It was 5:00pm and the parking lot I normally use was full. This I did not understand since it has never happened before. Reluctantly, I turned around and headed for the main lot. This whole business didn’t make any sense. I haven’t had to park in the main lot in years and it was two hours before the start of the Rays/Red Sox game at Tropicana Field on Monday night.
My wife (the fabulous Cindy) and I were attending our second game of the season together and we wanted to get there early to visit the Ted Williams Museum and Hitters Hall of Fame. It was actually going to be like a date (for old people, that is).
Cindy and I both come from the Boston area and have always been baseball, and specifically, Red Sox fans. Her father was a life-long pal of Joe Morgan, the former manager of the Red Sox, and baseball was the hot topic of conversation at her house; when they weren’t discussing politics. I grew up in the city of Boston and frequented Fenway Park maybe 20 to 25 times a year in my youth. However, we moved to the beaches of Pinellas County, Florida 15 years ago and quickly became starved for Major League baseball. In 1998, a franchise was awarded to the City of St. Petersburg and we again got to witness one of our favorite past times in person.
After nine years of watching the Tampa Bay Devil Rays futile attempt at playing quality baseball at the Major League level, things have finally turned around. The Rays have become viable. We saw this starting to happen last year but their record didn’t show it. This year the record shows the improvement; and that is an understatement.
Walking through the parking lot was cool. We passed a host of people tailgating and socializing before the game. The smell of food cooking on the grill was everywhere and people were smiling and having a great time. The mixture of Rays blue and the Red Sox red was about equal in the parking lot, which is a common event when the Sox were in town. We got into a line that was about 150 yards long to get into the stadium and in fact were behind a family of five who were visiting from Andover, Mass and I actually got to take their picture for them in front of the Tropicana Field sign. They were all decked out in their Red Sox gear of course. But they were nice folks and the wait wasn’t very long.
Cindy and I both decided to attend the game in neutral colors. The seats we were sitting in were given to us by a Rays employee and Cindy didn’t want to cause him any embarrassment by wearing Red Sox colors in his seats. Besides, it was awkward for us in deciding whom to root for. We have become fans of the Rays but the love of the Red Sox will never go away. I am convinced that there are two teams in Major League Baseball whose fans will never change. Those teams are the Cubs and the Red Sox. Once a Cubs fan or a Red Sox fan: always a Cubs fan or a Red Sox fan.
We made our stop at the Ted Williams Museum and got to our seats about fifteen minutes before game time. The stands were pretty full by then and I would guess that the fans who were displaying colors were about 60% Rays and 40% Red Sox. The Rays mascot, Raymond was marching in front of the stands carrying a sign that read, “let there be peace” on one side and “can’t we all just get along” on the other. I thought that was pretty appropriate considering the recent past between these two teams. Justin Masterson threw the first pitch of the game and B.J. Upton made a statement by promptly knocking it over the center field wall for a 1-0 Rays lead. There was a quiet moment a few minutes later when Masterson hit Willy Aybar on the foot with a pitch but it was obviously not intentional and nothing came of it.
Cindy found this game to be very emotionally taxing. She was happy that the Rays were doing well but said she couldn’t root against the Sox. I didn’t have that problem though. The Red Sox win all the games at Fenway and the Rays win all the games at the Trop; it’s only fair. Besides, I am convinced that the Sox are going to win the AL east this year so a couple of losses at the Trop won’t matter in the long run and will help to ensure that the Rays get the Wild Card spot. I don’t know how I will react if and when they face each other in the playoffs.
I’m not going to bore you with the details of the game (ESPN has done a fine job of that) except to say that the Rays won. It was, in fact, a great game to watch. There were home runs. There were fine defensive plays. There was good pitching and the drama was elevated. I thought it funny that there was not one stolen base by the two best base stealing teams in the American League. There was an electricity, an excitement, an energy that I have never seen at Tropicana Field before this and it was nice.
The one big difference between this game and all other Red Sox/Rays games I have attended at the Trop was that the Red Sox fans did not dominate the Game. The Rays fans actually overpowered the Sox fans throughout and the only time you saw that change was when Drew homered. It seemed all the fans behind the third base dugout were wearing red.
The game started with drama and ended with drama. A ball hit the catwalk and came down in fair territory getting the Red Sox close. Troy Percival came up lame and J.P. Howell had to come in to get the last out against a stubborn Julio Lugo. There was a typical Florida thunderstorm taking place outside the Trop during the last two innings. It made getting out of the park difficult but it did allow me to enjoy the Rays fans celebrating as we crept our way to the parking lot. It hasn’t always been like this and it was a long time in coming. It was nice to see.
I did learn some things though. I have been a supporter of a new stadium in St. Pete since Stewart Sternberg announced plans for one. I did believe that it needed to be covered and last nights rain convinced me I was right. Another issue was the traffic. I wasn’t able to set up my escape from the park due to the fact that I was in an unfamiliar parking lot. The traffic in the area is an issue and moving the park to the waterfront will create even more issues. It is my opinion that Sternberg made the right move in tabling the referendum on the new stadium until some of these problems get worked out.
I’ll be back at the Trop tonight with my friend Doc Spero. I have decided to display colors for this one though. The problem I am having is what color to display. Red? Blue? Red? Blue? Red? Blue?
I was absolutely beside myself with glee after watching the Rays/Marlins game Monday night. The Rays were behind 3-2 late in the game when a walk, a (rare) bunt single and a Seeing Eye infield hit loaded the bases. At that point the Marlins brought in a pitcher who couldn’t come close to finding the plate and eventually walked in two runs. Evan Longoria came up and promptly hit a double down the right field line, plating two and putting the Rays up 6-3.
