The Hangover: The Rays May Never Come Home

Devil Rays 11, Rangers 8.
Last night’s win marked the first time since August 23 of last season that the Rays have won 3 straight. That 3 game streak also came at the hands of Rangers at the Trop when Tampa Bay won the the first 3 of a 4-game set. It was also a season-high in runs scored and only the second time this year the Rays have hit double-digits on the scoreboard. The bright news was that only 1 run came via the home run, when Elijah Dukes connected on the first pitch of the first inning. The Rays are second in the AL in home runs (45) but only rank 9th in batting average (.257) and 10th in OBP (.322). As a result they have fallen to 8th in runs scored (176). Home runs will only carry an offense so far especially when most of those home runs are of the solo variety. The offense has been good, but they need to be more consistent at getting on base and getting timely basehits. Last night they were able to that.

Tonight Scott Kazmir goes to the mound and will try to give the Rays a 4-game winning streak for the first time since May 21 of last season when the Rays completed a 3-game sweep of the Marlins after taking the final game versus the White Sox. Manager Joe Maddon missed two of those while attending his girlfriend’s graduation. He has never been apart of a 4-game winning streak as manager of the Rays.

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…

• USA Today takes a look at the Rays three young studs, BJ Upton, Elijah Dukes and Delmon Young. This time it is actually a positive look.

Meanwhile, another story is brewing in Tampa Bay, where the perennially future-looking Devil Rays are still looking ahead, but also making strides in the present, thanks in large part to a talented trio.

• Sammy Sosa hit his 597th home run and extended his own record of number of different ballparks in which he has homered, with the Wide World of Sports stadium becoming #45.
• Rocco Baldelli is headed back to the DL. This will likely give Jorge Cantu two more weeks to show that he is indeed a major league hitter…delaying the inevitable.
• Carlos Pena is 14-28 in the past 9 games. Think he hears Greg Norton’s footsteps?
• Greg Norton will workout at the Naimoli Complex rather than continue with his rehab assignment. Akinori Iwamura is projected to play in an extended spring training game next Tuesday or Wednesday.

AL East Roundup: Bobby Abreu Decides To Earn His King’s Ransom

AL EAST	W	L	GB	L10	STK	E#
Boston Red Sox	26	12	–	7-3	L1	—
New York Yankees	18	20	8.0	5-5	W1	117
Toronto Blue Jays	18	22	9.0	5-5	W3	115
Baltimore Orioles	18	23	9.5	4-6	L5	114
Tampa Bay Devil Rays	17	22	9.5	4-6	W3	115

White Sox 5, Yankees 3 (gm 1). Mike Mussina gave up 5 runs in 5+ innings for the Spankees in game 1.

Yankees 8, White Sox 1 (gm 2). The Yankees salvaged a split in the nightcap as Bobby Abreu remembered that he makes $15 million for a reason. He hit his first home run since the second game of the season. Hideki Matsui had 3 hits and drove in 4. This was a huge win for the Yankees as their next six games are against the Mets and the Red Sox. How fun would it be if the Yankees were 10 back a week from now?

Blue Jays 2, Orioles 1. AJ Burnett went the distance and struck out 10 in the game that somebody had to win. And the Orioles have yet another 5 game losing streak.

NOTE FROM AROUND THE AL EAST…

• Alex Rodriguez is now 8-47 (.170) in his last 13 games as his average has fallen from .367 to .311. The slump may in part be due to the recent struggles of Jason Giambi who normally hits behind A-Rod.
• Trying to shake the Yankees out of their recent funk, Joe Torre tried a new lineup last night. Alex Rodriguez did not hit 8th.
• John Lester will get a start this weekend at AAA as the next step in his return from cancer.
• The Top 10 Red Sox surprises of 2007, in pictures. #1 should have been a picture of a Yankees fan rambling on with every excuse in the book trying to explain that it is “still early” and “we’ll be fine” and “we just want to make the race exciting this year”. Oh wait. That’s not a surprise.
• Josh Beckett will miss his start tomorrow, with just his latest blister problem.

