Dec 13
Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com is reporting that Kelly Shoppach has agreed to a 1-year deal with the Red Sox, thus ensuring that the fans sitting behind the third base dugout at the Trop will not be safe in 2012 after all.
Archive for the 'Kelly Shoppach' Category
Oct 31
Rays Pick Up 2012 Options On Two Key Players, Let Another Test Free Agent Water
James Shields, Kelly Shoppach, Kyle Farnsworth No Comments »
The Rays announced today that they have picked up the 2012 options on James Shields and Kyle Farnsworth. The team declined the option on Kelly Shoppach, making him a free agent.
None of these moves offer much surprise. There was some question on Farnsworth depending on how healthy his arm is. The Rays are obviously satisfied and if he is indeed healthy, he is still a bargain at $3.3 million in 2012.
Shields will make $7.5 million in 2012. His contract originally called for a 2012 salary of $7.0 million, but performance incentives raised his base salary to $7.5 million. And depending on where he finishes in the Cy Young voting, that salary could go up to $8.0 million.
The Shoppach, the Rays chose the $300 thousand buyout over a 2012 salary of $3.2 million. Shoppach is now a free agent, but there is a shot he could still return to the Rays in 2012 at a reduced salary.
Oct 01
[THE HANGOVER] The One Where We Discuss One Win Down, Ten To Go
Jeff Niemann, Joe Maddon, Kelly Shoppach, Matt Moore 4 Comments »
- Rays 9, Rangers 0 (Rays lead 1-0)
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: Return To Dominance. In the last 16 innings, the Rays have outscored the opposition 17-0. Over that span, Rays pitchers have allowed only 4 hits and 4 walks. And offensively, the Rays are getting hits when it matters, going 5-19 with runners in scoring position. That’s only.263, but it is a hell of a lot better than where they’ve been…Matt Moore. There will be a lot of screaming and yelling and diarrhea next spring when this guy starts the season in triple-A because “he needs more seasoning,” which is code for “arbitration clock.” In his first big league start he throws 5 shutout innings in Replica Yankee Stadium, striking out 11. His second big league start just happens to be game 1 of the ALDS and he tosses 7 shutout innings, giving up just 2 hits, 2 walks, and striking out 6. Yeah, this kid is pretty good…Kelly Shoppach. Piñata Power! Shoppach is having a pretty decent month of September, which also happens to coincide with when he became the most-days starter. Shoppach closed his eyes and swung real hard, hitting 2 home runs. He now has 6 since the month began…Joe Maddon. Let’s see. He puts a kid on the mound with one career start. Matt Moore responds with 7 shutout innings. He puts Matt Joyce in right field against a lefty. He responds with an RBI-single in his first at bat. And he had Sean Rodriguez in the leadoff spot for just the third time this season. he went 0-5, but it just shows that Maddon is not a big believer in “stick with what got us here.” The result was a 9-0 blowout. And this was the game the Rangers had to have. It was at home with their ace on the hill. The Rays were due for a supposed emotional letdown. And the Rays have the pitching advantage the next two games. This game was bonus.
THE BAD: Not today. Nope, not gonna do it.
THE TELLING: Desmond Jennings was dropped to 8th in the lineup due to his recent slump…The Rays playoff game on Monday will be shown on the jumbotron at Raymond James stadium prior to the Bucs game on Monday.
RANDOM THOUGHTS: If we could pick one song to sum up the 2011 Rays, it would be “Hakuna Matata.” It doesn’t matter what the situation, this team just doesn’t worry.
THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…
- St. Pete will hold a rally on Monday prior to game 3. [TampaBay.com]
- Joe Maddon confirmed that Jeff Niemann is not 100%. [TampaBay.com]
- Casey Kotchman’s note to his teammates: “We’re not supposed to be here, so we might just be dumb enough to win this whole thing.” [TampaBay.com]
- Joe Maddon offered his Read the rest of this entry »
Sep 30
Speaking calmly and cooly on ESPN Radio this morning, Rangers head man and former fireballer Nolan Ryan said he suspected it would take Rangers hitters two turns around the batting order tonight to get comfortable against Matt Moore.
Make that three turns, and they’re still waiting.
It made so much sense for the Rays to start the young phenom Moore that even the Rangers knew they were in for an early challenge.
But the X-factor was the Rays bats showing up in a big way.
Joe had to laugh. After the 9-0 blowout with two homers from Kelly Shoppach, a reporter asked Shoppach to comment on his rough season at the plate versus how he’s been hitting the last week or so. Shoppach wouldn’t bite and said he’s always confident and if they keep pitching where he’s swinging then he’ll be contributing.
