Click “Read the rest of this entry” below to look at all the playing time that has been logged by the Rays during Spring Training. The amount of playing time the players receive and when that playing time is logged, gives us some insight into what Joe Maddon is thinking as we head towards the regular season.
Joe Maddon doesn’t like using his starting pitchers against divisional foes in spring training. But if last night’s game against the Yankees is any indication, Maddon takes the opposite approach with his hitters.
It is only logical that Maddon hides his starting pitchers (they will often pitch in a minor league game on days the Rays face divisional rivals). The more the Yankees and Red Sox hitters see the Rays Big 5 starting pitchers, the more likely those hitters will find a comfort zone. And the key to successful pitching is keeping hitters uncomfortable.
So if there is an advantage for hitters to get extra hacks against Rays pitchers, than it only seems logical that Rays lineup regulars would not only start against division foes, but also stay in the game longer.
And that is exactly what happened last night.
Typically, Maddon Read the rest of this entry »
The Rays recently played the Netherlands at Al Lang Field in St. Pete. Our photojournalist correspondent Kyra Hallett was on hand and did what she does best. Below is her work, which includes several of Tim Beckham and one of Rocco Baldelli coaching first base…
Below is a look at all the playing time that has been logged by the Rays during Spring Training. We will update this list every few days. The amount of playing time the players receive and when that playing time is logged, gives us some insight into what Joe Maddon is thinking as we head towards the regular season.
Playing time is broken down to the early innings (1-5) and the later innings (6+). This is important because playing time early in the game means the player is more likely to face big league competition (players in bold are projected for the opening day roster; players in grey have been reassigned to minor league camp)…
Notes on the table…
Below is a look at all the playing time that has been logged by the Rays during Spring Training. We will update this list every few days. The amount of playing time the players receive and when that playing time is logged, gives us some insight into what Joe Maddon is thinking as we head towards the regular season.
Playing time is broken down to the early innings (1-5) and the later innings (6+). This is important because playing time early in the game means the player is more likely to face big league competition (players in grey have been reassigned to minor league camp)…
Notes on the table…
Maybe the most important stat during Spring Training is playing time. The positions that a player plays, the amount of playing time the players receive and when that playing time is logged, gives us some insight into what Joe Maddon is thinking as we head towards the regular season.
Below is a look at all the playing time that has been logged by the Rays during the first four games of Spring Training. We will update this list every few days.
Playing time is broken down to the early innings (1-5) and the later innings (6+). This is important because playing time early in the game means the player is more likely to face big league competition. And if JoeMa thinks a player is ready for the big league roster, or if Maddon wants to see if a player is ready, that player will see more playing time early (our notes on the table can be found below)…
Notes on the table… Read the rest of this entry »
Maybe the most important stat during Spring Training is playing time. The positions that a player plays, the amount of playing time the players receive and when that playing time is logged, gives us some insight into what Joe Maddon is thinking as we head towards the regular season.
Below is a look at all the playing time that has been logged by the Rays during the first four games of Spring Training. We will update this list every few days.
Playing time is broken down to the early innings (1-5) and the later innings (6+). This is important because playing time early in the game means the player is more likely to face big league competition. And if JoeMa thinks a player is ready for the big league roster, or if Maddon wants to see if a player is ready, that player will see more playing time early (our notes on the table can be found below)…
Notes on the table… Read the rest of this entry »
Nothing too fancy here. Just a look at the Rays 62-man Spring Training roster and how it breaks down by age. Players in grey are spring training invites that are not on the 40-man roster.
The average age of the spring roster is 27.8. Considering the average big leaguer peaks around age 28, this seems to be optimal. Eleven players are 28 and ten are 27. Of the players in camp, 47 are in their 20s and 15 are in their 30s. The oldest is Manny Ramirez (39) and the youngest is Tim Beckham (21).
Bill Chastain has an excellent write-up on Desmond Jennings and his appreciation for African-Americans that came before him in Major League Baseball.
