Rays of Light

How do you feel about Price

By Joe Aiello  |  Posted in Discussion  

I’d like to know what your thoughts have been on him so far this year. He was great last year, but hasn’t shown that same dominance this season so far. I’m ashamed to admit it, but I’m a little disappointed so far. I hope I’m wrong about him, but perhaps he was a little overrated or at the very least, not as ready as we were told for the Majors.

All Hail King David!

By Scott Caruso  |  Posted in General  

Sure, it might have taken about 7 weeks longer than it should have, but David Price will take to the hill on Monday night in Cleveland trying to right the one thing that has - on a number of occassions - gone so wrong for the Rays this season: the spot in the starting rotation recently vacated by Scott Kazmir.

It’s not a stretch to think that Price will easily be able to eclipse the 73.46 ERA that Kid K was pitching to this season, or the 67 pitches/inning he was averaging.* Nor is it a stretch to think that Price will remain firmly entrenched in this spot in the rotation for the foreseeable future (i.e. years and years and years). The Rays are about to get better quick, fast, and in a hurry.

And it’s hard not to feel bad for Dale Thayer. Dude got called up to take the place of old dust-and-bones**, nailed down a 3-inning save about 26 minutes after arriving to the ballpark, and what does he get for his effort? A quick trip back to Podunk*** to ride the bus with the Jon Weber’s and Winston Abreu’s of the world.

(And that was about 2 1/2 lines more than anyone else is going to write about Dale Thayer, so be thankful.)

King David’s reign is about to begin. The plebians in Cleveland are going to be the first to bow down before his heighness.

* - Stats exaggerated.

** - Troy Percival

*** - Podunk isn’t a real place. This is actually Durham.

Durham Update

By A.J. Leppla  |  Posted in General  

The past two days have been nice for the Durham starting pitchers.  Our top two prized possessions down there have been very good.  David Price and Wade Davis have been nothing short of greatness in the last two days.

Sunday, Price decided to no-hit Rochester through 5 innings.  Through those 5 IP, there were no hits, obviously, 2 walks 0 runs, and 9 K’s.  Seems like he’s getting more comfortable down there.  One or two more outings like that, along with one or two more pitiful starts by Kazmir, Price could be up in a week or two.  His ERA in Durham is now under 4, and this was clearly a huge step in the right direction again for him.  The Rays and Price both needed that type of start out of him.

Last night, Wade Davis got pretty nasty against Rochester, too.  Davis went 6.2 innngs of shutout baseball, while only giving up 2 hits, 1 walk, and had 3 K’s.  While Davis isn’t wowing anybody with his K’s this season, he’s obviously spending his team on truly ‘pitching.’  This is good to see out of him because we all know his K’s will come, but learning how to ‘pitch’ can be tough for young guys.  He’s battled the walks thus far this season, but he’s getting himself out of those situations, and only allowing a .192 Opponents Batting Average.  He’s still going to be up later than Price because he’s not the fan favorite.  But he will be up after the All-Star break if Sonny doesn’t get his pitching right soon.

The position players are not doing too shabby, however, certain guys are slowing down now.  Matt Joyce is down to batting .284 and has struck out 32 times in 109 AB’s.  In his last 10 games, he’s hitting .216 with 1 HR, 1RBI, 3 2B, and 12 K’s.  So, when he is hitting the ball, he’s putting it in a gap or over a wall.  But the K’s are not good.  He should get back on track again, and I expect a good week out of him.

Reid Brignac is holding his own for the Bulls.  His 8 errors are a little high for a solid defensive SS, but he’ll be fine with his glove, and we know that.  His bat is so-so.  His last 10 games are similar to Joyce, without as many K’s (just 5).  But he hasn’t homered in 9 games, and he’s only got 3 so far this season.  My take on him is that he’s going to be a good major league SS for someone, but not with the Rays.  We have Bartlett, who needs to be locked up soon, and Tim Beckham will be coming after him in a couple of years.  Brignac will never be ‘All-Star’ caliber, in my opinion, but he’ll be a solid shortstop that will play good defense with an average bat.  Someone like San Diego or Detroit should be interested around the All-Star break.

I’ll try to do this once a week for the site.  Tell me your thoughts, and any info you’d also like to see added with this.

Game Recap 5/18/09: Indians 5 Rays 7

By A.J. Leppla  |  Posted in General  

The Rays take the series in this one. Great job by the offense in this series! The starting pitching, besides Garza, was pitiful, but the bats prevailed. Even Andy Sonnanstine got in on the action. Lucky for us, he hits well for a pitcher because Maddon made a huge mistake as I noted earlier today.

Again, this was a good team win, and the last 3 games looked a lot like the 2008 Rays team. Not just because of the winning that took place, but because this team never felt like they were out of a game when they were down, and they made sure not to give up a lead when they had it.

The end of today’s game was exciting as Kerry Wood was brought into the game for the Tribe to do one job, which he failed to complete-even on the second attempt. He was supposed to hit B.J. Upton for stealing bases the 1st game of the series when we were down 9-0. Apparently, Eric Wedge expects teams to quit trying to score when they fall behind, like their’s does. It was a terrible baseball move for Wedge to do this, but the man is desperate for his team to respond to something.  The benches cleared, but no ejections were made by the umpires, which there should have been on the Indians’ side.  But the Rays didn’t let it bother them too much.  Troy Percival collected the save, and the Rays picked up a big win.

