Baseball Americahas the complete list of Rays minor league free agents. The list includes Winston Abreu (right), Dale Thayer, Carlos Hernandez, Brian Shouse and Joe Dillon.
THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…
Buster Olney lists the Angels, Red Sox and Tigers as the three teams that needCarl Crawford the most. The Rays don’t even make the full list of 8 teams. [ESPN]
John Romano writes that it would make sense for the Rays to re-sign Carlos Pena…We’ve been saying this for a while, but we wonder if another team will be willing to give Pena more than one guaranteed year. [St. Pete Times]
Before we jump into the 25-man and 40-man roster projections, let’s take a look at the one area where we can expect the most change, the bullpen. But before we start thinking about who the Rays may add to the mix, let’s take a look at who might be back in 2010…
WHO’S IN?
JP Howell, Andy Sonnanstine and Mike Ekstrom look to us like the only sure-things. We suppose the Rays could dangle Sonny and see if anybody still thinks he can be a big league starting pitcher, but we have a feeling that the Rays see Sonnanstine as worth more in their bullpen than on the trade market.
We are not completely sold that Jake McGee is ready. But with so many spots available, he is certainly close.
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 Garza continues to roll, holding the A’s to 1 run in 7.2 innings. It was the the 5th time in his last 8 starts that Garza allowed 0 or 1 run. His ERA since the All-Star break is 2.66…Evan Longoria. Dirtbag is doing what great players are supposed to do. He has picked this team up and is carrying them to October. His 2-run double in the 6th broke a 1-1 tie. It was his 8th extra-base hit in the last 6 games.
THE BAD: Ben Zobrist. Another 0-4 including a strikeout with one out and a runner on base and an inning-ending double-play in the 4th. He is hitting just .175 in the second-half (.308 OBP).
THE TELLING: As expected, Jeremy Hellickson was sent back to the minors (single-A Charlotte). He was replaced by Dale Thayer. Hellickson will work out of the bullpen in anticipation of returning to the Rays next week…Wade Davis will start tomorrow and Jeff Niemann will start Wednesday…Jake McGee picked up his first career save for the Durham Bulls. McGee is likely to be a September addition to the bullpen and many consider him a closer-in-waiting…The Durham Bulls clinched the South Division title this weekend…According to CoolStandings.com the Rays have a 93.3% chance of making the playoffs. The Red Sox are at 10.5%.
WHERE THEY STAND: The Rays are 76-48, 1 game behind the Yankees and 5.5 games ahead of the Red Sox in the Wild Card (6 games in the loss column). After 124 games in 2008, the Rays were 76-48.
THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…
Manny Ramirez came off the DL on Saturday. This is important because he can only be traded if he is exposed to waivers. And he can only be exposed to waivers if he is on the active roster…Marc Topkin examines the Rays interest in Manny. [St. Pete Times]
Evan Longoria discusses yesterday’s game (Video). [The Heater]
Former Rays manager Lou Piniella retired after 23 seasons as a manager. [Chicago Tribune]
In happier news, Vin Scully will return next year to the Dodgers broadcast booth. We have said this before, but other than being able to see the Rays anywhere we are, the best part of the baseball TV packages is that Vin Scully tells us a bedtime story every night. [Bright House Sports]
Occasional Rays relief pitcher Dale Thayer, who is currently in triple-A, made what could be argued as one of the best defensive plays of the season. Here is the video (forward to 1:20). [ESPN Video]
Here is a strange find: CJ Wilson of the Rangers filmed a video with two writers from LOST. During the video, the writers ask WIlson about his relationship with Dale Thayer and whether Wilson schooled Ian Kinsler on how to hit Thayer during a matchup last season. Kinsler hit a home run off of Thayer. Interestingly, Wilson dances around the question and never really answers it (fast forward to the 3:30 mark) (thanks Clayton). [YouTube]
Since the Rays were off yesterday, they will all wear #42 tonight in honor of Jackie Robinson…Also, interesting to read that part of Wade Davis’ struggle at Fenway last September was due to not having the confidence to shake-off Dioner Navarro. [St. Pete Times]
Tim Beckham was activated from the DL and made his debut last night (see below). [Rays Prospects]
Marc Topkin takes a closer look at the struggling bullpen and where some help could come from. [St. Pete Times]
Tommy Rancel of DRaysBay takes a closer look at how Joe Maddon uses his lefty relievers. [DRays Bay]
Roger Mooney writes about Carl Crawford’s defense and whether he deserves a Gold Glove. [Tampa Tribune]
The parking scam we mentioned last week? Two people have been arrested. [St. Pete Times]
Sean Daly offers up his list of songs that should be played at the Trop. [St. Pete Times]
DOWN ON THE FARM…
Check out “The Rundown” from Rays Prospects for boxscores and more detailed recaps. [Rays Prospects]
DURHAM: Jeff Bennett started and threw just 8 pitches (all balls) before being removed…Hank Blalock returned to the lineup and went 2-5 with 2 RBI and 3 strikeouts…Dan Johnson hit his 3rd home run.