Down On The Farm: Lewis Rollins Now On The Prospect Radar

Pawtucket 7, Durham 4. Jason Hammel numbers are starting to look very pedestrian. He has had a shaky outing giving up 6 runs in 4.2 innings. He allowed 5 hits and 4 walks. After a very strong start to the season Hammel’sallowed 57 base runners in 50 innings with a 3.58 ERA. Ben Zobrist homered to leave off the game. Shawn Riggans picked up his 4th home run.

West Tenn 2, Montgomery 0. Jonathon Barratt struck out 4 in 4 innings and allowed only 1 run. Jason Pridie has been hot recently and picked up 2 of the Biscuits 3 hits. Pridie has multiple hits in 7 of his past 9 games and owns a 13-game hitting streak to raise his average to .299. Evan Longoria sat out with a bruised elbow after being hit by a pitch the night before.

Vero Beach 5, Daytona 1. Wade Davis struck out 7 in 5.2 innings. He allowed 1 run on 6 hits and 2 walks.

Columbus 5, Savannah 2. Add Lewis Rollins to the already crowded slate of Rays minor league pitchers that are having great seasons. Rollins struck out 9 and walked none in 6 shutout innings. He gave up only 2 hits, both coming with 1 out in the 1st inning. After those hits he retired 18 of 19, with 1 batter reaching on an error and another reaching on a 3rd strike wild pitch. Rollins, an 11th round pick last year, now has a 1.12 ERA in 8 starts with 55 strikeouts and 13 walks in 48.1 innings. His 55 strikeouts is tied for first in the SALy.

Carl Crawford Is No Better Than 51st Most Valuable Player In Baseball

Nate Silver of Baseball Prospectus and SI.com recently released his list of “Baseball’s Top 50 MVPs.”

In concept, the UFD (Ultimate Fantasy Draft) is pretty simple: If you were starting a baseball team from scratch, which players would you want to build your team around?

Three members of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays cracked the top 50 and two others were named as honorable mention.

50. BJ Upton: There are parallels between Upton and Gary Sheffield, another player who had an awesome minor league pedigree but whose defense and attitude made for a difficult adjustment to the major leagues.

42. Delmon Young: Lost in the hubbub of the bat-throwing incident is that Young’s offensive development has been a little flat over the past year and a half.

33. Scott Kazmir: He just barely edged out Victor Zambrano for this slot (poor Mets fans, even Nate Silver is piling on…hehe). Kazmir has yet to have that one season that gets everyone buzzing — he had command problems in 2005, injury problems in 2006, and is off to a little bit of a slow start in 2007.

You might be asking “Where the #%% is Carl Crawford?” Inexplicably he comes in as an honorable mention.

Carl Crawford: Crawford seems like he’s been around forever, having become a big league regular at age 20, but he’s still just 25, and may have some further room for power development. He’s also one of the more likely major leaguers to take a run at 3,000 hits, as he’s even-money to have cleared the 1,000-hit barrier by the end of this season. Plus, he’s perhaps the best baserunner in the league, and one of the few left fielders that might be worthy of Gold Glove consideration. So there’s a ton to like here, but at the end of the day a .327 career OBP from a corner outfielder is too much to overlook.

We will forgive Nate Silver because he has obviously been in Botswana for the first month and a half of the baseball season and failed to notice that Crawford, who is still two years from his prime, has a .367 OBP this season. And while we will admit that C.C. does not play a critical position in the field, it is only because there are two more natural center fielders already on the team. Crawford could easily be a center fielder and would start in center for most teams.

The other honorable mention was last season’s first round pick, Evan Longoria.

Evan Longoria: Longoria’s minor league numbers this year — five homers and a .956 OPS so far (ed. note: actually 10 HR and 1.068 OPS as of today)– are significantly better than (Brandon) Wood’s, even though he has played in a much tougher hitting environment. Longoria plays outstanding defense and might even be a candidate for a move to shortstop; think Ryan Zimmerman, Part Deux.

We have no comment on Longoria because we are still flummoxed, flabbergasted, and F#@$$ed by Crawford’s non-ranking.

