According to Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times, Dan Johnson has signed a minor league deal with the Chicago White Sox.
Johnson, who only has 37 career hits with the Rays, is of course best known for hitting some of the biggest home runs in Tampa Bay Rays history. So if the Rays need a miracle in October this year, they may have to give up some cash to the White Sox to bring back The Great Pumpkin.
Guess who has been charged with his beating his girlfriend and assaulting a police officer? Willy Aybar (of course).
This is at least the third time Aybar has been charged in a domestic abuse situation, one of which left his wife in intensive care.
According to the GM of Aybar’s Dominican team, Aybar has been working with Psychologists and that the team had done “everything that could be done,” but that Aybar left the program a few days before this incident, “and look what happened.”
THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…
Dan Johnson’s career stats with the Rays are the stuff of a classic four-A player*. In 81 career games with the Rays, Johnson is hitting .168 with 11 home runs.
But sometimes, you just have to look beyond the numbers. And The Great Pumpkin’s resume may be as impressive as anybody that has every worn a Rays uniform.
In all the commotion during last night’s game-tying, season-saving (again) home run by Dan Johnson, we didn’t get a good look at who caught the ball. Well it turns out nobody caught it. In fact, you could say the ball caught a fan. In a very sensitive area. We’ll forgive this guy if he was the one Rays fan not celebrating…
Our correspondent Jordi Scrubbings was at the game last night. Here is his report. You can also here Jordi tonight on “The Sully Baseball Show” which can be heard HERE…
When I was a younger, I rooted heart and soul for the New York Mets. My dad was a Mets fan and I followed in his footsteps. One of my fondest memories of my dad and I’s shared fandom was when Mookie Wilson’s grounder rolled through Bill Buckner’s legs in Game 6 of the World Series. Being young and skinny, my dad gave me a big hug and swung my around the living room. Although I was a happy new fan, he was overjoyed. The Mets lived to see another day.
Here I am today the roughly same age my dad was in 1986. The Rays have in many ways replaced the Mets as my true heart’s desire. The Mets are my first fan love and I will never forget them, but since 2007 day-in and day-out I’ve ridden with the Rays.
Although the Rays have made the Read the rest of this entry »
Rays 8, Yankees 7 (12)
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: Nutshells. You can sum up the entire 2011 season with this one game. Terrible start, falling behind early. Mediocre play in the middle in which there was some good pitching and no offense whatsoever. And just when you thought the Rays were eliminated, they rallied late. The Red Sox blew what looked like an insurmountable lead. The Rays won their game. The Rays are in the playoffs…The Great Pumpkin. We wrote about his two-out, two-strike, game-tying, season-saving (again) home run last night. But it is worth repeating that he had not even played in a week. He didn’t have a big league hit since April. And yet, when the Rays got close, he worked his way to one of the cages and started hacking away. And when he came to the plate, he looked as cool as ever. We still can’t say enough about the pitch before the home run. It might have been a couple of inches off the plate, but there were 2 strikes and it was close. Johnson fouled it off and stayed alive. And on the very next pitch, Dan Johnson did what Dan Johnson does…The Orioles. Only minutes before the Rays completed their comeback, the Red Sox were up by 1 run in the 9th with 2 outs and Jonathon Papelbon on the hill. It looked like the best the Rays could hope for was to stay alive and make it to game 163 today. But then Chris Davis doubled. And then Nolan Reimold doubled to tie the score. And then Robert Andino hit a ball that Carl Crawford couldn’t grab and the Red Sox collapse was complete.
THE BETTER (you get a pass tonight David Price): Dirtbag Power. Great players show up. Evan Longoria showed up. First it was the 3-run home run in the 8th that made it a one-run game. But when Johnny Damon popped up, we thought it was too little too late. And before we get to the biggest hit, let’s not forget the defensive play that may have saved the Rays the season. With a runners on first and third with no outs, it seemed inevitable that the Yankees would take the lead. But a hard grounder to third was grabbed by Longoria who tagged the runner who had wandered too far off the bag. And of course, this just set up Dirtbag’s walk-off home run in the bottom of the 12th. He got a 95 mph fastball in on the hands, but he cleared his hip, kept his hands in, and kept the ball fair, depositing it into Kapler’s Corner. Game Over. Regular Season Over. The Tampa Bay Rays are the 2011 American League Wild Card Team
THE TELLING: At one point, the Rays had a 0.3% chance of winning the game…The Rays will play the first game of the ALDS in Texas on Friday. First pitch is scheduled for 5:07pm. Let that soak in for a minute. Feels good, doesn’t it?
