If you’ve been around for a while, you’ve probably heard me use the phrase “market correction” a few times. It’s a way to describe a player (or a team) that has been playing high above or below its typical produciton, leading you to believe that there’s bound to be something (a slump/hot streak) that causes said players to put up stats much closer to their career totals. Right now, we’re seeing a market correction by the bullpen.
Bullish: After weeks of seeing Scott Dohmann, J.P. Howell. and company put up great numbers, there was definitely a logic question as to whether or not this core of back-of-the-bullpen relievers would be able to maintain such a high level of performance. The question has been answered lately with a resounding no, as Dohmann and the rest of his bullpen mates outside of Dan Wheeler and Troy Percival continue to struggle. Tonight was a bad time for the implosion, too, as Matt Garza had pitched very weel and the team was very much still in the game when he left. By the time Dohmman, Trever Miller, and Jason Hammel were done, so were the Rays. They weren’t coming back from 6 runs down.
On the Marcum: He was good. Really good. When you can pump in all of those pitches consistently for strikes on the corner, you’re going to win a lot of ballgames. You could tell early on that if the Rays were going to win this game, it might take a fluky run or two to get it done. The runs didn’t come until the game was out of reach, and Shaun Marcum left with a well-deserved win.
Tough Luck: Matt Garza didn’t deserve the loss in this game at all. His fastball was really working (which he must’ve thrown at least 4/5 of the time. He was constantly throwing it.), darting left and right and hitting the spots pretty well. The Jays got mostly weak swings against him, hitting a slew of pop-ups and weak ground balls. In the 7th, though, a few singles found holes in the infield and that’s all it took for Garza to be chased from the game. Still, if he puts this up every night, he’s going to win plenty of ballgames.
Meeting of the Minds: After three more strikeouts to bring his season total up to eleventy billion, Carlos Pena had a post-game chat with Joe Maddon. At this point it’s got to be mental, because he’s swinging and missing at pitches that I might be able to put in play. I’m still not entirely opposed to dropping him in the order temporarily, but he seems liek a sensitive guy and it might not be in the best interests of his long-term emotional health to drop him now when he’s struggling so bad.
Safe? Bad play or not, am I the only one who thought Dioner Navarro looked safe when he was called out at second on his “single” in the 3rd inning?
Aki Leadoff Watch: I’m going to keep doing this until he’s dropped or starts getting on base to start games. He’s now 3-for-29 with just 3 walks when he’s the first batter of the game.
May 8th, 2008 at 11:16 am
If you look at the Rays recently, 5 runs seems to be their average number so far this month. Even in the May wins, they only scored 4 against Baltimore and 5 against Toronto. The last double digit run win was against Baltimore on April 11th.
May 8th, 2008 at 11:56 am
This team is due to breakout soon. Litsch is a tough young pitcher so far, but I would love for us to be the ones to make him remember just how young he is. A nice 12-spot on the board would be nice to see. We definitely have the firepower to do it, but we will just have to wait and see. Pena needs to at least show that he can hit a fastball before I will think that he will be close to breaking out.