May 17
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: Joel Peralta. Don’t get excited. We’ll get to BJ and SuperSam in a moment. But the MVP last night was Peralta. The most important outs are often the ones that come immediately after taking the lead in the game. And after the Rays overcame a 5-1 hole, Joe Maddon turned to Peralta for the 7th and 8th innings. Six batters, six outs. And in the 8th inning he retired Mark Teixeira, Robinson Cano and Alex Rodriguez…BJ Upton. Sam Fuld got the scoring in the 6th inning started with a 2-run home run that travelled just a little farther than his only other home run this season. But it was BJ Upton that capped the comeback with his 6th home run of the year…Comebacks. Overcoming a deficit is sweet. Overcoming a deficit at home against the Yankees is even better. After Curtis Granderson homered off of David Price in the 5th inning, the Win Expectancy for the Rays was 9.4%. In other words, there was less than a 10% chance of winning the game at that point.
THE BAD: Schedule From Hell. St. Pete for a night game tonight. Two games in Toronto starting tomorrow. Three games in Miami starting Friday. And then three games in Detroit starting Monday before their next off-day. That is over 4,000 miles of travelling in a 6-day stretch…David Price. He seemed a little less angry at Joe Maddon last night when he was pulled from the game with 98 pitches in just 5 innings.
THE TELLING: Joe Maddon called-off batting practice prior to the game to give the hitters a break…Every hitter in the lineup had a hit except Reid Brignac (of course)…The home run by Curtis Granderson was the first by lefty off of David Price in 320 at bats since June, 2009…Thanks to a rainout in Durham, JP Howell will not rejoin the Rays until Friday…Look for Andy Sonnanstine to start again on Friday…Bobby Valentine mentioned on “Baseball Tonight” that “nobody in the [Yankees] clubhouse likes [Rafael Soriano].”
THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…
- David Price loves his fastball. [ESPN]
- Prior to last night, the Rays had not scored more than 5 runs in any of their 22 home games. That was the longest such streak to start a season since 1908. [STATS]
- Hey look. Somebody has the Rays atop Read the rest of this entry »
Apr 13
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: 5th Inning. In the first 4 innings, the Red Sox broke out to an early 1-0 lead and Jon Lester looked unbeatable. He had allowed just 2 singles and a walk. But then with 1 out in the 5th, the Rays strung together 3 straight singles to load the bases. Then the legend, Sam Fuld hit a dribbler to first base that scored Kelly Shoppach and Johnny Damon followed with a 2-run single. That was all the scoring David Price would need…David Price. King David worked into the 8th inning and was touching 97 as late as the 6th inning. He only struck out 3, but he held the Sox to 5 hits and 2 walks. And if he would have had just a slightly wider strikezone, he would have been nearly unhittable…Ben Zobrist’s D. He is not the prettiest defender, but he has sneaky speed and seems to catch everything that he gets to. Last night he ran a mile to cut off a ball in the gap and hold Pedroia to a double and in the 5th he made a nice sliding grab.
THE BAD: No Respect. We don’t necessarily think Price was getting squeezed last night. But Price is one of the best pitchers in baseball, and yet he doesn’t ever seem to get the benefit of the doubt other great pitchers get. There were a bunch of pitches that could have easily gone in Price’s favor and he seemed to be a little rattled a couple of times. One example was the 2-2 pitch to Jed Lowrie. Nobody would have complained if it was called a strike. It wasn’t. Price then missed his spot on the next pitch and Lowrie doubled home a run.
THE TELLING: Joe Maddon was fined $500 for ejecting the umpires on Sunday.
THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…
- Playboy sent us a press release yesterday in which they outline their baseball predictions that will be in the April 15 issue. In the issue, Tracy Ringolsby predicts the Rays will be the AL Wild Card team, Joe Maddon will win AL Manager of the Year and David Price will be named AL Cy Young winner. Only one problem. Their AL MVP? “Carl Crawford, Tampa Bay Rays.”
- Johnny Damon on Manny Ramirez: “Manny’s in a better place now.” We also got a kick out of this line from ‘Duk: “a mega-trip to Spain beats spending a summer digging through Tropicana Field’s sofas for $2 million…” [Big League Stew]
- Aneury Rodriguez, the Read the rest of this entry »
Dec 09
The Rays used the Rule 5 Draft to select left-handed reliever Cesar Cabral from the Red Sox. Cabral has never been above single-A, but posted some impressive numbers with Salem in 2010.
