The Hangover: The Rays Claim Kurt Birkins From Orioles

Scottsdale 8, Team USA 6.
Reid Brignac continues to struggle in the AFL. Against Team USA, Brignac went 1-5 with a strikeout and is now hitting .193. Evan Longoria played third and hit clean-up for Team USA, going 1-5 with a run scored. He is now 3-12 with 3 singles in 3 games with Team USA. Justin Ruggiano went 0-2 for Team USA playing left field and batting sixth.

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…

• The Rays claimed another player off waivers. This time it was pitcher Kurt Birkins from the Orioles. To make room on the roster, they DFA’d Raul Cassanova. There is a good chance that Cassanova will be retained by the club once he clears waivers. [tampabay.com]
  
• Everybody wants Carl Crawford on their team…until they realize what it will cost to get him there. This time it is the Cubs. Listen Cubs fans…it will take 1) Pitching; 2) Major League Pitching; 3) A young stud Major League Starter; 4) And then throw in a prospect or two. And honestly, we do not see any players on the Cubs roster that fits the criteria. Good luck with the Torii Hunter negotiations. [Yahoo! Sports]
• Bugs & Cranks has more YouTube footage of Elijah Dukes in the Dominican Winter League in their latest installment of “The Redemption of Elijah Dukes”. [Bugs & Cranks]
• Martin Fennelly compares the Rays to the Ugly Duckling now that they are the only franchise that has never made a postseason appearance and they are the only one of the last four expansion teams to not make it to the World Series. [TBO]
• The Austin American-Statesman takes a look at the only four teams never to reach the world series and wonders which one of “The Final Four of Bad Baseball Teams” will be the first to break the drought. They compare the Devil Rays to the Mets of the late 60’s. [Austin American-Statesman]
• The Rays front office released a statement indicating that Jim Hickey will remain with the club as the team’s pitching coach. [TBO]
• Rotoworld ranks the Devil Rays as the 21st most likely destination for Alex Rodriguez. [Rotoworld]

It’d be something if the Rays could upstage Tampa’s other team by bringing in Rodriguez, but there’s been nothing to suggest they’d be willing to double their payroll.

The Rays Pitching Staff Just Got A Little Better

Alex Rodriguez is so awesome he just improved the Tampa Bay Devil Rays pitching staff.

Rodriguez will opt out of the final three years of his contract with the New York Yankees which most likely ended his tenure in pinstripes.

How does this improve the Devil Rays pitching staff? The 2008 pitching staff will now have as many as 19 fewer games in which they will have to face Alex Rodriguez. If Rodriguez moves to the NL and the Rays do not face his new team in interleague competition, that will mark 70-80 fewer plate appearances against the best hitter in baseball.

In 2007 Alex Rodriguez posted a VORP of 96 which translates to 0.60 runs per game of production over a replacement-level player. In 19 games, that would translate to 11.5 runs of production more than a replacement-level player. Of course, the Yankees will certainly look to fill the position with a player that is better than “replacement-level”.

Two possibilities are free agent third basemen Mike Lamb and Mike Lowell. Lowell had a VORP of 46.2 which would translate to 5.9 runs over a replacement-level player. Lamb had a 2007 VORP of 16.1, or 3.8 runs of production. Therefore with Alex Rodriguez’ career in pinstripes likely over, his absence alone would mean the Yankees would score between 5.6 and 7.7 fewer runs against the Rays in 2008.

Another way to look at it is at the overly-simplified Runs Created (RC; R+RBI-HR) and compare the numbers of Rodriguez in 2007 against only the Rays and the RC value of Mike Lowell. In 2007 Rodriguez was directly responsible for 34 runs against the Rays (72 plate appearances). Lowell created 26 runs in 2007 against the Rays in a similar number of plate appearances (74). Obviously, this is hardly scientific, but if the Yankees employed Lowell instead of Rodriguez in 2007 (arguably the best possible 2008 replacement) the Yankees would have scored 8 fewer runs against the Devil Rays.

This is all just a complicated way of stating the obvious. With Alex Rodriguez opting out of his contract with the Yankees, the Devil Rays pitching staff just got a little better. And let’s face it…they need all the help they can get.

