Rays of Light

Game 79 - Open Thread

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Scouting Report on todays starters from MLB.com
J.P. Howell - Howell walked three and fanned seven in five innings last time out, but stumbled at a few key points before he exited with the game tied. The young lefty scattered two singles to start the third, and then secured two outs. He walked the next hitter to load the bases, and then worked Josh Fields to a six-pitch walk that forced in the White Sox first run. The outing tied his shortest this season, and continued his inconsistency of being dead-on or way off.

C.C. Sabathia - Sabathia’s All-Star-worthy first half continued Monday against Oakland, when he held the A’s to a pair of runs on nine hits with no walks and eight strikeouts in his second complete game of the season. He gave up two runs in the second inning but was dominant for the remainder. In his last start against the Rays, on April 20, Sabathia gave up three runs (two earned) on seven hits over seven innings in a no-decision.

View the Rays career numbers vs. C.C. Sabathia - ESPN Splits

View the game preview from Baseball Reference

Notable Performances From Down on the Farm

Hitters

Winds of (Roster) Change a-Blowin’

In an article published yesterday in the St. Pete Times (yeah, I know… I’m a little late on this one), Marc Topkin discusses some of the roster moves that the Rays will likely be faced with in the coming week. (Source)

Of course, the most obvious one is when Bossman Junior Upton is ready to come off of the DL. As was speculated here by Joe yesterday, Jorge Cantu is the most likely candidate to get back on the Durham Express, since the team seems set on using Upton as the second baseman. I wonder if watching Delmon play center and Gomer play right for a few more days will change anyone’s mind? I said it yesterday, and I’ll say it again today, B.J. NEEDS to play center field for this team right now. He’s clearly the best of the group that we’ve got - and the Young/Gomer combo is COSTING this team runs and games. Young is a much better right fielder than center fielder, and Gomer is much better at sitting on his butt in the dugout than running around like a chicken in right field. He occasionally makes a great play that makes you wonder how he managed to defy all laws of physics, but in general he’s absolutely awful out there.

Speaking of B.J., according to reports yesterday, Upton was kept out of the Vero Beach lineup because of “fatigue.” Purely precautionary, they say. I hate to jump to conclusions - as I’m sure there’s nothing serious - but haven’t we seen this before? I’m sure that there’s some other player that’s had a leg injury before having to sit out during his rehab because of more problems.

Image courtesy of The Diamond Dangle
Topkin also reminds us that Juan Salas will need to be re-instated to the 40-man roster on Tuesday, even if he’s not going to be rejoining the team just yet. With all the roster shuffling going on lately, your guess is as good as mine as to who is next to go. Maybe Orvella? Of course, if the team can find something to do with Elijah Dukes before then, it solves the problem. I think they need more parking attendants outside the Trop, don’t they?

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Game 78 - Will We Ever Win Again?

I’ve got a couple questions for this team.

Game 78 - Open Thread

Don’t Forget!!!

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Scouting Report on todays starters from MLB.com
Edwin Jackson - Going winless in his first eight decisions of the season, Jackson finally nailed down his first victory as a Ray on Sunday against the Dodgers. The right-hander held his former team to two runs on nine hits and one walk over six innings. Jackson has a mid-90s fastball that he needs to have better command of to pitch late into the games. He has yet to receive a decision while posting a 3.12 ERA over two career appearances against Cleveland.

Jake Westbrook - Westbrook made his first start since the beginning of May on Sunday, returning from an oblique muscle injury. He looked as sharp as he did before the injury, giving up three runs over seven innings of work. His fastball was clocked in the 90s through the entire outing, and he threw 88 pitches before leaving. He can’t fix the team’s offensive problems, but he’ll give the Tribe a chance to win.

View the Rays career numbers vs. Jake Westbrook - ESPN Splits

View the game preview from Baseball Reference

The Farm Report

Hitters

Rays Odds & Ends

Game 77 - It Keeps Getting Worse

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Define “worst case scenario.”

How about losing 4 straight to a team that was below yours in the standings just a few days ago? How about scoring 9 runs in 4 games? How about abysmal defense that directly resulted in at least half a dozen runs during the series?

