[THE HANGOVER] Seo Long, Don’t Let The Door Hit You In The Ass

Royals 4, Devil Rays 1.
Only the Rays could throw up a stinker and make Brian Bannister look like Johan Santana.

The Devil Rays finally made changes to the rotation that we all have patiently waited for. OK, maybe we weren’t very patient at times. Jae Seo has been designated for assignment and Casey Fossum has been banished to the bullpen. Hey! The Rays have a lefty in the pen! Andy Sonnanstine and JP Howell were called up to take their places in the rotation. In addition, Jae Kuk Ryu was demoted to Durham where he will join the Bulls rotation.

So what does this mean for each of the players involved, what does it mean for the team and what does it mean for the fans?

The Rays have 10 days to try and work a trade for Seo. Will there be any takers? Hard to say. The Rays are still on the hook for about $850K of Seo’s $1.2 million salary for 2007. Therefore it is in the best interest of the team’s pocket books to try and find a trade partner. While the amount is small for most teams we can’t see anybody offering anything of substance and acquiring the contract. More likely teams will sit tight, and in ten days Seo will be released and signed to a minor league contract by somebody.

The Rays would also like to move Fossum and the rest of his contract. He is in the final year of his contract and is set to earn $2.2 million this season. There is a team option for $3 million next season. Moving Fossum to the bullpen gives the team some time to look for a trade partner. There is likely to be more suitors for Fossum’s services as he is a lefty and the move to the bullpen will give the Rays a chance to audition Fossum for other teams that may be in the market for a lefty bullpen arm for the stretch drive.

Howell will get the start on Sunday and Sonnanstine will throw on Tuesday in Toronto. For Howell, with Jeff Niemann, Jason Hammel and Mitch Talbot still lurking at Durham, this is likely his last chance to prove that he belongs in the Rays rotation. No telling how many starts he will get but look for 10-15 outings at the end of which the team will evaluate and either keep him in the rotation or make a move to Niemann or Hammel.

Sonannstine is the big mystery. In his last outing at Durham he gave up 10 hits and 6 innings. We mentioned that this should be a red flag for Rays fans because Sonny is not overpowering and he always in the strike zone which means if he doesn’t have his best stuff he is hittable. Well, now comes this scouting report from Shawn Riggans who caught Sonny for most of his starts. Riggans confirms exactly what we should all worry about.

Sonnie, he’s excellent. He pounds the zone. His game is either going to go one way or the other. He’s either going to dominate you or you’re going to pound him because he throws so many strikes. He uses three different arm angles, from up top, three quarters, and low three-quarters. Three pitches from each arm angle, excellent control, he doesn’t walk many guys. He’s working on coming inside a little more. Down and away is his money pitch, fastball down and away; slider in the same location. The one problem he has is coming inside, sometimes it leaks out over the plate. He can still throw fastballs by guys with his deception.

All he does is throw strikes and all he does is win. But that was the minor leagues. Lots of pitchers can get minor leaguers out. It will be much more difficult to fool major leaguers. We are pulling for Sonny but we have to admit that we are worried that he will be a classic AAAA pitcher. Hope we are wrong.

And for Rays fans? Well, the beer will go down a little easier tonight knowing that we never have to watch Jae Seo or Casey Fossum start a game in a Rays uniform…Ever.

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…

• Jae Seo was allowing hitters to hit .390 when they put the ball in play. That is an unheard of rate, and not good when you are not a strikeout pitcher.
• Jon Switzer returned from the 60-day DL and was optioned to Durham.
  

[THE HANGOVER] We Knew The Bullpen Was Bad, But Geez

Something smells…Let’s see if we can figure out what it is…

Yesterday, somebody in the comments section asked about the number of runners inherited that Shawn Camp had allowed to score this year. Of course, we really don’t need a statistics to tell us that the answer is somewhere between “too many” and “seriously? Shawn Camp?…again?”

While most media outlets still list wins, losses, saves and ERA, a true measure of a relief pitchers effectiveness is their ability to come in and put out a fire. Strangely, IR (number of inherited runners) IRS (number of inherited runners scored) and IRS% (percentage of inherited runners that scored) are elusive numbers. None of the giant online media outlets list the numbers. But never fear, after some searching, the fine folks over at Baseball Prospectus have come through (as usual).