“You can’t really explain what the people before me did coming up,” Jennings said. “The opportunity that they’ve given us because of what they’ve done, you can’t really explain it, you can only imagine what they went through.”
Later on, Joe Maddon was asked if Jennings will be the next Carl Crawford: “No, he’ll be the first Desmond Jennings.” Of course, with Johnny Damon in the mix for 2011, we might not get to see Jennings full capabilities until 2012.
THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…
Ever since B.J. Upton meekly popped up for the final out of the final game of the Rays’ 2010 season, nearly every scribe, blogger, writer, and analyst following the team has penned his or her ode to the past seven months of Bay Area baseball. Some have written of disappointment, some of joy, and others of promise. Yet they all convey the overall emotion of a fan’s love of both their team and the game of baseball.
After every baseball season, whether good or bad, whether I rooted for a winner or team that lost hope after the second week of April, I am reminded of “Green Fields of the Mind”, a brilliant essay written by former Major League Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti. Although it is over 1,300 words, the first 91 are among the most poignant ever written about baseball.
“It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone. You count on it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive, and then just when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops.”
Giamatti’s essay discusses his passion for following the 1977 Boston Red Sox, a team that won 97 games yet finished 2.5 games behind the eventual World Series Champion New York Yankees. Giamatti goes into depth discussing their eventual elimination and how a simple fly ball to center drained the life and feeling from all of the New England faithful.
(Note: if baseball had the wildcard in 1977, Giamatti would have never written his piece. Boston would have made the playoffs thanks to winning the season series over a Baltimore Orioles team that also finished with 97 wins and 64 losses. In a 2010 world, the Sox would have clinched the wild card on the day prior to the one Giamatti wrote about and played the Kansas City Royals as the Yankees would have coincidentally played the Texas Rangers.)
Of course, it is not only those in New England whose passion comes to an abrupt halt. In every region of America, wherever fans follow their favorite team, wherever fathers and sons play catch, or wherever people pack stadiums or bars or living rooms, there is a feeling of emptiness every October.
Even in Pittsburgh and Kansas City.
For us here in the Tampa Bay area, it begins at FanFest, when we re-awaken to baseball and explore the new facets of the upcoming season – whether it be a new player, new member of the announce team, or a new feature of the ballpark. There is a joy not unlike a family reunion, when you greet the friends and “family” you parted ways with the October before. You are together again for another season.
(From 1999 to 2007 that exchange was not unlike the reunion of Han Solo and Luke Skywalker in Return of the Jedi.
Fan 1: Together again, huh?
Fan 2: Wouldn’t miss it.
Fan 1: How we doin’?
Fan 2: Same as always.
Fan 1: That bad, huh?
Then of course came the “new hope” of 2008.)
Following Fan Fest, we have the added advantage of seeing our team up close and personal during Spring Training. We are not as beholden as the rest of the baseball nation in relying on beat writers and bloggers to tell us who is winning a positional battle or who is going to make the team. We can make the short jaunt to Port Charlotte and see it with our own eyes.
Then comes the magical moment of Opening Day – a day that should be a national holiday – where every fan has hope and everyone is in first place, if even for 24 hours.
The real thrill, and one we are barely getting used to, is when our team remains in first, or at least in a battle for first from April to October. It is a fun ride. One of scoreboard watching and magic numbers*, wild cards and aces. One I will miss. One I shared with friends, family, and the entire Rays community, both online and at the ballpark. Sure we’ve fought, we’ve argued, and we’ve blown a few gaskets, but that’s what a family does. And now that our summertime reunion is over, as Giamatti said, we are left to face the fall alone.
(Isn’t it fitting that for most teams, “magic” numbers make hope disappear? Almost as if David Copperfield or David Blaine waves a wand and makes teams vanish from relevance.)
As for me, I’d like to thank Cork for my midseason call-up and now that the season is over I hope we can talk about extending my contract. Keeping it team friendly, of course.