But the reality is Shoppach muscled a low-and-away C. J. Wilson pitch over the wall just to the right of dead center field for the three-run bomb that put the game away in the third inning. That pitch is not one he would have done anything with all season long.
Shoppach routinely tries to pull that ball and whiffs, pulling his hips out and sometimes tossing the bat into the third base stands. But today the Rays got the Shoppach they signed originally, a guy with opposite field power who occasionally will go with a pitch to keep his average acceptable.
If that guy shows up for the rest of the series, and the Rays subsequently remove a black hole from their lineup, then their chances of landing in the ALCS improve dramatically.
Sep 29
[HAPPY HOUR] Soaking In The Last 24 Hours With Some Afternoon Links
Bill Simmons, Kelly Shoppach, Pink Sox Nation 14 Comments »
OK, you guys have probably heard enough from us today, so here are a few links to get you through the rest of the evening…
- This is a cool summary of Evan Longoria’s big moments this season. It also comes with one of our favorite Rays pics ever. The sheer joy. And the look on Kelly Shoppach’s face is just pure bliss. [ESPN]
- From Bill Simmons’ running diary: “And so it went for the 2011 Red Sox, the biggest chokers of any Boston team in my lifetime.” [Grantland]
- “These days, there’s no boatman in a dark cowl to take you over to the other side where the souls who wail for eternity are found. They’ve got an elevator now. Just push the “down” button. Don’t worry; you can’t go too low. Pick any rung. Mr. Dante has fine punishments arranged at every level. ” [Washington Post]
- Tom Verducci echoes what many are saying today: “They will go down as the most thrilling 129 minutes in baseball history.” [SI.com]
- Sarah Tyson has some of the reaction from the players. [Cowbell Clankers]
- “Crawful Ending” [Boston Dirt Dogs]
- Rick Mayer has some of the reactions from Red Sox Nation. [TBO.com]
Sep 28
[THE HANGOVER] The One Where We Discuss Being Tied After 161 Games
Casey Kotchman, James Shields, Jeremy Hellickson, Johnny Damon, Kelly Shoppach, Matt Joyce 33 Comments »
- Rays 5, Yankees 3 (click image for boxscore)
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: Sweet Swingin’. With what may have been the biggest home run for the Rays since 2008, Matt Joyce erased a 7th inning 3-2 deficit with a 3-run home run (HERE IS THE RADIO CALL). And just when you thought the Rays might going into the final day of the season trailing by a game, the Rays won. And now it is tied…Triple Your Pleasure. Before Matty Joyce went deep, defense kept the game close. With one run in already and the Yankees threatening to add more with no outs and the bases loaded. Jeremy Hellickson induced a pitcher’s BFF, the 5-4-3 around-the-horn triple play (HERE IS THE RADIO CALL).
THE BAD: O’s No Go. The Red Sox held off a late rally and beat the Orioles 8-7.
THE TELLING: Johnny Damon passed Lou Gehrig on the all-time hits list and received a standing ovation…Rays now have 90 wins for the third time in franchise history. Of course, the Rays have never won 90 games and missed the playoffs. Just sayin’…The Rays magic number is now 2. A win and Red Sox loss tomorrow, or a win tomorrow and Thursday and the Rays are in the playoffs…The Rays and Red Sox are the first teams to ever start 0-6 and win 90 games.
THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…
- All tests were negative on Casey Kotchman and he was released from the hospital last night. No word yet on whether he will be available for tonight’s game.
- Thursday’s one-game playoff would be at 4:07pm. [The Heater]
- James Shields was named the #Rays MVP by the local media. Jeremy Hellickson was named the top rookie. [The Heater]
- Kelly Shoppach has been inducted into the Baylor University Athletics Hall of Fame. [BaylorBears]
- Who is to blame for the Red Sox collapse? [Business Insider]
Matt Joyce (via TampaBay.com)
Sep 19
It is not often when Joe Maddon criticizes one of his players publicly. So when he spoke about the catching situation yesterday, it certainly raised our eyebrow an inch or six (via Marc Topkin)…
“We can not sacrifice behind the plate if we are not in fact picking it up at the plate…”
In other words, JoeMa can tolerate John Jaso’s defensive liabilities if he is hitting. But Jaso is hitting .223 (.291 wOBA) with only 5 home runs and a .299 OBP.
And defensively he may be even worse. He has thrown out only 10 of 60 would be base stealers (16.7%) and can’t block a pitch to save his life. The other night when Jaso caught a pop-up, my buddy said with a straight face, “at least he caught that one.” We wanted to laugh. But sadly, he was right.