Baseball’s Top 50 MVPs [SI.com]

The Hangover: Bubble Boy Strikes Again

Devil Rays 4, Rangers 3.
Bubble Boy goes down with another hamstring injury. In the first inning Rocco Baldelli pulled up with a sore hamstring running to first base and had to be removed from the game. Is it us or is Rocco starting to look an awful lot like another talented center fielder, Ken Griffey? We only wish we could have gotten a few hundred more home runs before Rocco decided to made of glass. Very thin glass…Of course the true significance of this latest injury is that there is now much less chance of the Devil Rays moving one of their outfielders for pitching. The most likely players to be traded were Rocco and Elijah Dukes. No team was going to give value for Rocco before and there is no chance they will give value for Rocco now. With the fragile nature of Baldelli, and the emergence of BJ Upton as a legitimate infielder, Dukes is looking more and more like the center fielder of the future for the Rays.

On a brighter note is Brendan Harris. Harris was 4-5 last night including the game-winning single through a drawn-in infield. Don’t look now but Harris is hitting .340 on the season with a .383 OBP. In spring training Joe Maddon looked to Ben Zobrist (Ben who?) to fill a very traditional role as a #2 hitter. A guy who could take a few pitches, move runners along and get on base. He had the right position, just the wrong player. We are not the sort to tell Papa Joe how to fill out the lineup card (our managers never trusted us), but we wouldn’t be surprised if we start to see Harris in the #2 spot very soon.

Fleecing Harris from the Reds for basically a bag-of-balls, could help ease the pain of losing Josh Hamilton to the same team…Who the hell are we kidding? Nothing will ease that pain except a 5th of Jack.

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…

• It wasn’t quite a sellout, but 8,443 is a respectable number…we guess.
• Akinori Iwamura could be ready to begin a rehab assignment as early as next week.
• Did you know that BJ Upton, at 6’3″, is the tallest second baseman in the bigs? Neither did we. Is it important? Nah.
• A former Tampa Bay Devil Rays batboy won his major league debut for the Blue Jays.
• The Rays have not won 3 in a row this season. With Casey Fossum on the mound tonight, that streak is likely to continue.

Down On The Farm: Jeremy Hellickson Trumps Jacob McGee And James Houser

Pawtucket 15, Durham 6. Mitch Talbot is now 0-5 in his last 7 starts after giving up 7 hits, 4 walks and 5 runs (2 earned) in 3 innings. His ERA is now 8.47 on the season, and any hopes of seeing Talbot in the big leagues this season are fading fast. Wes Bankston homered for the Bulls and Jeremy Owens connected on 2 round-trippers. Ben Zobrist was 0-5 and is now 2-14 since his demotion. He might have been hitting better for the Rays.

Montgomery 4, West Tenn 0. Big night for James Houser in his return from the DL. He gave up only 2 hits and 1 walk in 6.1 scoreless innings. He struck out 7. Chris Nowak was 2-3 and drove in 3 runs, while John Jaso was 3-3 to raise his average to .337. Unfortunately Evan Longoria was hit in the elbow in his second at bat and needed to be removed from the game after it began to swell. Longoria has now reached base in 33 consecutive games.

Vero Beach 2, Daytona 0. Not to be outdone by Houser, Jacob McGee pitched 7 scoreless innings with 5 hits and no walks. He struck out 6 to lower his ERA to 1.51.

Rome 4, Columbus 3. Oh, but the Catfish sees your McGee and raises you a Jeremy Hellickson. Hellickson struck out 10 in 5 scoreless innings. He allowed only 1 hit and 2 walks. He struck out 7 of the first 9 batters he faced and did not allow a hit until the 5th inning.

NOTES FROM DOWN ON THE FARM…

• The Hardball Times has a story on “Ten Pitching Prospects Worth Knowing About.” Both Chris Mason of AA Montgomery and Andy Sonnanstine of AAA Durham make the list.