RANDOM THOUGHTS: We have plenty of time to figure this out, but have to assume Wade Davis is the game 1 starter, with James Shields going in game 2.
THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…
Dan Johnson had not played in a game in a week. He didn’t have a big league hit since April. And yet, when the Rays were down to their final out in the 9th inning and trailing by one, you knew The Great Pumpkin was Joe Maddon’s only choice.
And with the count 2-2, this happened (with Dave Wills’ great called overlayed)…
Be patient, video needs to load completely before it will play. Bar moving left-to-right is the video loading.
And let’s not ignore the previous pitch. There is no home run if Johnson doesn’t foul off a tough pitch on the outside part of the plate.
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 Moore. No, he wasn’t good. The last 3 batters he faced got hits, including a death-inducing home run from Matt Wieters. But before that we got our first look at why this kid is special. He was consistently 96-98 with his fastball. And he does it with ease. Whatever the opposite of “max effort” is, that’s Matt Moore.
THE BAD: Not in the Cards. Playoff teams don’t lose 2 of 3 to the Orioles in September. And good teams don’t go 9-9 against the Orioles on the season. If the Rays are just 11-7 against the O’s this year, there would be a serious playoff push going on.
THE TELLING: Sam Fuld, who was starting in place of Desmond Jennings, left the game in the 5th with a wrist injury…The Rays have promoted Dan Johnson and Alex Torres. To make room on the 40-man roster, they have released Jay Buente.
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.
click above image for boxscoreTHE GOOD: Matt Joyce. It is hard not to love this guy right now. Three more hits including a 2-run home run in the 4th inning that gave the Rays a 3-1 lead. There was also his running grab in the corner off the bat of the first batter of the game. That saved at least one run, maybe more…BJ Upton. We’ll get to the defense in a second. But his bat is starting to look like the one we saw early in the season. two more hits and a walk. He also stole 2 bases and now has 3 in the series after not stealing a base since May 1.
THE BAD: BJ’s Dropped Line Drive. The Tigers scored their first run when BJ Upton mishandled a line drive to center field with 2 outs in the 2nd inning. But we are not going to lay too much blame on Upton here. We watched that play several times, and it looked like it was knuckling the entire way. Have you seen a batter try to hit a knuckle ball? Now try doing that from 200 feet away on a ball travelling much faster. Not an easy catch. But it did cost a run…Missed Opportunity. It may not have seemed as bad at the momment with the Rays leading but Rays failed to score with bases loaded and 1 out in the 8th. Sean Rodriguez failed to put the ball in play and Sam Fuld grounded out…Did Maddon Overthink (again)? Without a doubt, Joel Peralta has been the Rays best relief pitcher. And yet, with 1 out in the 8th, Joe Maddon pulled Peralta for Cesar Ramos to face a lefty. Situational? Yes. But is it smart to remove your best reliever for an inferior one, even when the situation dictates? Tough call. In this case, Ramos gave up a go-ahead 2-run home run…Wade Davis. It is tough to say he made “one mistake” when that mistake cost the Rays 3 runs. But Miguel Cabrera battled Davis for 8 pitches. And recognizing that the Rays were trying to pound him inside, he finally busted an inside fastball over the wall for a 3-run home run.
THE TELLING: Rays are now 1 game behind the Yankees and a half-game behind the Red Sox…Rays are now 8-5 in 1-run games. The were 29-27 last year and 29-18 in 2008. Good bulpens tend to lead to good records in 1-run games…Rays have now played 49 games and have yet to commit more than 1 error in any game. That is a big league record to start the season…Elliot Johnson is headed to the DL. Reid Brignac will return to the roster a day early. This means Felipe Lopez is here to stay for the time being.
THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…
The Rays have announced that Dan Johnson has been designated for assignment and has been replaced by Justin Ruggiano. In addition, JP Howell has been activated, with Rob Delaney, being sent back to Durham as expected.
Of players this season with at least 50 at bats, only two players have a batting average lower than Johnson’s .115. He also has just one home run and a .165 wOBA (that’s not good). Ruggiano was hitting .301 with 6 home runs and a .398 wOBA at triple-A.
