Sep 05
It’s official. Dan Wheeler and Chad Qualls suck.
It’s because of those two stiffs the Rays lost today and failed to pick up a game on the Yankmees, who lost to Toronto.
Ever the slave to pitch counts, it backfired on Merlot Joe today.
Look, it wasn’t as if Wade Davis pitched horribly in the fifth. He got a double play and a strikeout to retire the O’s, only to see Wheeler and his ADD-fidgeting of his glove to throw a match onto a bucket of gas. Hell, Joe can walk batters just as easily as Wheeler.
Then the immortal Qualls comes in and a hard-gained lead by the Rays was gone.
Why not let Davis come out in the sixth to see if he can fight through the inning? He could just as easily walked two batters as Wheeler. But, nnnoooo Davis couldn’t pitch any longer. He had 103 pitches (GASP)!
Boy, a pitcher constantly playing with his glove ree-LEE distracts the batters, doesn’t it? Oh, Dan, you’re so deceptive!
Shame on Wheeler and Qualls for throwing away a win. Poor mullet-growing Dirtbag and poor Rocco, seeing their efforts pissed away.
“Paging Grant Balfour… “
Sep 03
Joe wonders what Joe Maddon had to say to bitter Matt Garza after giving him the hook in the sixth inning after 98 pitches, one run and pretty darn good command.
Is this what the postseason will look like? Or will Maddon give his playoff starters more rope?
Forgive Joe for being assumptive with the playoffs, but there’s no way the Sox are making up seven games with 28 to go.
“It’s not you, Matt. But the computer said to take you out, son. You can’t mess with what’s working. … I love you.”
All in all, a pretty typical Rays win in Baltimore. Bullpen was lights out, a couple of bats stepped up, and murderers row (Pena, Joyce and Johnson) didn’t kill the good guys.
Joe’s resigned himself to the fact that Rays fans are just never going to know the soul of this team until October. Although Joe is one of the guys that hits a 9 in the confidence poll.
On a side note, Joe had the unfortunate experience of listening to the end of the Yankees game on local radio in Tampa today. The unmitigated arrogance flowing through the airwaves was astounding, especially considering Joe expected a lot of that was coming.
You can just tell that the grating Suzyn Waldman and company just think the Rays are nothing more than a nice story simply to keep the final weeks interesting.
Joe’s never been more motivated to win the East.
Sep 03
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Sep 01
In the wake of the Major League Baseball’s leaked financial documents, Patrick Rishe of Forbes.com is the latest to call for the institution of minimum payrolls, often referred to as a “salary floor,” as a way to force teams to reinvest money received from revenue sharing…
Imposing league minimum team payrolls would ensure that money received through MLB’s general fund is re-invested into the major league product in a very direct way…The revenue sharing system in MLB was instituted to create a greater degree of competitive balance. Low payroll teams with persistently poor on-field performance that have the means circa their shared revenues to add $10-20M dollars in payroll – but don’t – are doing the system, and their fan bases, a major disservice.
First of all, Major League Baseball already has a salary floor of $10 million (25 player roster, $400K minimum salary per player).
Beyond that, what if MLB and the player’s union agreed to raise the salary floor? The theory sounds great. And for the first couple of seasons, it might actually work. But eventually, it will cause a problem bigger than the one it is attempting to fix.
In short, raising the salary floor will only serve to Read the rest of this entry »
Aug 31
Color Joe disturbed.
Man, everything seemed to be going so well in this game, especially Red Sux killer Dan Johnson — seemingly forgetting he wasn’t playing Boston — doubled to deep center, giving the Rays a 3-1 lead.
Sure, starter Jeff Niemann struggled a little bit in the previous inning but he got out of it and it seemed a near slam dunk that MFISUO and MFIKU would do their typical eighth and ninth inning dances and subsequent pulling out the shirt tail.
Rather, Niemann completely came unglued in the sixth. Niemann, in his first start back from the disabled list last week, was simply shelled by the Angels. After five innings, Niemann seemed fine. But is he?
Joe’s very concerned there’s still something wrong with Niemann. Joe’s trying to convince himself that Niemann just needs a little work and a very strict, limited pitch count through the next two weeks.
This is something Jim Hickey and Merlot Joe need to keep a very close eye on. Sure, it would be nice to have Niemann for the playoffs. But Joe would truly hate to see Niemann go under the knife and miss the entire 2011 season too.
Aug 30
Damn, what a fun game this Rays win was tonight.
The coolest thing about the win? Wade Davis pitched like he did earlier in the year. His seven-inning, six-hit no walk perforance — and quick work no less – really put a smile on Joe’s face as if someone bought him a beer at the Fruitdome.
If Wade Davis can pitch like this the rest of the way, Joe’s pretty confident the Rays can outlast the Yankmees for the division.
How neat was it to see the Rays get an insurance run against Shawn Camp? Was there a more brutal (Devil) Rays closer than Camp? Watching the Jays make a couple of errors behind him following by a Dirtbag sac fly was karma my friends.