On Chris Mason: Mason’s strong start in 2006 was overshadowed when his strikeout rate dipped, his control faltered, and he started leaving the ball up in the zone and surrendering too many fly balls during the final two months of his first full professional season. He appears well-rested and has bounced back with another great start this year

On Andy Sonnanstine: The durable innings-eater continues to get batters to swing and miss by changing arm angles and effectively locating his secondary pitches and underwhelming fastball.

• Baseball America’s weekly “Hot Sheet” has Evan Longoria as the hottest prospect in baseball. In doing so, they take a little shot at the player blocking Longoria from playing third base at AAA.

Just about every night, we take a walk down the street to see the Durham Bulls. And every night as we walk back to the parking deck located next to our offices, we wonder why we didn’t just see Evan Longoria playing third base in Triple-A.

Longoria is wreaking havoc in the Southern League, batting .366 with four bombs and 11 RBIs last week alone. In all, the third overall pick last year is hitting .333/.451/.621 with 18 extra-base hits and nearly as many walks (25) as strikeouts (27).

Enough of Joel Guzman’s tired act already. Guzman looks lethargic; like he’s just not having fun. Guess a .240 on-base will do that to a guy. One thing’s for sure, you know Longoria will bring the same energy to the park every day.

The Hangover: Hey Rays. You Just Won One in A Row. Where Are You Going?

Yesterday our performance was about as effective as Seth McClung in pretty much any role above AAA. We speculated that the Rays would have to soon decide between keeping Carlos Pena or Greg Norton on the major league roster. We did not consider that Greg Norton cannot be sent down to Durham without clearing waivers. We also completely forgot about Jonny Gomes (considering the amount of playing time he receives, can you blame us?). Now it seems fairly obvious that when Iwamura returns, Gomes will be the one headed to Durham. We don’t call this “The Hangover” for no reason.

This does not mean that Norton is completely off the hook in this situation. So far during Norton’s rehab assignment at AA Montgomery, the Biscuits have played 10 games. During that period Norton has missed 3 games and was the DH in 5 others. He has only been able to play first base 2 times as he is still experiencing soreness in his knee. Despite being eligible to come off the DL, it will be at least a few more days until he rejoins the team. Of course, with the emergence of Pena, there is no need to rush Norton and if his knee is not 100%, it would not surprise us if Norton is placed back remains on the DL for two more weeks, and has his rehab assignment cut short.

Tonight the Devil Rays open a series against the Rangers in Orlando at the Disney World complex. We are not really sure what to think about it. We understand the reasoning behind it, as the organization hopes to expose the Rays to new fans in central Florida. A Rays home game outside will be a nice change but we are sorry if the idea does not excite us. We have been to a few spring training games in Orlando and it is a nice park, but we have a feeling that tonight’s game is going to look and feel like a spring training game.

Now there is talk about making this an annual event. However, the players and coaches would prefer that it not happen at all.

It’s a couple more nights in a hotel for most of the team, with the exception of area residents like first baseman Carlos Pena and pitching coach Jim Hickey; and getting used to a new infield, outfield and pitcher’s mound. It’s a remarkable amount of work for the support staff, from Chris Westmoreland and his clubhouse crew attempting to create a major-league environment in a spring training stadium to head trainer Ron Porterfield arranging for all the various medical services to be in place, including having ambulances on hand and a hospital designated just in case anyone needs to be rushed to emergency surgery.

Given a choice, just about everyone involved on the logistical side probably would rather play at Tropicana Field…

But hey…Goofy couldn’t be any worse than half of the team’s bullpen.

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…

• Despite his recent struggles, Rocco Baldelli will continue to lead off for the Rays.
• The use of Disney’s Wide World of Sports baseball field (capacity 9,500) will be the smallest ballpark to host a regular season game since the A’s were forced to start the 1996 season with six games in Las Vegas (capacity 9,000) due to renovations at their home park.

