Devil Rays @ Florida Marlins Tidbits

• The Devil Rays swept the Marlins at the Trop on May 19-21.
• Tampa is 33-43, 13 games behind the Red Sox and 1.5 games behind the Orioles.
• The Marlins are 32-40, 13.5 games behind the New York Mets. Florida just lost 2 of 3 at Yankee Stadium, including a split of a Sunday day-night double header. They have won 21 of 30.
• The Rays are 9-3 in interleague play this season and Florida is 6-6.
• The Devil Rays will throw two lefties in this series. The Marlins are 5-11 this season against southpaws.
• Tampa will not have face Dontrelle Willis who threw against the Yankees on Sunday. Rookie of the Year candidate Dan Uggla will also miss the series with a sore hamstring.
• Six Yankees will make more this season that the entire Florida Marlins roster ($14 million).
• The Rays have batted .270 as a team since Rocco Baldelli’s return. They batted .240 prior to his return. In those 12 games, the team has recorded at least 10 hits 11 times. In their first 59 games they did that 13 times.
• In only 5 starts this season, James Shields leads AL rookies in wins. Tonight he will attempt to be the first Devil Ray ever to win 5 games in a single month.
• Marlins Blogs are not getting too excited about this series. Fish Chunks went with the sarcastic route, while Fish Stripes decided on the National Spelling Bee preview.

Probable Pitchers
Monday, 7:05 et
Devil Rays James Shields, RHP (4-0, 3.00)
Florida Josh Johnson, RHP (6-4, 2.01)

Tuesday, 7:05 et
Devil Rays Scott Kazmir, LHP (9-4, 3.21)
Florida Ricky Nolasco, RHP (5-4, 3.15)

Wednesday, 7:05 et
Devil Rays Casey Fossum, LHP (2-3, 5.25)
Florida Scott Olsen, LHP (6-3, 4.60)

The Devil Rays To Turn Back The Clock To…The 1970s?

Huh? Did we read that right? Yes, The Devil Rays and the Braves tonight will wear throwback uniforms from the 1970’s. That shouldn’t be too hard for the Braves. In fact, we were always fans of the baby blue jerseys and the lower-case, script “a” the Braves wore during the late 60s and 70s. On the other hand, the Rays? Throwbacks from the 1970s? The team will wear uniforms from the Tampa Tarpons. The Tarpons were a single-A minor league team that was affiliated with the Cincinnati Reds for most of their existence. We are just grateful that the front office decided not to go with these throwbacks, or these…And we are soooooooo glad they won’t be wearing these caps. Did we actually own one of those caps? Just goes to show you how badly we wanted major league baseball on the west coast of Florida. We thought those looked good.

The Devil Rays sister franchise, across the bay, The Buccaneers, have yet to participate in the NFLs recent spate of throwback games. Many have labeled the orange uniforms the worst in the history of the NFL. That may be, but there will always be a soft spot in our heart for Bucco Bruce and the old-school Bucs look. In fact, we kinda wish the Bucs would go throwback just once, and bring back the uniform that Doug Williams and Lee Roy Selmon once wore (We do it in Madden all the time…Maybe on Thanksgiving this season?). As long as it is not the neon orange and red the team wore the last couple of years.

But…we find it hard to believe that we will ever clamor for a Devil Rays throwback that involves purple, teal, blue, yellow and whatever other colors were in those original uniforms. In fact, we were kinda hoping that we would not even be able to find pictures of them on the internet, so that we can pretend it never actually happened.

