Ignorance Is Bliss

The Devil Rays just completed a 3-game sweep of the Royals and are off to the second best start in team history at 7-6. So far the team has played nine games against the Orioles and the Royals, two teams that were expected to be among the worst in baseball. In the next 22 games, we will get a better idea of how good this team is and how good they can be. Quite frankly if the the team doesn’t start pitching better, this could get ugly. Don Mossi ugly. This upcoming stretch includes Boston (6 games), New York (5), Texas (5), Oakland (3) and Seattle (3). In addition, 15 of these games (including the first 9) will be on the road.

2006 Devil Rays Schedule [devilrays.com]

Lugo Still Over Week Away From Returning

The Devil Rays announced today that Julio Lugo is scheduled to return to the lineup on April 25 in New York against the Yankees. No doubt Lugo is looking forward to improving on his 2.000 batting average.

Julio Lugo On 15-Day DL With A Sore Brain [Rays Index]

The Good, The Bad And The Oh, So Ugly

The Good
Despite the Curse of LaMar-Naimoli, that has landed several starters on the DL, the offense has been good. Not great, but good. With all the injuries, and B.J. Upton and Delmon Young waiting for their turn down at Durham, this team is showing that it has the potential to be a very good offensive team. The team is only 9th in the AL with a .262 team batting average, but as a whole the team is showing more patience at the plate and lead the league with 60 walks and are 6th with a .355 OBP. More surprising, the team is second in the AL with 19 home runs, trailing only the Detroit Tigers who have forgotten that they are not supposed to be very good. But most importantly, the offense has scored the second most runs in the AL, behind only the New York Yankees that have a lineup that includes 8 All-Stars. The offense has been paced by Jonny Gomes (.300-5-14) and the surprising Ty Wiggington (.293-5-13).

The Bad
The Curse of Lamar-Naimoli, and early season injuries to four starters, a starting pitcher and a member of the bullpen…The Devil Rays, who were third in the majors last season with 151 stolen bases, have been much more selective this season, with only 5 stolen bases in the first 13 games. The increased patience on the basepaths is coming at a cost as the team has been caught stealing 7 times for a 42% success rate. Last season, the team was successful on 75% of their attempts…outside of Mark Hendrickson’s complete game shutout and Scott Kazmir’s near complete game, the pitching staff has been awful, but we expected that. The team is next to last in ERA giving up almost 6 runs per game (5.84). While the team only has one blown save, they have held a lead in 4 of their 6 losses, and as a team they have given up the most hits in the AL and 4th most walks, while they are last in strikeouts.

The Ugly
Don Mossi

Hammel Sent Back To Durham, Hendrickson To Miss One More Start

Jason Hammel was sent back down to AAA Durham after the D-Rays victory over the Royals on Sunday. Hammel looked impressive at times but made a few too many mistakes in his first two major league starts. Mark Hendrickson was scheduled to pitch during an extended spring training game on Monday, but that was postponed and he will only conduct long-toss exercises. This means that Hendrickson will not be ready to pitch next Saturday in Texas against the Rangers. The team has not announced who will replace Hammel in the rotation. The most likely candidate is Edwin Jackson. Jackson, who was impressive at times during spring training, is likely to pitch tonight for Durham. That would put him on schedule to pitch next Saturday with a normal four days rest. In two starts in Durham, Jackson has thrown 10 innings, giving up 7 hits, 6 walks, 3 earned runs, to the tune of a 2.70 era, while striking out 8. The D-Rays could also go with either Jamie Shields or Chris Seddon, both of whom have been impressive in their first two starts this season. Shields has pitched 11 innings giving up 14 hits, with no walks and 13 strikeouts and a 0.82 era. Seddon has pitched 11 innings giving up 7 hits, four walks and striking out 8 with a 0.82 era. Both pitchers are scheduled to pitch for Durham later this week and would not be ready for Saturday’s start in Texas unless the team decided to skip their normal turn in the rotation.

