According to Marc Topkin, Rays hitting coach Derek Shelton has been chosen to coach a group of Major League Baseball All-Stars as they tour Taiwan next month.

This of course raises several questions. The first few come from the audience (via Michael Ryan on Twitter)…

What the. How did he even… what.. WHY????

Michael, these are all very good questions. Let’s speculate:

• Maybe it is a form of punishment
• Maybe Stuart Sternberg is scouting possible sites to move the Rays
• Maybe Andrew Friedman is looking for Manny Ramirez
• Or maybe the other 29 hitting coaches in MLB just said “no.”

But maybe the biggest question is: why does an MLB All-Star team need a hitting coach? We have long said that hitting coach might be the most overrated coaching position in sports. Hitting coaches don’t turn bad hitters into good hitters. Occasionally, a hitting coach might help a good hitter out of slump if the mechanics have gone haywire. But that’s about it.

But in the meantime, maybe we can just hope he learns something from the all-stars.

Our correspondent and Afrologist, Jordi Scrubbings, is back with another sensible take on things that drive most of us nuts…

During my time in the military, I could always tell how good a unit was by watching the interaction between the commanding officer and the non-commissioned officers (sergeants and the like) under their command. Good units had tight communication and a well-defined road ahead. Officers dictated their intent and the non-commissioned officers trained and molded the troops to fulfill the vision of their leaders. Less quality units lacked either that overarching guidance or had a commander who suffered from either being too distant, too buried in paperwork, or too full of his own ego to be approachable.

Although football often draws the most war-like comparisons, there are a few baseball-military comparisons that can be made. One could liken Spring Training to a sort of Basic Training, where the basic skills are learned or brushed up on and new recruits learn the philosophy of the organization, although there is hardly the level of intensity in spring baseball that there is in a place like Fort Bragg or Camp LeJune. One could also make the leap that daily batting practice is similar to the daily physical training, where members exercise and work out before the duty day.

My favorite baseball-military analogy Read the rest of this entry »

Joe Maddon announced (via Marc Topkin) that he expects all of his coaches to be back in 2011. Of course, that includes hitting coach Derek Shelton.

And we thought this week couldn’t get any worse.

THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…

• Ken Rosenthal reports that Dave Martinez will interview for the Blue Jays managerial job. Still think Don Wakamatsu would be a great replacement if Martinez leaves. [Twitter]
• Carl Crawford on his future: “I know it’s a high possibility I probably won’t be back next year.” Yes, Carl, we know. No need to twist the knife. [St. Pete Times]
• Roger Mooney writes that the bullpen could have a big shake-up this winter. If we were to target one guy to bring back it would be Joaquin Benoit, but even that is going to be a longshot. [Tampa Tribune]
• Evan Longoria is not Read the rest of this entry »

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: A Last Goodbye? We may have seen Carl Crawford at the Trop in a Rays uniform for the last time. And that is horribly sad for us and many Rays fans. But a very big hat-tip to those that stood and cheered CC at the end of the game. And an even bigger hat-tip to the bleacher creatures in left field for chanting his name.

THE BAD: Derek Shelton. One of the most overrated coaching jobs in sports is that of hitting coach. But this has to change. And it must start with Derek Shelton. Period…James Shields. Who would have guessed that Shields would be undone by pickoff attempts and a home run. OK, we knew the home run would happen. But Shields may have missed two pickoff opportunities in the third when he held the ball. And when he did throw the ball, it got past Ben Zobrist leading to the first run for the Rangers…Check Swings. The way things are going for the Rays, you just knew that after the umpires missed the check-swing on Michael Young, he was going to get a big hit. That big hit was a home run, figuratively ending the Rays chances and literally ending Joe Maddon’s day (he was ejected).

THE TELLING: Joe Maddon was the first manager to be ejected during a postseason game since 2005 (Tony LaRussa). Ron Gardenhire of the Twins was also ejected last night.

WHERE THEY STAND: The Rays trail the Rangers 2-0 in the best-of-5 series. Game 3 of the series will be at Texas on Saturday, 5pm.

THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…

• Evan Longoria talks about the Rays bouncing back in Texas (video). [The Heater]
• Carl Crawford on the fans chanting his name: “Today was really special…It was nice for the fans to give me that and I appreciated it.” [The Heater]
• Joe Maddon on Dioner Navarro’s decision Read the rest of this entry »

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: Kelly Shoppach. This might be the first time all season that Shoppach made an appearance in “The Good.” He came into the game with as many home runs this season as Dioner Navarro (1). And exited the game with 3, including a huge go-ahead grand slam in the 5-run 4th inning…Evan Longoria has had a rough second-half, hitting just .235 with 2 home runs since the break. But yesterday he started the 5-run 4th inning with a double and led off the 5th inning with another double. He would eventually score the Rays 6th run.

THE BAD: Andy Sonnanstine. James Shields may lead the AL in home runs allowed (28), but Sonny gives them up just as often, about once every 24 batters. Yesterday it was a big 3-run blast that put the Rays down early…Baserunning. We love the aggressive baserunning style of Joe Maddon, but it has to be smart and it can’t be reckless. In the 3rd inning, on a 1-out single with runners on first and second, Gabe Kapler screwed up by thinking the ball would be caught and BJ Upton screwed up by not seeing where Kapler was and both runners ended up at third base. The Rays failed to score.

THE TELLING: Carlos Pena will DH today for Charlotte and is expected to rejoin the Rays tomorrow…In 5.2 triple-A innings as a reliever, Jake McGee has struck out 11 of the 19 batters he has faced, walked none and allowed just 2 hits.

WHERE THEY STAND: The Rays are 70-46, 2 games behind the Yankees and 4 games in front of the Red Sox (5 in the loss column). After 116 games in 2008, the Rays were 70-46.

THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…

• Kelly Shoppach talks about his first big game with the Rays (Video). [The Heater]
• Wade Davis and Jeff Niemann are expected to Read the rest of this entry »

Well, thanks to Dirtbag, the Rays avoided being no-hit by Bob Gibson Sunday.

Oh, that wasn’t Bob Gibson? Morrow is the guy’s name? Wow, Joe never knew Ken Morrow could pitch. Dude was a helluva hockey player for the Islanders. Guess a great athlete can also be a good player at another sport… wait, it’s not Ken Morrow?

Brandon Morrow you say? The man with the vaunted ERA pushing 5.00? Really? This is the guy who tossed 17 strikeouts against the Rays today? Really?

This is getting to be absurd. The Rays lead the American League in strikeouts with 864. Joe knows you can’t do this in early August with a team that, if the season ended today, would win the American League wild card, but how can Rays hitting instructor Derek Shelton sleep at night?

Under the watchful tutelage of Shelton, the Rays have been no-hit twice this year and came a whisker away today from setting a modern baseball record for being no-hit three times in a season (and there’s a plenty of time for that mark to be reached this season).

Gary Shelton of the St. Petersburg Times could do just as well as a hitting instructor. Rays color analyst Brian Anderson had a telling piece of information in the ninth inning on Sun Sports when he remarked it was the first time he saw the Rays adjust to Morrow’s slider all game long.

In the ninth inning no less!

Please feel free to detail veteran players who have improved their hitting this year with Shelton guiding them? Has he helped B.J. Upton? Has he helped Carlos Pena? Has he helped Ben Zobrist? Has he helped Jason Bartlett?

The answers are no, no, no and hell no.

Yet another wonderful pitching performance pissed away, just like Friday night. Joe raises his glass for Andy Sonnanstine. Well done son, well done. Too bad your team has a joke of a hitting instructor and your fine performance was wasted.

Yes, it’s too late to run Shelton now. Going into the stretch run of the season with a new hitting instructor could do more harm than good. Besides, the Rays still have the second-best record in baseball despite Shelton which explains just how wonderful the Rays pitching truly is.

If Joe were Andrew Friedman, the minute the final out of the season is recorded, Shelton should be told to pack his bags and be given a one-way ticket out of town.

The GBT – The Good, The Bad and The Telling sandwich, where The Bad is nice and lean and the The Telling is ripe.

Diamondbacks 2, Rays 1

THE GOOD: Wade Davis. Nice strong start from Big Dub. The 7.1 innings was his longest outing of the year and only the second time he has worked into the 8th inning this season.

