Devil Rays Trade For Tyler Walker

Today the Devil Rays showed that this is a new era. Tampa sent minor leaguer Carlos Hines to San Francisco for relief pitcher Tyler Walker. Last year, Walker saved 23 games for the Giants after Armando Benitez went down with an injury. Walker is a 29 year old right hander that was originally drafted by the New York Mets in the 2nd round of the 1997 draft. He was used as a starting pitcher in the minor leagues but has been used strictly out of the bullpen since he has been in the majors. He could very well assume closer duties for this D-Ray team, which would push Dan Miceli down to the 8th inning as the set-up man, which he is better suited for. Carlos Hines had made 8 relief appearances for the AAA Durham Bulls. The trade is a good one for the team. In essence management is saying they want to win games now, and realized the bullpen needed help in order for that to happen.

Giants deal reliever Walker to Tampa Bay [Yahoo! sports]

Delmon Young Video

We were hoping that no video existed of the incident involving Delmon Young throwing a bat at a minor league umpire Wednesday night. However, in this day and age, it is a little naive to think that something would not be caught on video. Alas, there is video of the incident at youtube.

A couple of our own personal observations:

1. The “tossing” of the bat is actually harder than we imagined it would be. When eye-witness accounts described it as an “underhanded toss” we pictured the bat moving very slowly with a bit of an arc, as if Young was just tossing the bat in the direction of the umpire. We even wondered aloud if maybe the bat hit the ground and bounced before hitting the umpire. None of that is true. The bat was indeed thrown with a good deal of force behind it. Young is very lucky that he did not hit the umpire in the head. Quite frankly, we can’t get ourselves to watch the clip more than once. It is to upsetting.

2. We are glad for Young’s sake and the organization’s sake that he is not actually seen in the video throwing the bat. Somehow we think that is better. Many have compared this incident to the Roberto Alomar incident in which he spit in the face of an umpire. Personally we think it is more like the Pete Rose incident when he maliciously shoved an umpire. However, in the Alomar incident, when the replays were shown, even years later, the tape always slows down so you can see the rage in Alomar’s face and the spit leave his mouth. While people will remember what Young did, without him in the video, it won’t leave such an indelible mark.

That being said, we believe the suspension will fall somewhere between 30 and 50 games. It needs to be more sever than the Pete Rose suspension (30 games) but less than the Ron Artest suspension (in terms of percentage of teams games).

Delmon Young throws bat at umpire after striking out [youtube.com]

Tell Us Something We Didn’t Know

Who are we to knock somebody while they’re down? Well…when it comes to Julian “I Am Cray-Z” Tavarez, we can’t help ourselves. We are still giggling every time we see the highlight of Jonny Gomes hitting a Tavarez pitch into the stratosphere. We only wish there was a camera on Joey Gathright in the dugout, so that we could see the smile on his face. Well, now comes word that…surprise, surprise…Tavarez was named one of the Top 100 Unsexiest Men in the World. In fact, Tavarez comes in as the 33rd unsexiest man in the WHOLE WORLD. Take a bow Julian, you earned it! “I would like to thank my parents, for being so ugly, so that I would never have to struggle to be unsexy.” Tavarez is actually considered unsexier than the likes of Willie McGee (35), Rush Limbaugh (42), Lyle Lovett (49), Drew Carey (54), and Newt Gingrich (55). Of course, not to be outdone, D-Rays ‘advisor’ Don Zimmer makes the list at #29. Of course, that doesn’t seem fair. We all hope we look that sexy when we are 627 years old. Then again, Zim hasn’t changed much in the last 30 years.

The 100 Unsexiest Men In The World [The Phoenix]

Delmon Young Sticks Up For Striking Minor League Umpires

Last night, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays’ top prospect, Delmon Young, threw his bat and hit the home plate umpire in the chest. Young, who plays for the AAA-level Durham Bulls, had just been ejected for arguing a called third strike. And just like that, the Future of the organization just took a big hit. At the very least, Young, who was named Baseball America’s 2005 minor league player of the year, will be suspended for a significant portion of this season, if not for the entire year. He will have to carry this stigma with him for the rest of his career. Every game he plays, an opposing announcer will mention that Delmon Young is a “hot-head” and will bring up the time that he threw bat at an umpire. In addition, umpires will not forget this incident and it will be a long time before another umpire gives Young a close call, even if this umpire was a scab. Delmon Young once complained publicly that he should already be in the majors and that the ownership of the Devil Rays was were holding him back so that it would be longer before he hits arbitration eligibility and free agency. Delmon Young voiced publicly that at 19 he was ready for the major leagues. Anyone that has ever seen Delmon Young play, says he is a 5-tool, can’t miss prospect. Well, apparently last night, he was missing the 6th tool, his brain, and it is going to cost him dearly.

