Aug 11
Rays fans about now fall into two categories:
1) Happy as all get out that the team is playing .600 ball and in great shape in mid-August
2) Missing wads of hair because Joe Maddon drives them insane and the inconsistency of the team smells like a playoff collapse in the making.
Joe’s in both camps.
The presence of Dan Johnson in the leadoff spot today was enough to leave Joe assembling barf bags by noon. There were better choices than Johnson, and he didn’t deliver in the 3-2 loss in Detroit.
Do great teams bat Dan Johnson leadoff at this time of year? Joe’s quite sure they don’t.
And there Johnson was, of course, with the game on the line after leaving five runners on base.
But here the Rays sit, 12-8 in 20 straight games with a day off tomorrow. It’s a stretch in which they’ve enjoyed the absolute highest of highs and the lowest of lows, with the Orioles waiting for them at home on Friday.
Maddon surely is as confident as ever. Why shouldn’t he be?
What Joe and other Rays fans are left with is absolutely nothing to count on, other than a new lineup card, some great pitching, and prayer to get the team hot at the right time.
It’s addictive, but hardly fun.
Aug 11
The Rays have nine potential free agents at the end of the year. The Elias rankings will determine whether the Rays will receive any compensation should these players sign with another team (see below for a detailed explanation of free agency compensation).
MLB Trade Rumors has determined the formula used in the Elias rankings. Let’s take a look at where the Rays free agents-to-be would fall if the season ended today…
The Rays have three potential Type A free agents. They also have four potential Type B free agents with Joaquin Benoit jumping up into Type B status. With only 49 games to go, this classifications are not likely to change much unless Grant Balfour comes back strong in September.
If the season ended today Read the rest of this entry »
Aug 11
The Rays still have 50 games to go and hopefully a few more after that. But the Bucs first preseason game is this weekend. Our partners over at Joe Bucs Fan have every angle covered, including Raheem Morris’ use of players at positions you might not recognize. [Joe Bucs Fan]
Aug 11
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: Hellboy Is The Real Deal. Oh mama. Jeremy Hellickson is fun to watch. He only needed 86 pitches to get through 7 shutout innings. In only 2 of the 7 innings did he need more than 13 pitches. And in 3 innings, he needed 10 or fewer. 61 of his pitches were strikes and 10 of those were swing-and-misses. Seven of the swinging strikes came on his changeup which was a strike 25 of the 27 times he threw the pitch. Many will find this blasphemous, but he reminds us of Greg Maddux, if Maddux had a 91-92 mph fastball (actually Maddux did when he was younger). Jeremy Hellickson and David Price are going to be a fun 1-2 to watch for the next 5+ seasons.
THE BAD: Wade Davis. The Rays have a problem. We speculated earlier in the season that when the Rays decide to trade a pitcher, it would be either James Shields or Matt Garza. We also speculated that the Rays could wait until after 2011 season to move a pitcher. Why? They love depth. Why go into the 2011 season with 5 starting pitchers when they can do it with 6. This week has proven how important that is. Davis would appear to be the odd-man out. Do they move him to the bullpen (where he would be quite effective)? Or do they send Davis back to Durham next season to get regular work as a starter until he is needed at some point to fill in for the Rays? In other words, we hope Davis enjoyed his time in Durham last year, because he might be back in 2011.
THE TELLING: Jeremy Hellickson is just the third pitcher since 1920 that pitched at least 7 innings and held the opponent to 3 hits or less in each of his first 2 big league starts…Dan Johnson tied the franchise record with 4 walks…Carlos Pena could be ready to return on Monday, the first day he is eligible…According to CoolStandings.com the Rays have an 85.9% chance of making the playoffs. The Red Sox are at 16.5%…Matt Garza faces the Tigers tonight for the first time since beating them with a no-hitter.
WHERE THEY STAND: The Rays are 69-44, one-half game behind the Yankees (1 in the loss column) and 4.5 games ahead of the Red Sox (5 in the loss column) in the Wild Card.After 113 games in 2008, the Rays were 68-45.
THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…
