The Hangover: Will Jim Hickey’s Arrest Open Door For Xavier Hernandez?

Devil Rays (66-96)

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…

• The Rays 68-94 record was only 2 wins less than their expected final record. [Baseball Musings]
• Jim Hickey. We guess being the coach of one of the worst pitching staffs ever would be reason to drink, but it is not reason to drive and it is not reason to take your frustration out on the batboy. By the looks of the mugshot, Hickey lost the argument. [Lion in Oil]
• Jim Hickey’s arrest comes only days before the team is to decide whether he and the rest of the coaching staff will be retained in 2008. Hitting coach Steve Henderson is the most likely coach to come back. Before Sunday, we would have assumed that Hickey was a lock to be given at least one more season to work with the staff. However, after his DUI, the Rays may turn to their pitching coach-in-waiting, Xavier Hernandez, who is highly regarded for the work he has done the last two seasons at Montgomery and Durham and with whom many of the Rays younger pitchers are already familiar and comfortable with. [tampabay.com]
• Its difficult to make an assessment of Akinori Iwamura’s ability to play second base, based on one game and especially one play, but when the opportunity arrived to turn his first double play from the middle infield, Mu-Rah was flawless. [TBO]
• Scott Kazmir finished as the Major League leader in strikeouts. Of course that goes a long ways to explaining whe he led the majors with 6,432,867 pitches thrown. [Bradenton Herald]
• Carlos Pena was named the AL Player of the Week for the final week. [tampabay.com]
• Carlos Pena finished with 46 home runs in less than 500 at bats, which makes him the most underrated first baseman in baseball. “If Pena was a Red Sox or Yankee’s player he would finish second in MVP voting. Instead he was underrated.” Actually, if Pena was playing for almost any other team, he probably finishes second in the MVP voting. That is the mark of being underrated. [I’m smarter than you]
• ArmchairGM makes a case for considering Carlos Pena for MVP. [ArmchairGM]
• Carlos Pena is a finalist for the “Pepsi Clutch” award that goes to the clutchiest player. We agree that he is a worthy nominee, but we disagree with the notion that “few people knew of Pena before the year”. Anybody that follows baseball even remotely, knew of Pena as one of the top prospects in baseball a few years ago. [MLB]
• We have a feeling that Delmon Young will finish second in the Rookie of the Year balloting, but it will not be because of his outburst following Saturday’s game in which Joe Maddon pulled Young from the game for not running out a ground ball. Ballots for the award were due on either Sunday or Monday, which means most writers are likely to have already made their selections prior to Saturday. [Yahoo! Sports]
• It was a disastrous season for Korean baseball players. Of course, Jae Seo, Jae Kuk Ryu and Hee Seop Choi were all member of the Devil Rays at one point, so it is kind of like the Chicken and the Egg argument. [Korean Times]
• Greg Norton will have surgery on his elbow. A case can be made that Norton should share team MVP honors with Carlos Pena. If Norton had not gotten hurt the final week of Spring Training and was hitting well to start the season, it might have taken the team a while to call up Pena. [Devil Rays]
• Some of the players believe that the team is very close to competing. [tampabay.com]

“We don’t need much,” All-Star Carl Crawford said. “Maybe another starter and probably a little more bullpen help. Just three players and we’re right there. We’re right at the tip.”

• Marc Lancaster takes a look back at the 2007 season and hands out a bunch of awards, we like to call the Marckie Marcs. Our favorite category is “Veteran of the Year” for a team that has exactly 3 players over the age of 12. And then there is the “Most Frustrating Season”. He should just rename that one the “The Rocco”. He also looks ahead to what we can expect for 2008. [TBO]
• Marc Lancaster can’t wait for next year. We would take it a step further. We would like to replay this season with the group the Rays ended with. Playoff contender? probably not, but definitely not the worst team in the league and maybe a run at .500 would be in order. [TBO]
• Bill Chastain takes a look back at the 2007 season and calls the second half lineup “one of the best lineups in team history”. He also takes a look forward to 2008. [Devil Rays]
• Hey! It’s the off-season. It is time to start reading a million and one articles about how [Insert Team Name] should acquire Carl Craw
  ford and that the Rays would probably give him up for 20 rusty nickels. The Akron Beacon Journal wasted no time. [Ohio.com]

The Hangover: Rays Continue To Win With 4th Place In Sight

Devil Rays 9, Orioles 7.
Could the Tampa Bay Devil Rays actually avoid last place for only the second time in their ten year existence?

With last night’s come-from-behind victory over the Orioles, the Rays have moved within 3 games of Baltimore for 4th place in the AL East. And while the worst record in baseball appeared to be a foregone conclusion three weeks ago, the Rays are now only 1.5 games behind the White Sox after making up 6 games in the last week and a half.

There have been plenty of reasons for the recent surge in performance, but most of the credit has to go to the revamped bullpen. The additions made before the trading deadline appear to be the spark that have reinstalled confidence in this young team, with the Tampa Tribune going so far as to call the new bullpen a “strength”.