Down On The Farm: Andy Sonnanstine Is Making A Case For Spot In Rays Rotation

Durham 3, Richmond 1. Andy Sonnanstine is going to make it very difficult for the Rays to ignore him. He is the only starting pitcher at Durham that is not on the 40-man roster, but so far in 2007 he is making the rest of the IL look like…well like the 2006 Devil Rays. His latest start was a 7 inning, 2 hit, 1 run and 10 strikeout domination. He now has an ERA of 2.05 in 8 starts with only 35 hits in 52.2 innings. He also has a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 57:9. In his last 5 starts he has given up only 22 hits in 36.2 innings with 38 strike outs and only 5 walks. In those 5 starts he is 4-0 with an ERA of 1.24. Seth McClung struck out 4 in 2 perfect innings for his second save. Don’t look now, McClung is having a very strong campaign at Durham. In his last 16.1 innings, he has given up only 8 hits and 1 run and struck out 21. He is still struggling a bit with the control as he has 12 walks in 22.1 innings this season. Ben Zobrist had his first hits since his demotion and went 2-4. Elliot Johnson hit his 5th home run.

Montgomery 12, West Tenn 4. Evan Longoria’s days at Montgomery may be numbered. Last night Longoria hit his 10th home run and went 3-4. He is now hitting .333 on the season. More impressively he has now homered in 3 straight games and 4 of the Biscuits last 5. The only concern at this point would be what to do with Joel Guzman, another highly touted prospect, who is currently manning third base at AAA. Longoria is clearly a priority for the Devil Rays so if they decide to move Longoria to Durham, Guzman would have to find a new home. With Wes Bankston at first base, Guzman is likely headed to the outfield, which is unfortunate considering his plus glove. It will be interesting to see how this plays out, and it could happen sooner rather than later…Chris Mason struck out 4 in 6 innings and only allowed 3 hits and 1 run.

Vero Beach 12, Daytona 7. First baseman Rhyne Hughes added 3 more hits including his 4th and 5th home run of the year. His average is up to .368 which leads the FSL. Erold Andrus also hit 2 home runs.

Columbus 6, Rome 5. Woods Fines allowed 5 runs in 4+ innings.

NOTES FROM DOWN ON THE FARM…

• This just in, Evan Longoria is pretty good.

AL East Roundup: Dice-K Might Be Talking Trash…Or He Might Not

AL EAST	W	L	GB	L10	STK	E#
Boston Red Sox	26	11	–	8-2	W3	—
New York Yankees	17	19	8.5	5-5	L1	118
Baltimore Orioles	18	21	9.0	5-5	L3	116
Toronto Blue Jays	16	22	10.5	3-7	W1	115
Tampa Bay Devil Rays	15	22	11.0	3-7	W1	115

Red Sox 7, Tigers 1. Diasuke Matsuzaka said “I got your #3 starter right here.” Of course the interpreter might have mistranslated. Up to this point, Dice-K has been effective, if not over-powering. Last night, the Sox began to see return on their investment, as Matsuzaka pitched a complete game against the defending AL champs. He allowed only 6 hits, struck out 5 and did not walk a batter.

Blue Jays 5, Orioles 3. Troy Glaus drove in three including a 2-run home run in the 8th that proved to be the game-winner off of Danys Baez. Meantime, the Jays may have finally found a suitable replacement in the bullpen as Jeremy Accardo converted his second save and is yet to allow a run in 17.2 innings.

NOTE FROM AROUND THE AL EAST…

• Melvin Mora and Jay Payton nearly came to blows in the dugout following last night’s loss. Mora became heated when Payton mocked Sanjaya from American Idol*.
  
• Miguel Tejada’s excuse for only hitting two home runs this season? He is not a home run hitter of course. Maybe he forgot to take his “B-12” this season.
• Remember all the talk about the Yankees scoring a 1,000 runs this season? Not so much anymore. Alex Rodriguez has 1 home run in May. Bobby Abreu is in such a bad slump, that he has tried to bunt for a bas hit on several occasions in the past few weeks. Jason Giambi and Robinson Cano are both struggling. $200 million just doesn’t go as far as it used to.
• Roger Clemens had his first workout for the Yankees in Tampa. Must be a slow news day in the AL East.

* Might not be true.

