Over at Business Insider, we took a look at the most productive players in baseball and compared that to the salries of those players to make a list of baseball’s biggest bargains. Both Evan Longoria and Ben Zobrist made the list. [Business Insider]
The Rays announced their roster for the ALDS and there are some surprises. In the bullpen, Joe Maddon kept Wade Davis instead of Jeff Niemann. Not the biggest upset ever, but Niemann has proven that he can be dominant in short relief stints. It is possible that Niemann is not healthy.
Also, Maddon chose to go with three catchers, keeping Jose Lobaton. This leaves a big question mark in right field versus lefty starters, something the Rangers will use in three or four of the games in this series.
Without Brandon Guyer or Justin Ruggiano, it would seem that Ben Zobrist will be in right field versus lefties, even though he hasn’t started a game there in over a month. And if Zobrist is in right field, who is at second base? Sean Rodriguez is the obvious answer. But that means Elliot Johnson is the Rays starting shortstop. Yay?
Another possibility is that Zobrist stays at second base, and either Sam Fuld or Matt Joyce is in right field against the lefties. But that seems unlikely.
In the Rays most important game of the season, the Rays got out to an early lead on Ben Zobrist’s 2-run home run in the first inning off of Jon Lester. But should it have been a home run? Not in most parks, according to Lester (thanks Sarah)…
“We got a 300-foot fly ball that goes out for a homer, that’s the difference of the game…That’s the joy of playing in Fenway Park. It takes some away, it gives some to other guys. So, if we’re in Tropicana, that’s an out, 0-0 after the first.
So Lester claims that he made a good pitch, gets a routine flyball, and the Rays score two runs in the most important game of the year. Any mention of this on the four-letter’s Sportscenter last night? Nah. But by all means, let’s spend 30 minutes trashing the Trop after a foul ball breaks a light.
In the meantime, Lester can’t complain. He knows how Fenway plays. Sure that is a good pitch anyhere else. But it is not a good pitch at Fenway.
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: What Is Left To Say? James the Greater, being James the Greater. Yet another complete game, with 124 pitches, and 85 for strikes. And of course, it was the changeup. A whopping 41 changes, 28 for strikes, including 9 swinging. It was his 11th complete game, and the 14th for the Rays. Shields is the first pitcher since 1999 to have 11 complete games in a single season. And the reason Joe Maddon is OK with Shields going over 110 pitches for the 12th time this year and over 120 pitches for the 3rd time, is because Shields is cruising through these wins, without a need to go max effort and put extra stress on the arm. Where was this guy in last year’s playoffs?…Two Out Runs. The Rays are only hitting .223 with 2 outs this season, but yesterday, both Evan Longoria and BJ Upton homered with the bases empty and 2 outs. A team is only expected to score in those situations less than 10 percent of the time (think just the opposite of bases loaded with no outs), so both of those runs were like bonus runs.
THE BAD: The Big Snooze. With four weeks remaining, 7 teams have at least a 97 percent chance of making the playoffs, and the 8th (Rangers) is sitting at 86.3 percent. That means there is an 80.1 percent chance that all 8 playoff spots have already been decided. If the last month of the regular season fell in a forest, would it make a sound?
THE TELLING: Ben Zobrist returned to the lineup after missing two games with a minor neck injury…Evan Longoria has 4 errors in the past 7 games…If Jeremy Hellickson does get shut down after 3 or 4 more starts, that means Andy Sonnanstine will likely make 2-3 starts to wind up the season.
THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…
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: Cleaning Up. He is still not getting a lot of hits, but it seems that every time he does, he is driving in a run or two. Last night his double in the first gave the Rays an early 2-0 lead, that would hold until the 7th inning.
THE BAD: Coming Undone. David Price cruised through the first 6 innings, retiring 18 of the first 21 he faced with 10 strikeouts. In one stretch, he retired 15 of 16 with half of those batters going down on strikes. But then everything unraveled in the 7th. with 1 out and a runner on first and a 1-2 count to Mark Reynolds, Price then threw 7 of the next 8 pitches out of the strikezone, walking back-to-back batters and loading the bases. A sac fly and 2 singles later, the Rays 2-0 lead is now a 3-2 deficit…Coming Undone part 2. After scoring 2 in the first and getting a leadoff double from Jose Lobaton in the second, only 3 of the next 22 batters would reach base, and two of those were retired on double-plays. As fans, we can watch Price and think he isn’t giving up any runs. As a hitter, you can’t do that.
THE TELLING: Ben Zobrist had to leave the game early with stiffness in his neck…The Durham Bulls clinched their 5th straight division title…The Rays chances of making the playoffs have now fallen below 1 percent.
THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…
DOWN ON THE FARM…
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: King David. Is the great Price back? His last two starts were in Replica Yankee Stadium and Fenway Park and he worked a combined 16 innings, giving up just 1 run. And for the second straight start, Price did a masterful job working in his secondary pitches. Only 66 (56.9%) of his 116 pitches were fastballs, and only 3 of those were of the 2-seam variety. He added in 21 changeups and 19 sliders. Only 8 of his sliders were strikes, and none of those were swing-and-misses, but the important thing is that he threw it, and there was another pitch the batters had to keep in the back of their mind…Needed Pop. Home runs from Longoria and Upton were nice. Now if they could just get some ducks on the pond in front of them and start getting some more crooked numbers on the scoreboard, and this team could be pretty good.
THE BAD: Running Out Of Time. We did this in 2008 and 2010, so it is only fair we do it now. To get to 94 wins, the Red Sox only need to go 20-20. The Rays would have to go 28-12, 16-games over .500 in the last 40. The Rays are only 10-games over .500 in the first 122 games. The Rays do have seven games left with the Red Sox which helps. But they will probably have to go at least 5-2 in those seven to even have a shot. There is a pulse. It’s faint, but it is there.
THE TELLING: The Rays are now 8 back in the Wild Card…According to CoolStandings.com, the Rays chances at the playoffs are now up to 3.2%…The Rays made history by becoming the first visiting team to hold the Red Sox to 3 hits or less in 3 consecutive games (via Marc Topkin)…The Rays are 10-4 at Fenway Park the past two seasons.
THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…
The Rays young pitching studmuffin, David Price, graces the cover of Sports Illustrated* this week for the second time in less than a year. However, unlike King David’s last appearance (2010 Playoffs Preview), this one celebrates a moment he may not want to remember (click on image for a larger version)…
*Ben Zobrist, John Jaso, Sean Rodriguez and Casey Kotchman are also on the cover if you are scoring at hom.
One family of Rays fans highlights perfectly the absurdity of the All-Star game, and the absurdity of how home-field advantage in the World Series is determined.
Diana, Fay and Jerry Lichtenwalter began this year’s bonanza when the ballots first came out. Then they took some home. Some, as in a few thousand. After they turned those in, they took home a few thousand more…Two years ago, they filled out 13,000 ballots—voting all for the Rays—and last year, they doubled it to 26,000. This year, they streamlined the process, figured out how to do more at a time, and are now at 33,000.
33,000 ballots by three people. And every ballot includes nine Rays players. That is 297,000 votes for Rays players for those keeping score at home.
How absurd is that number? Ben Zobrist had
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Joe was simply galled at the play of the Rays tonight.
First, there was Dirtbag playing like he had his head in a trendy Fourth Street hotspot filled with nubile, scantily clad young lasses and not a baseball game at the Fruitdome.
But Longo was hardly alone. Still with the game not totally out of hand in the top of the seventh, the immortal Cesar Ramos gave up two quick singles and Scotty Rolen then hit a perfect 4-6-3 double-play ball to Zorilla who let the ball go right between his legs.
It was a horrible play, one of the worst Joe has seen on a major league level. A Little Leaguer would have been chewed out by his coach for such a play and rightly so. Rays fans began booing and Joe doesn’t blame them at all.
Zorilla doesn’t chase women since he’s happily married and he doesn’t hang out in Fourth Street watering holes so his head couldn’t have been in the same place Dirtbag’s was so Joe has no clue what Zorilla was thinking on that play but it was as if the Rays just showed up to collect a paycheck
It was a miserable game all around. The salt in the wound was when — youknow – Jonny — youknow – Gomes – youknow – [takes off left batting glove] returned — youknow – [puts left batting glove back on] belted — youknow – [takes off right batting glove] — a ball — youknow – [puts right batting glove back on] to a — youknow – catwalk for a — youknow – home run in his — youknow – return to the — youknow – Fruitdome.
(FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY JOE WISHES SOME REPORTER WOULD SAY TO GOMES, “NO JONNY, I DON’T KNOW! THAT’S WHY I’M ASKING YOU THE QUESTION.)
Just a heinous game.
[Ed. note: If you hate stats, or are just not familiar, please read on and don't give up! This stuff was confusing for even the most diehard stathead at one point. There is good stuff here. And if you have questions, please ask. We don't judge around here]
We are more than one-third of the way through the season. Let’s take a look at how some of the Rays hitters are performing in terms of weighted On Base Average (wOBA). If you are not familiar with wOBA, just think OPS, but better (check this link for a quick explanation). However, typically, if a player has a good OPS, they will also have a good wOBA and vice versa.
In short, this is the best way to get a sense of who has been swinging the bat the best. Notes on the table are below…
Notes on the table…