First let us take a look at the numbers for every pitcher that has pitched in relief this season for the Devil Rays. In all Major League games this season, relief pitchers have faced a total of 1906 IR. Of those runners, 589 have come around to score for a ML average of 30.9%.

PITCHER	IR	IRS	IRS%
Shawn Camp	29	13	44.8%
Gary Glover	16	3	18.8
Brian Stokes	15	6	40.0
Ruddy Lugo	10	7	70.0
Juan Salas	9	3	33.3
Al Reyes	4	1	25.0
Tim Corcoran	2	1	50.0
Chad Orvella	2	0	0.0
Jae Kuk Ryu	0	0	0.0

Jae Kuk Ryu is the only pitcher that is yet to enter a game with a runner on base. As we can see from the numbers, Shawn Camp, as well as Brian Stokes and Ruddy Lugo (currently in AAA) have been atrocious. Gary Glover has been surprisingly effective.

Now let’s see how the Devil Rays rank as a team against the rest of Major League relief pitchers…

TEAM	IR	IRS	IRS%
Colorado	56	25	44.6%
St. Louis	47	19	40.4
TAMPA BAY DEVIL RAYS	87	34	39.1
New York Yankees	83	32	38.6
Baltimore	81	31	38.3
Kansas City	78	29	37.2

As a team the Devil Rays have allowed 34 of 87 IR (both Major League highs) to score or 39.1%. Sadly, the Rockies, as a team, have been nearly as bad as Shawn Camp, but they have faced 31 fewer IR than the Rays. The Yankees and Orioles actually have similar numbers to the Rays.

There have been 27 pitchers that have inherited at least 15 runners in 2007…

PITCHER	IR	IRS	IRS%
Shawn Camp	29	13	44.8%
Geoff Geary	28	5	17.9
Brian Shouse	25	2	8.0
Aaron Fultz	20	7	35.0
John Parrish	20	6	30.0
Micah Bowie	20	6	30.0
Joseph Smith	19	6	31.6
Mike MacDougal	19	5	26.3
Jack Taschner	19	5	26.3

Shawn Camp has inherited more base runners than any other pitcher, with 29 and has allowed the most to score by a wide margin. His IRS% (44.8%) is the 3rd worst among pitchers with at least 15 IR. If Camp only allowed the league average, he would have only allowed 9 IRS, so Camp has allowed 4 more inherited runners to score than an average pitcher would have if placed in the same situations. Ruddy Lugo is tied for the 7th most IRS with 7 and Brian Stokes is tied for 10th with 6. On a brighter note, Glover has the 5th best IRS% of pitchers with at least 15 IR (18.8%).

Of the 74 pitchers that have faced at least 10 IR, Lugo is the league leader with 70% of those runners scoring.

We’re no brain surgeons here, but maybe Camp and Stokes shouldn’t be entering close games with runners on base. Just a hunch.

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…

• Andrew Friedman recently spent 5 days in Durham watching each of the Rays 5 AAA starting pitchers. It appears as though we are getting closer to seeing some changes in the Devil Rays rotation. In the meantime our Jae Seo and Casey Fossum voodoo dolls are taking a beating.

Each pitcher from the group – left-hander J.P. Howell and right-handers Andy Sonnanstine, Jason Hammel, Jeff Niemann and Mitch Talbot – is working on a few specific areas of interest. Friedman wouldn’t handicap who might get the first call to Tampa Bay, but said he could see a couple being ready “very soon” while others have some work to do.

• The Rays have a catching problem. Josh Paul, who was hit by a pitch spiked on a play at home plate on Sunday, needs to head to the DL. The problem is, his replacement, Shawn Riggans is on the DL at AAA Durham and not eligible to come off until Thursday. The Rays do not have any other catchers on the 40-man roster, so if they wanted to replace Paul with somebody else, they would need to designate somebody for assignment. Instead the Rays will keep Paul active as the emergency backup catcher and hope they don’t play any 16 inning games in the Mariners series.
• The Mariners come to the Trop for a 3-game set beginning tonight. Seattle is 19-21, 5.5 games behind the Angels in the AL West. They are coming off a loss to Cleveland that was a makeup game from earlier this season. They have lost 5 of 6. The Rays were 3-6 against the Mariners in 2006.

