Tampa Bay Rays

The Tampa Bay Rays will send 4 players to St. Louis for the All-Star game, and possible a 5th. Evan Longoria had the most votes for any third baseman, and for a while, had the most votes of anyone in the AL, until Derek Jeter surpassed him. Jason Bartlett was second among AL shortstops, behind only Derek Jeter and Carl Crawford earned another All-Star bid in the outfield. To add to those three, Joe Maddon (manager of the AL All-Star team by virtue of bringing the Rays to the World Series) chose Ben Zobrist to join the team as well.

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A day after the Rays do seemingly everything wrong, they come back and do nearly everything right in a 7-1 victory over the Phillies. The second game of the World Series rematch was much more eventful than the previous, with Garza throwing a gem, Burrell homering and Bartlett extending his hit streak to 18 games (ties a franchise record held by the long time Devil Ray great Quinton McCracken).

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The Rays put up a dozen runs in the first game of the series, but can only muster three in the second game, as the Rockies hand them their first loss in seven games.

 Apart from his 4 run second inning, which included back to back base hits and a three run homer, David Price's outing last night was decent. He was finally able to go deeper into the game, something he was determined to do after several of his previous starts fell short. He gave up 5 earned in 7 innings of work. Unfortunately for the Rays, the couldn't match that offensively. Solo blasts from Crawford and Longoria and a RBI single by Burrell was the only support Price got, giving him his first loss of the season.

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It wasn't very pretty, but the Rays won the series opener against the Nationals, owners of the league's worst record. It was just the kind of game that the Rays won all last year but have failed to win so far this year. The Rays have been awful in one run games this year and it feels like a turning point.

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Pat Burrell will make one more start at AA Montgomery before making his long awaited return to the big leagues. Out since May 11 with a stiff neck, Burrell will look to make an impact when he again gr

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After their improbable World Series run in 2008, many fans and analysts expected the 2009 Tampa Bay Rays club to be as good or better.

They’re not.

Since the Stuart Sternberg ownership era began in 2006, Cool Hand Stu could do no wrong.  Free parking at home games.  Fans were allowed to bring their own food to games, and tailgating in the parking lot on game day was encouraged.  Ballpark attractions on Left, Center, and Right Field Streets beyond the outfield stands really enhanced the stadium experience for casual fans.  There aren’t many ballparks that let you play baseball video games in a lounge area that looks like the Formans’ basement on “That 70’s Show.” 

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I am the last person on earth to say that the world series should have been decided by a rain-shortened game, but the turn of events that have lead to a 3.5 inning shootout to determine the winner of game five on Wednesday night is a bit weird to say the least.

Continue reading "World Series Game 5.5: Just Plain Weird"

The tune of “Rain Drops Keep Falling on My Head” must have been going through Cole Hamels mind in the top of the sixth inning of game five of the World Series on Monday night. 

With the rain beating down and puddles filling up all over the in field, Hamels and the other Phillies had to be wondering why they were still on the field.  Why wouldn’t the officials call it?  Were they trying to give the Rays a chance to tie it up, so they wouldn’t have a World Series game shortened by rain? 

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Entrance into the Hall of Fame is the highest individual honour that baseball has to offer. Getting into Cooperstown means that without a doubt you are one of the greatest players of your generation and have earned the right for children to stare at your plaque as parents tell tall-tales of your abilities for years to come.

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Even if it ended badly for the Mariners, and for Willie Bloomquist in particular, last night's game against first-place Tampa Bay showed that the Mariners still have some fight in them. Though they blew a four-run lead on errors by Jose Lopez and failed to drive home a run in what should have been an easy game-winning situation, Seattle provided some excitement and refused to give up, even with an utterly depleted bench that had them giving up the DH in order to have enough position players. And we got another glimpse of the Mariners' future, at least on the mound.

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out of three from the Twins and four out of their last five before an exciting heartbreaker to the Tampa Bay Rays last night. Though we dropped the game 5-3, Wladimir Balentien uncorked a two-run bomb, showing the Ms that they were wise to bring him up and dump the punchless Jose Vidro.

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Offensively and defensively, the Yankees have been missing the services of Hideki Matsui since June 27, and Jorge Posada on and off for even longer. Matsui is an integral RBI guy to give ARod and Giambi protection in the five or six hole, and is needed more than ever in left with Johnny Damon's shoulder issues. Posada can hit pretty well, but can't throw, so even when he was in the game, other teams ran rampant--Jose Molina and Chad Moeller are decent defensive replacements, but can't match Jorge's bat.