The Hangover: Carlos Pena Or Jonny Gomes? Decision Coming Soon

Devil Rays 2, Blue Jays 1.
We are not going to get fooled in to thinking that Jae Seo is suddenly worthy of a spot in the rotation. This is what he does. He is just good enough, just often enough, that his teams keep believing that he is just about to turn the corner. We’re not drinking that kool-aid. If the team wants to say that Seo is only in the lineup because they are not prepared to bring up a prospect, we are fine with that…for now. But, one start on a day in which nobody was getting a hit, is not going to change our opinion.

The more pressing issue now is Carlos Pena. Pena is hitting .268 with 7 home runs and 20 RBI in only 82 at bats. If Pena had been a starter all season, his numbers project to 12 home runs and 32 RBI which would be 2nd and 4th respectively in the AL. Greg Norton is set to return from the DL some time this week, possibly as early as Tuesday and Akinori Iwamura might not be far behind, as he has progressed faster than expected. We would be shocked if Pena is sent down upon the return of Norton (Jorge Cantu is more likely), but when Muu-Rah comes back the team may not have a choice. Iwamura will return to his third base position and Ty Wigginton will shift back to first base. Joe Maddon will not be able to keep two backup first basemen on the bench, so either Norton, or more likely Pena will be sent down to Durham. Of course the team could also try and find a team willing to trade for either Norton or Pena, but that is not likely to happen this early in the season, unless a team loses a first baseman to a season-ending injury in the next week or two.

[UPDATE: We are feeling pretty silly right now. We did not consider that Greg Norton cannot be sent down to Durham without clearing waivers. We also completely forgot about Jonny Gomes (considering the amount of playing time he receives, can you blame us?). Now it seems fairly obvious that when Iwamura returns, that Gomes will be the one headed to Durham. We don’t call this “The Hangover” for no reason.]

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…

• Apparently the Devil Rays are moving to San Antonio in 5 years. Ok. We are not even going to dignify this with a comment on how idiotic David King is. What insider information does Mr. King have? The smoke out of his own ass and nothing else.
• The Rays recent offensive struggles can be traced to the loss of Akinori Iwamura to the DL.

In the Rays’ first 19 games of the season, including the April 23 victory against the Yankees that marked Iwamura’s final appearance before going on the disabled list, Tampa Bay averaged 5.37 runs per game, hit .271 as a team, compiled a .334 on-base percentage and struck out 2.37 times for every walk (147 to 62).

In the next 15 through the end of the Orioles series Thursday, the Rays’ scoring plummeted to 3.47 runs per game, their average to .240 and their OBP to .293 as they struck out 3.47 times per walk (125 to 36).

• WooHoo! Let’s start the Carl Crawford trade rumors again. They are always fun for about 2 weeks of “What would it take?” speculation and then everybody finally realizing that nobody will be willing to pay market price for one of the best young players in baseball followed by the experts commenting on how difficult it is to to try and trade with the Devil Rays.
• With Jae Seo and Casey Fossum in the rotation, preaching patience with the minor league pitchers is an exercise in patience.
• Unless the Rays find better pitching, and find it soon, the 2007 season is going to look an awful lot like 2006…and 2005…and 2004…and…
• There has been a lot of discussion about bringing up one or more of the Durham pitchers to the Rays and who might be the first to get the call. A lot of people have pointed to the numbers of Andy Sonnanstine, and think he deserves a shot. One thing to keep in mind is that of the five starting pitchers at Durham, Sonnanstine is the only one NOT on the 40-man roster. As long as there are other options, the Rays are not likely to call up Sonnanstine unless they have to, and there is a good chance we won’t see Sonnanstine in 2007.
• BJ Upton started in center field on Saturday for the first time in his major league career, and his lack of experience may have cost the Rays the game.
• Rocco Baldelli has 1 hit in his past 36 at bats.
• But hey, maybe he would make a good pitchman. Then again? Maybe not.
• It took a while, but Edwin Jackson is finally realizing that major league hitters can hit a major league fastball, and that it takes more than one good pitch to win at this level.
• Nolan Ryan making a comeback at age 60? Don’t laugh, he would probably be the #3 starter in the Rays rotation.
• oh dear lord…WHY?!?!?!