MONTGOMERY: Aneury Rodriguez struck out 4 and walked 1 in 6 innings. He allowed 2 runs (1 earned)…Jose Lobaton went 2-4 with 2 RBI…Greg Sexton was 3-4 with 2 doubles and a walk…Matt Fields was 1-3 with 2 walks.
CHARLOTTE: Nick Barnese pitched 7 shutout innings, striking out 5 and walked 1. He gave up just 3 hits…Matt Sweeney hit his 3rd home run and his 3rd double…Tim Beckham went 1-4 with an RBI and 2 strikeouts.
BOWLING GREEN: Shane Dyer allowed 1 run in 5 innings…Eli Sonoqui hit his first home run.
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: Joaquin Benoit. The odds-on favorite for the final bullpen spot showed that his arm is healthy by working 2 innings. But unfortunately we still don’t know if he can work back-to-back games. And with a 2-inning stint yesterday, he won’t work today. There are only 3 spring games remaining after today…Reid Brignac. Brignac had 2 more hits and is now 19-52 (.365) this spring.
THE BAD: Rafael Soriano. Sure he gave up 4 runs in 1 inning. And sure he gave up a 2-run double and a 2-run HR to minor leaguers. None of that is good. But what in all likelihood really pissed off Joe Maddon was the failure to cover 3rd base on a bloop base hit in which Willy Aybar had to cover second base. That allowed both runners to move up a base and started the 4-run rally.
THE TELLING: Dioner Navarro started and caught 6 innings and should be ready for opening day…David Price threw 106 pitches and worked 6.2 scoreless innings in a minor league game giving up 1 hit and 1 walk, striking out 8…Dan Johnson accepted his outright assignment to Durham…Carl Crawford will make his 8th straight opening day start for the Rays. Only 12 other players have an active streak that long with their current team…James Shields will become the first Rays pitcher to make 3 opening day starts…The Rays will be introducing a new official hot dog in the next couple of days.
DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…
With a week before opening day there are “a couple of thousand” tickets remaining for Opening Day according to the Rays.
From Rays Renegade we learn that Train and Dierks Bentley have been added to the Saturday Night Concert Series this season. Dierks Bentley is a Country artist for you Gentiles. [Twitter]
Dale Thayer and Heath Rollins were reassigned to minor league camp leaving Joaquin Benoit and Mike Ekstrom for the final spot in the bullpen. Of course the Rays could also look outside the organization if they are worried Benoit is not ready for the regular season. [St. Pete Times]
Sport Illustrated picks the Rays to win the AL Wild Card and the AL pennant, but to lose in the World Series to the Phillies…So who gets the “SI Curse,” both teams, or just the Phillies? [Rays Report]
Dennis Maffezzoli spoke with Carl Crawford about his future and how he will approach this season, which in all liklihoodwill be his last with the Rays. [Sarasota Herald-Tribune]
Jeff Fletcher of Fanhouse went through the Rays clubhouse asking what various members of the Rays know about Evan Longoria. [Fanhouse]
Yesterday we mentioned that BJ Upton helped recruit the GOP to the Trop. Now Rays Rev has a picture of Raymond sucking up to the GOP by wearing a suit. [Rays Rev]
Jonah Keri was interviewed by Fack Youk about the 2010 Rays. [Fack Youk]
Marc Topkin looks at the challenge Jason Bartlett faces working with a platoon at second base. [St. Pete Times]
Seth McClung has been released by the Marlins. [MLB Trade Rumors]
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: Jason Bartlett. Bartlett will try to prove that his new-found ability to keep the ball in the air and drive the ball was not a fluke in 2009. Yesterday was a good sign with 2 home runs…Dale Thayer. If Joaquin Benoit isn’t ready for opening day, Thayer is one of three that could get the final spot. Yesterday he pitched 2 scoreless innings, striking out 3 and walking none.