THE BAD: Where are the Bats? Sometimes good teams get no-hit. It’s rare, but it happens. What good teams don’t do is get 7 hits in a 3-game series against a last place team. In total, the Rays went 7-81 (.086) in route to losing their 5th straight series. Some of the blame can be placed on luck as every time the Rays hit the ball hard, it seemed to be drawn right to a player’s glove. Still, luck can’t explain it all. This team just cannot hit right now. We are not ready to blame Derek Shelton. For one thing, the influence of the hitting coach at the big league level is overrated. And for all the struggles, the offense is still 4th in the AL in OPS. That being said, the Rays need to find more consistency from the bats..BJ Upton. If you missed it yesterday, Upton nonchalantly jogged after a ball as it rolled to the wall turning a routine double into a triple. That led to some stern words from Evan Longoria to which Upton reacted by absolutely losing his sh*t in the dugout and having to be restrained by Willy Aybar. He followed that up by getting picked off of first base for the 7 millionth time in his career. And with all the energy he exerted in the field and on the basepaths, Upton’s try for a walk-off 2-run home run in the bottom of the 9th came up a few feet short. Or maybe Upton just has warning track power after all.

THE TELLING: All players in the starting lineup went with the high-cuffed pants and striped stirrups…Dioner Navarro is expected to make his debut with Durham tonight.

WHERE THEY STAND: The Rays are 44-31, 3 games behind the Yankees in the East and 1 game behind the Red Sox in the Wild Card. After 75 games in 2008, the Rays were also 44-31.

THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…

• Joe Maddon says it is “60-40″ that Carl Crawford will be able to DH in Boston tomorrow. But CC’s return to the outfield is less clear after he aggravated his shoulder sliding on Friday night…also Gabe Kapler is expected to be activated from the DL tomorrow and Marc Topkin wonders if the Rays will let Hank Blalock go rather than demote Matt Joyce. [St. Pete Times]
• Evan Longoria on yesterday’s incident: “It’s just a couple of guys that are frustrated with the way they are playing…it’s already buried” (VIDEO). [The Heater]
• The St. Pete Times has a timeline of BJ Upton’s brainfarts…And to be clear, we have never thought Upton was “lazy.” We just think he occasionally loses focus in critical situations. [St. Pete Times]
• Marc Topkin says it is still too early to judge the Edwin Jackson-Matt Joyce trade. [St. Pete Times]
• Michael Kruse writes about the tricky situation the Rays find themselves in with the stadium situation. It’s a good read, and not just because we were interviewed for the story. [St. Pete Times]
• Will Kline, the Rays second-round pick in 2007 missed all of the 2008 and 2009 seasons. And now he won’t play in 2010 either after suffering a torn rotator cuff. [Biscuit Crumbs]
• Rise of the Rays comes to the defense of BJ Upton. [Rise of the Rays]
• Ken Rosenthal speculates that Carl Crawford could sign with the Rangers this winter. [Fox Sports]
• Durham manager Charlie Montoyo will join Jeremy Hellickson and Desmond Jennings at the Futures Game during the all-star break. Montoyo was named as a member of the coaching staff. [Biscuit Crumbs]
• Pitcher Josh Satow and 3B Henry Wrigley have been promoted to double-A Montgomery.
• The News & Observer spoke with Dan Johnson and manager Charlie Montoyo about the slugger’s chances at making it back to the big leagues. [News&Observer]
• Rays Prospects is accepting votes for the Rays minor league mid-season all-stars. [Rays Prospects]
• The Times Herald-Record interviewed Rays roving instructor Matt Quatraro. [Times Herald-Record]
• Here is a good read on an usher at The Trop that has been going to baseball games for over 60 years and just witnessed his first no-hitter. [JordiScrubbings.com]

DOWN ON THE FARM…

• Check out Rays Prospects for boxscores and more detailed recaps. [Rays Prospects]
• DURHAM: Heath Phillips worked 6 innings and gave up 2 runs (1 earned), striking out 5 and walking 2…Desmond Jennings went 2-5 with a double and his 18th stolen base…Fernando Perez was 2-4 and hit his 3rd home run.
• MONTGOMERY: Alex Torres struck out 6, but lasted only 4 innings as his pitch count reached 89. He allowed 2 runs on 4 hits and 3 walks…Leslie Anderson went 2-4 and is now 22-75 (.293) since being promoted to double-A…Matt Sweeney was 1-4 with a double. He is hitting 25-119 (.210) since being promoted.
• CHARLOTTE: Matt Moore struck out 11 in 6 innings, walking just 2. He allowed 2 runs on 5 hits…Reid Fronk had 2 of the Stone Crabs’ 3 hits…Tim Beckham was 0-3 with a strikeout.
• BOWLING GREEN: Wilking Rodriguez gave up 6 runs, but all 6 were unearned. He gave up 7 hits, walked 1, hit 2 batters and threw a wild pitch in just 4 innings…Tyler Bortnick went 2-3 with a double and his 6th home run.
• HUDSON VALLEY: Omar Bencomo made his second start and allowed 3 runs in 4.2 innings. He struck out 3…Derek Dietrich was 1-4 with a double.
• PRINCETON: Enny Romero struck out 7 and gave up 1 run on just 2 hits and 2 walks in 6 innings…Bryan Fogle hit his first home run of the year.