Every single one of those things came to fruition over the past 4 days, and the entire mess was capped off by an absolutely embarrassing 5-1 defeat Thursday night to the lowly Chicago White Sox. The same Chicago White Sox who just 4 days ago were talking about trading everyone away. The same White Sox who were on the verge of firing their manager just 4 days ago. Apparently, those White Sox stayed in Chicago while this version of the squad traveled for some fun and sun in Florida.

Scott Kazmir wasn’t good. He allowed 4 runs in 5 1/3 innings, but that doesn’t tell the entire story. In his continuing attempt to make his arm fall off, he threw 114 pitches in that span, walking 3 and striking out 9. He couldn’t locate his pitches at all, and by the 6th inning couldn’t find home plate with a GPS system and detailed directions.

The outfield defense didn’t help again, either. Jonny Gomes played an out into a triple in the second, then couldn’t catch an easy looper in front of him later in the inning. Later, Delmon Young misplayed a routine grounder in center. It’s like watching the Bad News Bears right now. And I’m not talking about the Bad News Bears that got to play in Houston or in Japan. I’m talking about the ones before Kelly Leak showed up, The ones who got run-ruled every single game. The Bears who were the laughing-stock of the league.

Is that what the Rays are again? Ozzie Guillen came in and obviously had little respect for the club over the week. Looking at media coverage of the series, you could tell that people didn’t take the White Sox streak here seriously, since it came at the hands of the Rays. I saw comments all over the place saying that Buehrle’s performance last night didn’t count for anything because it came in Tampa. Not that the team’s play did anything to change that opinion. It looked bad. Really bad. It looked like a team unwilling to play hard, lacking fire, and being totally overmatched and unprepared.

Unprepared. That’s a very interesting word. A lot of people who come into the chat room or write comments on this blog mention that the team looks unprepared, lacks fire, and overall just doesn’t want to be there. Heck, just look at Carl Crawford’s recent play. There’s no passion in his game. He looks like he’s loafing in the outfield, and he’s giving away at bats like he couldn’t be bothered by being up there.

On the whole, look at the way the team swings at first-pitch balls, or first-pitch pitcher’s pitches. Look at the lack of hustle, the lack of drive, and the lack of intensity. Even the coaching seems uninspired.

The answer? Fire Joe Maddon. That’s the first time I’ve ever said that on this site. I’ve defended him for a very long time. All the standard answers I’ve given in his defense, too - “it’s hard to win with young players” or “he’s the right guy for the job” - can be thrown out the window right now. His zenlike, calm, laid-back style may be all well and good, but this team looks and plays like it’s resigned to mediocrity. There is absolutely no excuse that this team, with the talent it has, should be WORSE at this point in the season than last year’s squad was. Certainly, the players need to shoulder some of the blame, but you can’t fire the players. You can, however, pinpoint the motivational issue on this squad. It’s about damn time that someone is held accountable on this squad, and Joe is NOT doing it.

The Rays are headed into Cleveland next. I would not be surprised if they were swept again. The All-Star Break can’t come soon enough, if only to give the poor fans of this team a chance to recharge for a second-half full of even more false-hope and mediocre baseball.

Memorable Quotes from the Night
rob_M: Travis (lee) spoke 10 languages, couldn’t hit in any of them
jonwolfson: The !@#$% outfield is a mess! Remember the good old days when it was the team’s bright spot (ie-in March?)

STARS OF THE GAME - All based on WPA

Game 77 - Open Thread

Don’t Forget!!!

We still need your input to help improve the site. You can win a valuable prize just for answering a few simple questions. For more information, see this post

Scouting Report on todays starters from MLB.com
Javier Vazquez - Vazquez pitched well enough to win but left Saturday’s game against the Cubs with his sixth no-decision of the 2007 season. Since April 13, Vazquez has only one victory. He tied a season-high with eight strikeouts in the Saturday game, allowing one run on five hits over seven innings. Vazquez has a 3-2 career record against the Rays with a 5.14 ERA.

Scott Kazmir - Kazmir pitched well against the Dodgers Saturday night holding them hitless through three innings and scoreless through five frames. Once again, though, his pitch count rose rapidly, forcing him to leave the game after the sixth inning and 116 pitches. Kazmir’s stuff continues to be electric. Using a fastball, changeup and slider, he can dominate any game and go the distance if he can keep his pitch count down.