THE BAD: Unbalanced Scheduling. The Rays will play the Red Sox or the Yankees NINE times this spring. The Red Sox and Yankees will face each other ZERO times. How does that happen?
THE TELLING: The final bench spot will likely come down to Reid Brignac or Hank Blalock…Sean Rodriguez made his first start of the spring at third base.
DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…
Wade Davis was named the 5th starter and Andy Sonnanstine was moved to the bullpen. Sonny called it a “tough one to swallow,” while Big Dub said he is “ready to rock.” [St. Pete Times]
11 players were cut yesterday including Justin Ruggiano. Dan Johnson, who is out of options, was also cut, so he is headed to the waiver-wire. Of the remaining cuts, several were relief pitchers that seemed to be in contention for the final bullpen spot. This means that Joaquin Benoit is almost certainly on the opening day roster. [Rays Report]
Elliot Johnson may always be remembered for “The Collision,” but for one fleeting moment on Tuesday, Johnson gave some fans in Clearwater something to cheer about. [The Fightins]
We answered some fantasy-related questions about the Rays for the guys at Razzball. [Razzball]
Roger Mooney has 5 questions for Wade Davis. [Tampa Tribune]
MLB has eliminated the off-day between games 4 and 5 of the LCS in an effort to shorten the off-season a tad. [SI.com]
In the strongest words to date on realignment, Bud Selig said he was in favor: “I do believe in some realignment because I do believe it can work, just as I believed in the Wild Card, Interleague Play, revenue sharing. It’s something that I want to keep thinking about. When I’m on long airplane rides and travels, which are a lot lately, I’ll fiddle around with divisions and things. But one thing about it, you can come up with a hundred different [scenarios]. So we’ll just see how it works out.” [MLB]
Spring hitting statistics are fun to track, but often mean little or nothing, even when a player is battling for a position. So then how can we get an idea of which players may have an edge for a starting job or a roster spot?
To get a better idea of who is winning the battle for a job, we can look at which players are playing the key positions during high-leverage innings. During the regular season that would be innings 7, 8 and 9. But during spring training, innings 1-5 are the key innings as that is when a player will face other big leaguers.
This spring, the Rays face only a couple of questions with respect to the opening day roster. So let’s take a look at who is seeing the most playing time at those positions during the high-leverage innings…
Ben Zobrist is expected to see playing time at both second base and right field. But during the spring, Zobrist has played 29 innings at second base and only 4 in right field. Either Joe Maddon thinks he needs more time at second base to get ready for the regular season, or Maddon is preparing to use Zobrist as the most-days second baseman.
Many think Sean Rodriguez is going to be the other half of the second base platoon based on his spring power surge. But as we can see, Reid Brignac has played almost twice as many innings at second base as Rodriguez.
If there really is a battle to be the second second baseman, we would expect to see a more even split of playing time between Reid Brignac and Sean Rodriguez. And we would also expect to see those two players receive much more time at the position than Ben Zobrist.
SUMMARY: These numbers suggest that Joe Maddon is leaning towards using Reid Brignac as Ben Zobrist’s platoon partner and Sean Rodriguez will be used as the “super-utility” player, seeing only occasional playing time at second base.
Matt Joyce’s recent injury has clouded this picture. Still, we can see that Joe Maddon is giving Joyce every opportunity to prove he is ready to be a big league right fielder.
At this point in Gabe Kapler’s career, we know what he is. There is no mystery and he is just getting ready for the regular season.
The surprising number here is the number of innings that Ben Zobrist has played in right field: 4 (1 start). Does Zobrist not need any playing time in right field to prepare for the regular season, or will his playing time there be minimal to start the regular season?
SUMMARY: This is all about Matt Joyce. He will continue to receive plenty of playing time once he can get back on the field.
Here, we just looked at relief pitchers that have seen playing time in the first 5 innings. We did not include Andy Sonnanstine even though in theory he is one of the leading candidates for the final bullpen spot.