Troy Percival came in to pitch in the ninth to close out the game but had his own problems finding the plate. Longoria made an absolutely incredible diving catch of a sure hit to save the game for the Rays. I was thrilled. However in two short months I have grown accustomed to Evan Longoria making plays like that.
I remember last winter when the Rays first started to talk about bringing Longoria up to play third base for the ’08 season and moving Akinori Iwamura to second. I wasn’t happy because I thought that Aki was a fine third baseman and why would you want to mess with something that worked. Well it seems that I either have no imagination or no ability to see a finished product from its inception because Aki has turned out to be the best defensive second baseman in the league and only Mike Lowell and Scott Rolen may be better at third than Longoria.
This post was originally intended to be a tribute to “Evan Almighty” (who just hit his 14th home run against the Marlins as I am writing this). But after doing some research on the subject the direction has changed. It changed because as I researched the progress of Rays’ rookie Evan Longoria I discovered that he is not the only rookie in major league baseball that is having an impact with his team.
Joey Votto is hitting .289 with 12 homers and 37 RBIs while playing first base for the Reds.
Jacoby Ellsbury is covering a lot of ground in the Red Sox outfield and leads the league in stolen bases with 34. Justin Masterson is 4-1 with a 3.43 ERA in 7 starts.
The Cubs have Kosuke Fukudome hitting around .300 and scaring the hell out of pitchers with his bat control. Geovany Soto is hitting .280 with 12 homers and 46 RBIs and a .506 slugging average.
The Rangers have David Murphy (a former Red Sox first round pick acquired in the deal that sent Eric Gagne to Boston). He has 10 homers and 51 RBIs and whomever Josh Hamilton doesn’t drive in, he does.
The Braves have Jair Jurrjens with a 7-3 record and a 3.20 ERA.
The Yankees boast Joba Chamberlain and Edwar Ramirez. Chamberlain has been effective out of the bullpen setting up Rivera and has recently shown he can be an effective and dominating starter. Ramirez has been one of the most effective pitchers the Yankees have coming out of the bullpen.
The Orioles have Jim Johnson in the bullpen with a 1.29 ERA in 30 appearances.
The Blue Jays have Jesse Carlson in the bullpen with a 1.73 ERA in 35 appearances.
The Cardinals have Kyle McClendon in the bullpen with a 2.45 ERA in 37 games with 16 Holds.
The Athletics have Joey Devine and Greg Smith doing fine work with Devine coming in from the pen and Smith a regular in the rotation.
Aaron Laffey has started 11 games for the Indians and has a 2.83 ERA. Masa Kobayashi has been the workhorse out of the bullpen with 37 appearances and a 3.23 ERA.
The Twins have started Nick Blackburn 15 times this year and he hasn’t disappointed with a 6-4 record and a 3.68 ERA.
How does Longoria compare with all these guys? As I write this he is hitting .262 with 14 homers and 43 RBIs. His fielding percentage is right behind Scott Rolen and just ahead of Mike Lowell.
I get to watch Evan Longoria every day. He has made an incredible difference to the Tampa Bay Rays this season and he seems to get better every day. If you get to watch Fukudome or Ellsbury or Votto or Murphy or Soto every day then I would assume you have the same feelings about them as I have about Evan “Almighty”, and I don’t blame you. These are all players that you can base your hopes on.
It may be my imagination and that may be because I never really paid any attention to it but it appears to me that this is the best crop of rookies that MLB has seen in quite some time.
I knew it was going to happen. I should have been prepared and actually thought I was, but as it turns out, I wasn’t. It was inevitable that the secret would get out and the rest of the area would find out about the Tampa Bay Rays and start going to ball games at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg.
Now most folks think that this is a good thing. Others simply don’t care and then there is me. I don’t like it. You see, I have grown accustomed to being able to sit anywhere I wanted to, whenever I wanted to at that ballpark. I have grown accustomed to getting a hot dog or a sausage sandwich whenever I wanted it without having to wait in line. I have grown accustomed to waiting until the last minute to use the head because there was no chance that I would have to wait in line. Alas, that is no longer the case.
Last Thursday night I missed almost a full inning of the Cubs/Rays game just getting a hot dog and a Pepsi. I had to wait in line at the food counter and then had to wait in line at the condiment counter. By the time I got back to my seat the inning was almost over and the dog was cold. Thank goodness nothing much happened while I was gone and thank goodness that I’m too lazy to keep score. Later in the game I postponed a trip to the rest room because there was good stuff happening on the field. It never occurred to me that there would be a line at the urinals when I finally did get up to take care of my plumbing issues, but there it was at a most inconvenient time. I had to pay a kid in front of me three bucks to let me go in front of him to avoid an embarrassing accident. He wanted five but I guess I convinced him that I didn’t have any more cash and he felt sorry for me.
Now don’t get me wrong; I love the fact that the Rays are viable in the American League this year. After spending the last ten years watching them play with the worst pitching in baseball, one of the most porous defenses in baseball and rarely having more than three legitimate Major Leaguers on the field at any given time, this year is a pleasure; except for the fact that it becoming more and more uncomfortable and inconvenient to go to a ball game with all of these other people around.
I should have realized that this was going to be the way it was going to be on opening day. My wife and I had four “babes” in their early twenties sitting in front of us that didn’t seem to have any idea what was going on in the field. They would stand up in the middle of an inning for no apparent reason and would look at me like I was asking for their first born when I asked them to sit down so that I could see the game. After about four innings had elapsed, their scent had permeated every corner of the stadium and single guys were arriving alone, in pairs and at one time, five guys (all carrying their $8 beers) showed up. The problem for us was that there was no place to move to except up in the nose bleed section. We finally left the game at the seventh inning stretch rather than get into an altercation that probably would have required some kind of bail.