Goin Down In A Braze Of Glory

We must admit we were a bit worried this past off-season when Rays Management traded former first round pick Dewon Brazelton for another first round underachiever, Sean Burroughs. We have seen enough of Burroughs in San Diego to know that he will never live up to his first round hype. However, we do believe that he can be a serviceable player. If surrounded by good hitters, he has the potential to hit .300 and 15-20 home runs. Not exactly all-star numbers, but we would take them. More likely, he will make a good bat off the bench or a decent sub when Aubrey Huff, or another thirdbaseman is injured. We don’t mind having Burroughs on the team, but what worried us about the trade was our fear of seeing Brazelton become an ace in San Diego…well, worry no more. If his first two starts for the Pads are any indication, he is now their headache. In two starts, he has gone 6.1 innings (total) and given up 17 hits, 6 walks, and 17 (!) runs. Batters are hitting .472 against him and he is giving up more than 3.5 runners per inning, to the tune of a 24.16 era. This just in…that is not good.

You Need To Learn To Walk Before You Can Crawl…Reverse That

Jeff Niemann is back throwing long-toss and looks to be about two weeks from throwing from a mound. With as much money as the team has invested in their 2004 first round selection and lack of potential front-of-the-rotation starters in the system, you can understand the patient approach that the organization is taking. Although no official word has been made, look for Neimann to be on the mound for the Montgomery Biscuits in June with very limited pitch counts. If he can stay healthy and regain his fastball, we anticipate that Neimann will be in spring training with the parent club with a shot at making the 2007 rotation.

Niemann patient with recovery [Montgomery Advertiser]

RSS Feed Temporarily Down

While Julio Lugo is resting his sore ankle, he is earning a little spare change minding our site, as we enjoy the beautiful weather outside. Unfortunately he is not very savvy and our RSS feed is now as sore as his ankle. We promise that he is working on the problem and should have it fixed shortly…as soon as he figures out that the DVD tray is not a cup holder.

D-Ray Doodle Dandy

We have been introducing you to each of the Devil Rays minor league affiliates and highlighting a few of the players that we will be tracking over the course of the season. Today: The Southwest Michigan Devil Rays

While we were a little stumped as to where Visalia was, we are fairly confident that Southwest Michigan is in Botswana. As we have done in the three previous posts on the minor league affiliates, we introduce you to the Southwest Michigan Devil Rays mascot, Doodle. Wait! He is a bald eagle? Do they know something about the upcoming name change of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays that nobody else knows? Maybe they are on to something. The Devil Rays are named after a fish. The Southwest Michigan Devil Rays have a mascot that likes to eat fish. Of course…Our first thought was that the mascot may have predated the time when the team became an affiliate of the Devil Rays. While that may still be true, there is nothing in the history of the franchise to suggest the use of a Bald Eagle. Before the team was known as the Devil Rays, they were known as The Kazoos, The Battle Cats and the Yankees. We won’t even try to figure out why the mascot is named Doodle. The team is managed by former major leaguer Skeeter Barnes. Barnes, a utility player for four different clubs in nine seasons apparently is also in the barbecue business.

Key players we will be keeping tabs on throughout the season

Wade Davis (#33), 20 years old, SP. Davis a tall, prototypical right handed thrower (6’6″), was drafted in the 3rd round of the 2004 amateur draft. After a disappointing rookie campaign at the rookie league level in 2004, Davis rebounded with a solid performance last year for Hudson Valley, the short season-A affiliate of the D-Rays. In 15 starts, he went 7-4 with a 2.72 era and a league leading 97 strikeouts in 86 innings. He also showed decent control for a power pitcher with 23 walks. Davis is considered the 6th best prospect in the Rays farm system according to Baseball America. Davis is still very young. Look for the organization to be very patient with him. I would expect him to spend the entire season in Michigan, with a possible move to Visalia if he posts strong numbers.

Matt Spring (#34), 21, C. Spring was the 4th round pick of the 2004 draft out of Dixie State College of Utah. Spring has struggled at the plate in two seasons with Hudson Valley. He has a career batting average of just .204 in 100 games with 12 home runs. Spring is a very young catcher. It is well-known throughout baseball that catchers take the longest time to develop. Look for the Rays to be extremely patient with Spring. While there is a chance Spring will make it to the big leagues someday, it won’t be anytime in the near future.

Jacob McGee (#21), 19, SP. McGee, still only 19, enters his third year of pro ball, with an already impressive resume. At 6’3 190, McGee is a tall lanky lefthander. Last season at Hudson Valley McGee went 5-4 in 14 starts with a 3.64 era and 89 strikeouts in 76.2 innings. Like Davis and Spring, expect to see McGee in Southwest Michigan all season.

