[THE HANGOVER] Jae Seo Reaffirms His Position As Worst Pitcher In Baseball

Orioles 8, Devil Rays 3.
The headline at DevilRays.com reads “Seo shaky in loss”. Shaky? 6 innings with 9 hits and 3 runs is shaky. Seo was awful. The headline in the Tampa Tribune reads “Seo Takes Step Back“. A step back? From what? From his last start, when he only gave up 2 runs in 6 innings? This was not a step back. Last night was the true Jae Seo. The last start was the aberration, not this one. He has now given up at least 5 runs in 5 of his 7 starts. Yesterday Gary Shelton of the St. Pete Times told us we need to be patient. He pointed to Seo’s last start as an indication that he is getting things together and that he will be fine. HE’S NOT FINE! AND QUITE FRANKLY WE ARE GETTING SICK OF IT. HE STINKS. Why is he is still in the rotation? For what purpose? Somebody please answer us that. We are begging to know. There must be something that Joe Maddon and Andrew Friedman see.

How bad has Jae Seo been? Just so you don’t think we are ranting about a couple of starts, let’s take a look at his numbers. There are 145 pitchers in baseball that have thrown at least 20 innings this season, let’s see where Seo ranks in some very telling statistical categories…

Statistic	Jae Seo	Rank (out of 145)
ERA	8.82	144
Hits	56	T144
H/9	15.17	145
Runs	37	145
K/9inn	4.41	122
HR	7	128
HR/9	1.32	131
WHIP	2.02	140
BAA	.384	145
OBPA	.430	144
SLGA	.596	145
VORP	-13.2	T144

How bad has Jae Seo been? THE WORST PITCHER IN BASEBALL. GET HIM OUT OF HERE. SEND HIM TO THE BULLPEN. SEND HIM TO THE MINORS. SEND HIM TO THE GOD DAMNED ALASKAN PIG FARMERS LEAGUE. We don’t care where, but get him out of the rotation. The 2007 Tampa Bay Devil Rays could be a decent team, but they have zero chance of winning on nights Seo pitches, and we have had it. He is an automatic L.

Are Maddon and Friedman trying to give the guys at AAA more seasoning? JASON HAMMEL ALREADY HAS MAJOR LEAGUE EXPERIENCE. And he is dominating IL hitters. He couldn’t be any worse than Seo but at least their is hope and promise in his arm. GET HIM UP HERE. We know, we know. The most popular player on the team is always the backup quarterback. But this is not one start we are talking about. Maddon loves to talk about how well Seo pitched last year despite going 1-8 with the Rays. Maddon points to the lack of run support. LACK OF RUN SUPPORT? What does that matter if a pitcher’s ERA is 5.00? We are now two years removed since Seo was a decent pitcher. Believe us, we have no idea how Seo went 8-2 with a 2.59 ERA in 14 starts in 2005. BUT IT WAS 2005!

This is not only hard on the fanbase, but it must be hard on the rest of the team as well. How demoralizing must it be for a young player to know that the team is basically down 5-0 when the game starts. Maddon is trying to preach a team concept to the young players. Watch how quickly that goes out the window when players think there is ZERO CHANCE TO WIN.

Jae Seo….Jae Seo…Jae Seo…Where did that bottle of Jameson go?

[UPDATE: DevilRays.com has changed their title to “Seo struggles against Orioles”. That is the second time they have changed a title after we commented on it…hmmmm?]

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…

• It must be hard when you find out one of your favorite players is busted for using steroids. We can only imagine how devastating it would have been if George Bell was caught after his 1987 MVP season. We would probably still be sitting in a corner rocking back and forth and mumbling “Why George? Why?”
• We knew that $28 million figure that the Yankees are paying Roger Clemens sounded familiar.
• We linked yesterday to the New York Times article on the Devil Rays. We read Stuart Sternberg’s quotes about the life expectancy of Tropicana Field and were not nearly as floored as many other people appear to be. So much fuss has been made that Sternberg needed to clarify his statements as some felt that he might be hinting at moving the franchise away from the Tampa-St. Pete area. In short, Sternberg said that the team will not be able to remain at the Trop through the conclusion of their current lease and that a new stadium will be needed and state and local funding is a must. However, he indicated that it is not a priority issue.