I guess the point of all this is that even though I want the Rays to be successful, I am not happy with all these people messing around in my sandbox. If I only went to a few games a year, I would probably accept the inconveniences that large crowds bring. But I go to a lot of games and I am becoming unhappy with the inconveniences that success brings.
It's all about the team!
The Rays are 6 games short of being exactly half way through the 2008 campaign. Their record is 44-31 as we speak and only 3 teams in Major League Baseball have a better winning percentage than the Rays have. Some interesting facts concerning the Rays season thus far:
· They have played 25 series in which they have won 14 and tied 3. Of the 14 series wins, they have swept five, which include sweeps over the Cubs, Angels, Red Sox, Orioles and Blue Jays.
· They have played 14 different baseball teams of which 11 have winning records. Only the Mariners, Astros and Blue Jays have losing records and only 12 of their 75 games (16%) have been played against those teams.
· 83% of their games have been against teams with winning records.
· They are 10-8 versus the teams in MLB that have a better winning percentage than they have, and only the Red Sox seem to have their number and then only in Fenway Park.
It makes no sense!
All this being said, there is the distinct possibility that the Tampa Bay Rays will have only one representative on the American League All-Star team this year.
· They have the 4th lowest ERA in the AL but not one pitcher stands out in statistics to justify inclusion on this team.
· B.J. Upton has had a nice year so far but I can think of 6 other AL outfielders that belong on the team before he does.
· Everyone will look at Carl Crawford as the likely selection, but he is having an off year so far.
Dioner Navarro is the MVP of this team and possibly the best choice but Mauer and Pierzynski deserve more consideration than Navi because of his time on the DL this year
How does this make any sense? They have the fourth best record in all of baseball and have played the most difficult schedule of any team so far, yet they don’t have one serious contender for the All-Star team.
I recently have posted some criticisms of Steve Henderson, the Tampa Bay Rays hitting coach. The frustration of watching Rays hitters strike out at a rate that would be embarrassing if it weren’t for the Rangers has taken its toll on me. I have grown weary of watching Rays at the plate take call 3rd strikes when there are men in scoring position. Hasn’t anybody coached them on defensive hitting or hitting with two strikes? But of course, you can’t blame the players because they are winning more than they are losing; so it must be the coach.
A week or so ago, the Seattle Mariners fired their hitting coach (Jeff Pentland) and replaced him with 71 year old Lee Elia. Now I don’t know anything at all about Jeff Pentland and only a bit little more about Lee Elia. Elia was a coach with the Devil Rays for a little while and who could ever forget his meltdown as the Cubs manager in 1983. I started to wonder what Elia could bring to the table that Pentland couldn’t. The conclusion I came up with was that I am just a fan; what the heck do I know about being a hitting coach in Major League Baseball. Nothing, except that if the team is hitting well, the coach is doing a good job and if they are not, he sucks.
So the next step was to look at all the hitting coaches in baseball and try to find out what makes them effective or not. Because of my basic lazy nature I only looked at the American league (they only have 14 teams). I was quite surprised at what I found.
Of the 14 hitting coaches in the American League, only 6 have had any Major League playing experience (and that includes Elia). Five of the coaches had significant time and some success in the big leagues (Steve Henderson; Rays, Dave Magadon; Red Sox, Terry Crowley; Orioles, Greg Walker; White Sox and Mickey Hatcher; Angels) . Eight of the coaches had no big league experience at all (Lloyd McClendon; Tigers, Kevin Long; Yankees, Derek Shelton; Indians, Rudy Jamarillo; Rangers, Ty VanBurkles; Athletics, Gary Denbo; Blue Jays, Mike Barnett; Royals and Joe Vavra; Twins). Elia played for parts of two seasons and has a total of 212 Major League at bats.
Those that did play averaged 205 ABs per year, 57 hits per year, 4 HRs per year and 26 RBIs per year. The career batting average for all these players is a modest .278. The conclusion I drew from that research is that it is not necessary to have played the game at a high level to be an effective hitting coach. But what makes an effective hitting coach?
I have narrowed it down to two primary skills and a personality trait. An eye for detail and the ability to communicate effectively are the skills; and the need to feed the family and pay the mortgage without having to get a “real” job is the personality trait. Lest why else would these guys expose themselves to young millionaires who have egos as big as their wallets. I remember Larry Rothschild once said about Jesus Colome; "I can’t teach him anything if he doesn’t want to learn". It must be the same with hitting coaches.
George Bernard Shaw once said, “He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches”. Vince Lombardi once said, “Coaches who can outline plays on a blackboard are a dime a dozen. The ones who win, get inside their players and motivate”.
Summation: After a lot of research, I have come up with no definitive conclusion as to what makes a good hitting coach. Unfortunately for you, I have invested too much time on this not to put it down on paper. If you have any thoughts on this please don’t hesitate to share them.
I have been the guy. Up to this point, it has been pretty much only me. Oh, there have been two or three others who have posted very eloquently on the subject and others who have made reference to it in their blogs. But I am the one who has posted consistently since spring training about the emergence of the Tampa Bay Rays as a power in the American League this year.
I’ll admit it; I got caught up in the fantasy of the whole thing watching the Rays’ work outs at the Naimoli complex during the spring. There was something there that hadn’t been there before. I was convinced that this year’s edition of the Rays was finally going to have a winning season for the first time in the history of the franchise. I even predicted in an earlier blog that they would win 88 games this year and would compete for a wild card spot. I went as far as to compare them to the Cardiac Kids of the 1967 Boston Red Sox. But now the bubble has burst. What I have been witnessing in the last two games at Fenway Park (and the previous 19 games) has convinced me that this team does not have what it takes to make a serious run at the playoffs this year.