There are no quotes from Young, however C Crash Davis stated, “Look at that! He hit the fucking umpire. Guy gets a free steak!”

Below is a link where you can listen to the audio feed from the radio broadcasts of both the Durham Bulls and the Pawtucket Red Sox. It is still difficult to tell exactly how severe the incident was. The Durham announcers suggest that Young just gave the bat a slight underhanded flick towards the umpire, while the Pawtucket crew indicate that it might have been more viscous.

Young hits ump with bat after ejection [milb.com]

[UPDATE] Here is another link. This one is an eyewitness report. First of all, earlier reports had the bat hitting the umpire in the chest. This witness says the bat hit the umpire in the legs. More importantly is how “viscous” the toss was. It was underhanded. It was not violent. But it was premeditated. Young was walking back to the dugout. After about five steps, he turned and tossed the bat at the umpire. He clearly thought about it and acted on it. He was not in the middle of a heated confrontation. It was clearly unprovoked.

Saw it with my own eyes [raystalk]

[UPDATE] Young has been suspended indefinately by the International League. In essence, the league has not had enough time to conduct a thorough investigation, and will make a final decision on the length of the suspension once the investigation has concluded.

Rays’ Young suspended indefinately [devilrays.com]

Last Night In The AL East

D-Rays 4, New York 2, 10 innings. Carl Crawford returned to the team in a big way last night. Crawford drove in the go-ahead run off of Mariano Rivera with a double in the tenth inning. The win ended the Rays 4 game winning streak. Tampa did everything they could to give the game away as Devil Rays pitchers walked 14. The Yankees weren’t very appreciative as they mangaed to strand 16 baserunners. In fact New York had the leadoff batter reach base each of the first five innings, but only managed to bring one of those home off of Gary Sheffield’s two-run home run in the 5th. The two teams will battle in the rubber match as Mark Hendrickson returns to the rotation for the first time since his 3-hit shutout the first week of the season.

Cleveland 7, Boston 1. Tim Wakefield got shelled as he gave up 5 runs in 5.2 innings dropping his record to 1-4. Boston’s only offense came from Willy Mo Pena’s solo home run.

Toronto 8, Baltimore 2. Toronto continues to hit the bejeezus out of the ball as they pull within one game of division-leading Boston. The Jays got 3 hits from 3 different players, including Vernon Wells who hit 2 home runs and drove in 3. The Orioles have lost 4 straight.

A Look At The Future…Yesterday On The Farm

Durham 6, Pawtucket 2. Hidden by the comotion surrounding the Delmon Young “incident“, was a strong performance by Elijah Dukes. Dukes was 2-3 and hit 2 home runs, his 3rd and 4th of the season. He now has 5 hits in his last two games and appears to have emerged from his early season slump. B. J. Upton was also 2-3 with a run scored and an RBI.

Montgomery 8, Birmingham 3. A big game from 2B Elliot Johnson. He was 3-5 with 2 doubles, his 4th home run of the season and 6 RBI. CF Jason Pridie was 1-3 and is hitting .262.

Lancaster 10, Visalia 6. SS Reid Brignac was 0-4 with a walk and run scored. More importantly, he did not commit an error. He is now hitting .368.

Burlington 8, SW Michigan 1. Nothing good to report here. We just can;t get into this today. Can’t get over the Galactically Stupid Delmon Young.

Delmon Young Was Very Naughty

During tonight’s Durham Bull’s game, Devil Rays top prospect Delmon Young threw his bat which subsequently hit the home plate umpire in the chest. Young had just been ejected after arguing with the umpire about a called-third strike. There is no word yet if Young intentionally threw the bat at the umpire. Either way, he is facing a suspension. If the action was intentional, the suspension will be lengthy.