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: Andy Sonnanstine. After tossing 4.2 scoreless innings Friday and then after Lance Cormier nearly blew a 4-run 11th inning lead, The Duke came in with the tying run on  third and no outs. He promptly struck out the next two batters (including a pitcher) and got Dan Uggla to fly out to right to end the game…Vuvuzelas. Or whatever those things were, may have been annoying, but they helped the Rays in the end.  The noise may have led to a miscommunication of a lineup change and when Brian Barden led off the 9th with a walk, he was called out for batting out of order…Joe Maddon. JoeMa does some strange things and we usually only comment when they don’t work. So we need to tip our cap to his moves last night. First he brought Rafael Soriano in with no outs in the 8th with the tying run on third and no outs. Sure he blew his first save of the year (thanks to an Evan Longoria throwing error), but he didn’t give up a hit and gave Maddon 2 scoreless innings. Then Maddon went to James Shields in the 10th. Yes James Shields, who pitched a scoreless 10th. And of course, Maddon proved he has a huge pair of Vuvuzelas when he turned to Andy Sonnanstine with the tying run on third in the 11th.

THE BAD: Lance Cormier. After being spotted a 4-run lead in the top-half of the 11th, Cormier was called upon to close out the game in a “don’t screw this up role.” He almost did, allowing all 5 batters he faced to reach base…Wheeler/Choate. What Cormier did in the 11th, Dan Wheeler and Choate had already accomplished in the 8th. A 3-run lead was quickly erased when those two couldn’t retire any of the 4 batters they faced.

THE TELLING: Joe Maddon continues to platoon BJ Upton and John Jaso at the leadoff spot.

WHERE THEY STAND: The Rays are 42-26, tied with the Yankees in the East and 1 game ahead of the Red Sox in the Wild Card. After 68 games in 2008, the Rays were 40-28.

THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…

• David Price was warming up with Wade Davis prior to Saturday’s game when Price caught one throw with his groin. He is not expected to miss his next start. [St. Pete Times]
• Marc Topkin had BJ Upton and Justin Upton answer a few questions about each other. [St. Pete Times]
• Tom D’Angelo spoke with Matt Garza about his father, who recently returned from his second tour of duty in Afghanistan, and what Father’s Day means to him. [Palm Beach Post]
• Dave Scheiber wrote a nice father’s day piece on Derek Shelton and his father. [FoxSportsFlorida]
• Here is one interpretation of the Delmon Young-Matt Garza-Jason Bartlett trade. [Fake Bill Smith]
• Here is an interview with Hudson Valley’s 32-year old manager and former Devil Ray, Jared Sandberg. [Times Herald-Record]

DOWN ON THE FARM…

• Check out Rays Prospects for boxscores and more detailed recaps. [Rays Prospects]

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: Making It Look Easy. It feels like every game this season has been like last night. Domination. And it starts with the league best starting pitchers who have a 2.61 ERA and are 7-0 the last 2 trips through the rotation. Jeff Niemann was the latest with 7 shutout innings. He allowed 6 baserunners, 3 of them coming in the second inning…Ben Zobrist. For the second straight day, Zobrist bunted for a basehit. This time it was a pseudo-safety squeeze, scoring a runner from third…Lefty Lineup. Gabe Kapler got his usual starting nod in right against a lefty and Willy Aybar is becoming the regular DH against lefties. Last night they combined for 3 hits and 3 GTMIs (see below)…Easy Parcheesi. In two of the first 3 innings, BJ Upton recorded the final out with a running grab towards the wall. Both times he looked like he was just shagging flies.

THE BAD: Jeff Niemann’s Second Inning. He needed 28 pitches and at one point threw 11 straight pitches out of the strike zone. He loaded the bases after retiring the first two batters, but survived when he got Rob Johnson looking…Kevin Kennedy. In the 4th inning, Dewayne Staats was commenting on how good the Mariners ballgirls are with their gloves and noticed the one down the right field line was on the other side of the field the night before. Kennedy’s response? “A lot of women that can play third base, they can play first base as well.” We have no idea what that means. And to make it worse, he was so anxious to drop that line that he you can hear him trying to interrupt Staats who was still trying to make his point. Ugh, why does it need to be so painful?