I will try to elaborate my feeling on the subject.
The team does not have a legitimate star on offense that can carry the team during the bad times. It does not have a Yaz as the ’67 Sox did. It does not have a Fred Lynn or Jim Rice as the ’75 Sox did. It does not have a Paul Konerko as the ’05 White Sox had. It does not have an Albert Pujols as the ’06 Cardinals had. It does not have a Garret Anderson or a Troy Glaus as the ’02 Angels had. It does not have a Chipper Jones that the ’99 Braves had. I could go on but you get the point.
The closest thing this team has to a star is B.J. Upton but he will be lucky to hit 20 homers this year and doesn’t seem to have matured enough to be the leader on the field. The impression he leaves me with is that it is all about him and his next contract. Don’t get me wrong, he is an outstanding center fielder and will hit around .300. He will steal a bunch of bases and have a bunch of RBIs batting from the 3 spot. He can make a game exciting but I don’t see him stepping up to be the “man”.
Carl Crawford is generally considered to be the best player on the team but that was when he was being compared to the Rays lineups of old. He actually is an enigma. He is as fast as the wind but he has never been successful as a leadoff hitter. He can’t do the things necessary to make him a good #2 hitter. He can’t bunt. He strikes out too much. He is not a reliable hit and run guy. When he had the opportunity to bat 3rd in the order, he tried to become “Albert Pujols”. All the things he could do well suffered and his production numbers did not justify batting him in the three spot. Where do you hit him to get the most out of his abilities?
The team does not have a right fielder. Gabe Gross is defensively as good as there is in the league but he can’t hit. Eric Hinske hits well enough but he has limited range and a limited arm in the field. Jonny Gomes maybe the nicest guy in the league and the teams best cheerleader but he doesn’t even belong on the roster.
Carlos Pena has not been producing as a clean-up hitter should produce. I believe that he will snap out of it but in the meantime he is hurting the team batting 4th. I was watching the game on Monday night when he got hit in the hand by a pitch. When he came to bat after that incident, he did not have the first two fingers of his left hand on the bat and he hit a homer. Pena has a swing that is reminiscent of Pete Incaviglia; a pronounced uppercut. Inky hit a lot of homers but he struck out more than anyone else in the league when he played regularly. That kind of swing requires that all the mechanics have to be perfect to bring success. Pena’s top hand has been too strong all year and as a result he hasn’t been driving the ball. Joe Magraine commented on the same thing and he was a pitcher, what does he know?
Jason Bartlett is being wasted in the 9th spot. He has all the tools to become a great #2 hitter. He can bunt, he can hit the ball to the right side and he has good speed. He will eventually hit close to .300. His strikeouts (which are not a huge amount) will be reduced when he exhibits the disciplines necessary to hit in the 2 hole.
Joe Maddon shows about as much imagination in managing a game on the field as David Archuletta did on American Idol in trying to translate a nice song into something entertaining. He babies the bullpen to a point of losing games. He warms up people too late and they are not ready when they are needed. He will stick with his starters too long to try and save his bullpen. What difference does it make when you lose? If Jackson and Sonny don’t show a marked improvement in their next starts, is it not the right time to give Hammel and Niemann another shot in the rotation? Terry Francona manages every game like it was the last game of the season and he was in a tie for the championship. Joe Torre, Ozzie, LaRussa and Pinella manage the same way. The one thing they all have in common is they all have been World Champions. Maddon hasn’t won #### and if he doesn’t start taking some chances, he never will. He just seems to thrive on not making the hard decisions.
I am very reluctant to put this one down because I don’t have any proof that it’s true. But the circle I travel in has been talking about office management people and specifically Andrew Friedman dictating to Maddon who, where, when and how much to play the guys on this team. If that is the case, it will not work. Suits totally screwed up the war in Viet Nam by deciding that they knew more about waging war than the generals. George H.W. Bush and General Schwarzkoff proved that generals should run the wars. Suits just decide when, where and who with to do it. It is the same with a baseball game. Suits do not belong on the field. If this information is not correct, I want to offer my apology to Mr. Friedman and the rest of the Rays management team. But it hard for me to believe that Maddon can be this stupid in keeping Pena hitting in the cleanup spot.
OK, there it is. I am not nearly as angry as I was when I started this post. I guess getting this off my chest was good therapy. I still support the Rays and wish them nothing but success. As a matter of fact, I have been wishing for a Rays/Red Sox AL championship just to find out whom I would root for. However, the Blue Jays seem to have figured out how to play the game and win. The Red Sox are not far enough ahead to make me feel comfortable and the Rays don’t seem to have the horses to win it. The Red Sox have to.
I have never been much of a believer that you can predict pivotal points in any season or in any sport. You can always look back and decide that a certain event or a certain game changed the whole complex of a season or the whole attitude of a team. But predicting a turning point in the middle of the season has no more credibility than buying a lottery ticket because you have a good feeling about it. However the Tampa Bay Rays begin a nine game road trip that could possibly be the pivotal point in their season.
The Rays enter the friendly confines of Fenway Park tonight to begin the road trip that has them playing three games in Fenway, three games against the Rangers and three games against the Angels. That is three different time zones in nine days against teams that have something to hang on to and something to prove. It seems that the Rays are always playing somebody who is in or around first place in their division.
