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Prospect“The pessimist complains about the wind;
The optimist expects it to change;
The realist adjusts the sails.”
-William Arthur Ward
Wednesday night I attended the Rays/Yankees baseball game at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg with my good friend Doc Spero. I didn’t really want to go but Spero wanted to do something nice for me so I relented and went with him. Now I generally like to go to Rays games but I have this long tenured hatred of anything Yankee (from a baseball point of view) and rarely will go see them play in person and I certainly would never shell out my own money to do it.
Those of you who have followed my blogs will recall that I have gone to many, many Rays’ games in the past and have thoroughly enjoyed most of them. Last night was different. Outside of the tepid hot dog and Spero’s company, I found this game to be nothing more than an unpleasant experience that I had to endure until one of us finally said “lets go home”.
I have finally come to the absolute conclusion the Rays’ 2009 baseball season is over as far as the playoffs are concerned. This team simply does not have the same intangibles as last years team had. It was always my contention that the 2008 team had enough of the intangible ingredients and character in it to overcome the deficiencies in Joe Maddon’s management style. This year’s edition simply doesn’t have it.
Last night in the bottom of the first inning, B.J. Upton and Carl Crawford both hit infield grounders. Neither of these guys made any serious effort to beat out the throws from Jeter and Arod, knowing that in the previous game they both threw tosses to first away. Their performance in the first two at bats mirrored the intensity of the Rays for the rest of the game. This is not the same attitude that last year’s team had. Even Maddon was different last year. He actually pulled Upton out of a game for loafing on the base paths. But this time he said and did nothing. As a matter of fact, he has done almost nothing all year to adjust to the inadequacies of the team.
For all intent and purpose he has had the same line up since opening day. A week or so ago he finally moved Carlos Pena out of the cleanup spot and into the fifth or sixth spot (depending on the pitcher). Pena has been hitting no better than .230 all year and leads the league in strikeouts. It’s no surprise that Longoria hasn’t seen a pitch to hit all year. His accomplishments have to be considered magnificent for that reason. B.J. Upton has hit lead off all year while Jason Bartlett has languished in the eighth or ninth spot even after having the third highest batting average in the American League and a minimal number of strikeouts. I am so tired of hearing Maddon’s claim that it is a good idea to have a good, fast hitter batting ninth because later in the game it gives you two leadoff hitters together. I submit that that hypothesis makes sense. However, does it not make sense to have the guy who is performing better have more at bats than the other? If Bartlett was leading off and Upton was batting ninth, Maddon would still have the same situation except that the guy who hits better gets more at bats. Maybe it’s me who thinks funny.
Sometimes you make mistakes and just have to suck it up. In the Rays case Pat Burrell falls into that category. I didn’t like the signing over the winter and I like it less now. Burrell might be a great guy but it doesn’t appear to me he can hit at the Triple A level anymore. I am tired of hearing about how he is a streak hitter who can carry a team for a month all by himself. At this writing, he is the worst statistical DH in the league, can’t run and sold his glove at a yard sale when he signed his $16 million contract. The Blue Jays may catch the Rays before he finally performs well enough to carry this team. He continues to be in the line up while Willy Aybar gets splinters in his butt riding the bench. Aybar can hit; from both sides and he has proven it. Man do I miss Rocco Baldelli.
It is my humble opinion that Maddon has mismanaged the pitching staff since the spring. I don’t think that any of the starting pitchers had more than 10 innings of throwing in anger during spring training. The results should have been obvious. None of them were ready to start the season and the Rays’ record was dismal in April. The comment back then was that it is a long season and they didn’t want to burn out the arms for the playoff run. I’ve got news for them. There will be no playoff run but at least the arms will still be strong. And why the hell is David Price still up with the big club and starting every fifth day? There is no doubt that he has all the tools but nobody has been able to teach him how to use those tools yet. If one is serious about winning this year, does it not make sense that the best place for him to learn how to pitch is in the minors?
I remember a line from the movie “Heartbreak Ridge”. Gunnery Sergeant Thomas Highway (Clint Eastwood) was training his recon platoon on how to do their job more effectively. He said, “You adapt, you overcome, you improvise”. I think this might be a great slogan for Maddon and Andrew Friedman to adopt. Their plan of doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results just ain’t getting’ it done. As a matter of fact, it is pure insanity to think that it will change after four months.
One of the most unfortunate things that have happened to the Rays this year was Akinori Iwamura going down for most of the season with a knee injury. It looks like he will be back with the club before the season is over and that is a good thing for Aki fans. It will give them a chance to say goodbye. The Rays have a $4.25 million option on Aki for 2010 with a cheap buy out. With the financial situation the way it is for next year, they will never exercise the option. We can thank Friedman’s signing of Pat Burrell for that along with the contracts he signed with Kazmir and Pena. Those three contracts represent about 40% of what the Rays spent this year. Anybody who thinks that the Rays will spend next year what they spent this year is just not dealing with reality. The solution would be to deal two of the three over the winter but who would take them? Or even more important, what would you get for them?
I could continue this rant but then it would be putting salt on the wound. The Rays management’s lack of experience is starting to show. This is a team that cannot afford mistakes like the Yankees, Red Sox or Dodgers can. They can’t afford to just dump Burrell like the Red Sox did with Julio Lugo. I fear we will have to live with him like we did with Greg Vaughan and Vinnie Castillo. It’s not looking good.
The solution to a number of the problems I’ve mentioned is revenue. But revenue increases are not going to happen if the status quo in maintained. Sure they need a new ballpark. I love going to the Trop when there are 25,000 fans or less. But when there are 30, 000 plus it becomes very uncomfortable. It takes a whole inning to get a hot dog. It takes a lady almost two innings to go to the bathroom. I have figured out that if I am going to watch the whole game I am going to go without the amenities that I love during a game. I also believe that when you put a product on the field like the one they put on the field last night, it is going to discourage a lot of folks from going to the next game. It has been discouraging me all year. And they have put that product on the field far too many times this year. Maddon could change that if he would only take Gunny Highway’s advice and adapt, overcome and improvise.