In 79.1 innings (48 appearances), he struck out 80 and walked just 21 walks. He did give up 31 runs in 48 innings at Salem after allowing just 1 earned run in 31.1 innings at Greenville.
Cabral must remain on the Rays major league roster all season. If not, he will have to be offered back to the Red Sox.
The Rays also lost Aneury Rodriguez to the Astros in the Rule 5 Draft. Rodriguez was a triple-A pitcher the Rays received in the Jason Hammel trade.
Dec 07
Yesterday we argued that Carl Crawford’s price went up with Jayson Werth’s new contract. Jayson Stark takes the contrarian view. He argues that if Crawford’s price has gone up, then his options have gone down. In fact, Stark argues that Crawford’s options may now be limited to just the Yankees.
We’re not sure. First of all, Stark bases his argument on Crawford demanding eight years and $180 million. We don’t see it going that high. Also, Stark seems a little too quick to dismiss teams like the Red Sox, Rangers and Tigers. All these teams have spent big money in the past. And just because they don’t usually spend this much, doesn’t mean they won’t be willing to go that far this time.
If Crawford does want $180 million, then he better hope the Yankees are really interested. But if the price is just $144 million, then there is no reason to think the others teams are no longer interested.
THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…
- Marc Topkin reports that the Rays have signed Dan Johnson to a one-year deal for “about $1 million,” avoiding arbitration. [Twitter]
- Marc Topkin also reports that Andrew Friedman is optimistic the Rays will sign JP Howell this week. [Twitter]
- Dejan Kovacevic of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette speculates Read the rest of this entry »
Dec 01
With the Rule 5 draft just around the corner, Baseball America says Rays prospect Aneriy Rodriguez is “the most likely player to be picked.”
Rodriguez is a starting pitcher that the Rays received from the Rockies for Jason Hammel prior to the 2009 season. Last year he went 6-5 with a 3.80 ERA and 94 strikeouts in 113 innings.
If Rodriguez is selected, he would have to make his new team’s big league roster in 2011 or be offered back to the Rays.
All players with Read the rest of this entry »
Apr 27
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: Offense? The Rays are only 7th in the AL in hitting (.259), 5th in OBP (.342) and 6th in slugging (.431), but they lead the AL in runs scored (113). Why the disparity? The Rays are hitting when it matters most. in 216 plate appearances with runners in scoring position, the Rays are hitting .318 (1st in the AL), have a .413 OBP (1st in the AL) and have a league-best OPS of .964, which is 150 points higher than the next best team (Boston)…Starting Pitching. The Rays starting pitchers have the second best ERA in the AL (2.81) and they lead the AL with 6.4 innings per start.
THE BAD: Relief Pitching. One reason the Rays starters work so deep into games is to hide a weak bullpen. So far this season, the Rays relievers are 9th in the AL with a 4.13 ERA even though they have the 3rd best batting average against (.227)…Basestealing. The mathematical cutoff for success stealing is 75%. Less than that and the team might be losing runs (although it can be argued that the affect of stolen bases goes beyond the success rate). The Rays are tied with the White Sox for the AL lead with 21 stolen bases, but they have also been thrown a league leading 10 times leading to the 4th worst success rate in the AL (68%).
THE TELLING: The Rays now begin a stretch of 7 straight series (20 games) against non-AL East opponents.
DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…
- Andrew Friedman made an appearance on “The Dan Patrick Show.” The only telling statement is when Friedman refers to a sold out Trop as “like a 10th man,” which may or may not have been a Freudian slap to the face of Pat Burrell. Here is the link to the audio if you are so inclined. [Audio]
- Steve Slowinski attempts to quantify the difference between John Jaso and Dioner Navarro and whether the Rays should stick with Jaso once Kelly Shoppach returns. [DRays Bay]
- Aneury Rodriguez was named the IL pitcher of the week, one week after Jeremy Hellickson won the same award. [Rays Prospects]
- Joe Henderson takes a matter-of-fact look at the Rays attendance woes. [Tampa Tribune]
- John Romano writes about the path Leslie Anderson took from Cuba to the Rays and how he is adjusting with his new club. [St. Pete Times]
- Rays Prospects informs us that Wade Townsend has signed with an independent team. [Twitter]
- An Astros short-season team will be giving away Ben Zobrist bobbleheads. There will only be 1,200 of them so you can expect them to not be cheap on eBay. [Rays Rev]
- Virgil Vasquez actually has two broken wrists, suffered in a car accident. [St. Pete Times]
- Angela Jacobs has some quotes from John Jaso on his early success with the Rays. [10Connects.com]
- Rays now sit atop ESPN.com’s power rankings. [ESPN]
DOWN ON THE FARM…
- Check out “The Rundown” from Rays Prospects for boxscores and more detailed recaps. [Rays Prospects]
- DURHAM: Heath Rollins made his first start in place of the injured Virgil Vasquez. He allowed 4 runs in 4 innings…Fernando Perez was 1-5 with 3 strikeouts…Dan Johnson hit his league leading 8th home run…Hank Blalock started at third base and collected 2 more hits. He is now hitting .396 with a .455 OBP. Of his 19 hits, only 2 are for extra-bases.