Continue reading "Two Yankees, Toughing it Out"

A few relatively minor items to cover with the moves made by a few teams recently. What might they mean in the second half? I’ll try and puzzle this out.

Tony Clark, who experienced a career resurgence the day he put on an Arizona Diamondbacks uniform back in 2005, hs returned to the cozy confines of Chase Field. Petco, where hitting a homer is as hard as hitting the lottery, wasn’t as kind to the aging Clark as Chase has been, so he’ll certainly improve on his 2008 line of .239/.374/.307. His 32:19 K:BB ratio, as well as hs 165-point difference between BA and OBP, will tell you his batting eye is fine, and some power should follow.

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One of the All-Star Break traditions: Reassessing our predictions from the first half of the season. Some of mine have changed, some have stayed the same—and some were just damn wrong. Living in the West, I will take the contrarian position and roll from west to east in my choices.

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It’s the All-Star Break once again, that mythical halfway point in the season (I say “mythical” because most teams have played 95-96 games, more than the 81 that’s the true midway mark). Traditionally, it’s time for the teams to take a breath, collect themselves and iron out any kinks in their batting stroke or the pitching rotation—several starters made relief appearances or threw out of turn in the past game or two, knowing that three or four days of rest was coming for all of them.

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All right. Are you ready for this? As the All-Star break approaches, the Tampa Bay Rays have the best record in baseball. That’s right. At 49-32, they’re a half-game ahead of Boston, the Cubs, and Anaheim. Whoa. Is this one of the signs of the apocalypse?

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I've been a Yankees fan since the early nineties, pre-Showalter, pre-Torre, pre-post-seventies-World-Series-victories days, and it seems to me they're as vulnerable as they've ever been. I like Girardi, I like the New Steinbrenner regime that doesn't look to scour out every single prospect for the possibility of Winning Right Now--but I think they are (dare I say?) approaching those dreaded Rebuilding Years.

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t get Santana and expect them to be major players for pitching at the trade deadline this season.

Tampa Bay Rays

What can the Rays expect from Evan Lognoria this season?

For now nothing as Longoria is starting the season at Triple A. That won’t last long however, as Longoria had an excellent spring and the only reason he was sent to the minors seems to be to push back his free agent clock another year. The extra time in the minors certainly can’t hurt him and will at least keep him from scuffling through some likely cold weather early April games.

Continue reading "MLB 2008 Season Preview: American Leauge East"

The New York Yankees try to carry themselves with the belief that they are the classiest team in baseball. Earlier this week manager Joe Girardi took a stance that was not supported by many others in baseball when he harshly criticized a home plate collision in a game earlier this week, calling it dirty and something that you don’t do in Spring Training. If a young player trying to get noticed by his manager his coming into home and the plate is completely blocked, he has every right to barrel over the catcher. If Girardi doesn’t want such a thing to happen, he should tell his catcher not to block the plate in Spring Training. Nonetheless, I can understand Yankees pitcher Heath Phillips throwing at Evan Longoria in retaliation the next time the two teams met, that at least sends a statement to your teammates that you’ve got their backs. However, when Shelley Duncan slid into second base with his spikes high, that is just plain dirty and something that is unacceptable at anytime in the season. The home plate collision was a young kid trying to make a play, done with no malicious intent. Sliding into a base with your spikes in the air can only be seen as trying to injure another player.

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Jays shut the door in the late innings.

The name might not be the only thing different about the Tampa Bay Rays this season, they might actually be a good team. They are young and will experience their share of growing pains, but one cannot doubt their talent and potential, headlined by Evan Longoria, Baseball America's number one prospect in the country. BJ Upton seems ready to emerge as the star he is projected to be now that he is settled into centerfield and Carl Crawford returns as one of the most exciting players in the game. Scott Kazmir and James Shields will anchor a young rotation and will be joined by former Twins prospect Matt Garza. Carlos Pena, Cliff Floyd and Troy Percival should provide veteran leadership to help this young team through the grind of the Major Leage season. The Rays won't contend for the division this year, but could finish around .500 and prove to be problematic for the teams at the top of the division. With more talent from the minors on the way, especially top pitching prospects Wade Davis and David Price, Tampa Bay might be able to contend with the big boys in a couple of years.

Continue reading "American League East is a Beast of a Division"

arks the start of the 2008 season where anything is can happen.  It is a season where even the Tampa Bay Rays can contend for fourth place.  It is a season where the impossible turns into the possible.  Just listen to Ryan Dempster of the Chicago Cubs make a bold prediction, “I think we are going to win the World Series. I really do.”  Great, just what a Cubs fans need to hear, another prediction. 

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