We’ll focus on it more as time goes by…Something of this magnitude, it really isn’t anything I’ve spent a lot of time on. I have thought about it. Nothing can be done overnight. It’s in the background. We know it’s there. We chat about it – how and what. — Stuart Sternberg

• Several of the Devil Rays reacted to the news of Juan Salas’ suspension. Basically, it is a lot of politically correct answers, but we have to wonder how many of the players are angry and if Salas will be welcome back in the clubhouse.
• Rocco Baldelli is 0 for his last 17.
• The pink bats are coming! Somebody queue Paul Lukas.
• Greg Norton missed his second straight rehab game with soreness in his knee.

The Hangover:Another 9th Inning Home Run Given Up By Brian Stokes

A’s 5, Devil Rays 2.
On April 22, the Rays took a 4-2 lead into the 9th inning against the Indians. On that night, Joe Maddon was forced to use Brian Stokes in the 9th inning, with Al Reyes unavailable after having worked the previous two nights. Stokes gave up 3 runs including a 3-run home run to Ryan Garko and the Rays lost the game 6-4. Fast forward 2 weeks and Maddon was once again without Reyes. With the score tied 2-2 in the 9th, Maddon once again turned to Stokes. Stokes once again gave up a 3-run home run. We guess that winning three straight games was just too much to ask for and let’s face it, it has been a while since the bullpen imploded at a very inopportune time. Most of the Rays losses recently have been of the 9-1 variety, but last night reminded us just how shallow the Rays bullpen is.

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…

• BJ Upton has been moved into the #5 spot in the lineup.
  
• Greg Norton began his 2-week rehab stint at Montgomery last night. He was the Biscuits DH and went 1-3 with a double and 2 RBI.
• Joe Maddon is treating this entire season as extended spring training.

Three hours before Friday’s game, all 25 Devil Rays and the entire coaching staff were on the Tropicana Field turf for an extensive session of fundamental work. It sounds basic enough, but it’s a sight rarely seen once calendars turn past March. Pickoffs and pitchers’ fielding practice, cutoffs and relays – they’re drills usually confined to the monotonous days before games begin.

• The Rays bullpen is bad. Just plain bad.

The Hangover: Handin’ Out Delmons And Chasing Charlie Hough

Devil Rays 4, Twins 3.
Delmon Young likes to throw things very hard and very far and very accurately. We call it Gettin’ A Delmon…Jason Kubel Got A Delmon…In the 4th inning, Kubel rambled a little too far towards second base on a line drive to Delmon Young in right center. Despite catching the ball while moving away from first base, Young turned and fired a pea to Carlos Pena at first to double-up Kubel and get the Rays out of the inning…Justin Morneau Got A Delmon…In the 6th inning, Morneau hit a rocket off the right field wall that would be a double on any other night. But on this night Delmon Young was roaming the FieldTurf II of the Trop. He played the ball off the wall, spun and fired a rocket to Brendan Harris at second base. Both Kubel and Morneau should just be grateful that Young wasn’t throwing a bat.

As for the rest of the game, the Rays once again were able to get to Twins closer Joe Nathan, scoring 2 in the 9th to tie the game. In 3 appearances this season against the Rays (3 innings) Nathan has given up 9 hits and 4 runs. In his other 10 appearances (10.1 innings) he has allowed only 10 hits and 1 run. In the bottom of the 10th inning (the Rays first extra inning affair of the year) Ben Zobrist fell rounding third base on Harris’ double, but made up for the gaffe beating the throw home on Dioner Navarro’s ground ball to short.