This is bound to be a very public story for two reasons. First, Young is considered the top prospect in all baseball. Second, the umpire that Young hit was a replacement umpire as the minor league umpires are currently on strike.

Highly-touted prospect throws bat at umpire [Yahoo! Sports]

The Curse of LaMar-Naimoli, cont’d…Again

The D-Rays placed 2B Jorge Cantu on the 15-day DL today. For those of you that have been following Jorge’s blog on mlb.com this is not a surprise as Cantu mentioned in his most recent post that the foot was not getting any better. Now comes news that he has a broken bone on the top of his foot. Once again, we must state very emphatically to the Devil Rays front office…DO NOT, under any circumstances call up Delmon Young or B. J. Upton until this curse is lifted. In the meantime maybe the team should try cutting off the head of a live chicken or even an injured chicken to remove the curse. Quite frankly we are getting tired of reporting all the bad news and injuries. One way or another, we promise to have so good news tomorrow, even if it means we have to sucker punch Julian Tavarez.

Cantu placed on disabled list with broken bone in foot [Yahoo! Sports]
An injury update [Jorge Cantu’s World]

A Look At The Future…Yesterday On The Farm

Durham 4, Pawtucket 0. Another strong start for Chris Seddon. Seddon went 6 giving up 4 hits, 1 walk and allowing no runs and striking out 3. He improves to 3-0 on the season and lowered his ERA to 1.17. Elijah Dukes had his best day of the young season going 3-4 with 2 runs scored and an RBI. He is now batting .288. Delmon Young had a double and went 1-5. B. J. Upton was 0-3 with 2 walks and had his 9th error of the season. The throwing error, ended his streak of 4 straight errorless games. Upton’s streak was just 106 games short of the Major League record of 110 consecutive errorless games by a shortstop, set by Mike Bordick in 2002.

Mississippi 9, Montgomery 6. C Ryan Christianson hit a pair of home runs and drove in 4 for the Biscuits who dropped the final game of this 5-game series. Marcos Carvajal, who came over in a trade earlier this season from Seattle pitched a scoreless 9th. Carvajal, a former rule-5 pick of the Rockies is a typical strong -armed minor league pitcher. In 9.2 innings this season he has surrendered only 1 earned run, but has control problems. Despite being able to hit the upper 90s with his fastball, he has surrendered 8 hits and 8 walks to go along with his 8 strikeouts.

Visalia 12, Lancaster 11. SS Reid Brignac, The Cajun God of Baseball (we aren’t making this up), picked up the winning RBI single in the 9th. Brignac went 3-6 with 3 RBI to raise his average to .389. He was one of 6 players with at least 2 hits, including LF Patrick Breen who picked up his 5th home run. Brignac did commit his 8th error of the season. The error ended his 4-day errorless streak. Of course, one of those days Brignac only pinch-hit and the other was an off-day for the team. Our research staff is still trying to confirm reports that Brignac let a quarter pounder go through his legs at McDonalds on their off-day.

Burlington 2, SW Michigan 0, 10 innings. Fitting in with the rest of the shortstops in the organization, Neil Walton committed 2 errors including one that led to two unearned runs in the top of the 10th. The loss wasted a strong outing by Gregory Reinhard, who went 5 and gave up no runs on 2 hits and 1 walk.

Hendrickson And Baldelli Sightings

Mark Hendrickson, may finally be ready to return. Hendrickson pitched a bullpen session on Monday in Tampa and did not feel and lingering soreness. He is scheduled to pitch Thursday in the series finale in New York. To make room, Edwin Jackson was sent back to Durham. This a bit disappointing as Seth McClung and Doug Waechter remain in the D-Rays rotation…or as we like to call it, “Kazmir, Hendrickson and pray for a power outage at the Trop.” Hopefully Jackson will use this as a bit of fuel to his fire and be back in the rotation sooner, rather than later.

In other injury-related news, Rocco Baldelli played in his first extended spring training game. He is scheduled to begin a rehab assignment with AA Montgomery next week and could return May 5 when the Rays begin a road trip in Oakland.

Also, Lugo?…Lugo?…..Lugo?…..Julio Lugo is not even on the radar as far as returning from his injury.

Jackson sent back to Durham [Tampa Tribune]