Reid Brignac, who hasn’t played since Thursday, has a partial tear of the plantar fascia in his foot. And with the regular season just two weeks away, it is not clear if Briggy will be ready for opening day (via TampaBay.com)…
“That’s just a nasty little injury,” managerJoe Maddon said. “I don’t know exactly how long it’s going to take”…The condition is painful and to properly heal requires the plantar fascia sheath to tear on its own, Maddon said, which makes it difficult to predict a timeline.
Since the beginning of camp, Joe Maddon has insisted that the shortstop position is up for grabs, even though it seemed pretty clear that Brignac and Sean Rodriguez were headed towards a platoon. Well, injuries have a funny way of settling these issues, and now a foot injury may leave Brignac sidelined on opening day.
It is time to update our look at who is playing where and when during spring training. In short, we can gain some insight into what Joe Maddon and Andrew Friedman have in mind for the regular season by looking at how they are using the players during the spring.
The first column (“1-5″) represents the number of innings each player has played at that position in the first five innings of spring games. Playing in the first five innings typically means the team wants to see how a player does against big leaguers. And the second column (“6+”) represents playing time in the sixth inning or later. The exception is for DHs. For these players, the first column represents the number of at bats as the starting DH. The second column is the number of at bats as a substitute DH.
Players in bold are on the 40-man roster. Players in grey have been cut or were never officially in big league camp…
A few notes on the table…
CATCHER: It seems pretty clear at this point that Jose Lobaton will be the second catcher. Chris Gimenez can play more positions, but he is not as good defensively and has not distinguished himself with the bat.
SHORTSTOP: Yes, Joe Maddon wants the players to think they are competing for a starting position. But in reality, Reid Brignac and Sean Rodriguez will be sharing the position with a platoon.
FOURTH OUTFIELDER: Any thought of Brandon Guyer sneaking into the picture went out the window when he was cut this week. This spot belongs to Sam Fuld.
BULLPEN: The names to watch here are Josh Lueke and Burke Badenhop. Both are getting long looks. And if they can impress, one could sneak onto the opening day roster. Of course, this all gets muddled if Wade Davis is moved to the bullpen.
At the opening of the 2011 Winter Meetings, Joe Maddon met with the media and answered a number of questions. You can read the full transcript HERE. But if you want the Cliffs Notes version, you will find it below…
On who will play shortstop…
It’s an open competition is what it is [between Sean Rodriguez and Reid Brignac]. I thought Sean did really well at the end of last year. Sean probably exceeded our expectations what he’s going to be able to do defensively. Even as offense I think there’s a lot of room for improvement there, too. But Sean is a wonderful baseball player and that’s why we love to have him on the field. Reid one of the better young defenders, I think, at shortstop in the game. Obviously did not have the offensive year that we were looking for, so he needs to really pick up there. Again, talking to both of them, they’re both aware that they’ll be battling it out for that job in Spring Training.
On the bullpen…
You’ve got Kyle [Farnsworth] and Joel [Peralta] and then [Jake McGee and Brandon Gomes], I don’t know exactly where J.P. Read the rest of this entry »
We have been arguing this for a while. But it is a bit surprising to hear of the Rays players plainly state that the Rays would be better with Manny Ramirez.
“We’d be better with Manny,” Rays infielder Sean Rodriguez said. “You’re talking about an experienced guy who can still hit. Everyone was giving him tough times because he was struggling at the beginning, but everyone goes through funks, and his just came at the beginning of the year. It’s hard to say his resume wouldn’t have helped us. Just look at what Johnny’s done for us.”
Now consider that the Rays are just three games back in the Wild Card. Is Rodriguez saying the Rays would be leading the Wild Card if Manny had accepted his suspension and not retired?
And the last line is curious, because Rodriguez lauds Johnny Damon, but doesn’t consider that Damon’s playing time would have taken the biggest hit if Manny came back on July 31. Something that wouldn’t have been a bad thing.
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: A Start Wasted. Outside of the home run to the first batter of the game, Jeremy Hellickson was masterful. After allowing 3 baserunners in the 1st inning, Hellboy retired 15 of the next 16, including a franchise first 4 strikeouts in the 3rd inning. That happened after Kelly Shoppach couldn’t handle a strike 3, allowing the batter to reach first base. But this start, even a loss, was classic Hellickson. If you can throw strikes and change speeds, you can be successful as a pitcher. And that is exactly what Hellboy does. 102 pitches. 87 were either fastballs or changeups. And 59 of those were strikes. Simple, but effective.