The Rays are now in sole possession of third place in the AL East, 5.5 games behind the Red Sox and only 1 game behind the Jays for 2nd place. Even more intriguing is that the Rays are only 4 games back in the wild card. But that is the last time we will mention that number until the Rays reach a more important milestone, .500. In our minds there are three numbers the Rays are chasing. 6.5 games is the Rays “mark” in the AL East. 4 games in the Rays mark in the wild card race, but neither of those numbers mean anything until the Rays reach “The Charlie Hough Line”. For his career Hough was 216-216. The knuckleballer was the epitome of a .500 pitcher. The Rays cannot think of any other teams until they first surpass Hough’s career winning percentage. So from now on we will only speak in terms of “Games behind Charlie Hough”. Right now the Rays are 1.5 games behind Charlie Hough.

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…

• The Rays base stealing is greatly improved in the last 10 days. After only being successful on 14 of their first 27 attempts, the Rays have stolen 14 of their last 17.
• Josh Hamilton was named NL Rookie of the Month for April. During the month, Hamilton, who started the season as a reserve, hit .266 with 6 home runs, 16 RBI and a stolen base.
• Akinori Iwamura finished second in the AL Rookie of the Month voting to fellow Japanese rookie Hideki Okajima of the Red Sox.
• Greg Norton has been getting at bats in extended spring training, and will begin a rehab assignment in Montgomery on Friday, where he will get 27-30 at bats (6-7 games). Norton should be back with the Rays a week from Friday when the Rays begin a series in Toronto.
• Now that Benny Boo Boo is on the bench, he has more free time to visit local school children. The upsetting part is that apparently BenZo was accompanied by his wife and mlb.com could not provide us with any pictures. That’s ok, we still have Julianne’s MySpace page.
• FoxSports has their first power ranking of the season and the Rays come in at #22. Might be the highest we have ever seen the Devil Rays ranked in any power rankings. Of course they mention that Jeff Niemann is returning from Tommy John surgery. Must have him mixed up with Wade Townsend.

The Hangover: The Jeckyl And Hyde Of Baseball

You may have noticed a slight change in format. We run three daily features around these parts. Of course, by daily, we mean if we don’t drink too much the night before and are able to get our buts out of bed in a reasonable manner. Well, we are going to mix things up a little. On days that we run “The AL East Roundup” and/or “Down on the Farm”, those will be posted before “The Hangover” which we should be able to get up all weekdays and most weekends.

Devil Rays 5, A’s 3.
We promise that next time we take off for on a drunken weekend binge, we will leave you with something better to look at on the front page than Mel Allen’s mug…One trait of young teams is extreme ups and downs and this is not lost on the 2007 Tampa Bay Devil Rays. After taking 2 straight from the Yankees in impressive fashion, they followed it up by looking like a AAA team in 2 losses to the Angels. Somehow they bounced back to take 2 of 3 from the A’s. Scott Kazmir got off to a shaky start by giving up 2 solo home runs in the first. He settled down and did what he had to do. He kept an ugly loss (on Saturday) from turning into a losing streak, handing the ball to the bullpen in the 8th inning with a lead. Rocco Baldelli, who was a game-time decision as to whether or not he could return to the lineup, made the start and provided a no-doubt home run in 5th inning. BJ Upton was moved up from his normal 9-spot in the lineup, to the 6-hole and made Papa Joe Maddon look like a genius by driving in 3 with his 5th home run of the year. Elijah Dukes hit his first home run since the first 2 games of the season against the Yankees.