“Our bullpen’s been outstanding,” RHP James Shields said. “This whole second half I think we’ve been great. It feels good as a starter to go out there and feel comfortable with coming out of the game.”

Even more telling is this quote from Joe Maddon.

“These guys have learned their craft. They’ve waited for their opportunity. The seventh, eighth and ninth innings are a very hectic part of the game and you have to have a special makeup and personality to handle that. … It might take a seasoned veteran in a sense of lesser physical ability but more of a feel for the game to be able to accomplish that role.”

This is something that was lost on the Devil Rays front office in their first two years at the helm. Let’s chalk it up to growing pains. If there is one area where a team should be willing to sacrifice a little talent for experience, it is in the bullpen. On talent alone, none of the new guys (or even Al Reyes) are a pimple on the fanny of Juan Salas or Ruddy Lugo or Seth McClung. Yet all of the veteran arms in the bullpen have clearly outperformed those younger more talented relief pitchers.

And with a more stable (if not great) bullpen, the effects can be felt elsewhere on the team. Starting pitchers no longer feel pressure to work late in games or hand over a close lead. The hitters no longer feel the pressure to build a 6-run lead. And with less pressure on such a young team the change has been deafening.

Deafening…to the tune of 10-3 in the past 2 weeks and a real chance to move out of the cellar in the AL East and gain some confidence heading into 2008.

Rays’ bullpen has become a strength [TBO]
No-name pen makes strides [tampabay.com]

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…

• Carlos Pena has broken the franchise record for home runs in a season, by notching his 35th dinger last night. And in true El Gato fashion his home run hit a Gatowalk, breaking a 4-4 tie. [Yahoo!]
• We loved Patrick Kennedy’s take on Carlos Pena’s record breaking home run. We were wondering why Jose Canseco was not in attendance or why he did not delivery a video message to be played on the jumbotron. [DRays Bay]
• Carl Crawford was ejected after a blown-call at first base. While his tantrum was animated, and actually a little comical (in hindsight) we are not sure that the actions deserve a suspension. [TBO]
• Heading into last night’s game the Devil Rays are hitting .325 and averaging more than 9 runs per game since a team meeting conducted by hitting coach Steve Henderson. Including last night, the team is 9-3 in those 12 games. [Bradenton Herald]
• A strong finish by the Devil Rays to an otherwise disastrous season, may not seem significant to most baseball fans, but the importance is not lost on Joe Maddon. [Devil Rays]

“It is definitely a sign of progress, definitely a sign of measured progress,” Maddon said. “I just think finishing strongly — we’ve battled all season, we’ve had our setbacks and problems – and now we’re playing the kind of baseball we envisioned. Finish strong. You go into the offseason with a really good last month like this and you leave with a good taste in your mouth. And you know going into Spring Training, you have this nice little month to build off of. And you know what you’re capable of doing against good teams in a pennant chase.”

• In the real world, it takes the average person a period of time to receive the results of medical tests. However, that does not usually occur in the sports world where teams employ their own doctors and have access to specialists not known to the average citizen. This is why the recent news, or lack-their-of, concerning Rocco Baldelli is particularly perplexing. We have a strange feeling that the news is not good and the team is seeking a second and possibly third opinion before making an announcement. [tampabay.com]

“I still believe there’s a chance to get him back at least possibly to DH at some point,” manager Joe Maddon said Monday. “That may be something we can do; we just don’t know until we get the results of these tests.”

• The Devil Rays much-improved bullpen just got another boost with the return of Jay Witasick who missed more than a month. [Devil Rays]
• Stua
  rt Sternberg gave Joe Maddon yet another vote of confidence. The fact that this team refused to give up on the season when it would have been an easy thing to do, should have erased any of the lingering doubts in the Devil Rays Universe. [Devil Rays]
• Another member of the Devil Rays that many have doubted as to his place in the organization is catcher Dioner Navarro. We have long defended Navi and begged for patience as catchers are notoriously slow developers at the plate. Still, a team will have trouble surviving with a player that is hitting at or below the Mendoza-line and Navi needed to start hitting sooner rather than later. It is beginning to appear as though he is finding a comfort zone at the plate. After hitting .177 before the all-star break, he is hitting at a .272 clip since. [Devil Rays]
• Akinori Iwamura is still adjusting to life as a major leaguer, and is not satisfied with where his game is yet. Even more revealing in this piece is that Joe Maddon admits to making lineup decisions based on how the Japanese media might react. [asahi.com]

“When we first got him, my thought was to hit him lower in the batting order until he got acclimated,” Maddon said. “My concern was if I started hitting him at the top of the order and then tried to move him to the bottom as the season was progressing, that would create quite a stir in Japan for no good reason. So I’d much rather move him up than down.”

• Including Jae Seo, it has been a rough season for Korean major leaguers. [The Korea Times]

The Hangover: For The Devil Rays, Ignorance Is Bliss

Devil Rays 5, Orioles 4.
Don’t the Devil Rays know they are not supposed to win games like have recently?