Rays to “Turn Back the Clock” [devilrays.com]

D-Rays vs. Atlanta Braves Tidbits

Probable Pitchers

• The Braves have lost 10 straight and are 2-18 in June. They are 30-43, 15.5 games behind the Mets in last place in the NL East. Atlanta is 0-6 in interleague games this season.
• The Devil Rays have won 5 of last 6. Tampa is 32-41, 11.5 games behind the Red Sox and half a game behind the O’s in the Battle For The Basement. Tampa is 8-1 in interleague games this season.
• Key Braves Brian Jordan and John Thompson are on the disabled list and will miss the series
• The Braves bullpen may actually be worse than the Rays. Atlanta has 15 blown saves in 30 opportunities.
• We are worried about the Braves Bloggers. They are suffering thought their worst season since 1990 and things are only getting worse. Of course, it couldn’t be their fault, right?
• Former Devil Ray Jorge Sosa is still listed as the scheduled starter for Sunday, but word in the Blogosphere is that Sosa has just been moved to the bullpen and is likely to be the Braves closer in this series. Sosa leads the league in home runs allowed. It looks like the Sunday start will be made by Chuck James who made 7 appearances out of the bullpen earlier this season and was just recalled from AAA Richmond.

Friday, 7:15 et
Atlanta John Smoltz, RHP (4-5, 3.78)
Devil Rays Casey Fossum, LHP (2-3, 5.45)

Saturday, 7:15 et
Atlanta Lance Cormier, RHP (2-2, 6.57)
Devil Rays Tim Corcoran, RHP (0-0, 2.70)

Sunday, 1:15 et
Atlanta Chuck James, RHP (0-0, 2.38)
Devil Rays Mark Hendrickson, LHP (4-7, 3.75)

Sean Burroughs, We Hardly Knew Ye

3B Sean Burroughs acquired during the off-season for Dewon Brazelton in a trade of former first round busts has been designated for assignment by the Devil Rays. We were downright giddy earlier this season when Brazelbum was sent down to the minors as we were just happy that he was gone. Any contribution from Burroughs would have been bonus. Well, now it looks like there will not be any bonus. The team has 10 days to trade, release or ask for waivers for Burroughs. He began the season with the Rays and batted .190 with no home runs and 1 RBI in 8 games. At Durham, he was not much better, hitting .221 with only 2 extra-base hits in 31 games. Even more telling for a player that is supposed to be a contact hitter was his 23 to 5 strikeout to walk ratio for the Bulls.

The Rays needed to make room for Jon Switzer on the 40-man roster, proving that manager Joe Maddon is not afraid to have a left-hander in the bullpen. Switzer has some major league experience having pitched in 5 games for the Rays in 2003 and 2 games last season. This season Switzer may have turned the corner as he has been dominating for the AAA Durham Bulls. In 31 innings, he has an ERA of 0.87.

Notes: Switzer get call to majors [devilrays.com]

How Sweep It Is

Devil Rays 4, Diamondbacks 1. Scott Kazmir was overpowering as the Devil Rays completed a 3-game sweep of Arizona. Tampa has now won 5 of their last 6 and 8 of 12. Kazmir worked into the 8th inning giving up only 3 hits, 2 walks and 1 run. Kid K struck out 8, and appears to have righted the ship after a shaky stretch of starts. He was lifted with 2 outs in the 8th and Shawn Camp and Brian Meadows finished the game. It was Meadows 2nd save in as many games since Tyler Walker went on the DL. Aubrey Huff homered and had 3 hits and appears to beginning his usual mid-season surge. Jorge Cantu also collected 3 hits.

We hate to get to far ahead of ourselves, but the Rays have a great opportunity to make a little run towards .500 over the next week or two. Up next is a 3-game set at the Trop against the Braves who have lost 9 straight. That is followed by a series in Miami against the Marlins and a set in D.C. against the Nats. The Nationals have lost 8 of their last 10, heading into Thursday’s action. Tampa needs to do well in these next nine games as they finish the first half at home with 6 games against the Red Sox and the Spankees.

Has The Curse Of Lamar-Naimoli Been Lifted?