• Josh Hancock, who died in a car accident, was a friend of Casey Fossum.
• Rocco Baldelli started at DH, but is still not 100%.
• Jorge Cantu received his first career start as a first baseman. He went 0-4.
• Yesterday Shawn Camp relieved Scott Kazmir in the 8th inning. He struggled and Brian Stokes had to come in for the final two outs of the frame. With Camp’s recent success and a couple of shaky outings by Stokes, Joe Maddon will be day-to-day with Camps and Stokes on who gets the ball in the 7th and who gets it in the 8th.
• Buster Olney lists James Shields as one of his “payers on the rise”, citing an already impressive change-up that keeps getting better.
• Carlos Pena has been a pleasant surprise for the Rays early in the season. There is no word yet what the Rays will do when Greg Norton is ready to return to the team. Norton is expected to begin a rehab assignment in the next few days. Pena only made the opening day roster after Norton was injured in the last week of spring training. The likely scenario would be one in which the Rays send Cantu back to Durham, keeping Pena and Norton. Then the team would be able to wait until Akinori Iwamura returns before making a decision on Pena.
• Joe Maddon is worried about how often the Rays fall behind early in a game. A team can have all the talent in the world, but it does no good if they do not show up to the park mentally prepared to play everyday.
• RealGM Baseball is taking a look at all 30 GMs in baseball. In their review of Andrew Friedman, they call the hiring of Joe Maddon, his “signature move”. Signing Akinori Iwamura, and not trading BJ Upton must have been a close second and third.
• James Shields is the Rays most consistent pitcher right now, but he does have a penchant for giving up home runs.
• Here is a very detailed account of Ty Wigginton delivering his second child in the closet of their home. All we can say is “wow”.
• A look back at the Devil Rays 1997 expansion draft.

The Hangover: Carlos Pena Makes Opening Day Roster Afterall

• The Rays concluded spring training with an 8-3 win over the Mets at the Trop. It’s too bad that the Rays couldn’t have played the Mets on a day that Scott Kazmir started. It would have been fun to see all the Mets fans at the Trop crying. The Rays finished the Grapefruit League with a 10-19-2 record…not bad considering they started 1-14.
• With Rocco Baldelli limited to DH duty, Elijah Dukes will get the start in CF on opening day.
• While BJ Upton will be the most-days second baseman, Joe Maddon stated that Upton will still see time in center and right field.
• Greg Norton will begin the season on the 15-day DL. Carlos Pena was added to the 40-man roster and will take Norton’s spot on the roster. To make room for Pena, Jon Switzer was moved to the 60-day DL.
• Do the Rays have the best outfield in baseball? That may be a bit premature, but the potential is limitless.
• Don’t forget, tomorrow we will be in heart of the Lion’s Den. We will be in New York City and we will bring you the first ever Devil Rays live game blog. Not from the game, but from the comfort of a couch, a computer, a big TV, and a fridge stocked with beer. So whether you are stuck at work or at home, don’t forget to stop by as the Devil Rays take their first step towards .500 and the 2010 World Series!

Rays Roster And Lineup Projections Update

We are a few weeks, two intra-squad games and four official games into Spring Training. Now is a good time to take a look at our 2007 25-man roster projections. Over the course of the next month we will update these projections twice a week.

A couple of notes on these projections…

• We understand that a few of the players listed as “secure” are not guaranteed to be the opening day starter at their respective positions. For example, there is an outside shot that Akinori Iwamura could still be the opening day second baseman. Still, at this point there is no indication that a move will happen. The “secure” positions are based on what we believe would happen if Papa Joe Maddon had to name his opening day lineup and roster today.
• Several people have made the argument that our previous prediction of an 11-man pitching staff was unlikely. Their arguments must have been strong because we now tend to agree that Papa Joe is more likely to keep seven arms in the bullpen and only four bats on the bench.
• With those numbers in mind, it now looks as if there are four roster spots up for grabs, with two on the bench and two in the bullpen. We almost listed B. J. Upton as secure, but we still think there is a remote chance that the team will send him back to Durham for more work. Even though Al Reyes is not on the 40-man roster we give him the edge in the final two bullpen slots. As long as he is healthy (and every indication so far is that he is) it is his position to lose. The final bullpen spot is really just a guess at this point.
• We have long thought that the final spot in the rotation would go to J. P. Howell based on his performance towards the end of 2006. However, of the prospective pitchers vying for the final spot, Jae-Kuk Ryu is the only one that has been given a start so far and he pitched a solid two innings.
• Greg Norton has been the DH with the regulars, but we still think when the season starts Papa Joe will go with Jonny Gomes on a regular basis, if not every day.