Overall, it was a fun offense to watch all series.  They did everything from steal bases to hitting clutch homeruns to doing a good job of situational hitting.  Nice job Rays!  Time to sweep Oakland next!

Bonehead Managerial Move

By A.J. Leppla  |  Posted in General  

Well, I’d love to see what the Maddon lovers have to say now.  Today, May 17, 2009, the Rays manager, Joe Maddon, decides to put 2 third basemen in the lineup.  One was supposed to be a DH.  That DH was to be Evan Longoria, who just happens to be hitting among the tops in the majors in many offensive categories, including leading the majors in RBI.  But Joe made a bonehead move on the lineup card, and the lineup had to be corrected.  Ben Zobrist was the starting third baseman on defense, so he had to stay in the lineup and couldn’t be replaced by Longoria.  Instead of having a normal-looking American League lineup with a DH, we had to use Andy Sonnanstine in the offensive lineup.  I know that it was probably an honest mistake, but it is a STUPID mistake to have happen in professional baseball.  Longoria will be available for substitution later in the game.  So, we have that going for us.  But having to hit Sonnanstine in the #3 spot in the order is a huge problem.  I’ve been critical of Maddon for a while now, and this just adds to it.  I’m not saying he should be fired or anything, but I wouldn’t be against it.  There is NO EXCUSE for something like this to happen!

Bartlett or Brignac?

By A.J. Leppla  |  Posted in General  

I know it’s a little early to talk about this, but it will be coming up this offseason.  Jason Bartlett is arbitration eligible again after the year, and the Rays should think about signing him long-term.  He’s proven himself to be quite valuable to the franchise, and he’s found his comfort zone at the plate.  The problem is that the Rays also need to cut payroll next year, and have a shortstop in waiting with Reid Brignac.

Brignac is having a so-so season so far in Durham, but is very nearly ready for the big time.  But with Bartlett playing at the level he is, it’s hard to take him off this team.  While Brignac might have more power, I feel that Bartlett is the far superior all-around shortstop.

Personally, I would like to see the Rays sign Bartlett to a 4-year deal this offseason for somewhere in the $24-28 million range.  I think he’s one of those guys that you want to keep in your organization for as long as you can.  He definitely has earned a big raise this year, and taking him off the team could prove costly.  Taking Brignac’s value as a solid shortstop that major league-ready, you could land a piece or two that you really need.  We all know that Tim Beckham is now the SS of the future, but Bartlett is the man right now, and he needs to stay put.

Who knows?  Maybe we can add a valuable young relief pitcher or two for Brignac.  When I say that, I mean that we trade for someone like Kevin Cameron from the A’s-a young, high-upside reliever who stays under team control for a while.  That’s just an example though.  The offseason will have a lot of tough decisions ahead, and we could see a reasonable amount of change.  But I think Friedman will be very wise, and decide to keep Bartlett.  He’s the sure thing, and Brignac is still just a question mark.

What do you guys think?

Game Recap 5/16/09: Indians 2 Rays 4

By A.J. Leppla  |  Posted in General  

Well, that’s two in a row for our beloved Rays!  That was a good team win.  I was at the game, and watched Matt Garza actually pitch without his good stuff.  I hope the rest of the rotation took notes.  He went 6 innings, gave up only 2 runs, but took 120 pitches to get the job done.  That’s what you call battling to keep your team in the game.  Great job today, Matt!

The offense did a nice job of decent timely hitting.  Ben Zobrist got another big hit for us tonight to add an insurance run in the 8th.  He just continues to swing a great bat for us.  I think what he’s shown us is that he’s great in small doses as a player.  When he starts everyday, he gets exposed defensively.  Hopefully, Maddon can realize this and just use him the way he has the last few nights.

Carl Crawford had another good night at the plate, as did Jason Bartlett.  But the guy we’re all happy to see swinging the bat better the last few games is B.J. Upton.  He hit another HR today, and looks more comfortable.  Let’s hope he continues this.  I know I’ve been critical of him this season, but I’m glad he’s doing better.  I still would lead Bartlett off for right now to see if we can get a lot of fire to start off the game.  But like I said, I’m glad Upton is doing better.

Tomorrow, we need to put the nail in the coffin on the Indians.  We need to win this series, desperately.  Let’s get it done, boys.  Time to try to put a nice 8-game winning streak together.

Game Recap 5/15/09: Indians 7 Rays 8

By A.J. Leppla  |  Posted in General  

Who saw this coming after the first few innings?!  I don’t even care how bad Scott Kazmir sucked tonight (yes, I do)!  Watching this offense fight tooth and nail was worth it’s price in gold.  This was the biggest comeback in Rays history!  Ben Zobrist had another huge HR.  I may not be a fan of his defense, but the boy can swing the stick.  And while we’ve all been saying Upton needed to be moved down in the order, and he did, it looks like he may have just ended his slump.  B.J. stepped to the plate to leadoff the 9th inning, only to smack a 3-2 fastball into the leftfield bleachers.  The bullpen also did a great job of keeping us in the game.  I’m staying away from negatives tonight.  We can talk about those later.  Outstanding win tonight!  Let’s use that as momentum for tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day, and the next day…you get the point.