Bye-bye, A-Rod: Rodriguez ends contract with New York Yankees [Yahoo! Sports]

The Hangover: Justin Ruggiano Joins Evan Longoria On Team USA

Scottsdale 10, Peo Saguaros 1.
Evan Longoria did not hit a home run. He did not get 3 hits or 4 RBI. He did not pass go and collect $200. He did go 1-3 with a walk and a run scored. He is hitting .318. Reid Brignac 0-4 with a run scored and is now 5-37 (.135) in 9 games.

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…

• Justin Ruggiano has been added to the Team USA World Cup baseball team that will compete in Chinese Taipei. [Austin American-Statesman]
• We pretty much can’t stand Scott Boras, as much as anybody. But we have the utmost respect for him. I’m Writing Sports refers to Boras as the most hated man in sports. He is a salesman and when it comes to agents that sell their clients, nobody does it better. Yes he says ridiculous things. He is a salesman. Yes he always sets the bar way too high. He is a salesman. He knows that no owner is going to give Alex Rodriguez $450 million. But…if he demands $450 million, then he has a better chance of getting $300-350 million, which is exactly what Boras wants for A-Rod…And he will get it. That is why he is the best. He may not necessarily put his client in the best situations (A-Rod in Texas, Jeff Weaver in Seattle, etc.), but he will always get them the top dollar. The only effect on baseball that Boras has had on baseball that really irks us is the Amateur Baseball Draft. The best player should be drafted #1. End of story. Too often the top players fall to the big market teams because of contract demands by Scott Boras. In the end, the rich get richer. [I’m Writing Sports]
• The Devil Rays only have one player (Carlos Pena) currently represented by Scott Boras. Rocco Baldelli was formerly a Boras client and then dropped him to negotiate his own contract extension. At the time, it was generally considered a bad move by Baldelli and for a while many considered Rocco’s contract to be below market. But Boras is an agent that rarely negotiates extensions before a previous contract expires. He believes in the open market, and that competition drives up prices. In this case, if Boras had held back and waited for Rocco to become a free agent, he might have cost his client money, or at least he would have been forced to sign an incentive-laden contract on the free agent market.

The Hangover: It Will All Be Over Soon

Devil Rays (off day)

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…

• This just in…Evan Longoria is good. Longoria plays third base. Akinori Iwamura plays third base. Aki ranked 23rd (out of 35, min. 250 PA) of major league third basemen in OPS. Aki has a weak arm. Aki may need to move to a new position in 2008. The writers that cover the Rays must be praying for Elijah Dukes to do something stupid. 3…2…1…. [Devil Rays]
  
• Rays of Light makes an argument that Carlos Pena has been more valuable to the Rays than Alex Rodriguez has been to the Yankees. Scott takes a look at the WARP values (number of wins a player is worth) for each player. While A-Rod has a higher WARP (10.5 to 9), El Gato’s WARP represents a higher percentage of the Devil Rays wins and hence he is “More Valuable”. It is an interesting argument and not necessarily “wrong”. We don’t pretend to know all the math behind these numbers, but the problem with using WARP for this argument is that in theory it is team independent. Therefore, if A-Rod was playing for the Rays (and posted the same numbers) he would still have a WARP of 10.5 and if Pena was on the Yankees, his would still be 9.0. In essence, to use WARP as a percentage of team wins, penalizes a player on a good team and gives a HUGE advantage to a player on a team that has very few wins. In an absolute sense, A-Rod is worth more wins and in the end W’s are the only stat that really matters. [Rays of Light]
• Why does John Donovan of SI.com think that the Devil Rays deserve to be ranked last in his latest “Power Rankings”? Is it because they have the worst record in baseball? Nope. Worst pitching? Nah. They are the worst team in the league because “Boston’s Dustin Pedroia is the AL’s Rookie of the Year. It shouldn’t be all that close.” [SI.com]
• John Sickels takes a look at the crash-and-burn that was Dewon Brazelton and tries to answer the question ” What the hell happened here?” [Minor League Ball]
• Roger Clemens will make his scheduled start tonight, despite speculation to the contrary. If we are lucky, Clemens will talk to reporters and support Carlos Pena Comeback Player of the Year. And of course that will be Rocket’s secret code for wanting to pitch for the Rays in 2008. [TBO]

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.