The Hangover: Yet Another Rays-Marlins Trade Rumor…*Yawn*

We are a little late today, but sometimes, “The Hangover” feature really is a hangover.

• It took Scott Kazmir 41 pitches to record four outs in the Rays 6-5 victory over the Jays yesterday. Kaz is still young but throwing too many pitches is the only thing that is standing between him and greatness. Ok, that and a consistent offense and a major league bullpen. Until he learns to be more democratic and throw more groundballs, there will be too many starts in which Kid K is removed after five dominating innings and leaving the fate of the game on an overtaxed and ill-equipped bullpen.
• In more promising news, everybody’s favorite Mr. Kotter look-alike, Jonny Gomes, homered in his first two at bats. It looks like Papa Joe Maddon entered Spring Training with the thought of having Greg Norton as his regular DH. Mr. Gomes is going to make Maddon think twice about that.
• Buried at the bottom of this article is a comment from Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter, who was critical of the infield at Progress Energy Ballpark. He suggested that the condition would lead to a lot of bad habits by the Rays young infielders.
• Plenty of options available for the bullpen indeed. Notice the name of the article is not “Plenty of good options available for the bullpen.”
• Jayson Stark is trying to revive old trade rumors between the Rays and Marlins with Florida apparently focused on B. J. Upton or Elijah Dukes. While the pursuit of Rocco Baldelli was a more prominent headline, this is not the first time that rumors have suggested that the Marlins were interested in Upton or Dukes.
• Hey! At least the Rays are thought of more highly than the Royals and the Nationals. USA Today has released their first power rankings of 2007 and the Rays debut at #28.
• Josh Hamilton had two more doubles and is now 6-12 with a home run.

The Hangover: Josh Hamilton Is Now About 500′ Farther From The Rays

• Josh Hamilton is not the only former Rays first round pick that is trying to stick with another major league club this spring. One time opening day starter, Dewon Brazelton is in camp with the Kansas City Royals as a non-roster invitee. Don’t the Royals employ scouts? Then again, it couldn’t possibly turn out as bad as his stint in San Diego last year…could it?
• Josh Hamilton hit his first home run in a game since 2002. Seriously, 2002. And it was prodigious.
• Papa Joe Maddon wishes that nobody had to compete for a job in Spring Training. Can’t we all just get along?
• Greg Norton will DH again today in the first Spring Training game. Maybe our prediction of 300 ABs for Jonny Gomes was actually too high.
• The fifth spot in the rotation may come down to who can throw strikes the most consistently.
• Andrew Friedman promises not to rush Jeff Niemann, Mitch Talbot and Andy Sonnanstine. All three are likely to start at AAA and when they are ready, Friedman promises to find a spot on the Rays for each of them.
• Several spots are still up for grabs, but it is going to take more than just gaudy numbers this Spring to win those spots. Papa Joe and Andrew Friedman will also be looking at intangibles. That leads us to believe that they probably already have a sense of what the roster is going to look like and the other players will have to force them to change their minds.
• Hey! It’s another Delmon Is Soooo Mature story. On top of that, for those of you that are familiar with the website Fire Joe Morgan they would have a field-day with this story. There are about 20 single-sentence paragraphs.
• We made an oopsy last week. This will actually be Don Zimmers 59th season in the major leagues (not 58th as we had previously reported) and hence he will be wearing #59 on his uniform this season. A truly impressive feat.
• A pleasant interview with Stuart Sternberg just don’t expect him to say anything.