When the topic of “Andrew Friedman’s worst move” comes up, most fans go straight to Pat Burrell. But in the end, that free agent signing may pale in comparison to the decision to draft Tim Beckham over Buster Posey at the top of the 2008 draft.

Posey made his big league debut last September, playing 7 games for the Giants. This year, he rejoined the Giants at the end of May and hasn’t looked back. In 73 games,  Posey is hitting .342 with 9 home runs and a .386 OBP. He would be leading the NL in hitting by a wide margin if he qualified (Joey Votto currently leads with a .323 avg. Posey is about 90 plate appearances short of qualifying).

Meanwhile, Beckham is still in single-A, hitting .255. He has improved his ability to get on base, raising his OBP to .346. But he still hasn’t shown that he can be a big league shortstop, committing 24 errors this year after 43 a year ago.

Even the Rays sound like they have already given up hope that Beckham will ever be a great player. Back in June, Mitch Lukevics (Rays Director of Minor League Operations) described Beckham as having “all the physical skills to be a Major League player” but that Beckham is going to have to “stay after it.”

So where did the Rays go wrong? Drafting at the top of the MLB draft is 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.

click above image for boxscore

THE GOOD: DL Management. We like to tease them, but does any team work the DL as a roster spot as well as the Rays? Needing a roster spot for Carlos Pena and not wanting to risk Dan Johnson or Gabe Kapler on waivers or going with a short bullpen, Kapler walked into the trainers room and came out with a sprained ankle and a trip to the DL…David Price. King David went toe-to-toe with the guy many consider the best pitcher in the AL and held his own. He lasted only 6 innings, but held the Rangers to 2 runs and struck out 8. He did struggle with his control at times, but his fastball averaged 96 mph and he picked up 13 swinging strikes on that pitch alone…Top of the Lineup. With the Rays trailing 4-2 in the 8th, the top 5 guys in the lineup went a combined 4-5 in the inning and scored 4 runs to put the Rays ahead for good.

THE BAD: Luck o’ the Rays. The Rays seemed to get some lucky bounces last night. None luckier than Benjie Molina’s weight and warning track power. Twice Molina missed home runs late in the game by inches. The second came in the 8th and he ended up with a single and did not score…The Brayser. From Marc Topkin’s Twitter account we get the image above which is what the Rays will be wearing on the next roadtrip.

THE TELLING: Both Wade Davis and Jeff Niemann had successful bullpen sessions yesterday and are on track to return next week…The Rays are now 3-0 this season when Cliff Lee starts for the opposing team. The Wild Card winner will likely have to face the Rangers and Lee in the ALDS…If the Rays play .500 the rest of the way (22-22), they will finish 94-68. The Red Sox would have to play 11 over (27-16) just to tie.

WHERE THEY STAND: The Rays are 72-46, tied with the Yankees in the East and 5.5 games ahead of the Red Sox in the Wild Card (6 in the loss column). After 118 games in 2008, the Rays were 71-47.

THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…

• The Rays signed left-handed pitcher Bobby Livingston to a minor league deal. He last appeared in the majors with the Reds in 2007, making 10 starts. He posted a 5.27 ERA that season.
• David Price talks about last night’s performance (Video). [The Heater]
• The pitching injuries continue to mount
  Read the rest of this entry »

Well, thanks to Dirtbag, the Rays avoided being no-hit by Bob Gibson Sunday.

Oh, that wasn’t Bob Gibson? Morrow is the guy’s name? Wow, Joe never knew Ken Morrow could pitch. Dude was a helluva hockey player for the Islanders. Guess a great athlete can also be a good player at another sport… wait, it’s not Ken Morrow?

Brandon Morrow you say? The man with the vaunted ERA pushing 5.00? Really? This is the guy who tossed 17 strikeouts against the Rays today? Really?

This is getting to be absurd. The Rays lead the American League in strikeouts with 864. Joe knows you can’t do this in early August with a team that, if the season ended today, would win the American League wild card, but how can Rays hitting instructor Derek Shelton sleep at night?

Under the watchful tutelage of Shelton, the Rays have been no-hit twice this year and came a whisker away today from setting a modern baseball record for being no-hit three times in a season (and there’s a plenty of time for that mark to be reached this season).

Gary Shelton of the St. Petersburg Times could do just as well as a hitting instructor. Rays color analyst Brian Anderson had a telling piece of information in the ninth inning on Sun Sports when he remarked it was the first time he saw the Rays adjust to Morrow’s slider all game long.