- MONTGOMERY: Darin Downs pitched 5.2 shutout innings but was pulled after being hit in the leg by a comebacker…Nevin Ashley was 0-4.
- CHARLOTTE: Nick Barnese gave up 3 runs in 6 innings on 3 hits and a walk. He struck out 5…Isaias Velasquez went 4-5 with 3 stolen bases. He is now second in the FSL with 8 steals…Tim Beckham went 0-3 with 2 walks. He is just 4-39 (.103) to start the year…Matt Sweeney was 2-4.
- BOWLING GREEN: (no game scheduled)
Apr 26
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: David Price. Anybody still think King David should be in the bullpen? His first career complete game and his first career shutout. And he got better as the game moved along. In the final 4 innings, Price threw only 35 pitches. He struck out 9 and walked just 1…BJ Upton. Even though it was a pitch in on his hands, Upton pushed a double down the rightfield line to help start the rally in the 5th. Eventually Bossman’s efforts to go opposite-field will lead to even more pitchers trying to pitch him inside. And when that happens, the home runs will really start flying as Upton unleashes one of the fastest bats in baseball…Patience. The 8 hits were good, but the 8 walks were even better. Just one reason the Rays have scored 12 more runs than any other team in the AL…Evan Longoria, had 2 hits in each game of the series, going 2-4 yesterday. He is hitting .324 early on. But his biggest contribution came in the 8th inning with the Rays nursing a 2-0 lead. With a runner on first, Dirtbag dove to his left turning John McDonald’s sure hit into a double-play.
THE BAD: Slow Start. The Rays were thrown out trying to steal 4 times in the first 4 innings including Carl Crawford twice. Jose Molina was the first catcher to throw out 4 in one game since 2002 and it was just the 3rd time Crawford has been thrown out twice in one game. There were only 4 other attempted steals against Molina prior to yesterday’s game and he had thrown out 3.
THE TELLING: Dioner Navarro was scratched from the lineup with a sore leg…The Rays drew 23,250 for yesterday’s game and just a hair over 23,000 per game for the weekend series…We did a very quick survey of the 2008 season and it appears that the Rays 14-5 mark equals the Rays best 19 game stretch that season…The Rays scored 4 runs in the 8th inning. That is the 15th time in the last 12 games they have scored at least 3 runs in one inning after doing that just 2 times in the first 7 games.
WHERE THEY STAND: The Rays are 14-5 and have the best record in baseball, 1.5 games ahead of the Yankees and 4 games ahead of the Blue Jays in the Wild Card race. After 19 games in 2008, the Rays were 8-11.
DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…
- In case you missed it yesterday, we welcomed a new weekend contributor to Rays Index. [Rays Index]
- Today’s Durham Bulls game will be aired on the MLB Network live at 11:00 AM (thanks Chris).
- Virgil Vasquez, the pitcher obtained from the Pirates just before the start of the season broke his wrist in a car accident. [Biscuit Crumbs]
- Joe Dillon’s home run yesterday hit the Bull at DBAP and won himself and an entire section of fans a free steak. [Twitter]
- Andy Hutchins says the Rays may be the best team in baseball right now. [The Sporting Blog]
DOWN ON THE FARM…
- Check out “The Rundown” from Rays Prospects for boxscores and more detailed recaps. [Rays Prospects]
- DURHAM: At 14-4, the Bulls actually have a better record than the Rays…Aneury Rodriguez gave up a leadoff double, but then settled down to retire 17 of the next 18 batters and did not allow another hit in 7 innings of work. He struck out 4 and walked 2. In 2 triple-A starts, Rodriguez has yet to allow a run and has given up just 5 hits in 14 innings with 10 Ks and 3 walks…Justin Ruggiano (4), Joe Dillon (2), Alvin Colina (2) and Chris Richard (2) homered for the Bulls…Fernando Perez was 2-5…Hank Blalock did not play.
- MONTGOMERY: Alex Torres pitched 6 shutout innings with 7 strikeouts in the first game of the double-header…Matt Fields went 0-7 with 3 strikeouts in the two games.