THE TELLING: The average score of the Rays 21 victories is 7.2-2.2…The Rays are now 12-1 on the road…Carlos Pena tied Fred McGriff’s franchise record for walks (305)…Dioner Navarro will catch David Price tonight, but it is expected John Jaso will start both weekend games.

WHERE THEY STAND: The Rays are 21-7 and have a 1.5 game lead on the Yankees and a 3.5 game lead (6 in the loss column) over the Blue Jays in the Wild Card. After 28 games in 2008, the Rays were 16-12.

DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…

• Two of my favorite writers discussed the Rays for New York magazine. [New York]
• Rise of the Rays argues that moving Jeff Niemann to closer is the answer to the Rays pitching depth “problem.” [Rise of the Rays]
• Rays Prospects takes a closer look at Matt Moore’s rough start. [Rays Prospects]
• It is obviously early, and the Rays have a long ways to go before winning a World Series, but so far, the Rays are on pace to meet one person’s criteria to be considered one of the greatest team’s ever (thanks Thad). [Sportales]
• Can somebody explain the purpose of this graph? What are we expected to learn from comparing the attendance of a Saturday game with a post-game concert to a weeknight game against the Indians (for example). [Tampa Tribune]
• The Rays are hitting .319 with runners in scoring position despite only hitting .262 overall. Have they been lucky? Or is this part of new approach to hitting implemented by Derek Shelton: GTMI (Get The Man In). Hardcore Saberheads will tell you it is all luck. Traditionalists will call the Rays “clutch.” The truth is probably somewhere in between. [St. Pete Times]
• Joe Maddon has no problem with his players going on their own and using the bunt as a weapon. [St. Pete Times]
• Roger Mooney writes about Matt Garza’s quest to be one of the best pitchers in baseball. [Tampa Tribune]
• In this piece on Scott Kazmir, it sure reads like a recycled Rays article. Just sub “Rays” every time it says “Angels.” [ESPN]

DOWN ON THE FARM…

• Check out “The Rundown” from Rays Prospects for boxscores and more detailed recaps. [Rays Prospects]
• DURHAM: Aneury Rodriguez was pounded for the second straight outing. This time he lasted just 2.1 innings and gave up 3 runs on 7 hits and 4 walks…Hank Blalock went 2-5 with a 3-run home run, hit 3rd…Alvin Colina and Jose Lobaton also homered.
• MONTGOMERY: Alex Torres struggled, giving up 5 runs (2 earned) on 6 hits and 3 walks in just 3 innings. He struck out 5.
• CHARLOTTE: Nick Barnese loaded the bases with no outs on 2 singles and a hit batter. He then retired 19 of the final 22 batters he faced. He allowed just 1 run (sac fly) on 3 hits and no walks. He struck out 5…Tim Beckham was 0-4 with 3 strikeouts, a walk and a stolen base in his return to the lineup…Matt Sweeney was 0-4 with 3 Ks.
• BOWLING GREEN: Shane Dyer pitched 7 no-hit innings before being pulled. Of the first 9 batters he faced, he hit 2 and walked 1. After that he settled down and retired 16 of the final 17 batters he faced with the only baserunner reaching via an error.

Every team goes through “Picture Day” during spring training where all the players and coaches get all dolled up in their regular season uniforms and have their pictures taken by the professionals. Here is a link to Getty’s pics of the Rays.

But before you go look at the entire set, let us point out a few of our favorites…

Pat Burrell

Why does Pat Burrell have such a sly grin on his face and why is he touching his crotch with both hands? Maybe it is because the photographer told Pat to grab his bat. Maybe it is because it is the only bat of Pat’s that still works. Or maybe this is the secret behind the nickname, “Pat the Bat.” We vote for “all of the above.”

Gabe Kapler

Is there a reason Gabe Kapler doesn’t have his jersey tucked in? Maybe it is because he is lazy. But more likely it is because the photographer is right-handed.

Dave Martinez -- Derek Shelton -- Tom Foley

Inability to dress one’s self is apparently not limited to Kapler.

Don Zimmer

Look! It’s the mascot. How cute.

At least Dirtbag knows how to dress himself.