Juuust A Bit Outside

If you have been with us for a while, you know that we rarely throw a lot of numbers at you. We know as well as most that numbers rarely tell you the whole story. And while we believe there is a place in baseball for all the new-age sabermetric stuff, you won’t see it on this site very often. It is like food. We are not going to eat it, unless we know for certain what is in it.

Still we like dabble in the numbers every once and a while just to see how our Devil Rays are stacking up against the rest of the league.

One number that is starting to gain steam in baseball circles is VORP (Value Over Replacement Player), a stat invented by Keith Woolner of Baseball Prospectus. Without boring you with all the brain-surgery math behind the number, we will just say that it measures the contribution of a player to the number of runs scored/allowed by the team. The idea being that if you replaced Player A with a fictitious Player B what would the difference in runs be over the course of a season. The replacement player is an average fielder and a below-average hitter/pitcher.

let’s take a look at the eight worst VORP values for starting pitchers in the Major Leagues:

Rank	Pitcher	Team	VORP
1	Jeff Weaver	Sea	-21.8
2	Mark Redman	Atl	-13.3
3	Jae Seo	TB	-11.4
4	Tony Armas, Jr.	Pit	-11.1
5	Rick Vanden Hurk	Fla	-10.8
6	Casey Fossum	TB	-10.5
7	Kip Wells	StL	-10.5
8	Edwin Jackson	TB	-9.8

Three of the eight worst starting pitchers in baseball are Devil Rays. Combined the three pitchers have a VORP value of -31.7. In other words, the Rays could have signed three pitchers off the street before the season. Three pitchers that nobody else wanted, and the Rays would be on pace to allow approximately 30 less runs this season. Three bums from the alley would allow 32 less less runs than 60% of the Devil Rays starting rotation.

And on the positive note, James Shields currently has the 11th best VORP in baseball (+16.9).

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?!?!?!

[THE HANGOVER] Juan Salas Caught Injecting Himself With Idiot Enhancing Drugs

With an off-night last night, we were all set to sing a little diddy to you about BJ Upton and his hot start. But then came word the Juan Salas had gone all “Jose Canseco” on us. We, like most Devil Rays fans have been shouting at the top of our lungs for a change in the bullpen. Demoting Ruddy Lugo on Sunday was the first shake-up all season for a team that has the worst bullpen in baseball. The move was not surprising except in its timing. Lugo had actually looked a little better his last couple of appearances. Still, he has been overmatched by major league hitters more often than not and a change, any change, in the bullpen was needed.

But now all of a sudden the Rays have two openings in the bullpen as Salas was suspended for the 50 games for testing positive for performance enhancing drugs. Salas is the second Devil Rays player to be suspended for steroids. The first was Alex Sanchez who was actually the first major leaguer to receive a suspension in April 2005.

The perplexing thing to us is that we cannot figure out why he was using steroids. Salas is a pitcher that already throws hard with great natural movement on his fastball. Unless those steroids were going to help him locate his fastball better, they weren’t doing him any good. His fastball is already hard enough, a couple of extra inches were not going to make him a better pitcher. All we can hope for at this point is that Salas doesn’t try to feed us the “somebody must have spiked my gatorade” line or try to convince us that “it was an over-the-counter supplement that he didn’t realize was illegal.

So now Tim Corcoran and Chad Orvella will be making their 2007 debuts for the Devil Rays. Corcoran was serviceable last season as a long reliever. Orvella is the big question mark. Most had him pegged as the Rays opening day closer in 2006 after dominating at all stops in the minors. This year hasn’t been any different. After a couple of shaky outings out of the box, Orvella has been nearly unhittable in his last 10 appearances. This may be his last chance to prove that he is not a AAAA pitcher.