Tonight the Rays throw Matt Garza against the Sox and Justin Masterson, who is being called up from Pawtucket for the third time this year to make a spot start; in this case to fill in for Dice-K. Garza has a 2-0 record at Fenway with 2.53 ERA and will be going against a Sox team without David Ortiz in the line up. Wednesday has Edwin Jackson going against the Red Sox ace, Josh Beckett and James Shields goes against Jon Lester on Thursday. Scott Kazmir will not pitch in Boston and will open the series in Texas on Friday.
The Red Sox are 21-5 at home this year and they are coming off a strenuous road trip that saw Manny hit his 500-career home run and saw the loss of Big Papi for what may be a month or more. An interesting match up to watch in this series is Jacoby Ellsbury, Carl Crawford and B.J. Upton on the bases. Ellsbury currently leads the Majors in steals; an accomplishment usually reserved for Crawford. The difference in this series may be the sea of red shirts in the stands that act as a tenth man for the Red Sox. You can never underestimate the power of the Red Sox Nation.
The Texas Rangers have one of the best line-ups in baseball and I don’t have to recount the accomplishments of Josh Hamilton this year. Fortunately for the Rays, the Rangers also have the worst pitching and worst fielding in the American league. If the axiom is true that good pitching beats good hitting then the Rays should be all right. But then again, I saw Hamilton’s grand slam at the Trop last week and still can’t believe how hard he hit that ball.
The Angels series is an interesting one. The Angels were swept by the Rays at the Trop a couple of weeks ago and will be looking for some revenge. They feature good pitching, great defense and, to this point in the season, underachieving hitting. Cripes, that sounds just like the Rays.
This road trip may be a defining test for the upstart Rays. If they can get past the sweep they took in Boston in April and can control the bats of the Rangers they should arrive in LA mentally fit. But if they have troubles in the first two series, the Angels might have an easy time with them because of their youth and inexperience. This will be a true test of the effectiveness of Joe Maddon as a field manager.
It is my opinion that if the Rays can win 4 or 5 games in this road trip, they will be a factor for the rest of the season. If they lose as many as 6 they will only be the spoilers in the American League for the rest of the way. This may be the pivotal point in the season for the Tampa Bay Rays and although I don’t believe you can predict pivotal points, I am predicting this one and predicting a positive outcome.
The 2008 Major League Baseball’s amateur draft is rapidly approaching and I am bewildered in how much media coverage it is getting. Tonight I was watching the Twins beat the Yankees on the 4-letter network and the announcers seemed to spend an inordinate amount of time talking about it.
The MLB amateur draft is not the same as the NFL draft or the NBA draft where a choice can make an immediate impact. It is almost impossible for a for a kid right out of High School or College to even make a club with no minor league time; let alone make an impact.
I decided to do a little research to basically justify my belief that the amateur draft in baseball is almost a non-story. Five years have passed since the 2003 amateur draft took place. That seemed to be enough time for the cream to rise to the top. However, I was even amazed at what I found.
1478 young men were selected by 30 Major League ball clubs in the 2003 amateur draft. That is an average of 49+ players drafted by each team in a single year and this draft does not include foreign players.
Of those 1478, only 95 have seen any Major League playing time at all. That figures to 6.43%
The only team that drafted in 2003 that doesn’t have even one player to see any Major league playing time is the Astros.
25 of the drafting teams have had their first round draft pick playing at least some time in the Majors. The Cubs, Marlins, Phillies, Tigers and Yankees have yet to have their 2003 first round picks see any time in the show
The lowest pick in the 2003 draft to see any Major League playing time is Casey Janssen selected by the Orioles in the 49th round. However, Janssen did not sign with the O’s and went into the 2004 draft where he was taken by the Blue Jays in the 4th round.
There are only a handful of those 95 players to have much of an impact since they have been in the Majors. Andre Ethier, Arren Hill, Shaun Marcum, Jared Saltalamacchia, Rickie Weeks, Delmon Young, Carlos Quentin, Ryan Garko, Adam Jones, Lastings Milledge, Nick Markakis, John Danks, Ian Kinsler and Jonathan Papelbon all have been contributors but most of the others have only been roster fillers.
The reality is that most of the players selected in the draft don’t sign as a result of the draft. Many of the high school kids opt for college. Many of the college kids hang on for one more year for a better deal; as was the case with Casey Janssen. Some of these kids excel in other sports and opt for them rather than baseball. Some of them are realists that have concluded that making it in baseball is a long shot (except for a selective few) and choose to pursue other interests.
I guess that the point that I am trying to make is that the Major League amateur baseball draft is just not a big deal. We are not going to see anybody taken in this years draft for at least a year and probably more than that. It is all just media hype to give the reporters something to talk about. Like me!
Well, I was going to do a pre-weekend Rays Report today but Dayn Perry did an OK one on the front page and saved me the trouble. So instead I'll offer a trivia question.
TRIVIA QUESTION:
The set-up: In 1977, George Foster hit 52 home runs for the Cincinnati Reds. He became only the 10th player in the history of Major league Baseball to hit 50 or more home runs in a single season. Between 1978 and 2007, 15 additional players have passed the 50-homer plateau in a single season.
The question: Who were the nine players to have hit 50 home runs in a single season before George Foster did it?
I am just beside myself. I don’t know how to behave. On one shoulder there is a little demon telling me to be cautious and humble in my actions and on the other shoulder is a different little demon telling me to shout it out and rub it in everybody’s face.
My dilemma is that Your Tampa Bay Rays have the best won/lost record in Major League Baseball; and it is May 27th with only 2 games left to play to complete 1/3 of the regular season. Nothing like that has ever even been close to happening before and it doesn’t look like it is going to end any too soon. Yet it is hard to definitively say why it is happening.