View the Rays career numbers vs. Javier Vazquez - ESPN Splits

View the game preview from Baseball Reference

Notable Performances From Down on the Farm

Hitters

News From the Rays-verse

Thanks to Marc Lancaster for the following updates…(Source)

Welcome Back B.J. - B.J. Upton returned to action today, going 0-for-3 in five innings for Vero Beach. He played second base in the contest. No worries that he left after only 5 - they are easing him back in. According to Lancaster: “imagine heíll at least have to play an entire game in the field before being activated, but weíll wait and see what the powers that be say later this afternoon.”

Niemann Sees Stars

RHP Jeff Niemann is Durhamís lone representative on the International League team for the Triple-A All-Star Game, which will be held July 11 in Albuquerque. Niemann previously was selected to play on the U.S. team in the Futures Game, which will take place three days earlier in San Francisco.

He also mentions that Evan Longoria is ineligible for the Southern League All-Star Game due to his participation in the Futures Game. I think we’ll take that trade-off.

Three Biscuits will be on the South Division teamócatcher John Jaso and pitchers Chris Mason and Dale Thayer. Outfielder Jason Pridie also was selected for the game but has been promoted to Durham to replace Dustan Mohr.

See you guys in the chat room for the game tonight!

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We Need Your Input

UPDATE - 6/28 by Scott - Just bumping this to keep it near the top. Also, remember to “Pay It Forward” as my post down a few mentions.

I’m calling on all readers over the next week to submit their answers to the following questions via my E-mail. I will be giving away at least one prize for a random person who takes the survey, with the possibility for more than one based on participation. With that being said, let’s get to the questions:

Game 76 - Sonny Daze

A few days ago, I wrote on this very site that the Rays should come into this series and expect to take 3 out of 4 from Chicago. And really, what reason did I have to believe otherwise? The White Sox had been embarrassed by the Cubs over the weekend, while the Rays had back-to-back solid wins against the Dodgers. The winds of fortune seemed to blow in the Rays’ favor.

Well, something has blown the past few days, but it’s certainly not fortune.

Andy Sonnanstine was great tonight, if not a bit uneconomical, and the Rays offense managed to scratch across 3 runs against Mark Buehrle. They could have had more, leaving 12 men on base, but 3 runs against one of the best pitchers in the league is nothing to sneeze at.

Then, as I said in the chat room when Bill asked what had happened, that lead went to the place where all good things go to die: the Rays’ bullpen.

To be fair, the bullpen isn’t entirely at fault for this evening’s shenanigans. Carl Crawford played left field as if he’d never seen a baseball diamond before. A double-play ball went just wide of Brendan Harris‘ glove. Jonny Gomes and Delmon Young lost a fly ball in the ceiling. Still, you’d like to have one game where the ‘pen can hold onto a 2-run lead.

One thing that can definitely be taken from this game is the absolutely brilliant performance by Andy Sonnanstine. He didn’t walk anyone again, and allowed only 6 hits in 6.1 innings. The best part - he didn’t allow a home run. His biggest issue so far - both here and in the minors - has been his inability to keep the ball in the park. Well, he certainly did that tonight and was most definitely good enough to win. I said it numerous times in chat tonight, and it bears repeating - Sonny has all of the tools necessary to be a solid big league pitcher. He throws strikes, works quickly, and keeps hitters off-balance. Everything you want from a big league pitcher.

Another thing that became painfully obvious during the game was that Carl Crawford just doesn’t seem to be playing hard right now. Is he hurt? Is he bored? I’m not inside his head, so I don’t know for sure, but you have to wonder if all of the losing is finally starting to take its toll on him. The Rays are 33-43 right now - 10 games under .500. That’s certainly not the improvement that was expected prior to the season. Watching the bullpen blow lead after lead has to take its toll on him. He looked lost at the plate tonight, and he needed a map to find his way around left field. Joe should seriously consider giving him a day off - COMPLETELY away from the ballpark - to get his head on straight.

Brendan Harris, by the way, was 3-for-4 tonight. Does he do anything but good things?

So, the Rays come to the ballpark Thursday trying to avoid a sweep at the hands of a team that is WORSE in the standings than they are. Dropping 3 straight against this team is disappointing. Being swept in 4? That might put a black mark on the season that this team can’t recover from.

STARS OF THE GAME - All based on WPA