Joaquin Benoit is likely the leading candidate for the final bullpen spot and the mound time during high-leverage innings supports that notion. Still, his spot on the opening day roster will depend on his ability to work back-to-back games.
SUMMARY: If Joaquin Benoit can go back-to-back games, the final spot will be his. If not, it could be Andy Sonnanstine. But we still wonder if Sonny is more likely headed back to Durham to be the Rays 6th starter. If both Benoit and Sonnanstine are off the roster, the final spot could be an open battle between the likes of Jeff Bennett, Dale Thayer and Joe Bateman (see comments).
Before we jump into the 25-man and 40-man roster projections next week, let’s take a look at the one area where we can expect the most change, the bullpen. But before we start thinking about who the Rays may add to the mix, let’s take a look at who might be back in 2010…
WHO’S IN?
JP Howell, Dan Wheeler, Grant Balfour and Andy Sonnanstine look to us like the only sure-things. We suppose the Rays could dangle Sonny and see if anybody still thinks he can be a big league starting pitcher, but we have a feeling that the Rays see Sonnanstine as worth more in their bullpen than on the trade market. And it wouldn’t surprise us if the Rays feel Sonny can grow into the relief role the same way Howell did.
WHO’S OUT?
We don’t see the Rays re-signing any of their free agents (Chad Bradford, Russ Springer, Troy Percival, Jason Isringhausen).
The Rays do not need both Brian Shouse and Randy Choate as lefty-specialists. Choate was nearly unhittable against lefties and will be a lot cheaper, so the Rays will decline Shouse’s 2010 option.
THE MAYBES
Randy Choate is a very effective lefty-specialist, but he is also arbitration-eligible. Might the Rays find somebody even cheaper for league-minimum?
Lance Cormier gave Joe Maddon good depth in the bullpen all season. He is arbitration-eligible. While he won’t make a ton of money next year, Andy Sonnanstine will be cheaper and figures to be able to do the same job.
Jeff Bennett brings something to the table that none of these other “Maybes” can do…a mid-90s fastball…something that is lacking in the bullpen outside of Grant Balfour. And keep in mind that his numbers were inflated by one outing at Texas in which he gave up 5 runs without recording an out. Our gut says Bennett is more “IN” than “OUT” but may have to win a job in the Spring.
Dale Thayer is a bit of an enigma. He is young in terms of experience, but he is not young. He seems suited to be the “Down 12-3″ mop-up reliever. But more likely he will start the season in Durham as the Rays 8th relief pitcher (waiting for somebody to go on DL).
If we assume that the Rays will indeed bring back all 4 of the “Ins”, that would leave 3 open spots. Bennett might have the inside-track on one of those openings. That would leave 2 spots to be filled via free agency or trade.
Montgomery 9, West Tenn 3. Brian Baker is now 5-1 after his 9th start, allowing just 1 run on a solo home run in 7 innings…Desmond Jennings went 2-2 with 3 walks and added his 8th home run. He is now hitting .318.
Charlotte 8, Jupiter 2. David Newmann improved to 5-4, giving up 2 runs in 6 innings…Shawn O’Malley went 3-5 and scored twice…Shawn Riggans made his second rehab start, playing DH and going 1-3 with a walk…Shawn Williams hit a 3-run home run, his first, and drove in 4.
Lakewood 4, Bowling Green 3. Chris Andujar allowed just 2 hits and 2 walks in 5 scoreless innings…Tim Beckham went 0-4 with 2 strikeouts.
Reid Brignac started at shortstop for the International League in the triple-A all-star game and went 1-3 with an RBI double. Dale Thayer had the longest stint of any IL pitcher going 1.2 innings, walking 1 and striking out 1. [MiLB]
Gerry Hunsicker will be in Montgomery to watch the Biscuits (Desmond Jennings?) in a few days. [Biscuit Crumbs]
Baseball America has the complete list of Rays minor league free agents. The list includes Winston Abreu (right), Dale Thayer, Carlos Hernandez, Brian Shouse and Joe Dillon.
The GBT – The Good, The Bad and The Telling sandwich, where The Bad is nice and lean and the The Telling is ripe.
The GBT – The Good, The Bad and The Telling sandwich, where The Bad is nice and lean and the The Telling is ripe.