I have been following Major league Baseball for close to 50 years and I have seen runs like this before, but they all seemed to end as quickly as they began. This one feels different. This team doesn’t have one or two offensive weapons that are carrying them. So far it hasn’t shown sustained great pitching from any of the staff. What we have seen is different players every game stepping up at the right time. We have seen the pitching staff give steady performances almost every night. We have grown to expect that the bullpen (which has been the worst in baseball for ten years) is going to hold the lead and we are stunned when they don’t.
This Rays team doesn’t have a Josh Hamilton or Chipper Jones or Lance Berkman tearing up the league and putting the fear of God into the eyes of opposing pitchers. It doesn’t have Chase Uttley or Dan Ugla hitting homers every twelve at bats. Their top run producer is 40th in the Major Leagues in RBIs. It doesn’t have a Brandon Webb or an Edinson Volquez or Tim Lincecum or Cliff Lee or Joe Saunders to almost Guarantee a win every fifth day and completely demoralize the opposition for the next game. It doesn’t have Francisco Rodriguez, Jonathan Papelbon, George Sherrill or Mariano Rivera closing out games. What it has is an old warhorse with attitude coming back from surgery and retirement for one last shot at the brass ring.
Even the area that is supposed to be the bright spot for the Rays isn’t the best in the league….team speed. They lead the league in stolen bases but they also lead the league in getting caught stealing. Eight players in the Majors have more stolen bases than Carl Crawford (the perennial stolen base leader) and even Joey Gathright, playing a limited amount, has the same amount of thefts as C.C..
So why do the Tampa Bay Rays have the best record in all of baseball (Gee, it’s fun to say that) with 1/3 of the season over? Hell, I don’t know. According to the individual statistics they shouldn’t have it. Or maybe that’s the reason that they are the best. No one or two players on this team has to carry the load offensively. No one or two pitchers has to carry the load on the hill. The pitchers don’t have to strike everybody out because they have the best defense in the league.
I think the most important quality this team has is character. I have listened to many player interviews this year I have heard one common theme in them all. Baseball is a game, and you are supposed to have fun when playing a game. If you have ever seen this team congregate after a victory you know they are having fun.
The young guys like Jason Bartlett, Evan Longoria and Aki Iwamura don’t know that they are not supposed to win. Troy Percival, Eric Hinske and Cliff Floyd have won it all. They are not letting the rest of the team settle for mediocrity. They are teaching the others that winning may not be everything but losing is absolutely nothing. The whole team saw Eric Hinske’s reaction when a delegation of Red Sox players presented him with his World Series ring from last year. They want that same feeling.
Watch out American league, this team is for real and is not going away gracefully.
On a lighter note; can you imagine the panic in the networks’ mind and in Major League Baseball’s mind when the think about an all Florida World Series in 2008?
A normal Friday morning has me sitting at my computer reading the local newspapers (plus a couple of out-of-towners) and drinking a large cup of coffee or two. Today was no exception, except that, for a reason I cannot explain, I decided to read some of the reader’s comments on the different articles about the Tampa Bay Rays. For some reason I was surprised when I found two comments berating the Rays management for not keeping Josh Hamilton.
I basically dismissed the comments and went about my daily business. Shortly after noon I was in my car and listening to a local sports radio talk show when a caller made reference to the Rays decision on Hamilton and again berated the Rays management for letting him go. Now, it would be a wonderful thing to have Josh Hamilton patrolling right field for this year’s edition of the Rays but I was never really in conflict with the decision not to protect him. I decided to revisit the events of Josh Hamilton’s baseball career.
For those of you who are not familiar with Hamilton’s history, I will offer a brief Synopsis.
The Tampa Bay Devil Rays selected Josh Hamilton as the first pick in the 1999 amateur baseball draft. He came out of Athens Drive High School in Raleigh, NC, the first high school player to be selected first in the draft since Alex Rodriguez in 1993. He appeared to be a “can’t miss” player with a huge bat and a 95 MPH fastball. The Devil Rays offered him a $4 million signing bonus and he signed a contract immediately. This allowed him to play in the developmental league before being moved up to the to the Charleston River Dogs for the 2000 season.
At the end of that season he was still only 19 years old and considered the best prospect in America. However, in February of 2001 he was in a car accident that caused him to miss most of the upcoming season. He remained in Bradenton, FL after the accident for rehabilitation but had nothing but time on his hands and money in his pockets. That was apparently where his drug problems and his tattoos began. He played in 56 games in 2002 before going down with lingering back and shoulder problems; probably resulting from the car accident but on July 15th, 2002 he was suspended for violating MLB's substance abuse policy.
In spring training of 2003, Lou Pinella sent him down to the minor league camp and he basically went missing for about six weeks. When he finally did show up at the Devil Rays camp, Pinella sent him home with instructions to get his life straightened out. In February of 2004, MLB suspended him indefinitely for substance abuse violations. He was originally scheduled to come off suspension in March 2005, but MLB extended the suspension through the end of the season because of additional violations.
Josh Hamilton finally got clean in October, 2005. He had been in rehab 8 times (few of which he completed) and had a number of suicide attempts. His $4 Million signing bonus was gone. In June 2006, MLB with pressure from the Devil Rays lifted his suspension and he returned to playing minor league ball for the Hudson Valley Renegades. He played a dozen or so games when he injured his knee (requiring surgery) and was out for the rest of the season.
When the 2006 Rule 5 Draft was approaching, the Devil Rays had to make a decision on him. He had been with the team for seven years but had barely played for two and he was coming off of knee surgery. They already had two problems kids in the organization in Delmon Young (who had been suspended for throwing a bat at an umpire in AAA) and Elijah Dukes (who had his own set of problems). They chose not to protect him on the 40-man roster.