In the ninth inning no less!

Please feel free to detail veteran players who have improved their hitting this year with Shelton guiding them? Has he helped B.J. Upton? Has he helped Carlos Pena? Has he helped Ben Zobrist? Has he helped Jason Bartlett?

The answers are no, no, no and hell no.

Yet another wonderful pitching performance pissed away, just like Friday night. Joe raises his glass for Andy Sonnanstine. Well done son, well done. Too bad your team has a joke of a hitting instructor and your fine performance was wasted.

Yes, it’s too late to run Shelton now. Going into the stretch run of the season with a new hitting instructor could do more harm than good. Besides, the Rays still have the second-best record in baseball despite Shelton which explains just how wonderful the Rays pitching truly is.

If Joe were Andrew Friedman, the minute the final out of the season is recorded, Shelton should be told to pack his bags and be given a one-way ticket out of town.

Here are the latest rumblings as we are now four days from the trade deadline…

• Ken Rosenthal and Jon Morosi report BJ Upton is unlikely to be traded. That is not surprising, but what is telling is that the Rays apparently don’t think Desmond Jennings is ready. They also cite the dropoff in defensive ability from Upton to Ben Zobrist and Sean Rodriguez. Rosenthal and Morosi also note that other teams have “heavy interest” in Rodriguez, Reid Brignac and Wade Davis, but that the Rays would prefer to trade prospects. [Fox Sports]
• Jon Morosi reports that the Rays are interested in Chad Qualls from the Diamondbacks. Qualls has an 8.49 ERA in 41 appearances this season. His FIP is a lot better at 4.14 and he has been the victim of an attrocious .452 batting average on balls in play (it varies, but average BABIP is about .300). [Twitter]
• Meanwhile, Andrew Friedman spoke about the upcoming trade deadline and pretty much said nothing (standard). For example, when asked if the Rays preferred to acquire players that will be free agents or players that would be around a while, World B. Friedman responded: “blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah either” (we’re paraphrasing). [Rays Report]

In the upcoming issue of ESPN the Magazine, Buster Olney polled 12 GMs and asked them to vote for other GMs in several categories. Interestingly, Andrew Friedman doesn’t receive a lot of love from his peers.

• Easiest GMs to make a deal with: Friedman received no votes (Jim Hendry of the Cubs had the most votes – 5)
• Toughest GMs to make a deal with: Friedman received no votes (Brian Sabean – 7)
• GMs who are the biggest card players: Friedman received 1 vote – “[Friedman is] very strategic in his dealings. I don’t think he ever opens up.” (Neal Huntington and Ned Colletti – 3 votes each)
• If you needed a GM, who would you hire?: Friedman received 1 vote – “I know he’s young, but look at what they’ve accomplished organizationally. He’s the best GM in the game.” (Theo Epstein – 8 )

Hardly scientific and who knows how many of these GMs would have Friedman as their second choice if they needed a GM. But one might wonder if Friedman is frowned upon by other GMs because he was not a baseball insider prior to being hired and didn’t “put in the time” at the lower ranks.

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: Waking Up The Bats. The top 4 hitters in the lineup each had 2 hits. Evan Longoria’s 2-run triple in the 6th was the big blast. But even bigger for the Rays were the 2 opposite-field hits by Carlos Pena and his first RBI in 15 games. The hits are a good indicator that he is about to break out of his slump. The usual cycle of Pena’s hitting goes: 1) Lots of home runs and walks; 2) No home runs and lots of strikeouts; 3) Joe Maddon spends 2 weeks trying to convince Pena to use the whole field; 4) Pena remembers that he has enough power to hit the ball out to any part of the park; 5) Sauciness returns…The Anti-Rays. The Rays offense has come through all season with runners on base. Yesterday, Rays pitchers allowed baserunners in every innings. But Cleveland was just 1-19 with 6 Ks and 1 walk with runners on base.

THE BAD: Grant Balfour. Now that JP Howell’s season is over before it begins, the Rays will need a strong performance from The Mad Australian. Yesterday he struck out the side in the 8th, but not before giving up back-to-back doubles and a run.

