[THE HANGOVER] The One Where We Discuss Price’s Lead-off Walks, Zobrist’s Big Blast And A Red-Hot Matt Moore
Matt Moore, Rafael Soriano, Rocco Baldelli, Ted Lilly July 25th. 2010, 10:36am
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: David Price. Price rebounded from his poor outing last time out to by working into the 8th inning and giving up just 3 hits. His walk total (4) was a little high, but after giving up a 2-run home run in the 2nd, he retired 16 of the next 18 batters…Ben Zobrist. After getting only 2 hits in the first 11 innings of the series, the Rays strung together 3 consecutive hits in the 5th capped off by Zorilla’s 3-run home run. A home run that only came about after an official replay…Joaquin Benoit. After David Price walked the leadoff hitter in the 8th, Benoit came in strikeout 2 and kill the Indians last rally.
THE BAD: Leadoff Walks. David Price is young and someday he will learn that one thing he cannot do is walk the first batter of an inning. Twice yesterday he walked a leadoff batter. He has now walked a leadoff hitter 14 times this season and 5 times he has walked the first batter of the game. The first batter in this game walked and eventually scored the Indians first run.
THE TELLING: The victory was the Rays first in Cleveland since 2005.
WHERE THEY STAND: The Rays are 58-38, 3 games behind the Yankees and 4 games in front of the Red Sox in the Wild Card. After 96 games in 2008, the Rays were 57-39.
THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…
- Rocco Baldelli talks about his comeback attempt (Video). [Bright House Sports]
- Matt Moore comes in at #2 in this week’s Prospect Hot Sheet: He’d have to arm wrestle John Lamb for the title of the minors’ hottest pitcher…From June 1 to now, Moore leads the minors in strikeouts (74 in 55 2/3 innings). [Baseball America]
- Behind the Insider wall, but Buster Olney speculates that Lance Berkman could replace Carlos Pena next season. [ESPN]
- Pat Burrell may have such with the Rays, but at least he never nearly killed a teammate (that we know of). Well, that is exactly what happened last night, as a Burrell foul ball sent a teammate to the hospital. [MercuryNews]
- Marc Topkin calls the Rays upcoming 11-game homestand “arguably their most important ever,” and writes that the Rays need to improve their play at The Trop. [St. Pete Times]
- Several players offer their recollections of time spent with Lou Piniella. [St. Pete Times]
- For what it’s worth, Ted Lilly can block a trade to the Rays…Of course, that provision is part of a contract Lilly signed before the ’07 season when the Rays were still a craptastic franchise in the eyes of most. It is possible Lilly thinks differently now. Then again, we are not sure why the Rays would be interested. [MLB Trade Rumors]
- RaysRev has pics of Rafael Soriano’s beemer. [RaysRev]
- Pat Andriola argues that MLB teams should be allowed to trade draft picks, a move we think will be included in the next CBA. [Fangraphs]
DOWN ON THE FARM…
- Check out Rays Prospects for more detailed recaps. [Rays Prospects]
- DURHAM: Jeremy Hellickson (2005-4) struck out 9 in just 5.2 innings as he struggled with his pitch count (102). He allowed 1 run on 3 hits and 4 walks…Desmond Jennings (2006-10) was 0-5 with 2 strikeouts. He is hitting .284/.356/.402…Dan Johnson hit his IL-leading 28th home run. Nobody else has more than 21.
- MONTGOMERY: Alex Torres gave up 5 runs in 6 innings, striking out 4 and walking 1. His ERA is 3.24…Leslie Anderson was 3-4 and hit his 8th home run of the season in 60 games. He is hitting .311 in 39 games with the Biscuits.
- CHARLOTTE: (postponed)…
- BOWLING GREEN: Albert Suarez was pulled after just 2 innings having not allowed a run…Cody Rogers (2009-7) was 2-5.
- HUDSON VALLEY: Miguel Sierra allowed 3 runs in 5 innings. He struck out 5 and walked 1…Phil Wunderlich (2010-12) hit his 3rd home run.
- PRINCETON: Victor Mateo made his first start of the season giving up 2 unearned run in 3 innings…Kevin Kiermaier (2010-31) was 2-4 with a triple.
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Said it before….old news…
Rays pitchers do NOT come out ready to pitch 1st couple innings…we see it all the time…must be game prep…..coaching..my guess…
I love Berkman, but there’s too many reasons to not spend money on him. First & foremost, he’s going to be 35 and he’s already showing signs of a serious decline. Second, he is a notriously SLOW starter, which is something we already complain about with Pena (and others).
My gut tells me that if Dan Johnson ends the season well that he’ll get a shot at the job in Spring Training and that Leslie Anderson will end up with the job before the 2011 season is over. If Johnson doesn’t end the season well or flubs Spring Training, I could see a lower cost guy like a Lyle Overbay or hell even Ty Wigginton holding down the fort until Anderson is ready, but I think Anderson’s going to inherit this job next year. If the goal is cost reduction and you have what seems to be a guy that can handle the job internally, why spend that money?
I liked how Price bounced back after a rough start. I have a felling that Garza or Shields would have done the exact opposite. Hopefully Davis pitches well again today.
I am getting a little concerned about Hellickson’s wildness lately. Before the last 3-4 starts, Jeremy was pin point with his control. Something to look out for. I hope Desmond Jennings heats up a bit. He’s been in a slump. Tim Beckham has had a disappointing campaign. The Rays got to hope that he ends the year strong.
Just as I said.. Davis in first two innings then settled down to make it to the 7th…maybe I could email Hickey to help with his job…what is his job?
I want to give Friedman the benefit of the doubt, but there have been a lot of decisions that just look bad.
The single largest and it is not even close is passing over Posey for the cheaper Beckham.
Beckham is batting .250 at Double AA and will probably have to play a different position because he is playing bad defense.
Posey is batting somewhere at .350 and at catcher and 1st could you imagine having this bat for so many years at the cheap, so saddening.
Also the whole getting nothing for Hamilton and Cantu is pretty pathetic.
A lot of what Crawford said about anyone can manage with the talent that has came through here, when you draft enough people in the first round at first overall you are eventually going to be good by default
Yes Posey was the safer and better pick. Yes most Rays fans wanted him but Tim Beckham is not in AA. He’s in single A.
Hamilton would of probably been dead had he stayed here. He needed a fresh start. Sure a trade would of been great but he couldn’t of stayed here. Blame the Cantu and Gomes situation on Joe Maddon and no one else. If we had a real manager that didn’t switch line ups every day Gomes could of kept playing well. Unfortunately Maddon never played him because of his “splits”. Cantu was the same way. He hurt his wrist and Maddon never gave him a chance to play after that.
I will give them credit though when its due and the Leslie Anderson signing looks to be a good one even though he is going to probably ending up becoming a OF within the year if he hasn’t already.
I would still look for Pena to resign and he will sign for cheap because really no one else will offer him that much money.
Aged 30 plus; .200 bat with some pop (not Dunn power) and a lot of strikeouts with an above average glove..