Jul 03
- Rays 5, Cardinals 1 (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: The Summer of Kotch Continues. His 3-run double in the 6th turned a 1-0 deficit into a 3-1 lead the Rays would never relinquish…Justin Ruggiano. Keep riding that train. His 2-run home run was the icing on a very tasty cake…Johnny Damon. His second 4-hit game in two weeks.
THE BAD: Niemann’s Gas. We’ll never figure Jeff Niemann out, and now might be a good time to finally move him to the bullpen. First of all, Niemann pitched well last night. However, his fastball, which was 93-94 early in the game, was 89-90 by the 6th and 7th innings. A big strong guy like him should be able to maintain his velocity. So why not give him 2 inning stints late in the game where he can just let it go and not worry about getting tired? Yes, his value is higher to the team as a starter. But moving forward, this team might be better with Alex Cobb in the rotation and Niemann in the 7th and 8th.
THE TELLING: The Rays may have screwed up by leaving the cigar off the logo, but man, they got the hose right.
THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…
- The Rays acquired triple-A pitcher Matt Torra from the Diamondbacks for cash.
- Even George Hendrick, inventor of the long pants in baseball, got caught up in the striped hosiery. [30fps]
- It looked like Evan Longoria tried to smoke his Smokers uni. [Image]
- Elliot Johnson and David Price aren’t sure Read the rest of this entry »
Mar 16
Bobby Ramos, Dave Eiland, Dave Martinez, Derek Shelton, Dirk Hayhurst, Don Zimmer, George Hendrick, Jim Hickey, Joe Maddon, Rocco Baldelli, Scott Cursi, Tom Foley Jordi Scrubbings
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 »
Aug 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
WHERE THEY STAND: The Rays are 69-45, 2 games behind the Yankees and 4 games in front of the Red Sox (5 in the loss column). After 114 games in 2008, the Rays were 68-46.
THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…
- Rocco Baldelli has been promoted to Durham. [The Heater]
- The August 29 game against the Red Sox has been moved to ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball. [Rays Report]
- The Rays have a black first base coach and a white third base coach. That is a growing (and disturbing) trend in Major League Baseball. [New York Times]
- Well, now we know just how far (or high) Noah Pransky is willing to go for a stadium story. Be sure to check out the video in the right column. Scary stuff. [10 News]
- The Rays have a lot of pitchers on the DL right now. More than you realize. [Watching Durham Bulls Baseball]
- We would argue that Carl Crawford has been more valuable, but if Evan Longoria has a huge final 6 weeks, he could sneak into the AL MVP discussion. [St. Pete Times]
- Joe Smith looks at why the Rays took a chance on Chad Qualls. [St. Pete Times]
- Tony Fabrizio looks at how the Rays defense has stepped up recently. [Tampa Tribune]
- Trying to project who will Read the rest of this entry »
Jun 28
Every player in the Rays starting lineup yesterday went with the new striped stirrups and high-cuffed pants look. We love the look. I mean, we reallllyyyy love it. But there is something ironic about the new look.
Rays first base coach George Hendrick is often credited as the first player to eschew the stirrups in baseball and wear his pants down to his ankles.
This is from a 2009 article in the Dallas Morning-News…
George Hendrick , a former big league outfielder and now first base coach for the Tampa Bay Rays, was at the forefront of the trouser movement, lowering his pant legs to his ankles before anyone else…”Most guys were wearing them up because stirrups were baseball back then,” said Rangers first base coach Gary Pettis, Hendrick’s teammate with the California Angels in the late 1980s. “There were times when he didn’t wear the stirrup. He would put his santie on and take a marker and kind of draw a stripe on each side of the santie. He missed his calling. He’s the first guy that created the 2-in-1 sock.”
So, while the Rays are battling 20 years of bad fashion, they are really battling a trend started by one of their own. Here is hoping they win.
Jun 03
THE GOOD:
All 3 AL East Teams in action last night lost. Both the Sox and the Yankees lost last night.
THE BAD:
THE TELLING: Even if the Rays lose 2 of 3 in this series, the Rays would still be in first place in the AL East…David Ortiz went on the DL and will miss this series, and will be out at least a month, meaning he will miss the next Rays-Red Sox series at the end of this month. There are even rumblings that Big Papi’s injury could be season-ending.
DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…
- Don’t forget to VOTE for Carl Crawford to start the all-star game. If you haven’t voted yet today, go NOW! [MLB All-Star Voting]
- Is our push to get Carl Crawford voted to the All-Star team working? CC moved up a spot to #12 on the list. Remember he only need finish in the top 3. [Rays Report]
- Looks like this week’s Rays Index Live Blog-A-Baloo will be Thursday night. There is a small chance we will have to move it to Wednesday night. We will make another announcement later on to confirm the day.
- Scott Kazmir was named AL Pitcher of the Month. [Yahoo! Sports]
- just to show how Sox fans are not taking this series seriously, the opening line of this Boston Globe piece: “For now, it ranks more as novelty than high drama, this notion of the Red Sox playing a showdown series in June against the Tampa Bay Rays”. [Boston Globe]
- One blog nominates first base coach George Hendrick for “Most Interesting Man in the World”. They even found a picture of him, which is apparently not an easy thing to do. [The Place To Be]
- Jim Caple of ESPN.com has had enough of “Red Sox Nation” and set out to figure out exactly when the Bandwagon started filling up. It is refreshing to know that the Trop isn’t the only park where the home team’s fans are outnumbered by the green and pink hat wearing newbies. [ESPN]
- Baseball Prospectus does a Q&A with Andy Sonnanstine. It is hidden behind their password wall if you don’t have an account. It is an interesting read in that Sonnanstine still considers himself a pitcher that throws from different arm angles even though we showed you a while back that he is not doing that this year. [Baseball Prospectus]