The Cubs selected him in the draft and immediately sold him to the Reds. The problem for the Reds was that they had to keep him on the active 25-man roster for the whole season or surrender him back to the Rays. And this proved a bonus for him. There are no extra men in the National League. If you are on the team you play; and he played well. After the season, the Rangers (after serious investigation) traded for him and here we are today.
It has been well documented that the Rays have (for the past couple of years) arguably the best farm system in the Major Leagues. Having to decide who is going to be protected on a 40-man roster has got to be a difficult chore. If I were in Andrew Friedman’s place in 2006, I would have done the same thing as he did. I would have left Hamilton (a junkie who had only been clean for a couple of months) off the roster and I would have showcased the other two guys in 2007 for the sole purpose of dealing them.
Josh Hamilton has been clean for about 2 ½ years now. God bless him for it. But for every person who does get clean and sober there are hundreds who don’t make it. Personnel decisions in baseball are always a crapshoot. No matter what the press says, there are no guarantees. There are no sure things. The Reds kept him on what may be the shortest leash in the history of the game. The Rangers have a man assigned to him on a full time basis. The Rangers don’t have a significant investment in him at this time so they essentially are in a win-win situation. I will be very curious to see how the Rangers respond to him when contract time comes around.
I personally hope that he has dealt with his demons and goes on to have a long and successful career. I also can find no fault in any of the decisions that Andrew Friedman and the Rays have made concerning him. I would have done the same and Josh Hamilton and I are kindred spirits. I walked in his shoes thirty years ago.
Sometimes I get the impression that “Merlot” Joe Maddon, the manager of the Tampa Bay Rays is oblivious to what’s going on around him. Now don’t get the wrong idea; I think for the past two years nobody could have done a better job in working with the kids the Rays have been playing with than Maddon has. He seems to know how control the fragile egos of rich young men who have been put on a pedestal. In this neighborhood, Merlot Joe is considered to be a “cerebral” and “nurturing” manager rather than being an “emotional” one. I for one would love to know the thought process that goes into some of his decisions or lack of them.
Last night I watched him manage his way into the 26th Rays win of the season but it appeared that he did his best to avoid that accomplishment. James Shields was on the hill in the 8th inning. He had 2 outs and a runner on 2nd base and Frank Thomas was coming to bat. That is the same Frank Thomas who had already hit 2 homers off of Shields. There were 2 Rays pitchers ready in the bullpen yet Maddon elected to have Shields pitch to Thomas who promptly doubled in the tying run. Maddon then removed Shields but the damage was already done. Why did he let Shields pitch to Thomas?
Carlos Pena came off of the DL about a month ago. He has not been able to hit his weight since he returned and in fact now leads the American League in strikeouts with 55 in 163 official at bats. There is no doubt in my mind that Pena will come out of this slump but in the meantime, why is he still batting cleanup?
The Rays have arguably the fastest team in baseball with guys like Crawford, Upton, Bartlett and Iwamura, yet they only have two bunt singles to this point in the season and I think only four have been attempted.
That speed has caused the Rays to be a very close third in the league in stolen bases yet they are first in the majors in caught stealing. Now to be fair, the 20 times that they have been caught stealing is misleading. They have been picked off of bases almost half of those times. When runners get picked off of bases it is generally the result of poor coaching (unless it is by Andy Pettitte with that legal balk move he uses) and poor coaching is a result of poor managing.
Carl Crawford and B.J. Upton have the green light when it comes to base stealing. Yet neither one of them seems to know when it is a good time to steal. On at least 3 different occasions I have heard Joe Magraine on the TV broadcast make statements in an amazed fashion that he couldn’t believe that Crawford was still on first and he hadn’t even attempted to leave. Carl Crawford is very, very fast. He has limited power, and a rag arm. He has no command of the strike zone and in fact has only walked 11 times this year. If he doesn’t use his speed, he is just an average ballplayer and so far this year he hasn’t used it much except in the outfield.
The Rays are second in the league in strikeouts; 5 behind the Rangers. However, the Rangers have walked 36 more time than the Rays. I think it is time that Maddon should start looking for a new batting coach. It is becoming very obvious that the one they have is not getting the job done. It is so frustrating to watch these kids look at call third strikes to end innings when they had men in scoring position and it happens all too frequently. I am all for being patient at the plate but when you have no command of the strike zone, patience becomes a liability, not an asset. At least if you swing you run the risk of hitting the ball and maybe something good comes of it.
Carl Crawford is a high fastball junkie. He is lured to them like bugs to a light at night. There must be some way to rehab him from this addiction he has. I know if I were pitching to him, he wouldn’t see much below the letters and would definitely not see very many strikes.
I believe all the skills problems that I have identified can be corrected with coaching. Did not Akinori Iwamura turn into one of the best second basemen in the league in his first season? He did because of the intensive work of third base coach, Tom Foley.
Now I started this article last night during the eleventh inning of the Rays/Athletics game. I was convinced that Maddon would somehow find a way to keep the Rays from winning the game. I was wrong. They won the game in the thirteenth inning with an Evan Longoria 2 run homer and Troy Percival got the A’s out to end the game.
I’m frustrated and I know it. When the game is played “tight”, and I don’t mean when the score is close, but when every bounce of the ball is predictable, this team is as good as anybody. When it not going that way you don’t know what you are getting and “Merlot Joe Maddon” has to be the one who is accountable.
TIME FOR A REALITY CHECK! A little more than 1/4 of the baseball season has been played and it is time that I step back and take an objective look at what has happened in Major League Baseball and specifically, the American League so far this year.