- CHARLOTTE: Matt Moore struck out 8 and walked 4 in 5 innings. He allowed 1 run…Matt Sweeney was 0-4 with 2 strikeouts.
- BOWLING GREEN: Jason McEachern pitched 6 shutout innings in game 1 and Shane Dyer pitched a 7-inning shutout in the nightcap.
Apr 21
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: THE MAD AUSTRALIAN. Grant Balfour looked better striking out 3 in 2 perfect innings. His fastball is still only 92-93, so we are not going to get too excited. But it was nice to see some success.
THE BAD: WHITE SOX LEFTIES. Don’t know what it is about playing the White Sox in Chicago that makes the hitters go comatose, but this is getting old. One day before facing Mark Buehrle, players not named Carl Crawford went 0-25 with 10 strikeouts, getting just 2 hits of John Danks in 8 innings…DAVID PRICE. It was 2009 all over again with poor pitch efficiency. Price was pulled in the 6th inning after 97 pitches.
THE TELLING: Today is the first time the Rays will face Mark Buehrle since he threw a perfect game last season…Dioner Navarro is hitless in his last 15 at bats and John Jaso will continue to get a couple of starts a week.
WHERE THEY STAND: The Rays are 10-4, one-half game behind the Yankees and 1.5 games in front of the Blue Jays in the Wild Card. After 14 games in 2008, the Rays were 6-8.
DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…
- If you missed it last night…MLB changed their stance on Joe Maddon’s hoodie and the players showed their support for their manager. [Rays Index]
- The Rays are #2 in ESPN.com’s Power Rankings. [ESPN]
- Former Rays minor leaguer Darnell McDonald had a big night for the Red Sox. [Boston Globe]
- The Biz of Baseball has more details on the opening day payrolls. The Rays had the largest payroll growth in the last 7 years. Also, if you add the Red Sox payroll (second largest) to the Pirates payroll, it would still be less than the Yankees. [The Biz of Baseball]
- Bill Chastain writes about John Jaso’s defensive adjustment during spring training. [MLB]
DOWN ON THE FARM…
- Check out “The Rundown” from Rays Prospects for boxscores and more detailed recaps. [Rays Prospects]
- DURHAM: Aneury Rodriguez had a sizzling triple-A debut, throwing 7 shutout innings with 6 Ks and 1 walk. He allowed 4 hits…Fernando Perez went 2-5 with a double, a walk and his 7th stolen base…Dan Johnson hit his 6th home run and drove in 4…Hank Blalock and Desmond Jennings had the night off.
- MONTGOMERY: Chris DeLaCruz went 4-5…Matt Fields was 0-5 with 3 strikeouts.
- CHARLOTTE: Tim Beckham’s home run in the top of the 10th was the game-winner…Matt Moore allowed 4 runs and walked 5 batters in just 3.1 innings…Matt Sweeney was 2-4 with a walk.
- BOWLING GREEN: Shane Dyer struck out 8 and did not walk a batter in 6 innings. He gave up 3 runs (2 earned)…Dustin Biell drove in the only run with his first home run.
Apr 20
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: BJ UPTON. Dude is red hot and it sure looks like our Bossman is back. This time it was an opposite-field 3-run home run, his 4th home run of the road trip. BJ hasn’t looked this comfortable at the plate since the 2008 playoffs…PLAYING FOR 1 RUN. We are not big fans of the sacrifice bunt and Joe Maddon usually isn’t either. But yesterday he played for 1 run in the first innings when Carl Crawford bunted Jason Bartlett to third. Bartlett then scored on Ben Zobrist’s groundout for the early lead…NIEMANN’S ESCAPE. The Sox had runners in scoring position with less than 2 outs in the first and second innings. In the third he walked the leadoff hitter. In the 4th the Sox had second and third. And in each case he escaped without allowing a run. Then he settled down and retired 9 in a row until a 2-out single in the 7th…THE BAT. A 6-game hitting streak for Pat Burrell. 3 more hits yesterday. It was only his second 3-hit game with the Rays. Don’t look now, but Burrell is hitting .270…JASON BARTLETT. Bartlett was in an 0-14 funk before getting 3 hits yesterday.
THE BAD: TRUFFLE SHUFFLE. OK, he had 3 hits and we love his newfound enthusiasm and hustle. But what the hell was Pat Burrell thinking when he tried to stretch his wall-ball into a double in the 6th? He was out by 15 feet…STRIKEZONE. When Ben Zobrist is dropping F-bombs, the home plate umpire is not doing a good job.
