Today is the 100th anniversary of Fenway Park, and during SportsCenter today, ESPN asked a bunch of current big leaguers their thoughts on the historic ballpark. Among those were BJ Upton and David Price.
Strangely, Luke Scott was not asked for his thoughts.
Here’s the clip…
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: Honey Badger. OK, he wasn’t sharp. But he did dance his way to one out. We’ll have more on this play shortly, but in the meantime, you can see the animated version HERE…Workmanlike. No idea what is going on with the starting pitchers. Hellickson pitched well enough to win, but it was ugly. He walked 3 and gave up 6 hits in less than 6 innings, striking out just 4. And if not for a great grab by Matt Joyce at the wall, it would have been worse. The problem appeared to be Hellboy’s fastball. His 4-seamer (the one that is supposed to be faster) averaged just 89.9 mph. His 2-seamer (the one that moves more) averaged 90.9 mph. So then why did he throw 37 4-seamers and just 28 2-seamers? Hellboy is a pitcher that relies on control and movement. He probably shouldn’t be throwing the 4-seamer at all, and add in more cutters (just 6 last night)…Evan Longoria. 3 hits, including a double and a home run. He drove in 4. Just dirtbag being dirtbag.
THE BAD: Reid Brignac. Briggy is just 2-17 with 1 walk to stat the season. And with both BJ Upton and Brandon Allen being added to the roster, we wouldn’t be surprised if Brignac will be in triple-A tomorrow…Jose Molina. Hey, if we are going to love the D, we have to occasionally point out things like 10 strikeouts and just 6 hits and 1 walk to start the season, including an 0-4 last night with 3 Ks.
THE TELLING: BJ Upton is expected to be activated today and Brandon Allen is expected to be added to the roster today. Look for Stephen Vogt to be demoted…The Rays went 4-6 on the road trip. Not good, but not terrible either…Stephen Vogt, in what was likely his last game with Rays for a while, was inserted as a pinch runner in the 9th inning.
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: Lineup. Joe Maddon tinkered with the lineup, moving Ben Zobrist up to the 2-hole, shifting Carlos Pena and Evan Longoria down a slot. The result was 12 runs…Bullpen. It was already a good lead by the time David Price was pulled, but it was still nice to see three key members of the bullpen (Joel Peralta, Wade Davis, JP Howell) combine for 3.1 scoreless innings, striking out 6 and walking none…Sweet Swingin’. Matt Joyce is absolutely locked in right now. Two doubles and his third home run. And one of those doubles was nearly another home run. Let’s just sit back and enjoy the view…Wolverine. Luke Scott is another red hot bat right now, hitting his 3rd home run last night, a grand slam…GTMI. The Rays went with the power last night, but the most important run may have come in the second inning. After Matt Joyce doubled, Jose Molina grounded out to the right side moving Joyce to third. Then Sean Rodriguez brought Joyce home with a sac fly. For a team that has struggled getting men home, it was nice to see a manufactured run early in the game.
THE BAD: Reid Brignac. Briggy plays because of what he can do with the glove. Still, after going 0-2 yesterday, he is now just 2-17 with 1 walk to start the season. The Rays don’t need a lot of offense from Briggy, but they need more than that.
THE TELLING: The Blue Jays have asked MLB to review one of Evan Longoria’s three errors from Tuesday night…BJ Upton went 0-6 in a double-header in the final games of his rehab assignment.
THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…
DOWN ON THE FARM…
Charlotte 4, DURHAM 3. Chris Archer gave up 4 runs in 4 innings and has now allowed 14 runs and walked 13 in just 12.2 innings. He has struck out 11…Ryan Reid tossed 3 scoreless innings of relief, striking out 2…SS Tim Beckham went 0-4 and is now hitting .216, while RF Brandon Guyer had 3 singles in 4 at bats. He’s at .235…DH Leslie Anderson continues to get on base, going 1-2 with 2 walks. He is now 20-43 (.465) with a .500 OBP. And in 11 games he has 4 walks with just 5 strikeouts.
Mobile 3, MONTGOMERY 1 (game 1). Kyle Lobstein struck out 7 in 5.1 innings, but walked 5 and threw a wild pitch as he allowed 2 runs on 2 hits…SS Hak-Ju Lee went 0-3 and BJ Upton played center field in the first game and went 0-3.