THE BAD: Still No Beef. Doug Fister retired the first 13 batters he faced. And once again, when the Rays did get runners into scoring position, they couldn’t figure out how to get them home going 0-5 with 3 strikeouts and a double-play to end the game…Unlucky. We really want to be mad at somebody for the game-ending double-play, but it was just bad luck. You really want that second runner in scoring position, especially a slow runner like Matt Joyce who is no guarantee to score from first on a double. And he got such a good jump that Sam Fuld’s line drive was behind him, and Joyce didn’t know it was a flyball until he rounded second and picked up Tom Foley. Even Fuld gets credit for hitting the ball hard. Good call. Solid Execution. Dumb luck…Losing Series. Teams don’t lose 3 of 4 to the Tigers in late August if they want to be taken seriously. Right now, the Rays can’t even make the argument that they are just a victim of their own division. Even if there was a second Wild Card in the AL, the Rays would be on the outside looking in.
THE TELLING: Andy Freed missed his second straight game in the radio booth…The Rays went 1-6 against the Tigers this season.
THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…
If you missed the update, Brad Penny claims he screamed and cussed at Sean Rodriguez because Rodriguez was screaming and cussing. [RaysIndex]
Tom Jones blames Dewayne Staats and Brian Anderson for speculating that Brad Penny was yelling at Sean Rodriguez for not hustling. That seems odd. It wasn’t until Joe Maddon commented (especially the one where he said Rodriguez would be justified in charging the mound) that anybody was even talking about this issue. Obviously Rodriguez and Maddon thought Penny was mad about Rodriguez hustling. So to blame Staats and Anderson seems unfair. [TampaBay.com]
Scene: The Rays are trailing the Tigers 2-1 with no outs in the bottom of the seventh inning on Tuesday night. Sean Rodriguez is up facing Brad Penny. Rodriguez hits a routine flyball to left fielder Delmon Young during which Rodriguez made it nearly to second base by the time the ball was caught.
Then this happened…
It was a little unclear at the time what Penny was bitching about. However, looking at the replay, it appears that Penny says something along the lines of “What the f*** are you doing? Get off the f***ing bases.”
Needless to say, this not only angered Rodriguez, but seemed to confuse him as well.
Last night, Joe Maddon was asked about the incident. And the manager that has never said a bad word about any player, friend or foe, let it be known that he wasn’t happy…
“For anybody to bark at another player for … hustling is absolutely insane, ludicrous,” Maddon said. “And if Sean had just charged the mound, I’d have been fine with that at that particular moment…I think that’s ridiculous, and then he shows them (Wednesday) what that means to play hard. So any time a guy gets on another guy because he’s going to show him up by playing too hard, I have a hard time with that myself, personally.”
Maybe if Penny was trailing 7-2, and he was frustrated, this entire situation might at least be explainable. But unless there is something we are missing here, this is one of the most asinine perceived slights in baseball history.
[UPDATE] Penny offers his side of the story and says he only yelled at Rodriguez because the Rays shortstop was “screaming and cussing” as he rounded the bases. Of course the irony here is that Penny clearly drops at least to F-bombs on Rodriguez.
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: Sean Rodriguez. Guy can’t hit a slider to save his life. But tip your cap to Rodriguez for not taking the play at second for granted. He got a great lead, a great jump, and just beat the second baseman to the bag to allow Ben Zobrist score the game-winning run…Top O’ The Order. Desmond Jennings, Johnny Damon and Evan Longoria combined for 7 of the Rays 8 hits…Big Dub. For just the second time in his career, and the first time since his third career start back in 2009, Wade Davis pitched past the 8th inning. Unfortunately, thanks to some free baseball, Davis got neither a win nor a complete game despite tossing 9 innings…Longo Power. Evan Longoria isn’t doing much else with the bat these days, but he is hitting home runs. Since the all-star break, Longoria has 34 hits, and 11 of those are home runs after he hit number 22 last night.
THE BAD: This Is Why. The biggest hurdle the Rays have had for the last couple of weeks is that they needed either the Red Sox or Yankees to go into a prolonged slump. It looked like it might be the Red Sox for a few days, but all of a sudden they have won 2 in a row. And now it is the Yankees the Rays are trailing by 7.5 and 8 in the loss column. If the Rays went 24-10 in last 34, they would need the Yankees to go 17-18 just to tie.
THE TELLING: Orestes Destrade subbed for Andy Freed (who was under the weather) in the radio booth…BJ Upton was not in the lineup last night, but did pinch-hit and strike out. He is hoping for a Friday return…
THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…
Joe Maddon says Jeremy Hellickson may be able to stay in the rotation through the end of the season. [TampaBay.com]
No surprise here: A Sports Illustrated poll named Joe Maddon as the manager players would most want to play for. Of course, we are assuming “manager of team offering biggest contract” was not one of the options. [The Heater]
These baseball stadium models are incredible. [Business Insider]
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.
Reid Brignac, who hasn’t played since Thursday, has a partial tear of the plantar fascia in his foot. And with the regular season just two weeks away, it is not clear if Briggy will be ready for opening day (via TampaBay.com)…