THE TELLING: The Rays are now 13-5 versus lefties and 8-1 in their last 9. The one loss was the perfect game. Maybe teams will stop stacking lefties against the Rays. No other team in the AL has faced more than 14 lefties this season. The Blue Jays have faced only 8…The Rays are now 9-1-1 in their last 11 series…Carl Crawford had the day off…PECOTA now gives the Rays a 94.6% shot at making the playoffs, and projects them to win 101 games. That number may be a little inflated but even CoolStandings.com says the Rays have an 88.1% shot…The Rays rank 7th in the AL in OPS (.722). That is 11 points behind the Royals (.733). However, their 2.69 team ERA leads the rest of the AL by a full run.

WHERE THEY STAND: The Rays are 28-11 and thanks to the Red Sox, now lead the Yankees by 3 games in the East. They also lead the Blue Jays by 5 games in the Wild Card who must just be hating life right now. After 39 games in 2008, the Rays were 23-16.

THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…

• Matt Joyce began a rehab assignment with Charlotte.
• JP Howell did not take news of his injury well. [St. Pete Times]
• Drays Bay looks at who might replace JP Howell. [DRays Bay]
• Some think the loss of JP Howell will hurt the Rays. Others recognize that even at his best, he is only worth 1.5 wins. John Romano falls into a third category: Armageddon! [St. Pete Times]
• Andrew Friedman spoke with MLB Trade Rumors about the first trade he ever completed. [MLB Trade Rumors]
• Noah Pransky reports that the ABC Coalition says the Rays need to open their books in order to gain the community’s trust and support…That may be true, but they will have to go on not trusting and not supporting, because the Rays will move to Uzbekistan before they open their books. [Twitter]
• Meanwhile, an investment group is planning to acquire enough land in downtown Tampa to build a new state-of-the-art stadium for the Rays. [10Connects.com]
• Here is a disturbing eBay auction featuring Pat Burrell. And by disturbing. we mean awesome! [eBay]
• What type of drink special would you name after Pat Burrell? [The 700 Level]
• Braves Blast thinks Pat Burrell would be a good fit for the Braves. [Braves Blast]

DOWN ON THE FARM…

• Check out “The Rundown” from Rays Prospects for boxscores and more detailed recaps. [Rays Prospects]
• DURHAM: Carlos Hernandez allowed 2 runs in 4.2 innings…Desmond Jennings was 0-4 with a strikeout. He did steal his 9th base…Dan Johnson was 0-3 and Joe Dillon had 2 hits including a double.
• MONTGOMERY: Alex Torres struck out 8 in 5 innings, giving up 2 runs on 7 hits and 3 walks…Matt Sweeney was 1-4 with a double in his first game with Montgomery.
• CHARLOTTE: Nick Barnese allowed 4 hits and 4 walks in just 3.2 innings, giving up 3 runs…Matt Joyce began a rehab assignment. He DH’d and went 1-2 with a double and 2 walks.
• BOWLING GREEN: Alex Colome allowed just 1 unearned run in 6 innings. He struck out 6 and walked 1.

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: Offense? The Rays are only 7th in the AL in hitting (.259), 5th in OBP (.342) and 6th in slugging (.431), but they lead the AL in runs scored (113). Why the disparity? The Rays are hitting when it matters most. in 216 plate appearances with runners in scoring position, the Rays are hitting .318 (1st in the AL), have a .413 OBP (1st in the AL) and have a league-best OPS of .964, which is 150 points higher than the next best team (Boston)…Starting Pitching. The Rays starting pitchers have the second best ERA in the AL (2.81) and they lead the AL with 6.4 innings per start.

THE BAD: Relief Pitching. One reason the Rays starters work so deep into games is to hide a weak bullpen. So far this season, the Rays relievers are 9th in the AL with a 4.13 ERA even though they have the 3rd best batting average against (.227)…Basestealing. The mathematical cutoff for success stealing is 75%. Less than that and the team might be losing runs (although it can be argued that the affect of stolen bases goes beyond the success rate). The Rays are tied with the White Sox for the AL lead with 21 stolen bases, but they have also been thrown a league leading 10 times leading to the 4th worst success rate in the AL (68%).

THE TELLING: The Rays now begin a stretch of 7 straight series (20 games) against non-AL East opponents.

DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…

• Andrew Friedman made an appearance on “The Dan Patrick Show.” The only telling statement is when Friedman refers to a sold out Trop as “like a 10th man,” which may or may not have been a Freudian slap to the face of Pat Burrell. Here is the link to the audio if you are so inclined. [Audio]
• Steve Slowinski attempts to quantify the difference between John Jaso and Dioner Navarro and whether the Rays should stick with Jaso once Kelly Shoppach returns. [DRays Bay]
• Aneury Rodriguez was named the IL pitcher of the week, one week after Jeremy Hellickson won the same award. [Rays Prospects]
• Joe Henderson takes a matter-of-fact look at the Rays attendance woes. [Tampa Tribune]
• John Romano writes about the path Leslie Anderson took from Cuba to the Rays and how he is adjusting with his new club. [St. Pete Times]
• Rays Prospects informs us that Wade Townsend has signed with an independent team. [Twitter]
• An Astros short-season team will be giving away Ben Zobrist bobbleheads. There will only be 1,200 of them so you can expect them to not be cheap on eBay. [Rays Rev]
• Virgil Vasquez actually has two broken wrists, suffered in a car accident. [St. Pete Times]
• Angela Jacobs has some quotes from John Jaso on his early success with the Rays. [10Connects.com]
• Rays now sit atop ESPN.com’s power rankings. [ESPN]

DOWN ON THE FARM…

• Check out “The Rundown” from Rays Prospects for boxscores and more detailed recaps. [Rays Prospects]
• DURHAM: Heath Rollins made his first start in place of the injured Virgil Vasquez. He allowed 4 runs in 4 innings…Fernando Perez was 1-5 with 3 strikeouts…Dan Johnson hit his league leading 8th home run…Hank Blalock started at third base and collected 2 more hits. He is now hitting .396 with a .455 OBP. Of his 19 hits, only 2 are for extra-bases.
• MONTGOMERY: Darin Downs pitched 5.2 shutout innings but was pulled after being hit in the leg by a comebacker…Nevin Ashley was 0-4.
• CHARLOTTE: Nick Barnese gave up 3 runs in 6 innings on 3 hits and a walk. He struck out 5…Isaias Velasquez went 4-5 with 3 stolen bases. He is now second in the FSL with 8 steals…Tim Beckham went 0-3 with 2 walks. He is just 4-39 (.103) to start the year…Matt Sweeney was 2-4.
• BOWLING GREEN: (no game scheduled)

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: Sean Rodriguez. Rodriguez hit his second home run in 2 games. Again the wind was blowing out, and there is some dispute about whether the balls would have left the park without the wind. Still, nobody else in the lineup has two home runs, so it is nice to see…Jake McGee. McGee took another huge step in his comeback from Tommy John surgery, pitching a perfect inning with two strikeouts…Joaquin Benoit. Benoit, who missed all of 2009, also looked strong in his first appearance, allowing one baserunner (triple) in one inning of work. He faced the O’s starters in the third inning.

THE BAD: What is the Date? With the game tied, one out and runners on first and third in the 9th, the Orioles intentionally walked minor leaguer JJ Furmaniak to load the bases…Injuries. First it was Willy Aybar out at least a week. Then Desmond Jennings gets hit by a pitch and is still out. Yesterday it was Grant Balfour taking a groundball off his wrist. He is apparently OK.

THE TELLING: Desmond Jennings had x-rays on his arm that were negative after being hit with a pitch in the spring opener. However, there was quite a bit of swelling yesterday and he is day-to-day…Jeff Niemann only threw fastballs and cutters in his two innings of work. He gave up a leadoff home run but then retired the next 6.

DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…

• The folks at 2K Sports were kind enough to provide me with a copy “MLB 2K10″ which features Evan Longoria on the cover and is now available in stores. I’m going to spend the next couple of days taking this for a test drive. Tell my wife and daughter that I love them and I will see them Monday.
• According to Tim Marchum of SI.com, Andrew Friedman is the best GM in baseball. Unfortunately, Theo Epstein of the Red Sox and Brian Cashman of the Yankees are 2 and 3 respectively. [SI.com]
• Ken Rosenthal reports that the Rays and Marlins have made minor league offers to Hank Blalock, but neither team is making Blalock a priority. Rosenthal says the Rays were more interested in Russell Branyan because he could play the outfield. [Twitter]
• Fangraphs takes a closer look at what type of player Hank Blalock is these days. [Fangraphs]
• BJ Upton and his brother have revealed the finalists for their new logo at their website. [The Upton Brothers]
• Elliot Johnson’s most memorable moment in a Rays uni came during the 2008 spring training when he collided with a Yankees catcher. Some look at that moment as when the Rays announced their presence in the AL East with authority. Johnson just hopes that is not what he is remembered for. [Tampa Tribune]
• The Hudson Valley Renegades now have an iPhone app. [The Renegades Rundown]
• Joe Smith writes about the Rays next great outfielder, Desmond Jennings. [St. Pete Times]
• Watching Durham Bulls Baseball has a list of the players to watch this spring, from a triple-A perspective. [Watching Durham Bulls Baseball]
• Roger Mooney has 5 questions for Ben Zobrist. [Tampa Tribune]
• If the Rays stay in St. Pete, their likely future home, the Toytown landfill site, was approved for rezoning by the St. Pete City Council. [10Connects.com]