MONTGOMERY 6, Mobile 2 (game 2). Joe Cruz picked up his first win with 5.2 innings, giving up 2 runs on 2 hits and 3 walks. He struck out 4. Both hits were solo home runs…SS Hak-Ju Lee had a single in 4 at bats, but is still just 11-56 (.196)…BJ Upton went 0-3 as the DH…RF Henry Wrigley hit his 5th home run.
CHARLOTTE. (no game scheduled)
BOWLING GREEN 5, Great Lakes 4. Parker Markel allowed 4 runs in 6 innings, and now has a 4.50 ERA in 3 starts…RF Drew Vettleson had 2 hits to up his average to .267. He also stole his 3rd and 4th bases.
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: Matt Joyce. Don’t look now, but Matt Joyce is hitting lefties. Let’s not go crazy yet. It is just 14 at bats. But he already has 4 hits off of southpaws, including a home run. But Joyce only had 20 hits off of lefties in all of 2011. With BJ Upton on the DL, Joe Maddon has probably played Joyce against lefties more than he would like. But with Joyce hitting, Maddon may have to keep Joyce out there even when Upton returns.
THE BAD: Starting Pitching. The Rays’ starters have a 4.14 ERA so far, 8th in the AL. Sure, it’s early, and it will get better. But to get better, they need to cut down on the walks. The starters have issued 32 walks in 11 games, the most in the AL. And as a result, their 1.4 strikeout-to-walk ratio is also the worst in the AL. That number needs to be closer to 3.0. And until that happens, the Rays are going to struggle…Longo’s Brick Glove. Three errors last night is bad. And if it was just one game we wouldn’t be too worried. But Longo wasn’t fielding well in Spring Training either, and right now he is in a mental slump with the glove.
THE TELLING: The Rays will pick 25th and 88th in the June draft…Stephen Vogt is now 0-13 to start his big league career…BJ Upton is still expected to rejoin the Rays for their homestand on Friday.
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: Joel Peralta. Sure, it was just 2 batters with the Rays trailing in a game they would eventually lose. But after giving up 7 runs in his last three outings combined, he needed a successful appearance just to get his head right.
THE BAD: Matt Moore vs Big Papi. In the first at bat, Moore went slider away (ball) then fastball in (double). In the second at bat, it was changeup low (fouled off) then fastball in (single). Third at bat was fastball in (double). Notice the pattern? David Ortiz likes the fastball in. Even the second at bat, the fastball was 2-3 inches off the plate, and he still hit it. It doesn’t matter that Moore is a lefty or that he throws 96. David Ortiz eats fastballs in…Double Nickel Up. The image above is the strikezone plot for Matt Moore on the final pitch of each at bat (from the point of view of the catcher). If you divide the strikezone in half (top and bottom), notice how many pitches are up in the zone compared to low. We count 11 in the bottom half, and 16 in the top half, including the two home runs, which were both pretty much down the pipe, and a little up. Also notice that there are almost no pitches on the lower-left (down-and-in to a righty). A left-handed pitcher’s natural zone is from upper-right to lower-left*. There are a lot of dots in the upper-right quadrant, but nothing in the lower-left. In other words, Moore is releasing the ball too early. He has to get that ball down in the zone. Make no mistake, Moore has some nasty heat. But just ask Jake McGee about straight fastballs up in the zone. Big leaguers can hit fastballs that don’t move and are up in the zone…Missed Bunt. OK, We have to mention the missed bunt by Chris Gimenez. With no outs and runners on 1st and 2nd, Gimenez struck out trying to bunt. Of course, he got 5 straight pitches out of the strikezone, and Joe Maddon refused to pull the sign, so it was just a train wreck of an at bat, and only partially Gimenez’ fault.
THE TELLING: Don’t look now, but the Rays are tied with the Red Sox for last place in the East…The Rays have one stolen base in 9 games. In 2011, the Rays had 39 games with more than one stolen base…BJ Upton will move his rehab assignment to double-A this week…Sam Fuld was moved to the 60-day DL to make room for Chris Gimenez on the 40-man roster.
THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…
This post, which will appear before every game, will include starting lineups (when we learn them) and during the game will include a Game Graph that will constantly update the percent chance the Rays have of winning this particular game.
Game Graph…
Playing A Little Pepper…
BJ Upton has begun a rehab assignment and should be back with the Rays in a week or so. Joe Maddon appears to be settling into a top-of-the-rotation of Jennings-Pena-Longoria-Joyce-Zobrist. Where will BJ Upton fit once he is back?