THE TELLING: We know spring training means little, but the Rays are now 9-0-1 against the Red Sox this season including the spring…This was the 4th time the Rays have swept a 4-game series on the road and first since 2008 (Baltimore)…Matt Garza is the first AL pitcher in 20 seasons (Roger Clemens 1991) to go at least 8 innings in each of his first three starts and allow no more than 1 run in each start. Clemens won the Cy Young award that season.
WHERE THEY STAND: The Rays are 10-3, one-half game ahead of the Yankees and 5.5 in front of the Red Sox. After 13 games in 2008, the Rays were 6-7.
DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…
- Kelly Shoppach did have surgery on his knee and will be out 4-6 weeks. [St. Pete Times]
- Aneury Rodriguez, the player acquired for Jason Hammel, has been promoted to triple-A. [Biscuit Crumbs]
- Joe Henderson says it is early but the Rays start is very promising. [Tampa Tribune]
- Jeremy Hellickson was named the IL pitcher of the week. [Biscuit Crumbs]
- The Rays now sit atop one power rankings list. [USA Today]
- TAUNTR has an image in honor of the Rays sweep of the Sox. [TAUNTR]
DOWN ON THE FARM…
- Check out “The Rundown” from Rays Prospects for boxscores and more detailed recaps. [Rays Prospects]
- DURHAM: Heath Phillips struck out 4 and walked 2 in 5.1 innings, allowing 1 run…Joaquin Benoit gave up his 2nd home run in 1 inning of work. He struck out 1 batter and walked another…Desmond Jennings went 2-6 with 2 RBI and his first stolen base…Dan Johnson hit his 5th home run in 12 games…Hank Blalock went 2-4 with a walk…Fernando Perez went 0-4, but had a walk and his 6th stolen base…Jose Lobaton was 3-4 in his second game with Durham.
- MONTGOMERY: Alex Torres gave up 6 runs (5 earned) in 4 innings. He struck out 6 and walked 1…Ryan Royster hit his 1st home run and Matt Fields drove in 2.
- CHARLOTTE: Chris Andujar gave up 2 runs in 6 innings, striking out 4 and not walking a batter…Tim Beckham was 0-3 with a walk and Matt Sweeney went 0-4 with 2 strikeouts.
- BOWLING GREEN: The Hot Rods managed only 3 hits. Dustin Biell had 1 and the only 2 RBI.
Dec 02
If you missed it last night because your significant other was making you watch “The Biggest Loser,” the Rays did offer arbitration to Gregg Zaun and Brian Shouse, but not Russ Springer. Zaun and Shouse have until December 7 to accept or decline those offers.
The next important dates for the Rays are December 10 and 12.
December 10 is the Rule 5 draft. Aneury Rodriguez is a candidate to be selected off the Rays roster by another team.
December 12 is the deadline to tender contracts to all players with less than six years of service time, including those that are arbitration eligible. Two of these players, Gabe Gross and Dioner Navarro are candidates to be non-tendered.
So don’t be surprised if the next Rays to be traded are Gross and Navi. The Rays won’t receive much in return (a mid-level prospect?), but it is better than just letting them walk as free agents.
Either way, we have probably seen the last of the Gabe-of-the-Day and The Fat Catcher eras.
DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…
- From Marc Topkin: “Executive VP Andrew Friedman said there’s no thought right now about trading All-Star LF Carl Crawford and the that the mutual goal remains a long-term deal.”…well, that was carefully worded. The right offer comes along and the Rays will start thinking about it real quick. [The Heater]
- In the same piece, Marc Topkin reports that Fernando Perez is “a little behind” in his rehab from shoulder surgery but should be ready for opening day. [The Heater]
- Around the Majors takes an in-depth look at what the Kelly Shoppach trade means for the Rays, Gregg Zaun and Dioner Navarro. [Around the Majors]
- The Hardball Times has a list of several teams that could be interested in Dioner Navarro. [The Hardball Times]
- Would the Mets be interested in Dioner Navarro? [Mets Today]
- We’re not sure we would call Kelly Shoppach a “huge upgrade,” but ok. [Center of the Sports Universe]
- Fangraphs tries to figure out if Jason Bartlett’s 2009 season was a fluke. [Fangraphs]
http://mvn.com/aroundthemajors/2009/12/kelly-shoppach-nice-pick-up-for-tampa-bay-rays.html
The GBT – The Good, The Bad and The Telling sandwich, where The Bad is nice and lean and the The Telling is ripe.
