Longoria is endorsing a product called the “Hitting Jack-It,” which appears to be a hitting doughnut that can be used during batting practice. Interestingly, this comes after recent research shows that batting doughnuts might actually reduce bat speed.
But what is more interesting is the Longo home run highlight shown. The commercial begins with Longoria’s playoff-clinching home run and the call by Dewayne Staats. Only the call doesn’t match up.
When Staats called the home run (this is paraphrasing), he said “a line drive down the left field line. fair ball. it’s gone!” At that point, he then said “the Rays win it!” (you can hear the original call here). Instead, the commercial has Staats saying “a line drive home run by Evan Longoria.” This was actually said by Staats as Longoria was rounding the bases.
Anyway, it is a minor detail, and obviously they wanted a call with Longoria’s name included. But it is also the greatest moment in the history of the Rays. It would be nice if they hadn’t altered it. Just sayin’.
If you had to trade one starting pitcher, which would you prefer to trade? Here is a case for each pitcher…
James Shields: Has three years and ~$30 million remaining on his contract, so he is getting expensive. However, that is still a good deal for a pitcher of his caliber. He will be 30 in 2012, so he is starting to get a little older. Should still be a dominating pitcher for next three years, but could regress a little in 2012. Value may never be higher than it is right now.
David Price: It doesn’t get much more valuable than a young, hard-throwing lefty. The Rays still have Price under control for four more years, but he is also about to get very expensive. Those four years could cost $50 million. And there is little hope for an extension at this point.
Wade Davis: A nice solid back-of-the-rotation starter that will eat innings. Rays still have Big Dub under control for the next six years for just $34.1 million. That’s a great deal. But Davis may also only be the 7th or 8th best starting pitcher in the organization. Could be attractive for other small- or mid-market teams looking for an affordable starting pitcher.
Jeff Niemann: He is arbitration-eligible for the first time this year and is under team control for three more years. Those three years could cost ~$15 million without an extension. There are also injury risks as The Giraffe tends to need extra rest more often than the other guys. We have long been proponents of moving Niemann to the bullpen, but he has more value as a starting pitcher.
Jeremy Hellickson: The Rays still have Hellboy for five more years. But how good will he be? Since coming to the majors, his strikeouts are way down, and his walks are way up. Worst-case scenario is that he is a rich-man’s Andy Sonnanstine. That is, he lacks the stuff to dominate and gets too cute around the strikezone. Best-case is that he rediscovers his swing-and-miss potential and becomes a solid #2 or #3 starting pitcher. Also consider that his agent is Scott Boras, so there is no hope that he will sign an extension.
Alex Cobb: Cobb reminds a little of Wade Davis. That is, he will probably be a solid back-of-the-rotation innings eater. Some think his changeup will make him better than Davis. We need to see more first.
Alex Torres: We don’t know much about Torres yet. Great stuff, but he reminds us a little of Victor Zambrano. That is, we are not sure that he knows how to harness his stuff. Depending on what you believe his upside is, may only be the 6th best starting pitcher in the system.
Among the 122 pro sports teams representing the four major North American sports, the Rays came in third. Their $0.56 million cost per win wasn’t the best, ranking second behind the Florida Marlins ($0.52M per win). And when compared to the other teams in their sports, the Rays came in third, behind the Marlins and the Nashville Predators of the NHL. [BUSINESS INSIDER]
Watch this video from attorney Matt Dolman of Dolman Law Group. Common examples of insurance company bad faith are provided. Dolman Law Group has offices in Clearwater, Bradenton and Melbourne.
Back in March before the regular seasons started, we decided to have a little fun with an over/unders contest. We asked you guys to pick OVER or UNDER on twelve numbers for the 2011 season, with the winner to receive a $50 gift certificate to the online store of your favorite baseball team.
At this point, we are going to declare an UNOFFICIAL winner. This unofficial for a couple of reasons. First, one of the under/unders is still in play. Number 10 asked for the number of first place MVP votes for Evan Longoria (over/under 0.5). We are working under the assumption that the actual number will be ZERO*. Also, we want to give everybody an opportunity to double-check their entries and file a protest if necessary.
We triple-checked all of the top entries so we are fairly confident that we got the right winner. But we have graded enough exams in our day to know mistakes happen.
The UNOFFICIAL winner of the 2011 Raysheads over/unders contest is ttnorm, who picked 10 of 12 correctly.
Here are the final results for each over/under and how many people picked the correct answer.
Watch this video from attorney Matt Dolman of Dolman Law Group. Common examples of insurance company bad faith are provided. Dolman Law Group has offices in Clearwater, Bradenton and Melbourne.
Poor Matt Moore. By moving to the bullpen on Tuesday, Moore was all of a sudden low-man on the service time pole. That means he was in charge of the bullpen snacks kept in the Dora bag (right).
THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…
Let’s start today with something that might cheer us all up. Some A-Rod Schadenfreude! [Business Insider]
One player jokingly (we assume) said they would file a grievance if Matt Moore starts the 2012 season in the minors. Anybody want to guess which player said that? Our money is on David Price. [@JeffPassan]
Josh Hamilton apologized to several members of the Rays staff on Tuesday for letting them down during his time in the organization. [Big League Stew]
Here is an even-handed take on the Rays attendance. Caple doesn’t bash the fanbase, but says that the fans need to do a better job. [ESPN]
And here is “Mike and Mike” bashing the attendance problems. While it is easy to get upset at their lack of knowledge of the situation, we have to realize, this is exactly how most fans feel about baseball in Tampa Bay. [ESPN]
On the home plate collision with Sean Rodriguez, Mike Napoli swallowed a mouthful of tobacco. [Big League Stew]
At first this bothered us. Then we found out they did the same thing for the Red Sox set to the movie, “The Departed.” [downtownstpete.com]
Obviously the Rays are out of it now, but here is a cool infographic comparing the playoff teams. [Grantland]
Yeah, the Rays were unlikely to win scoring three runs tonight, but tossing out J.P. Howell in the seventh to face Josh Hamilton with the bases loaded and two outs was the equivalent of playing Russian roulette with a half-loaded gun.
Was Jake McGee unavailable? What about Matt Moore for one batter? This was freakin’ game 3 of the ALDS.
For Joe, the commercial break before Howell threw his first pitch was like waiting for the lethal injection guy to stroll over and plunge the syringe. Right on cue, Hamilton torched a two-run single to right field to give the Rangers a 4-1 lead.
The reality is this game was right out of the script for so many of the Rays’ 70+ losses this season. Enough pitching to win but anemic bats.
It just feels so much worse in the playoffs.
Kudos to Dezmon Jennings for busting out of his slump and giving the Rays life — and hope for now and beyond — with two dingers.
Last summer we linked to several of the “This is Stone Crabs Baseball” videos which were humerous clips produced by members of the Rays single-A affiliate Charlotte Stone Crabs. One reader reminded us that the Rays wonderboy, Matt Moore, was featured prominently in one of those videos…
Evan Longoria’s latest commercial (video is below) is reminiscent of Fred McGriff’s “Tom Emansky” commercial.