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…

• Let’s get this straight…Jae Seo and Casey Fossum each have one decent start and now all of the sudden we are supposed to pretend like they didn’t have 5 bad starts before that? Gary Shelton of the St. Pete Times thinks so.We fully expect each of them to have a handful of decent starts over the course of the season. Bob Gibson could do that and he is 71 years old. A veteran, middle-of-the-rotation pitcher should be unbeatable once every five starts, give the team a chance to win three out of every five and are allowed one stinker the other start. Seo has tossed a stinker in 5 of his 6 starts and Fossum crappy starts number 3 of 6. You do the math, because Andrew Friedman sure isn’t, and neither is Gary Shelton.
• Carl Crawford‘s legs are sore and he is blaming it on the new Field Turf II. Uh oh. Didn’t anybody test this stuff with human beings?
• Do we really need to be rehashing all the problems down at Durham during the 2006 season. It’s old news. The players have moved on and have been great. We should move on also.
• The MLB draft is just around the corner and this year it will be televised on ESPN2. How bad could it be?
• The New York Times ran a feature article recently. There is not a lot to learn if you are an informed Rays fan but it is interesting to see that perceptions of the franchise are changing. Within the piece, is mention of Rays upcoming trip to Orlando to play three games against the Rangers. Stuart Sternberg says that if the Rays do not draw a big crowd, it will be his first significant disappointment since becoming owner of the Devil Rays.
• The Orioles are up next for the Rays. The O’s have lost 11 of 14 and now sit 7 games behind the Red Sox and a half game behind the Rays. Baltimore has beaten the Rays in 8 of the past 10 and 14 of the last 18 at Camden Yards.

AL East Roundup: Red Sox Threaten To Run Away With Division

AL EAST	W	L	GB	L10	STK	E#
Boston Red Sox	19	9	–	7-3	W3	—
Baltimore Orioles	13	16	6.5	2-8	W1	128
Tampa Bay Devil Rays	13	16	6.5	5-5	L1	128
Toronto Blue Jays	13	16	6.5	4-6	L4	128
New York Yankees	12	15	6.5	4-6	L1	129

Mariners 15, Yankees 11. “Mariners flash May power” reads the headline. See what they did there? May Power. Don’t you just love how they tried to give the headline a real-word double meaning by tying the 15 runs in with the current holiday season. Meantime, Kei Igawa was staked to a 5-0 lead and by the time the 5th innings was over the Yankees were getting pummeled 14-8. We know a lot of Yankees fans are loathing the Igawa signing but seriously, what do you expect if the Yankees don’t give him any run support?

Red Sox 2, Twins 0. We have to reach deep into the recesses of our alcohol-ladened mind to try and remember David Ortiz as a Minnesota Twin. We are told it really did happen, and we can hardly blame the Twins fans if they don’t recognize the prodigal son when he returns every year. The “not-familiar” part is of course, every time he hits a home run as he did last night. His solo shot in the 6th was that Tim Wakefield would need and all of the sudden the Sox have a 6.5 game lead and we don’t see anybody in this division that will be able to catch them.

Orioles 3, Indians 2. The Orioles got 2 runs when they most desperately needed them. Having lost 8 of 9 and trailing 2-1 in the 8th, Nick Markakis got a sac fly to tie the game and then next time up in the 10th won the game with a walk-off single.

Rangers 7, Blue Jays 1. All of a sudden the Jays have lost 4 in a row.

NOTE FROM AROUND THE AL EAST…

• Carl Pavano is paying a visit to Dr. James Andrews. Pitchers only go to Andrews for one reason. Surgery and usually of the season-ending kind, not that Yankees fans would mind that.
• When the Yankees landed Kei Igawa, The Yankees thought they got the consolation prize when they failed to land Daisuke Matsuzaka. Turns out he isn’t even the second best Japanese pitching import this year. In fact the Red Sox landed the top 2 with Hideki Okajima in the bullpen and Igawa looking an awful lot a reincarnation of Hideki Irabu.
• A statistical breakdown of the AL East. Like we need to be reminded how bad the Rays bullpen is *commence with banging of head on desk*
• Another AL East pitcher heads to the DL. This time it is the O’s Adam Loewen, who will miss two months with a stress fracture in his elbow. We are getting a little tired of the other teams hogging all the starting pitching injuries. Is there some way we can get Jae Seo or Casey Fossum some of what they are having?
• It doesn’t end there. The Sox placed Mike Timlin on the DL for the second time this season.

James “The Greater” Quietly Surpasses Kazmir As Rays Ace

It is all about winning series. Tonight James Shields takes the mound in the rubber match against the Twins with a chance for the Rays 3rd series win in their last 4. And we are glad it is Shields toeing the rubber. We have said this before. James Shields is the Devil Rays’ best pitcher right now. Scott Kazmir has a chance to be great. A chance to be a perennial all-star and the talent to be a hall-of-famer. But right now, Kid K is inconsistent. There are still too many outings in which he has to be removed after 5 innings with 110 pitches. We just never know what to expect when Kazmir is pitching. On the other hand we have extreme confidence in Shields right now. We expect 7 innings and 2 runs from Shields. We expect 8 strike outs. And with this offense, that should be enough to win. On a good night Shields is capable of a 2-hit shutout. On a bad night, we will still get 6 innings and a chance to win the ballgame. We can’t say the same thing about Kazmir.