Rocco is back and looks good…Jorge, Huff and Lugo also. And now we are happy to report that former first round pick Jeff Niemann is back and his first start was encouraging. On Monday night, Niemann made his 2006 debut for the AA Montgomery Biscuits. Niemann went 4.1 innings in the Biscuits 1-0 loss to Jacksonville. He allowed 4 hits, 1 walk and 1 run. He struck out 8. Working into the 5th inning (67 pitches) is encouraging for a pitcher that hasn’t pitched in nearly a year and only had 30.2 innings pitched as a professional going into this season. His 8 strikeouts in 4+ innings is also very encouraging, and indicates that he hasn’t lost very much off his fastball. He regularly hit 90 mph and topped out at 93. Before the injury, Niemann was considered to be on the fast track to the majors. Obviously the injury has changed that, but it was not a serious shoulder injury and his age and college experience should have him in a Devil Rays uniform sooner rather than later.

Speaking of D-Rays that could be on the fast track. This year’s first round pick Evan Longoria, followed up his 1-5 opening night performance with a very impressive 5-6 last night.

Kazmir, Hendrickson, Shields And Pray For A Power Outage At The Trop

Devil Rays 3, Arizona 2. All of the sudden the Rays have won four out of five. For the first time in franchise history, the team has three starters that they can send out to the mound and as fans we feel the team has a good chance to win. Scott Kazmir, Mark Hendrickson and surprise rookie James Shields. Shields continues his impressive run to start his big league career by winning his fourth straight start to improve to 4-0 on the season. On Wednesday night, Shields worked seven innings, allowing 4 hits, 3 walks and 2 runs. He struck out 5. His ERA is an impressive 3.00 through his first five major league starts. If there was any wonder as to the permanancy of his place in the Rays’ rotation, he has all but eliminated those doubts. We still have no confidence in anyone the team can send out there in the other two spots. Casey Fossum is not a big league starter. We will see how effective Tim Corcoran can be when he makes his second major league start and first of 2006 on Saturday, but we have our doubts. Kid K has shown signs of being a future ace. Hendrickson and Shields should both be solid middle of the rotation guys who can go out there every five days and give the team a good chance to win. What the team still needs is one more front of the rotation starter and hope that someone else can fill the role of the fifth starter and be effective. Will the team open the pure strings and find that #2 or #3 starter this off-season? Probably not. The team is still a year or two away for that. And the fact remains, there are still many holes in the bullpen that need to be filled. Hopefully Seth McClung and Edwin Jackson can develop into solid major league relievers with one of them becoming the closer of the future. We still believe that Tyler Walker is better suited in the 8th inning and would love to see McClung or Jackson develop into a closer. And then there is the continuing domination of Juan Salas in the minor leagues. Salas, who hadn’t allowed an earned run in AA Montgomery has continued to dominate since his promotion to Durham and looks like he will be seen in a Devil Rays uniform in the very near future. As for the offense…Things are starting to come around, and it can’t be overlooked that it has coincided with the return of Rocco Baldelli, who looks like he was never gone. In fact he looks as good as ever. Even more surprising is that Rocco looks like he hasn’t lost very much speed. We don’t expect to see him stealing bases anytime soon, but he has made more than one routine groundball a lot closer than it should have been at first base.

Tampa improved to 31-41 and are now 1.5 games behind Baltimore and 12 games behind Boston in the AL East. Kid K will take the mound tonight as the Rays go for the sweep against the D-Backs…And for the third night in a row, we fell the team has a very good chance to win even before the game starts. That is a good feeling to have.

Evan Longoria Debuts For Hudson Valley

The Devil Rays first round draft pick, Evan Longoria, made his professional debut last night for the low-A Hudson Valley Renegades. Longoria wore the number 34, played 3B and batted 3rd. He went 1-5 with an RBI on a first inning sacrifice fly.

