now 5.15…Cody Rogers (2009-7) hit his 6th home run in 11 games…Brett Nommensen (2009-8) went 3-4 with a walk and raised his average to .287.
- HUDSON VALLEY: (postponed)
- PRINCETON: Andrew Bellatti (2009-12) struck out 8 and allowed just 1 run on 4 hits and a walk in 6 innings.
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Maybe I missed this but what is with the numbers after the farm team names? (ex. Jeremy Hellickson 2005-4?)
It is the year and round the player was drafted. Just something I am experimenting with. I am only doing it with players drafted by the Rays to give a better sense of the type of prospect that player is. For example, if the Princeton starting pitcher throws 7 shutout innings, it might mean more if that player was a 2nd rd pick this year as opposed to a 32nd rd pick in 2006.
ok cool! Hey are you still going to be on 1040? I dont listen to them but I know they are the yankees station, you should get on with the Big Dog! By the way since you changed the site around I cant check on my phone anymore
lol
AND since you are a big willy with all the new sponsors, we need some updated shirts in your store!!
I was on Big Dog’s show last week when The Commish was filling in. Hopefully they will have ms back in the future. And yes, I will be on 1040 every Thursday.
As for the phone, I did notice that mine took a while to see the new site also. You may want to try closing out the browser or try adding “www.” in front or even try getting at it through joeraysfan.com. For whatever reason the smaller browsers need a little nudge in the right direction.
The good, as well: Andy Petite to miss his next 4-5 starts. Even if the Rays couldn’t capitalize on his absence Sunday (grrrrrr) perhaps other teams will help us gain some ground.
Went to the stone crabs game to see and Rocco last night. He swung the bat twice and didn’t make contact at all. I know its his first game back, but c’mon at least swing at pitches.
Texas has 9 losses in July including getting swept by the O’s and Fox Sports has them ahead of us? We just swept the Red Soxs and we are 3.5 games ahead of them and they are ranked ahead of us? And the Braves have won 2 less games than us in the garbage NL East and they are ahead of us?
Do the people at Fox Sports even pay attention to what they are doing?
Pass for Davis, Pena got his game back, offense scores off bad pitching….still a win for the record..
If Garza does his job tonight, think he will unless the unnecessary long rest gets to him, which is not hard to do…
Then comes Shields Wed night….if he loses again..to Baltimore…then he needs a bus ticket Carolina or bull pen!
Why is Joyce hitting 5th?
I’ve been wondering the same thing every game he starts. Other than the occasional double or single, he always always always either pops out to the SS/3B or hits it right to 2nd. I often wonder how Maddon can logically place Joyce, a .206 hitter with little power, more walks and almost strike outs than hits, ahead of Jaso/Rodriguez/Brignac every time he starts. I also wonder how Matt Joyce has a spot on this team. If his .296 batting average was “busting down that door” at AAA then what is the difference between him and Jennings whose been producing all year at AAA and has a much greater upside? Are the Rays basically admitting that Joyce is nothing more than a platoon guy? You can’t argue its about not having AB’s for Jennings. There’s a DH spot available and with the flexibility that this team has you could play Zobrist/Rod/Bart/Brignac/Jennings/BJ in their normal spots, DH or a different position to get them all consistent AB’s.
Just to add on: I’ve never seen a good team with so many useless players on it. Between Kapler/Joyce/Choate/Cormier/Aybar and formerly Navi. I have a feeling Jennings speed will be a hell of a lot more valuable to the Rays if we make it to the playoffs ala Perez in 08
Exactly. People forget how valuable Fernando was in ’08 – we’ve got nothing close to that sitting on our bench right now and it hurts us late in games. We’ve got plenty of options for the outfield spot and if we want a DH bat, why not Dan Johnson? The middle of our line up has too many rally killers in it.