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.

AL East Roundup: Ladies And Gentlemen…Your Last Place New York Yankees

AL EAST	W	L	GB	L10	STK	E#
Boston Red Sox	12	7	–	7-3	L2	—
Baltimore Orioles	11	9	1.5	7-3	L2	142
Toronto Blue Jays	10	10	2.5	4-6	W2	141
Tampa Bay Devil Rays	9	11	3.5	5-5	W2	140
New York Yankees	8	11	4.0	4-6	L5	140

Blue Jays 10, Red Sox 3. The Blue Jays are a lot like the Devil Rays these days and we are not just talking about their aversion to the first part of their nickname and a distancing from their team colors. With all their injuries, especially to BJ Ryan, the Jays only hope is to outscore their opponents, and they have the offense to do it. Roy Halladay struck out 10 in 8 innings and the Jays knocked around 15 hits. Mike Lowell homered for Boston, his third in 3 games.

A’s 4, O’s 2. All four runs by the A’s were scored after the Orioles played hot potato with the baseball. Aubrey Huff hit a triple. Who was playing in the outfield? Stevie Wonder?

NOTES FROM AROUND THE AL EAST...

• Better them than us. The NEW YORK YANKEES ARE IN LAST PLACE.
• Apparently the Rays aren’t the only team with bullpen issues. The Yankees bullpen is in disarray. We have to agree if Joe Torre is already using the Great Mariano in the 8th inning, bringing Andy Pettite out of the bullpen and his main setup man is Kyle Farnsworth, who has the weakest 98 mph fastball in baseball. Oh yeah, and your submarining lefty gives up grand slams to left-handed hitters.
• Derek Jeter was removed from last night’s loss to the Rays with a bruised thigh after being hit by a pitch. He is not expected to miss much time.
• Alex Rodriguez says he wants to stay in New York after this season. We would expect him to say nothing else.
• BJ Ryan is not coming back anytime soon. The Jays moved him to the 60-day DL. Sounds an awful lot like his season is in jeopardy.
• The Orioles lost reliever Scott Williamson to the DL.
• Yet another injury for the Blue Jays. This time it is Greg Zaun headed to the DL. At this rate, Jesse Barfield, Lloyd Moseby and Garth Iorg will be suiting up for the Jays.

AL East Roundup: Yankees And Jays Join Rays In Kiddy-Pool

AL EAST	W	L	GB	L10	STK	E#
Boston Red Sox	12	6	–	8-2	L1	—
Baltimore Orioles	11	8	1.5	8-2	L1	143
Toronto Blue Jays	9	10	3.5	4-6	W1	141
New York Yankees	8	10	4.0	4-6	L4	141
Tampa Bay Devil Rays	8	11	4.5	5-5	W1	140

Blue Jays 7, Red Sox 3. With a 4-3 lead heading to the 8th inning and BJ Ryan on the DL, the Jays realized their only hope was to do the obvious…score more runs. A 2-run homer by Aaron Hill capped the scoring and gave the Jays enough of a cushion to top the Pink Hats who were obviously still hung over from their April sweep of the Yankees. APRIL.

A’s 6, O’s 5. The Orioles lose! The Orioles lose!

NOTES FROM AROUND THE AL EAST…

• The Yankees would be 17-0 without A-Rod. Derek Jeter’s defensive struggles? A-Rod’s fault. All the injuries to the pitching staff? A-Rod’s fault.
• Alex Rodriguez is the fastest ever to 13 14 home runs.
• This makes us giggle like a school girl.
• The Yankees passed over top prospect Phillip Hughes last time, but they won’t make the same mistake this week. Chase Wright was demoted after giving up 4 straight home runs to the Red Sox on Sunday Night and Hughes will get the ball for his major league debut on Thursday against Toronto. Hughes is generally regarded as one of the top pitching prospects in baseball.
• While Mets fans have trouble letting go of Scott Kazmir, Orioles fans are having trouble letting go of Jeffrey Maier.
• David Ortiz is Shakespeare with a bat. We had no idea Shakespeare had a tendency to go yard in the 9th inning of close games. We admit, some metaphors confuse us.
• Jaret Wright and Ramon Hernandez finally get to throw to each other, on rehab assignments. That is soo BFF.
  

