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
In honor of Raysheads love of the Rays all-star third baseman, we have a new T-shirt in the Rays Index Store. And in honor of the new T-shirt, we have a bonus video after the Webtopia.
DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…
MLB is reviewing the incident from Wednesday when Matt Garza hit Mark Teixeira and then decided to tell the entire world what they already knew. That he did it on purpose. A fine and/or suspension could be announced today. [St. Pete Times]
The Rays have been fairly quiet on the trade front. There are some rumblings that they are still working on deals with the Jays for Roy Halladay and the Indians for Victor Martinez. We will be back in a little bit with more details on each.
The Rays did make one addition yesterday that was a bit surprising. They picked up a catcher off waivers and assigned him to double-A. Seems pretty innocuous, but then we realized that Jose Lobaton is a 24-year old switch-hitter, with big league experience and they added him to the 40-man roster. To make room, the Rays moved Jason IsringhausenTroy Percival to the 60-day DL…The move could be a simple addition of a young talented catcher. But with 40-man roster spots so rare and valuable, and with 5 catchers now on the 40-man roster, one has to wonder if the Rays are about to deal away one of their 40-man roster catchers *cough* John Jaso *cough*. [The Heater]
Roger Mooney writes that the Rays still believe in the current roster. [Bradenton Herald]
Joe Smith writes about David Price’s struggle to work through his struggles, or something like that. [St. Pete Times]
Time to bring back 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: Edwin Jackson. Nuke has a 2.60 ERA and a 35-to-11 strikeout-to-walk ratio. Wait. What? That’s not good? He is pitching for Detroit and the Rays are stuck with Andy Sonnanstine and Jeff Niemann and a David Price that can’t handle triple-A? What the….
THE BAD: Genius is fleeting. We could talk all about Andy Sonnanstine’s performance, but that is getting old. The Bad starts and ends with Joe Maddon. It was announced prior to the game that Pat Burrell would not start with stiffness in his neck but that he would be available to pinch hit. In the 9th inning with the Rays trailing by 2, a runner on first and 2 outs and a lefty on the mound , Maddon elected to allow Willy Aybar to bat with Burrell still sitting on the bench. Yes, with the game on the line, Maddon chose to go with the career backup over one of the best RBI guys in baseball. You want to go to a gun fight? Fine. But you can’t go down with one of your best bullets still in the chamber. Either Burrell is available or not. If he is, you use him. You don’t hope Aybar gets on. You use Burrell. We know Aybar is a good hitter. But there is a reason that Burrell is the starting DH and Aybar is not.
THE TELLING: The Rays are 9-6 against the Sox and Yankees but are only 2-4 against the Orioles. They were 15-3 against the O’s last year…Evan Longoria had another RBI last night to give him 45 through 34 games. That is the most since Roy Campanella had 47 in 1953. Campanella won the MVP that season.
SUNBURST PLAYER OF THE GAME: Evan Longoria. On base 3 times, and drove in his 45th run, literally seconds after the Orioles TV announcers said it would be difficult for Longo to maintain his RBI pace.
DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…
Around the second inning last night we got about half-dozen emails and comments abut the Rays radio broadcast. Turns out we got a nice little shout-out from Andy Freed and Dave Wills during Ben Zobrist’s first at bat in the second inning, in which they plug our new “Zorilla” t-shirt. Does this mean that we have to pay them a commission?
Shawn Riggans does not need surgery on his shoulder, but he will be out for another month. [The Heater]
Jeff Niemann made some changes to his mechanics in an effort to help keep his pitches down. [Tampa Tribune]
Marc Topkin has a nice piece on Evan Longoria and how he has become one of the best players in baseball. [St. Pete Times]
Joe Maddon was honored on Tuesday morning at the Pennsylvania State Capitol. [MLB]
Rays the Stakes wants to know why Carlos Pena was on the bench Sunday night. [Rays the Stakes]
True Story: We once spent a summer doing nothing but watching Gorillas. Wonderful creatures that often get a bad wrap.
That being said, they do still seem a bit peaved about the movie “Gorillas in the Mist.” It seems as though the royalty checks are still in the mail. And don’t even bring up “King Kong” unless you want a pile of poo to the face.
On the other hand, when a slow, no-glove, no-power do-gooder reinvents himself as a power-hitting super-duper utility guy, the Gorillas are more than happy for the association and the positive press.
In that honor, we have introduced a new shirt to the Rays Index Store. Just click on the above image to be taken directly to the product.
How does one top a bases-clearing double against the Red Sox? A bases-clearing home run of course…And in Dirtbag’s honor, we introduce a new item in the Rays Index Store.
Some may think it is ok to debate the merits of handing out rings to the champions of the American League. however, one thing we are certain of…Two banners is completely acceptable. So we have added new t-shirts to the Rays Index Store.
Besides, this seemed like an excellent way for The Rayshead Army to remind the Yankees and Red Sox exactly who is chasing whom this season.
Click on any image to be taken directly to that item in the Rays Index Store…
Some may think it is ok to debate the merits of handing out rings to the champions of the American League. however, one thing we are certain of…Two banners is completely acceptable. So we have added new t-shirts to the Rays Index Store.
Besides, this seemed like an excellent way for The Rayshead Army to remind the Yankees and Red Sox exactly who is chasing whom this season.
Click on any image to be taken directly to that item in the Rays Index Store…
We don’t need a ‘Nation’…We don’t need an ‘Empire’…All we need is a cold beverage, good music and better baseball. We are THE RAYSHEAD ARMY.
We have a day job, we have a wife and we have a dog. Which means if we are to justify the amount of time we spend in this here corner of the interwebs, it helps if we generate a little income, even if it is just enough to pay for our beer on the weekends. And thanks to everybody that bought t-shirts season, we bought a lot of beer. Thank you!
This season we have made a few changes to the Rays Index Store. We have pared down the inventory to the most popular models and even added a couple of new selections. We also switched to a standard-weight t-shirt (as opposed to the heavyweight T’s we used last season). This seemed to be the preference of many and it has the added bonus of being cheaper. This year the shirts are about $4 cheaper. Yay! Everybody wins!
So have a look at the different styles below (click on any image to be taken to the store) or click on the link to the store in the side panel. And as usual, we accept requests.
In celebration of the Ray winning the ALDS and advancing to the ALCS, we are adding a couple of shirts to the Rays Index Store, and lowering the price on an old favorite…
Click on any image to be taken directly to the Rays Index Store.
Click on the image to be taken directly to the Rays Index store.
Just want to let you know that we added an item to the Rays Index Store, based on requests, and in honor of The Mad Hungarian. It seemed silly that we did not have a shirt for The Mad Australian.
The Mad Australian: WHAT THE F#@% IS YOUR PROBLEM? You: I…I…I was just looking at the t-shirts The Mad Australian: WHAT? LEAVE ME THE F#@% ALONE. I’M NOT F#@%ING TALKING TO YOU You: Um…I’m…I’m…I’m sorry. Really. I didn’t mean to cause any problems. The Mad Australian: [throws a 97 mph fastball at your head] You: [wet your pants] The Mad Australian: GO F#@%ING SIT YOUR A$$ DOWN You: [crying]
Do you want to piss of The Mad Australian? We didn’t think so.
Just want to let you know that we added an item to the Rays Index Store, based on requests.
No poem to mark the occasion today…but just know that if we had a daughter, we would buy this shirt for her and make it happen. Is there a bigger compliment that one man could ever give to another?
Click on the image to be taken directly to the Rays Index store.