Don’t they know they are not supposed to come from behind to win a game? Don’t they know they are supposed to lose a game in extra-innings after teasing us by tying it in the 9th? Don’t they know the bullpen is not supposed to throw 4 scoreless innings when the game is tied or winning by 1? Don’t they know the Devil Rays are the team that gives up 11 runs in an inning? Don’t they know they aren’t supposed to beat the Orioles, a team they should beat on a consistent basis? And they should at least know they aren’t supposed to beat them two nights in a row. And don’t they know they are not supposed to win games on the road? And they sure as hell are supposed to know that they are not supposed to win 5 of 6?

Don’t look now, but the Devil Rays are only 6 games behind the O’s for 4th place in the AL East. They have made up 5 games in the last 10. And the Rays are now only 4 games behind the White Sox for the worst record in baseball. This was a team that at one point looked like they could lose 105 games. Now they would have to fall flat on their face to lose 100, needing only 10 wins in their last 29 to avoid the dubious feet.

We don’t blame you if you have already given up on the 2007 Tampa Bay Devil Rays, but for the first time all season, this team is fun to watch. This is the team we dreamed of back in March when we had delusions of grandeur.

Suddenly our Derrick Brooks jersey, shredded Bucs hat and of course our lucky Sunday-red boxers just got one more week in the closet.

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…

• Joe Maddon says that he and Steve Henderson are not the reason for the recent surge in scoring, stating that their message has been the same all along. Rather he believes that the young players are finally absorbing what has been taught. [TBO]

“It comes down to this: When the student is ready, the teacher’s going to appear,” Maddon said. “You can say this stuff for years, and you have to keep saying it until it hits. Until, boom, it finds the mark…For years, as a player, I used to think my coaches were idiots because they were so redundant. But I was the idiot, because I could not grasp what they were trying to tell me.”

• Bill Simmons attended a Red Sox-Devil Rays game at the Trop. Would “The Sports Guy” finally set the record straight and tell the world what we already know…the the Trop is not that bad and is actually a good place to watch a baseball game? Nope. No, Simmons went for the cheap laugh and played to the stereotypes. [ESPN]
• Of course, Bill Simmons then somehow defends the greatness of Red Sox fans by ridiculing all the bandwagon members of Red Sox Nation, and their ignorance for the game of baseball. [ESPN]

[Narrator] There was a time, a time before Pink Hats and green jerseys. When the World Wide Leader reigned supreme. When people believed everything they heard on ESPN.com. This was an age when only real fans were allowed to read “Page 2”. And in the blogosphere, one blogger was more man then the rest. His name was Bill Simmons. He was like a god walking amongst mere mortals. He made jokes that could make a wolverine purr and typed words so fine they made Truman Capote look like a hobo. In other words, Bill Simmons was the balls.

• Jordi at The Serious Tip takes Bill Simmons to task, and rightfully so.

Simmons resorts to taking cheap shot after cheap shot at an organization that has struggled for respect in a division steeped with tradition

• Joe Torre is afraid that Mike Mussina cannot handle the Devil Rays. Mussina will be replaced in the rotation by Ian Kennedy on Saturday against the Rays. In the past, this would be viewed as opportunity to get a veteran pitcher back on track. [River Ave. Report]

The Hangover: The Ty Wigginton Rumors Start Heating Up

Orioles 6, Devil Rays 1.
Just the links today, with limited posts for the rest of the week as we trek back to the Sunshine State for some much-needed R&R and a 3-game set with the Red Sox and the Pink Hat Nation.

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…

• Joe Maddon was openly critical of Carl Crawford for letting a routine pop-up fall in front of him that led to 3 runs being scored in the first inning. [TBO]

Both players have to go after it hard and if the outfielder can get there, the outfielder calls off the infielder.” Maddon added: “That’s pop-up coverage 101. We have to make that play 100 out of 100 times; that wasn’t a difficult play. We have to make that play.”

• Devil Rays hitting coach Steve Henderson was ejected in the 3rd inning for arguing a called strike. [MLB News Blog]
  
• Edwin Jackson may have finally turned the corner. The question remains whether or not Jackson can show consistency and start to pitch deeper into games. [Devil Rays]

“I think he’s starting to show signs of consistency,” Maddon said. “The biggest thing to me has been his demeanor. I really do think that’s primary, to go out there with the right kind of mound presence, because his stuff is that good. If he goes out there and is under control with his emotions, he’s going to pitch well again tomorrow. But I am curious to see how he looks. If we can start getting him into the seventh, if he could touch the eighth or ninth inning, that would really be exciting.”

• Not so fast on the Ty Wigginton for Scott Proctor rumors. More than likely that was leaked by the Devil Rays front office to set the bar for other teams that may be interested, including the Minnesota Twins. [Yahoo! Sports]
• At least four teams have interest in Ty Wigginton. [tampabay.com]