AL East Roundup: A-Rod Puts Mother On Speakerphone

AL EAST	W	L	GB	L10	STK	E#
Boston Red Sox	11	5	–	8-2	W4	—
Baltimore Orioles	11	7	1.0	8-2	W4	145
New York Yankees	8	8	3.0	5-5	L2	144
Toronto Blue Jays	8	10	4.0	3-7	L5	142
Tampa Bay Devil Rays	7	11	5.0	4-6	L1	141

Red Sox 7, Yankees 6. The Pink Hats hit 4 straight home runs in the 3rd inning to erase a 3-0 deficit and held on in the 9th when Jonathon Papplebon got Alex Rodriguez to ground into a force out to end the game (somebody call A-Rod’s therapist). It was the first time the Sox had swept the Evil Empire in Boston since 1990. And why did Joe Torre and Brian Cashman think it was a good idea to hold back Chien-Ming Wang and not start him last night? Because that would have been perceived as a panic move this early in the season. Kinda like using Mo Rivera in the 8th inning on Friday after saying that would not happen this year.

Orioles 7, Blue Jays 3. The Orioles win again? That’s annoying.

NOTE FROM AROUND THE AL EAST…

• Hideki Matsui is likely to rejoin the Yankees on Monday when they face the Devil Rays.
• Jorge Posada who has missed action with a bruised thumb, could play tonight versus the Rays as the DH.
• People in Chicago are starting to get excited about the idea of having Alex Rodriguez in the second city next season.
• Things are in danger of spiraling out of control in Toronto.

AL East Roundup: Chase Wright Should Have Tanked His Major League Debut

AL EAST	W	L	GB	L10	STK	E#
Toronto Blue Jays	8	5	–	7-3	W2	—
Boston Red Sox	7	5	0.5	6-4	L1	150
Baltimore Orioles	7	7	1.5	6-4	L1	148
New York Yankees	6	6	1.5	5-5	W1	149
Tampa Bay Devil Rays	6	8	2.5	4-6	W1	147

Blue Jays 2, Red Sox 1. The Jays entered this game, with half their roster on the DL, a half-game behind the Sox and Diasuke Matsuzaka on the mound. No worries. Gustavo Chacin became just the latest pitcher to say “Sashimi!” as he shut down the Pink Hats for 6.2 innings. Jason Frasor came on in the 9th to close it out in the stead of BJ Ryan. Matsuzaka struck out 10 in 6 innings, but two runs on two hits and three walks in the 4th inning was enough for the Jays.

Yankees 10, Indians 3. The Yankees sent to the mound Chase Wright, who was only making his third career start above A-ball. He worked 5 innings and gave up only 3 runs. This is terrible news for the Yankees. At this point the Evil Empire needs a starter for Sunday night’s nationally televised game against the Red Sox in which Daisuke Matsuzaka will be going to the mound for the Sox. It will be Dice-K’s first appearance on national TV and his first shot at the Yankees. Currently Chien-Ming Wang is on the DL for the Yankees but he has pitched in extended spring training games and been effective. If Chase Wright had struggled last night, the Yankees likely would have called up Wang to pitch on Sunday. Since Wright was good in his first major league start, now it looks like his second will be on Sunday night, on national TV facing Dice-K. Good luck with that one.

NOTES FROM AROUND THE AL EAST…

• Jeff Karstens is likely to pitch against the Red Sox on Saturday for the Yankees, while Chien-Ming Wang should return from the DL to face the Rays on Tuesday.
• With all the injuries that the Jays have suffered recently, it is only appropriate that they had “Organ donor awareness” night last night. Of course with the Red Sox in town they could have called it “Help JD Drew” night.
• Wow! All of the sudden they love Alex Rodriguez in the Bronx. He is going to be laughing when he opts out of his contract. So will we.
• Nothing like brainwashing your child into rooting for the Red Sox. It is only fitting that one of the Kings of Unintentional Comedy, Ben Affleck is starring in this little diddy.