Good baserunning. Good power (Carlos Pena again). Good bullpen pitching (again).
This is some sweet baseball folks.
Now if Jeff Niemann can regain his form Tuesday…
Aug 29
Why, Joe is so giddy over the Rays beating the Chowdahheads tonight, Joe’s pulling his Rays jersey out of his boxers as he types.
So much to like about this game. Where does Joe start? Was it the turn-back-the-clock pitching of James “Big Game” Shields? Was it Carlos Pena’s homer? Was it Carl Crawford’s homer? Was it Pena racking up Victor Martinez at home plate? Was it B.J. Upton chasing down a potential extra-base hit in the left field gap late?
Oh, and Joe almost forgot about Red Sux killer Dan Johnson!
So much to choose from.
At any rate, the Rays have a 6 1/2 game lead on the Chowdahheads after winning two of three, with just over a month left in the season.
Joe hopes all those Chowdahheads who were at the Fruitdome tonight go home crying with their typical being-choked-24/7 voices as they cry for their mommy Bill Simmons and his 6,500-word ramblings of gibberish and high school cheerleader angst.
Joe hopes those SOBs buy some stale Samuel Adams Cranberry Lambic! God, what putrid human beings.
Get the hell out of Florida and put on your Bill Belicheat hoodies. It’s getting cold up in New England… skunks! A long cold winter awaits while you watch the Rays in the playoffs!
Low lifes!
Aug 28
Bad calls, stupid mistakes and unaggressive hitting aside, the Rays didn’t beat themselves 3-1 on Friday, the Sox stuck it to them.
Joe hates those kinds of losses. It sucks to have to admit when you just weren’t as good, especially with ace David Price on the mound.
What drove Joe insane is Carlos Pena and B.J. Upton with their bats on their shoulders in the eighth inning down two runs. How exacly was Pena fooled by a fastball into a feeble check swing?
Swing the damn bats.
Sean Rodriguez did his best B.J. Upton impression getting picked off second/caught stealing third with two outs in the fifth inning. And Upton later rounded third like a high school kid and got thrown out at home in what was the game-changer. Though Joe knows the real issue was the Rays’ feeble bats in the face of Jon Lester.
On the upside, Joe was fired up to have Price legitimately throwing inside to David Ortiz. It’s about time, and Joe hopes to see that continue through the series and beyond.
How was that game not sold out? Not even 30K?
Tonight’s not a must-win game in Joe’s eyes, but the Rays can’t get swept. So it’s as good a time as any.
Aug 25
The getaway game was as ugly as it gets. Jeff Niemann pitched like Joe thought Wade Davis would have last night, and the Rays were toast in the third inning.
Then, like dangling ice cream in front of a dieting sorority chick, the Rays served up Andy Sonnanstine as dessert to the Angels. The drool was flowing. … If Joe were into wacked out conspiracy theories, he might think Sonnanstine doesn’t mind getting lit up in long relief, as it might only help him get a ticket out of town and a starting job somewhere else.
In a festive mood and now waiting to bury the Sox, Joe’s got to celebrate the almost-got-him play at third base by Willy Aybar. Barehanding a cue-ball shot to third base and nearly throwing out Hideki Matsui? Joe didn’t think he had it in him.
Joe also liked John Jaso going with a pitch in the ninth inning for his third hit, rather than tyring to jack his second home run. That kind of discipline is what the Rays will need when it counts.
Yeah, Joe’s reaching, but that’s what you do in a blowout to end a 4-3 West Coast trip. It’s hard to be annoyed.
And Joe learned something new with the passed ball turned fielder’s choice. Joe still doesn’t get it. Does anyone?
Aug 25
Joe’s not above taking pause to give thanks for the baseball gods placing Evan Longoria on his team.
There was a lot of talk earlier this season about leadership on the Rays in the face of B.J. Upton’s post-jogfest dugout tirade, when Dirtbag got up in Bossman’s face. At this point, Joe can’t imagine how Longoria isn’t the proverbial straw that stirs the drink and the team leader.
When he’s on, as he’s been lately, Joe sees that real championship swagger from the Rays coupled with the damn-he’s-good expressions from the opposition. It’s enough to almost have Joe believing the Rays have the playoffs in the bag.
Being six games up with 36 to play with the final nine against Seattle, Baltimore and Kansas City doesn’t hurt, either.
The 10-3 laugher last night was surely welcome with Wade Davis returning from the disabled list. Joe was hoping he’d get an early lead so he could just throw fastballs and not worry about much else. And that’s what he got and the Angels couldn’t do much with him.
Joe got a huge laugh out of Joe Maddon getting ejected with a comfortable lead. Of course, it came against the Angels again.
It’s becoming obvious that somebody out there questioned his manhood during his days with the Angels, and he’s got some sort of secret need to turn into Lou Piniella when he sees halos. One would think getting to change his lineup card like he did yesterday would have soothed him.
Joe’s glad these West Coast late games are history. Watching a wild Andy Sonnanstine close out the ninth inning of a 10-3 game with 22 pitches is enough to put any man to sleep at 1 a.m.
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