Apr 17
Orioles 9, Devil Rays 7. We don’t want to talk about it. OK, we will say this. We better get used to it. This is a team that will look like a playoff contender on some nights and the Bad News Bears on others. During last season’s post-all-star break swoon, the Rays lost a lot of games before the lineups were exchanged at home plate. Final scores such as 9-1 were not uncommon. There is something imminently unpainful about those types of losses. When you see the punch coming, you can brace for it. After a weekend in which the Rays beat Johan Santana and got to Joe Nathan in the 9th of another game, and with the Orioles coming to the Trop where the Rays should be a favorite, we never saw this type of loss coming. Fool us once…
- The only moment worth watching in last night’s game was a play in which Aubrey Huff committed two errors and the Orioles committed three total, leading to a run. It made us giggle.
- Delmon Young had his 12-game hitting streak snapped. The team record is 18-games, by Quinten McCracken in 1998.
- The Rays streak of 12 consecutive games with a home run was snapped last night, although Ty Wigginton came within inches of extending the streak.
- We will know early on tonight if Casey Fossum will pitch a good game. In his first start of the season he gave up 4 flyball outs and 3 ground ball outs and was pulled in the 4th inning. In his last start he recorded 13 groundball outs and only 6 flyball outs and worked 7 innings. The difference is effectiveness of Fossum’s sinker. If his sinker is on and he is inducing groundballs, he has a chance to be effective.
- Devil Rays haven’t moved in the latest ESPN power rankings. Obviously these rankings came out before last night’s debacle.
Apr 15
Minnesota 12, D-Rays 5.
Edwin Jackson threw 66 pitches in 3+ innings and only 33 were for strikes. He also hit a batter and threw a wild pitch. The defense did not help matters by throwing a few of their own wild pitches. After going the entire first week without an error, the team is starting to make them in droves, including 3 more last night. BJ Upton, who looked solid at second base in the spring committed his 5th error of the young season and was lucky that he was not credited with a second error later on. After forcing one runner at second, Upton threw wildly to first trying to turn the double play (an official scorer cannot give an error on a double play attempt). Ruddy Lugo continues to struggle mightily, allowing 3 runs on 4 hits in 1 inning of work. He has now allowed 15 base runners and 8 runs in 3 innings this season. Carlos Pena continues to hit the ball well, connecting on his 2nd home run as a pinch-hitter in the 9th. It will be interesting to see if it is already pre-determined to head to Durham when Greg Norton comes off the DL.
- The Rays still have not won back-to-back road games since June 30 of last season.
- Edwin Jackson says that he “pitched like a ——”. Actually, the Tampa Tribune used the word “wimp” in place of the actually word used by Jackson. Hmmm? What could it have been? Jackson has a potty-mouth.
- This just in…The Rays bullpen is not so good.
- Joe Maddon wants to treat the 2007 season like an instructional season in the hopes that all the athletes on the team become better fundamental baseball players. One of the glaring problems early in the season has been the Rays inability to lay down a successful sacrifice bunt.
- The Rays now a team era of 6.41, almost a run and a half more than any other team. The preseason projections that had the Rays pitching staff giving up more runs in 2007 may have been right. Simply put, the Rays have the offense of a .500 team, but the pitching of a team that could lose 100 again.
- Today Carl Crawford will wear #42 in honor of Jackie Robinson. CC admits that before he was drafted by the Rays he knew nothing about Jackie Robinson. Let’s hope that today’s tribute will help inform many others about Mr. Robinson and his legacy.
- Joe Maddon hopes that more players on the team will follow Akinori Iwamura’s lead and start working counts.
- Another baseball power ranking. Devil Rays #25. That’s about right.
- Was Friday’s win over the Twins and Johan Santana the greatest win in the history of the franchise?
- Maintaining a trend started last season, the Rays have held the lead in 8 of their first 11 games.
- The Brad Lidge to Tampa Bay rumors just won’t die.
- The Reds Ryan Freel may start playing infield for the Reds. This would help Josh Hamilton to become an everyday player.
Apr 10
The Rays dropped their third straight, 8-4 to the Rangers in Arlington. Edwin Jackson made hist first start of the season. He had pop on his fastball, hitting 96-97 regularly. He also had control, with only 1 walk. But he did not have command. He gave up 8 hits and did not make it out of the 6th. Still, he left with 2 outs in the 6th with two runners on and the scored 2-2. It took three pitchers to record the final out of the 6th inning, and by the time Gary Glover got the third out, the Rays bullpen had allowed 6 runs to cross the plate. Carl Crawford who we think will hit 30 home runs this season, hit his second on the young season.
- Joe Maddon will consider production at DH to help decide who plays center field on a regular basis. That sounds like a great idea! So if Elijah Dukes wants to play center instead of DH (and why wouldn’t he?) his 0-4 last night as DH actually helps him.
- Tonight’s starter for the Rangers, Jamey Wright, is not on the active roster. To make room, Texas may have to release Bruce Chen unless they can trade him today.
- Usually we find player diaries boring, but in this case we were actually captivated. Akinori Iwamura recounts his first week in the major leagues, which includes receiving a shaving cream pie to the face from James Shields.
- Baseball Musings wonders allowed if the Rays picked up the steal of the off-season in Akinori Iwamura.
- Ben Zobrist led the Rays in hitting this spring. Unfortunately it looks as though he used up all his hits in March.
- Minor League Ball wants to know who you think Jeff Niemann will compare most favorably to. We say he already compares to this guy!
- SportsIllustrated.com has released their first power rankings for 2007. The Devil Rays debut with a respectable #21, one spot ahead of the 2005 World Series champions.
- Diasuke Matsuzaka of the Red Sox may not throw the Gyroball, but Akinori Iwamura sure does. Or at least he likes to throw it during practice.
- The Indians, who have already had 46 games snowed out, are moving their upcoming series with the Angels to Miller Park in Milwaukee. Before they did, they called to see see if the Trop was available.
Mar 04
We are a little late today, but sometimes, “The Hangover” feature really is a hangover.
- It took Scott Kazmir 41 pitches to record four outs in the Rays 6-5 victory over the Jays yesterday. Kaz is still young but throwing too many pitches is the only thing that is standing between him and greatness. Ok, that and a consistent offense and a major league bullpen. Until he learns to be more democratic and throw more groundballs, there will be too many starts in which Kid K is removed after five dominating innings and leaving the fate of the game on an overtaxed and ill-equipped bullpen.
- In more promising news, everybody’s favorite Mr. Kotter look-alike, Jonny Gomes, homered in his first two at bats. It looks like Papa Joe Maddon entered Spring Training with the thought of having Greg Norton as his regular DH. Mr. Gomes is going to make Maddon think twice about that.
- Buried at the bottom of this article is a comment from Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter, who was critical of the infield at Progress Energy Ballpark. He suggested that the condition would lead to a lot of bad habits by the Rays young infielders.
- Plenty of options available for the bullpen indeed. Notice the name of the article is not “Plenty of good options available for the bullpen.”
- Jayson Stark is trying to revive old trade rumors between the Rays and Marlins with Florida apparently focused on B. J. Upton or Elijah Dukes. While the pursuit of Rocco Baldelli was a more prominent headline, this is not the first time that rumors have suggested that the Marlins were interested in Upton or Dukes.
- Hey! At least the Rays are thought of more highly than the Royals and the Nationals. USA Today has released their first power rankings of 2007 and the Rays debut at #28.
- Josh Hamilton had two more doubles and is now 6-12 with a home run.
