[THE HANGOVER] The One Where We Discuss Maple Bats, Super Price, And BJ’s Patience

The GBT – The Good, The Bad and The Telling sandwich, where The Bad is nice and lean and the The Telling is ripe.

THE GOOD: Super Sammy. On the same night weekend the Rays are giving away Super Sam capes, Fuld’s 2-run home run effectively ended the game in the 2nd inning by making the score 4-0. That was more than enough for…David Price. After giving up 10 runs in his last 2 starts, you just knew the Indians were in trouble. In his last start, Price’s fastball averaged just 93 mph. But last night, he had the giddy-up back, averaging 95. The difference in 2 mph is enormous. The Marlins only swung-and-missed at Price’s fastball 2 times. Last night, the Indians swung-and-missed 15 times on the fastball alone.

THE BAD: Maple Bats. If you missed the post last night, David Price was nearly impaled by a bat…BJ Upton. Bossman had a rough night going 0-4 with 4 strikeouts. And as typical when Upton has nights like this, he had trouble getting the bat off his shoulder. He swung-and-missed 3 times, fouled-off 3 pitches, and took 6 called strikes. One of the pitches might have been outside. But the other 5 were down the pipe.

THE TELLING: Rob Delaney has cleared waivers and accepted his assignment to triple-A…Jeff Niemann threw a bullpen session yesterday.

THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…

• Joe Maddon is still not a fan of maple bats. [TampaBay.com]
• Michael Kruse writes about the rise of Sam Fuld. [TampaBay.com]
• Well, well. Jeff Faine is going to attend Josh Freeman’s workouts after all. [JoeBucsFan]

DOWN ON THE FARM…

• DURHAM 7, Toledo 3: Chris Bootcheck made just his 2nd start, striking out 5 and walking 1 in 4.2 innings. He allowed 3 runs…Jake McGee struck out 2 in 2.1 scoreless innings of relief…3B Russ Canzler hit his 4th home run and was 3-5…RF Desmond Jennings was 1-4 with a walk.
• Jacksonville 8, MONTGOMERY 3: Chris Archer struck out 6 in 4 innings, but also walked 5 and allowed 2 runs on 5 hits…SS Tim Beckham was 2-4 with a double and his 4th home run.
• CHARLOTTE 7, Tampa 3: Alex Koronisgave up 3 runs in 6 innings…SS Hak-Ju Lee was 3-4 with a double and a walk. He also stole his 14th base…2B Tyler Bortnick was 2-4 with a double, a walk and 3 RBI.
• BOWLING GREEN 5, Lansing 4: Victor Mateo improved to 5-3 with 4 Ks in 5 innings. He gave up 3 runs…CF Cody rogers was 2-4 with a walk including his 8th home run…SS Derek Dietrich was 1-5 with a double and 3 strikeouts.

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