In today’s blog entry at ESPN.com, Buster Olney writes about Shields.

So Shields has made his own adjustments, and the Devil Rays’ right-hander — who starts today against the Twins — has become one of the most underrated pitchers in the majors, racking up 37 strikeouts in 36 innings this year, and a 3.75 ERA. He is learning to pick his spots with that changeup, which is among the best in the majors, seemingly diving into the ground as it nears the plate.

We couldn’t agree more. In the off-season we thought that Shields had proved he could be a serviceable major league starting pitcher. Maybe a good #4. We hoped that the rest of the staff could just hold the rotation together until Jeff Niemann and Mitch Talbot made the jump to the majors in mid-season. Niemann was supposed to be the #2 pitcher to compliment Kid K in the rotation. Little did we know we already had our #2, and right now Niemann is looking like a great option as a #3. And none of this takes into account the torrid starts at AAA of Jason Hammel and Andy Sonnanstine. Hammel has 39 strike outs in 32.3 innings with a 2.48 ERA. Sonnanstine has 37 Ks in 30 innings with a 2.70 ERA. By August, the Rays starting rotation should look like this:

1. Scott Kazmir
2. James Shields
3. Jeff Niemann
4. Jason Hammel/Andy Sonnanstine/Mitch Talbot
5. Edwin Jackson

As of this post, the Devil Rays still have the worst ERA in baseball and are one of only two teams with an ERA north of 5 (5.95). Jae Seo (8.19) and Casey Fossum (8.58) have the two worst ERAs in all baseball. That’s not a typo. The two worst starting pitchers in baseball both pitch for the Devil Rays and somehow the Rays are in third place. Fossum is the only pitcher in baseball without a fastball and Seo’s fastball is mid-80s with about as much movement as an elephant. Seo was a little better his last time out, but right now 6 innings and 2 runs is the best we can expect. Most nights are going to be closer to 4 innings and 5 runs. Same with Fossum. On his best nights, the Rays will have a chance, but that is only when he has perfect stuff. Most nights won’t be in the same zip code.

The questions then become: What can the Rays do with Seo and Fossum and to a lesser extent Jackson? Can any or all of the above be moved? Can they be serviceable in the bullpen? How much seasoning do the horses in AAA need? At what point does Andrew Friedman and Joe Maddon say “Let’s see what we got”? It is almost that time. We are trying to be patient, but we hang our head every time we see Seo and Fossum take the mound and then read the boxscore from Durham the next morning. And yes, the kids will take their lumps in the big leagues. That’s ok. But at least there is upside in their young arms. With Seo and Fossum, what you see is what you get.

In the meantime, James The Greater goes to the mound tonight with a chance to give the Rays a series win over the Twins, and we are excited. We wouldn’t want any other pitcher on the mound.

The Hangover: A Comedy Of Errors

Twins 9, Devil Rays 1.
Sometimes it is so bad you can’t help but laugh at your own team’s ineptitude. None of the Twins first 5 runs scored on a hit (2 on errors, 2 on ground outs and 1 on a sac fly). You know it is bad when you expect a routine ground ball to be botched somehow. And we aren’t just talking about Upton’s bobbled grounders or Edwin Jackson’s attempt to throw out the beer man in the left field bleachers. There are also the mental mistakes such as Brendan Harris, on what should have been a routine double play ground ball, backing up on the play and allowing just enough time for the batter to beat out the throw to first. It was just one of those nights. All you could do was laugh.

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…

• The Twins are what Joe Maddon hopes the Rays can become.
• BJ Upton‘s new found patience is paying off big dividends. He now has multiple hits in 4 straight games and is second in the AL in hitting.
• Jae Seo insists that he will be a different pitcher tonight. There is nothing on Seo’s Devil Rays resume that indicates that is possible. Right now, Seo is just keeping the second spot in the rotation warm for Jason Hammel.
• The Rays have been caught stealing 16 times, which is 7 more than the next team (LA Dodgers).
• In a recent survey, 65% of respondents do not want the Rays to change their colors, with slightly more than half of those saying that the team should also keep “Devil” as part of the team name. Personally we lean towards keeping the team name as is. The team is already referred to as “The Rays” about 90% of the time. As for the colors, we like the green although we are not fans of the green jersey. We are big fans of the grey jerseys with the green hats and undershirts and like the white jerseys. We have no opinion on changing the colors because we just aren’t sure what the new scheme would look like.