The Problem With Interleague Play

We understand the allure of interleague games. We are fans of it. We love Yankees-Mets. We love Angels-Dodgers and Cubs-White Sox. We love Devil Rays-Marlins and we really loved Devil Rays-Phillies. But for every Yankees-Mets series there are three or four Devil Rays-Diamondbacks series. We do understand the reasoning behind the matchup. The two franchises will forever be linked as the last two expansion teams. For a while at least, they will be measured against each other. The Diamondbacks have a championship already. The Devil Rays have finished last in all but one season. And while we understand the reasoning for the matchup, there is no allure to this series. This was never more evident than the number of stories we have read about a potential “homecoming” for Luis Gonzalez next season when he is likely to be a free agent. The Diamondbacks have a $10 million dollar option on Gonzo next season which they are not likely to exercise. Reporters, desperate for an angle to this series, repeatedly asked Gonzo about returning to Tampa Bay to end his career. While a move like that may make sense for Gonzalez, it makes absolutely no sense for the Devil Rays. Gonzalez will be 39 next season and is clearly a shadow of his former self. And we don’t even mean a shadow of the 2001 Gonzalez when he hit 57 home runs, the only season he has ever hit more than 31. We mean a shadow of the normal Gonzo, who hits .265 and 25 home runs. The Rays already have a logjam of outfielders and will not be in the market for an over-the-hill player used to making a lot of money. Unless Gonzo is will to accept a role as a pinch-hitter making little more than the veteran minimum, there is little chance he will be wearing a Devil Rays uniform in 2007.

Gonzo is open to joining Devil Rays [Arizona Republic]
Gonzo forced to address ‘whispers’ in homecoming [tbo.com]

Musical Chairs: Gathright And McClung First Without Chairs

In a pair of moves yesterday, Rays’ fans got a glimpse of the pitching staff of the future. In the first move, Seth McClung was sent to the minors and replaced by Edwin Jackson. McClung was 2-10 in 15 starts, leading the league in losses and clearly losing favor with manager Joe Maddon and the front office. Maddon has made it clear that he wants McClung to pitch out of the bullpen but gave him every chance to prove he could be a major league starting pitcher. Now McClung will go to Durham and work out of the bullpen and try to return to the big league club in his new role. Jackson made one start earlier this season for the Devil Rays, picking up a no decision against the Rangers, in 7 innings. We have been pretty hard on Jackson since he was sent back to Durham as he has been roughed up in his last 7 or 8 starts. It turns out that Jackson was working on some mechanical issues including a new release point. Still, we have seen no indication that he has worked out these mechanical flaws. In his last start he did work into the 7th inning, but gave up 6 runs (5 earned) on 7 hits and 1 walk. He struck out 5. The only promising sign in the linescore is the 1 walk. That is a marked improvement from his previous starts. On the season, he has averaged 4.5 walks per nine innings in Durham. Still, we applaud the move as Jackson can’t be any worse than McClung has been and has a bigger upside, and now it looks like he will work on those flaws in the Tampa bullpen. In fact Tim Corcoran will take McClung’s spot in the rotation for the time being, with his first start penciled for Saturday in Atlanta. Corcoran has made one big league start. He pitched the season finale last year against Baltimore going 4+ innings picking up a no-decision.

In a separate move, the team dealt Joey Gathright and infielder Fernando Cortez to the Kansas City Royals for starting pitcher J. P. Howell. Gathright has proven to be the poster child for the old cliche, “you can’t steal first base”. In 55 games with the Rays, Gathright batted .201 with 12 stolen bases. He did have a 30 to 20 strikeout to walk ratio, which is decent for a potential leadoff hitter. However, his OBP was only .305 and that just doesn’t get it done. Howell, 23, is a left handed pitcher that was 3-2 with a 4.75 ERA in 8 starts for AAA Omaha. We have to be a bit skeptical about a pitcher that couldn’t even crack the starting rotation for the worst team in baseball even though he was a member of that rotation last season. He was a first round selection (#31) of the Royals in the 2004 entry draft. It appears as though Kansas City rushed him to the big leagues as Howell moved from single-A to the majors in his first full season of professional baseball. Last season he made 15 starts for the Royals going 3-5 with a 6.19 ERA. Fernando Cortez was batting .222 with no home runs and 8 stolen bases.

Devil Rays trade Gathright for Howell [SI.com]
Rays send McClung to minors [Bradenton Herald]
Corcoran to make surprise start [tbo.com]