Well, the obvious answer is that Upton will likely bat sixth, right behind that group. And he started 58 games in that spot last year. But if Luke Scott is healthy, he fits nicely in that spot. So does Upton bat seventh? At that point, Maddon might as well drop Bossman all the way down and run with the “double leadoff” scenario of Upton ninth and Flash first. That is just outside-the-boxish that Maddon will have to try it…NINTH (or sixth)
Lineup…
Similar to yesterday, but with Jose Lobaton at catcher and Stephen Vogt at DH.
Song to get you pumped up…
Winning is so much better than losing. Let’s get back…
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: Jeremy Hellickson. Joe Maddon tried hard to get Hellboy a shutout on his 25th birthday, but in the end, he fell a strike short, working 8.2 innings, and allowing just 3 hits and 4 walks, although he had to work harder than his line would suggest. The Yankees had a runner on 2nd with only 1 out in the second, had 2nd and 3rd with 1 out in the fourth, and 1st and 3rd with 2 outs in the sixth. But outside of those innings, Hellickson was a master of efficiency, needing less than 13 pitches in 5 of his 9 innings…Carlos Pena. He was officially credited with a double and a home run, although it probably should have been 2 home runs. Either way, Pena is dialed in. Let’s enjoy it while it lasts…Fernando Rodney. Kyle who? He has only faced 5 batters, but Rodney has appeared in all 3 games, retiring all 5, en route to a win and 2 saves.
THE BAD: Fans Interfering. For the second straight game, a potential home run was ruled Fan Interference when a fan reached over and caught a flyball. And while this one, off the bat of Carlos Pena, was ruled Fan Interference on the field and not reviewed, a look at the replay left some doubt (click on below for slo-mo replay). If that had been ruled a home run and then reviewed, we doubt they would have changed it. In the meantime, STOP REACHING OVER!…Another Injury. Luke Scott was pulled from the game early. The good news is it wasn’t his shoulder. The bad news is he will be sidelined for 3-4 games.
THE TELLING: BJ Upton will begin a rehab assignment today and is not expected to play on the Rays upcoming 10-game road trip…The 3-game series sold 98,569 tickets, the third largest total for the opening series in franchise history…The Yankees and Red Sox are both 0-3. In fact, the Red Sox have lost 7-23 in their last 30 games. That would translate to 38-124 over an entire season…Random thought: If at anytime Luke Scott’s shoulder needs extended rest, keep in mind that Johnny Damon is still unsigned.
THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…
Now that we know the opening day roster, let’s take a look at the likely lineups versus lefties and righties. We will have the 40-man roster and opening day payroll later this morning…
Notes on the opening day roster…
As expected, BJ Upton, Sam Fuld, and Robinson Chirinos have been placed on the 15-day disabled list. As of now, Kyle Farnsworth is on the active roster, but that is expected to change before Friday’s game.
Upton’s place on the DL is retroactive to March 26, which means he will be eligible to be activated on the first day of the road trip (April 10 in Detroit) that immediately follows the season-opening series against the Yankees.
Pitchers (12):
RH Burke Badenhop
RH Wade Davis
RH Kyle Farnsworth
RH Jeremy Hellickson
LH J.P. Howell
LH Jake McGee
LH Matt Moore
RH Jeff Niemann
RH Joel Peralta
LH David Price
RH Fernando Rodney
RH James ShieldsCatchers (2):
Jose Lobaton
Jose MolinaInfielders (7):
Reid Brignac
Elliot Johnson
Jeff Keppinger
Evan Longoria
Carlos Peña
Sean Rodriguez
Luke ScottOutfielders (4):
Desmond Jennings
Matt Joyce
Stephen Vogt
Ben Zobrist
Sam Fuld will have surgery on his wrist as expected and will be sidelined 4-5 months (via Joe Smith of TampaBay.com). Considering the Rays will want him to take a 2-3 week rehab assignment once healthy, we would be surprised if we see Fuld at The Trop before the September roster expansion.
Also, BJ Upton is hoping to return to the Rays in “mid-April” (via Marc Topkin of TampaBay.com) While that sounds bad, keep in mind that the season doesn’t even begin until April 6. Specifically, Upton is now expected to rejoin the club during their 10-game road trip that immediately follows the season-opening series against the Yankees.