This means we will probably see a lot of Kelly Shoppach in the last ten games. Maddon had said earlier this month that we would see a lot of Jose Lobaton behind the plate. But that was back when even Maddon didn’t think the Rays would be playing meaningful games right now.
Aug 19
[THE HANGOVER] The One Where We Discuss Foster’s Secret Plan, No More Honey Not Chirinos, And Shoppach’s Expedition
Alex Torres, John Jaso, Kelly Shoppach, New Stadium, Robinson Chirinos 6 Comments »
- Off-day (click image for random Wikipedia page)
The St. Pete Mayor claims to have a detailed plan for a new Rays stadium.
“St. Petersburg Mayor Bill Foster threw a curveball into the debate over the Tampa Bay Rays’ stadium Thursday, suggesting he had a “detailed plan” to keep the team in St. Petersburg.”
We were unable to confirm the rumor that the plan involves Texas tax dollars and a piece of land in San Antonio.
Oh, and our favorite part in the column is when Michael Sasso writes, “If there is such a plan…” Ouch.
Foster did add that he will no longer comment on stadium negotiations, saying only that it is the team’s responsibility to ask for something other than their current deal.
THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…
- Robinson Chirinos has been sent back to triple-A to make room for John Jaso. “The Deadliest Catchers” live!
- How much does market size influence payroll in Major League Baseball? You might be surprised. [Business Insider]
- Be sure to check in with the guys at JoeBucsFan for everything you need to know about last night’s preseason game. [Joe Bucs Fan]
- This must be code for something because we have no idea what a “Miranda Cosgrove” is: “Miranda Cosgrove has cancelled her postgame concert”
- Kelly Shoppach went fishing yesterday on his day off (above), and then this happened. Coincidence? [TampaBay.com]
- Jonah Keri wrote that the Rays “have to spend more money if they want to knock off the Yanks and Sox.” Ohhh, so that’s the “Extra 2%.” We had no idea. [The Ray Area]
- John Sickels takes a look at Read the rest of this entry »
Jul 06
If Shoppach Isn’t The Worst Hitter In Baseball, Brignac Is
Kelly Shoppach, Reid Brignac 16 Comments »It is no secret that the Rays occasionally have trouble scoring runs. And if you want to know why, you need look no further than some of the players that receive regular playing time.
You guys don’t need us to tell you that Kelly Shoppach and Reid Brignac can’t hit, anymore than you need us to tell you that BJ Upton occasionally has a brainfart on the basepaths. It is just common Rays baseball sense.
But just how bad have Shoppach and Brignac been? We are less than a week from the break and both guys are hitting below .200. Well below .200. But how does that compare to other sucky hitters. Let’s add it up…
So far this season, there are 327 players with at least 120 plate appearances. Shoppach’s .168 batting average is 326th, better than only Adam Dunn (.167). Brignac is not much better at .187, which ranks 316th.
But that is batting average. Not the best indiator of overall ability. So what about OPS? Shoppach’s .556 OPS ranks Read the rest of this entry »
Jun 22
Postgame Shot Of Joe: Merlot Joe’s Magic Wand
Elliot Johnson, Joe Maddon, John Jaso, Justin Ruggiano, Kelly Shoppach, Reid Brignac, Sam Fuld 3 Comments »
Sometimes Merlot Joe’s mixing and matching works perfect. Sometimes it blows up in his face. Today was a little of both but more so the juggling of lineups like shuffling a deck of cards worked for the Rays skipper.
John Jaso sits for Kelly Shoppach. Boom! Two-run homer.
The immortal Elliot Johnson plays short for Briggy. Boom! Three-run homer.
The Legend of Sam Fuld pinch-hits for Justin Ruggiano and the Legend of Sam Fuld gets a hit and scores a run.
That was the good. Then there was the bad that almost looked like it might sink the Rays.
Fleet-footed Prince Fielder embarrassed the Rays and Merlot Joe after a Williams shift was staged with one out. Instead of pulling the ball, Fielder tapped it down the third base line for a single and the Brewers later loaded the bases on Goggles before scoring a run.
What’s the point of a shift with a four-run lead with only two outs to go to win the game? Even without the shift, Fielder is not much of a candidate to beat out an infield single. Strange call and it appeared was the opening to an awful comeback.
Overall, the mixing and matching worked. Today. This time.
This was a nice series win by the Rays. Beating a division-leading squad two out of three on the enemies’ home turf is a damn good thing.