Those of you who have graciously bothered to read my posts from the past month or so have probably noticed that I have become smitten with the 2008 version of the Tampa Bay Rays. This past weekend series in St. Louis has kind of brought me back to Earth. I haven’t given up on the Rays but I shuddered on both Saturday and Sunday when they handed two games to the Cardinals that they didn’t have to. That old feeling of doom that I have lived with for the past 10 years here in Pinellas County, Florida is obviously not gone and managed to insert its ugly head into my conscious being yesterday.
My beloved Red Sox finished a sweep of the Brewers Sunday afternoon and the Celtics somehow managed to hold off the Cavaliers to move into the Eastern Conference finals in the NBA. While both of those games were going on, the Rays were putting Cardinal base runners on inning after inning via the dreaded walk and it seemed like they were daring the St. Louis hitters to do something about it. In the ninth inning they finally did, and ended up taking 2 of the 3 games of a series in which they very well could have been swept if the Rays had played with the same efficiency that they have for most of the season so far. In spite of the Red Sox and Celtics successes, I was depressed. I couldn’t even look at the box scores until this morning.
I must admit that I have been caught up in “Rays fever” since the beginning of spring training. But being eight games over .500 and having the best record in the American league in the middle of May had put me into a land of fantasy. In my mind, I already had the Rays and the Red Sox playing in the American League championship series and was very concerned as to how I was going to handle that. This weekend brought me back to reality and made me realize that I was getting a little carried away with the success the Rays have had so far.
The truth is, from my point of view anyway, that this might be the most competitive American League season in years and years. I still think the Red Sox and the Angels are the class of the league but there doesn’t seem to be any patsies for them to feast on.
In the East, the Yankees will improve when A-Rod and Posada come back from the DL. They don’t have enough pitching to get it done and the everyday players are getting old but they are still the Yankees and will make life difficult for everyone else. The Orioles have been a pleasant surprise and can’t be taken lightly. The Jays cannot continue the dismal hitting forever and when it starts to happen, combined with that great starting pitching, they will make life uncomfortable for everyone else in the American League.
I don’t see anybody beating the Indians in the Central but it will be close. The Twins can play and they are as fundamentally sound a team as there is in the league. The Royals have improved significantly and the Tigers can’t stay as bad as the have been for much longer. There is too much competition for the Indians to pull away. If there is one team in the American League that I can’t get a handle on, it’s the White Sox. They currently lead the Central but I can’t figure out why. They come to St. Pete at the end of next week and maybe I’ll figure something out then.
The Angels should walk away with the west but the A’s won’t go away quietly. They will make some noise and cause some disappointments before Billy Beane has his fire sale. I can’t help but to believe that the Mariners are a much better team than they have shown so far. I think the Rangers will hang close to .500 for most of the year, which will cause problems for everyone else, who traditionally looks at them as a team to fatten up their records with. Josh Hamilton (this years MVP) will see to that.
So there it is. The Red Sox and the Angels will take their divisions handily. The Indians will squeak out a close one in the Central and the Rays or the Jays or the White Sox or the Tigers or the Twins or the A’s will win the wild card unless the Orioles or the Royals continue to surprise or the Rangers find some pitching and defense.
I know that I am going out on a limb here with these definitive choices but what the heck, I’m a risk taker.
The purpose of this article is not so much to reminisce about a very pleasant part of my past. It is intended, more correctly, to alert the baseball world to watch out! All things are possible.
I am a native Bostonian who happens to live in the Tampa Bay area of Florida. I have been here for about fifteen years and while remaining a Red Sox fan, I have followed the Tampa Bay Rays since they have been in existence and have developed a soft spot in my heart for them. The history of the Rays is very similar to that of the Red Sox of my youth. In what seemed like the blink of an
game Monday night. The Rays were behind 3-2 late in the game when a walk, a (rare) bunt single and a Seeing Eye infield hit loaded the bases. At that point the Marlins brought in a pitcher who couldn’t come close to finding the plate and eventually walked in two runs. Evan Longoria came up and promptly hit a double down the right field line, plating two and putting the Rays up 6-3. 
Joey Votto is hitting .289 with 12 homers and 37 RBIs while playing first base for the Reds. 
acquired in the deal that sent Eric Gagne to Boston). He has 10 homers and 51 RBIs and whomever Josh Hamilton doesn’t drive in, he does. 
Aaron Laffey has started 11 games for the Indians and has a 2.83 ERA. Masa Kobayashi has been the workhorse out of the bullpen with 37 appearances and a 3.23 ERA. 
I am just beside myself. I don’t know how to behave. On one shoulder there is a little demon telling me to be cautious and humble in my actions and on the other shoulder is a different little demon telling me to shout it out and rub it in everybody’s face. 
every twelve at bats. Their top run producer is 40th in the Major Leagues in RBIs. It doesn’t have a Brandon Webb or an Edinson Volquez or Tim Lincecum or Cliff Lee or Joe Saunders to almost Guarantee a win every fifth day and completely demoralize the opposition for the next game. It doesn’t have Francisco Rodriguez, Jonathan Papelbon, George Sherrill or Mariano Rivera closing out games. What it has is an old warhorse with attitude coming back from surgery and retirement for one last shot at the brass ring. 
The young guys like Jason Bartlett, Evan Longoria and Aki Iwamura don’t know that they are not supposed to win. Troy Percival, Eric Hinske and Cliff Floyd have won it all. They are not letting the rest of the team settle for mediocrity. They are teaching the others that winning may not be everything but losing is absolutely nothing. The whole team saw Eric Hinske’s reaction when a delegation of Red Sox players presented him with his World Series ring from last year. They want that same feeling. 