Apr 30
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: Matt Joyce. Sweet-swingin’ Matt Joyce and his 3-run home run was one of the only bright spots on a night that you could tell just wasn’t going to go the Rays way…Juan Cruz. With the Rays still only down by 1, the Angels loaded the bases with just 1 out. Cruz relieved David Price and got Erick Aybar to ground into a double-play. He then retired the Angels 1-2-3 in the 6th inning.
THE BAD: David Price. It just wasn’t King David’s night. 12 hits and a walk in just 4.1 innings, giving up 5 runs.
THE TELLING: If Andy Sonnanstine is not the starting pitcher tomorrow, look for Alex Cobb, who skipped his start on Thursday, to make his big league debut. Cobb, the Rays 4th round pick in 2006, is 3-0 with a 2.05 ERA and 29 Ks (6 walks) in 22 innings.
THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…
- Yesterday, I took the GBT over to JoeBucsFan.com to break down first-round pick Adrian Clayborn, a player I am very familiar with. [JoeBucsFan]
- Turns out Jake Thompson did not tear Read the rest of this entry »
Apr 29
Well, it was a bummer of a game. The way David Price has been pitching of late, five runs is a winner.
But Price was more like Scotty Kazmir than his usual Price self. Hey, the guy’s human, as are the Rays. Five-game win streak snapped. Joe will take five wins every six games any day.
Oh, look: Casey Kotchman is continuing to hit. And Dan Johnson is continuing to stink out loud at the plate.
Should be interesting when Dirtbag returns. It’s going to be very hard to justify keeping Johnson on the parent club when Kotchman is so far superior defensively than Johnson and it hitting so much better as well.
But the conundrum for Merlot Joe doesn’t end there. Matt Joyce seems so much more comfortable hitting in the top half of the lineup than the bottom half, specifically when he is in the No. 3 hole for some reason.
Does Merlot Joe dare to put DIrtbag at cleanup? That would be a ballsy move.
Apr 29
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
click above image for boxscore
THE GOOD: Benjamin Thomas Zobrist. Ben had a hell of a month yesterday. First he set the Rays team record with 8 RBI in game 1 of the double-header. Then he added another double and home run in the nightcap. He finished 7-10, 3 doubles, 2 home runs and 10 RBI…Jeff Niemann. The Giraffe had given up at least 5 runs in 3 of his first 4 outings this year. But last night he was able to get everything rocking in sync. He allowed only a walk in the first six innings, not giving up a hit until the leadoff batter in the 7th. He left after the 7th after allowing just 1 run on 2 hits.
THE BAD: Jeff Niemann’s Last Pitch. It sure looked like Niemann pulled something covering first base to end the 7th inning. Here is a clip. We haven’t heard any report of an injury, but Niemann was pulled with just 84 pitches at the time…More Injuries. Sean Rodriguez dislocated his pinky trying to breakup a double-play…Reid Brignac. Briggy Baseball now has 57 at bats without an extra-base hit. Only one other player (Will Rhymes of Detroit has 56) has more than 40 at bats.
THE TELLING: The Rays have now won 5 in a row and 13 of 16…This was just the second time in team history that the Rays won two games in one day…Don’t look now, but with 21 runs on the day, the Rays jumped from 11th in the AL in scoring to 5th…Jake Thompson, the Rays 2nd round pick last year, tore his ACL and could miss the rest of the season…The Rays and Red Sox will make up their rainout as part of a double-header on August 16.
THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…
Apr 28
Joe realizes this kind of winning can’t last forever, just like the 1-8 start wasn’t going to last.
Yet still, both streaks by the Rays felt unstoppable. And that’s really the fun and addiction of every baseball season, except it never happens all in April.
Enjoy it.
Jeff Niemann seemed to have some of that trajectory thing going that makes him nearly unhittable when he’s on. Hopefully, he’s really back to his pre-injury form. And the Rays busted out the broom against the Twins in record time.
Maybe it is this simple? Pitching, defense and a few big hits. All for $40 million.
Rays win tomorrow night against L. A. and they’re sitting alone in the wild card spot. Amazing.
Apr 28
Hey, with a .239 batting average after today’s clobbering of the Twins, the Rays aren’t even the worst hitting team in the American League anymore.
Not even cold weather can keep these bats down.
ZORILLA! (Awfully fun to type.)
A franchise-record eight RBIs for Zorilla, 19 hits, a good confidence boost for Jake McGee, and more run support and experience for Jeremy Hellickson, who packed in his band of corn-fed supporters in that gorgeous ballpark. Damn, Tampa/Gateway could use an outdoor crib like that.
Joe votes to keep the hot bats in the lineup tonight.
All of a sudden Game 2 of the twin bill seems huge. A sweep is on the table and the Rays can move into a half-game of first place. Surely, there’s some record out there that says a team has never opened 1-8 and led its division by the end of April.