The Hangover: Rays Land In Anaheim And Fall Back to Earth

Angels 9, Devil Rays 1.
Don’t blame us. We said we wouldn’t be surprised if the Rays lost 10-1….We are never apologists for starting pitchers. We hate it when somebody says a pitcher threw a great game but just “made a couple of mistakes.” It is the biggest gop-out in baseball. Winning pitchers don’t make mistakes when the game is on the line. That being said, last night was the second time in the past week that a Devil Rays pitcher deserved a better fate. Edwin Jackson didn’t have his best stuff, but he battled all night and was betrayed by sloppy defense. He did give up 8 hits in 6+ innings, but he only gave up 1 walk. The Rays committed three errors, including BJ Upton’s 6th. With 2 outs in the 5th inning, two runners on in a scoreless game, Upton made a great stop of a groundball up the middle but threw wide to first. By the time the inning was over, the Rays had committed 2 errors and were down 3-0 and the game was over.

• Why was the second Rays-Yankees game a night game, on get-away day, before a west coast trip? We understand trying to maximize the attendance, but it was the Yankees and it would have still been a good crowd. So for an extra 5,000 fannies in the seats on Tuesday, the front office may have sacrificed a game on wednesday.
• Jorge Cantu is just as comfortable at first as he is at second base (uh oh) and he says it is because, they are the same side of the infield. Pure genius.
• Jorge Cantu was not called up to play everyday and will have to make the most of the little playing time he receives if he has any hopes of being traded.
• The upcoming series with the Rangers in Orlando may not sellout.
• Ty Wigginton on the other hand is a chameleon when it comes to infield positions and should make a smooth and quick transition to being the most-days third baseman.
• Brendan Harris now appears to be the starting shortstop. We thought this could happen, but didn’t think it would happen so quickly.
• Has BJ Upton done enough to reestablish himself as one of the games up and coming stars? Too early to tell, but he is off to a good start.
• Tonight’s starter Jae Seo has given up more runs than any other pitcher in baseball (24).

The Hangover: A Big Bounce-Back Win For The Rays

Devil Rays 6, Twins 4.
The Rays entered Sunday’s game having played 8 of their first 11 on the road where they had only won six of their last 35. Sunday’s win was an important victory on many levels. First the team rebounded from an ugly loss the night before. In the past, a game like Saturday’s could have easily led to a 5-game losing streak. Second, the win gave the Rays a split of a 4-game series on the road against a playoff-caliber team. It is one thing to think that last season’s road failures were an exaggeration. but the team needs to show they can win on the road if they want to be competitive. A string of early season road losses and pressure would start to mount on this young, impressionable team. Third, the win gives the team confidence. For the second time this season, the Rays were able to get to one of the top closers in the league in the 9th inning. Blowing leads late has been the MO for this franchise. But with the consistency from the back end of the bullpen and the Rays ability to score runs at any given time, they now have the confidence to come from behind and win games late rather than lose them. The win also gives the Rays momentum heading into a stretch in which they will play eight straight at home and 30 of 44 in the state of Florida.

• Jae Seo has now made 19 starts for the Devil Rays since being acquired from the Dodgers. He has one win.
• Jonny Gomes and Brendan Harris made only their second starts of the season yesterday. Both contributed to the win as Harris hit a home run and Gomes had an RBI single.
• The Devil Rays are the only team in baseball to have a home run in every game.
• Joe Maddon wants to see his young team bounce back better after tough losses like the one on Saturday and predicted that we would see a different team on Sunday.
• Scott Kazmir thinks his mechanics have improved significantly and that went a long ways towards his performance on Friday night.
• Rocco Baldelli displayed some veteran leadership that the team desperately needs by calling out his teammates after their lackluster performance on Saturday.
• MLB Trade Rumors comments on the speculation that the Astros may not want to trade Brad Lidge to the Rays if indeed they decide to move him. The reason being that the Astros would look bad if Lidge rebounds with his new club and with his former pitching coach, Jim Hickey, the Devil Rays would be the most likely place for him to be successful.