Lots of links today so let’s just get to it…

DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…

• Sun Sports will televise three games this spring (Mar 19, 25 and April 1). Of course, that is about the same time that fans stop caring about spring training, but whatever.
• Might just be speculation, but Jayson Stark thinks the Rays may have a better shot at Russell Branyan than many believe. [Twitter]
• Roger Mooney has a Q&A with Joe Maddon and Andrew Friedman. [Tampa Tribune]
• Marc Topkin has the FanFest autograph schedule for Saturday. [The Heater]
• Joe Maddon calls his 3-4-5 hitters (Evan Longoria, Carlos Pena, Ben Zobrist) “interchangeable” and is thinking of moving Zobrist up to the three-hole…Also, Marc Topkin confirms that 2B and RF will be an “unconventional three-way battle” between Reid Brignac, Sean Rodriguez and Matt Joyce, with Ben Zobrist getting whatever is left over. [St. Pete Times]
• Former Tampa mayor Dick Greco is part of a group that wants to build a stadium on the Florida State Fairgrounds. [Tampa Tribune]
• The St. Pete Times spoke with one of the people behind the plan to bring the Rays to the channelside area. [St. Pete Times]
• And of course the only thing the city of St. Pete is doing about a new stadium is threatening legal action against those that want to do what St. Pete won’t. [St. Pete Times]
• Now that The Mosaic Group is seemingly out of the picture, can the Rays find somebody else to buy the naming rights for their spring home? [Bradenton Herald]
• This is no surprise, but Tony Fabrizio confirms that the Rays will not limit Wade Davis’ workload this season as they did with David Price last year. Davis is coming off a season in which he threw 195 innings, so 200-220 innings will be well-within the Rays self-imposed 20% increase limit. [Rays Report]
• Jeff Niemann did an interview for his college paper…Should we be concerned that he still spends a lot of time at Rice meeting with the coaches and working out with the guys? [The Rice Thresher]
• Here is the Rays promotion schedule for this season…What, no Dioner Navarro bobble-belly? [Tampa Tribune]
• John Romano wonders if the Rays feel a sense of urgency this season knowing some of the core players will likely be gone next year. [St. Pete Times]
• Dewayne Staats writes about the Rays starting pitchers for FoxSportsFlorida.com. [FoxSportsFlorida]
• A Tampa Bay Rays preview, in haiku. [Babes Love Baseball]
• Finally, a bonus video today. An interview with Carlos Pena. Why are we burying this after the webtopia? Well, you’ll find out…

My dad (Prof’s Pop) is a graduate of the Naval Academy (Class of ’68). He passed along this note for any other Navy alum in the Bay Area…

NAVY ALUMNI: Join us FRIDAY evening MAY 14th VS Seattle Mariners. Last year we witnessed the largest comeback in Rays history vs the Cleveland Indians. Need minimum of forty (40) attendees to get the group rate ($40 last yr).

Don Coughlin action guy – please email him (DTCZ@msn.com) if you plan to attend. Need early probable head count before we commit to forty. Not binding as we know plans change.

And of course, if any Marines want to go and need a ride, we’re sure the Navy guys would be happy to help.

DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…

• Andrew Friedman was on AM620 last night with Andy Freed and Dave Wills. Marc Topkin provides the highlights. [The Heater]
• Later in the same show, Wills and Freed spoke with Matt Silverman. [The Heater]
• Another “Matt Joyce has a chance to be a starter” story. [Lakeland Ledger]
• Joe Stiglich spoke with Gabe Gross, who compared his new A’s club to the 2008 Rays. [Chin Music]
• Steve Henson writes about what the addition of Rafael Soriano means for the Rays. [Yahoo! Sports]