Joe Maddon said Jeff Neimann is getting closer. It would be the latest miracle if he can show that tonght.
Apr 28
Tickets on sale now. Tell a friend. Help stop the whining. Click below to visit NoExcusesTour.com.
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Apr 28
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: Good Starts. When Sam Fuld just missed a home run as the leadoff hitter, it was a sign of good things to come. Each of the Rays first five batters picked up a basehit, leading to a 4-run first inning...Pity The Fuld That Messes With Sam. Another hit. But more importantly, 3 more walks. And that is where his value will ultimately be offensively. The hits will cool off. But if he can continue to work counts and get on base, there is a regular spot in this lineup for a guy like that…Making The Twins Work. Led by Fuld’s 3 walks, the Rays drew 9 all-together, making Twins pitchers throw a whopping 212 pitches. The Rays will win a lot of games if the opposing team has to work that hard.
THE BAD: BJ Upton’s Awareness. If we have ever had a complaint about Bossman Junior it is that he occasionally doesn’t seem aware of the importance (or lack thereof) of a particular situation. In last night’s game he took a called 3rd strike and proceeded to bitch at the umpire all the way back to the dugout. On the one hand, BJ was right. It was a bad call. But it was also 8-2 in the 8th inning and it was snowing. BJ needs to know that the situation calls for swinging the bat. The umpire has no time for your “patience.”
THE TELLING: It snowed during the game. Seriously. Snow. But for Twins fans, that just means they take their shirts off and eat some ice cream…Andy Sonnanstine pitched for the first time in 17 days…Jeff Niemann and Jeremy Hellickson will be the starters for today’s double-header…Dirk Hayhurst has gone on the DL for triple-A Durham…Dave Martinez manages to look even more homeless in cold weather.
THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…
- That “major” announcement from the Rays and the City of St. Pete? A college football all-star game is moving to the Trop. [TBO.com]
- To Sam Fuld’s pleasant surprise, Read the rest of this entry »
Apr 27
In some of the most telling quotes yet from the east side of the Bay, Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn says he doesn’t want to get involved in the Rays nasty divorce from the city of St. Pete.
During a Q&A session with the Tampa Chamber of Commerce, Buckhorn said that he spoke with St. Pete Mayor Bill Foster, and told him that he is “not going to be the boyfriend in your divorce.”
Buckhorn later added that if the two sides do split, that the region will have to decide if the Rays are worth saving stating that he personally believes the Rays should stay. And if the Rays do (hypothetically) move across the Bay, Buckhorn would prefer a downtown location.
Apr 27
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
RANDOM THOUGHTS: The Rays and St. Pete Mayor Bill Foster will apparently set aside their difference long enough to make a “major sports announcement” this morning at The Trop. All indications are that it is not baseball related…Rays and Twins will play a double-header on Thursday…Thanks to a shutout, a near-complete game, an off-day and a rainout, the Rays’ relievers have thrown 5 pitches in 5 days. All of those were by Kyle Farnsworth on Saturday…Andy Sonnanstine hasn’t pitched since April 10.
THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…
- Evan Longoria will begin a rehab assignment on Thursday with double-A Montgomery and is eyeing a return to the Rays next Tuesday against the Blue Jays. [TBO.com]
- Gabe Gross announced Read the rest of this entry »
Apr 26
Buster Olney recently wrote that other teams now “warily approach trades” with the Rays because they are viewed as a “savvy organization” and seem to know just when to dump their players (e.g. Scott Kazmir). This raised our eyebrows because the Rays have also given away some solid players with little to show in return (e.g. Jason Hammel)
Well, Olney went on “The B.S. Report” and Bill Simmons asked Olney about this topic…
I wrote that and within four hours there was a member of the Rays organization sent me an email that said “that’s ridiculous! We’ve made some terrible trades!” I said “look I’m just the messenger here. I’m just telling you what I’m hearing from other general managers that they are like ‘These guys really evaluate their players well’.” And the response [from the Rays executive] was, “We don’t want that reputation!”
Kevin Towers, the GM of the Arizona Diamondbacks has that reputation when it comes to dealing pitching. I think that when Theo [Epstein, GM of the Red Sox] makes trades, everyone tends to look at them a little bit more closely than they would otherwise because he is generally regarded as the best GM in the sport. And Tampa Bay now, with Andrew Friedman, that’s going to be someone that they’ll think extra hard about before they make a deal. Not because he does anything untoward, but because he is so danged smart.
1) Who was the “member of the Rays organization” that would email Olney? The circle is a very small one. And three of the Read the rest of this entry »
The GBT – The Good, The Bad and The Telling sandwich, where The Bad is nice and lean and the The Telling is ripe.