Weekend In Review

This team will give us a heart attack before the season is over. This past weekend, the D-Rays took two of three from the Toronto Blue Jays. The series saw the Rays win a game they were trailing 6-0, lose a game they were winning 4-0 and win a second game in which they were trailing 2-1 in the 7th. In baseball, it is about winning series, and anytime you take two of three on the road against a division foe is reason to be happy. The D-Rays are 3-3 and will host the Orioles tonight for their home opener.

Highlights from the weekend
The offense is going to be fine. In the first week, the team scored 32 runs (7th in the AL) with a team batting average of .261 (9th). Not great numbers, but they are solid, especially when we consider that the team is missing their starting middle infielders, Jorge Cantu (day-to-day) and Julio Lugo (15-day DL). The power numbers are about what we would expect from this team as they have hit 8 home runs (6th). This is a team that is capable of the long ball, but still needs to manufacture runs to be effective. One cause for concern is the lack of stolen bases. The team has one stolen base in the first week of the season (Carl Crawford). Joe Maddon apparently is having the players be more selective when they are running, unlike past seasons when players like Lugo, Crawford and Joey Gathright were given the green light at all times to cause havoc on the basepaths.

The pitching on the other hand is going to give us agita all season long. In the span of four days the pitching staff pitched a complete game shutout (Mark Hendrickson), gave up six runs in the first three innings (friday), lost a game 8-4 in which the Rays were winning 4-0, and then Scott Kazmir, almost got his first complete game of his young career in a 5-2 win on Sunday. The team pitching is last in the American League with a 7.06 era, which includes Hendrickson’s amazing performance on Thursday night. The staff is also last in hits allowed (71), last in HR allowed (12), 11th in walks allowed (23) and 13th in strikeouts (28).

A bright note was Kazmir’s performance on Sunday. We have seen more dominating performances by Kazmir, but we have not seen a better pitched game by him, than what he displayed on the mound againt the Blue Jays. We commented last week after his opening day start that our biggest concern was his pitch count. Against the Orioles he threw 104 pitches in 4+ innings of work. On Sunday, Kazmir threw 119 pitches in 8.2 innings including a whopping 82 for strikes. But his pitch count only begins to tell the story. Kazmir showed guts and poise on the mound. In the third, after a sacrifice bunt, he faced second and third with one out. He proceeded to get Reed Johnson and Alex Rios to strikeout swinging to end the threat. In the fourth, with first and second and one out, he enduced an inning ending double play from Shea Hillenbrand. He also seemed to find his groove again late in the game. After giving up 2, 2-out runs in the fifth to fall behind 2-1, it would have been easy to give up on Kazmir and send him to the showers. But Joe Maddon stuck with him and Kazmir went 1-2-3 in the sixth and the eighth. From the sixth, until two outs in the ninth, Kazmir only gave up one hit and walked none. In addition, he was much more selective with his slider. In time, the slider will be Kazmir’s best pitch, much like Randy Johnson, another hard throwing lefty. Most people are aware of how hard Johnson throws, but baseball people know his best pitch is his slider. Only when he learned how to control the slider and when to use it did Johnson become the dominant pitcher that he is. For a pitch like a slider to be dominant it needs to be thrown less often, not more. There is a saying in baseball that a hard thrower doesn’t learn how to pitch until he hurts his arm. It was just one game, but Kazmir is beginning to show that he can be a good pitcher and not just a dominant one.

We’re Going To Paint Trees. Yes, Happy Little Trees

We have been introducing you to each of the Devil Rays minor league affiliates and highlighting a few of the players that we will be tracking over the course of the season. Today: The Visalia Oaks

Visalia Oaks

Apparently Visalia is in California, and NOT in Spain, like we thought. Who knew? We began the first two minor league posts (Durham Bulls and Montgomery Biscuits) with introductions to the team’s mascots, and problems we had with both. Today we introduce you to Chatter the Squirrel. And quite frankly, we can’t come up with anything we don’t like about it. Its cute, its cuddly, its got big eyes, and they may carry “plague and animal-borne diseases”. Oh. Our bad. We are glad they decided to go with a squirrel and not a tree. Apparently Tree mascots don’t know how to behave. Let’s get to the team.

The Visalia Oaks are the “Advanced-A” minor league team for the D-Rays. In the past, teams had B-teams, C-teams and even D-teams. Now there are “Advanced-A”, “A”, “Short-Season-A” and “Rookie League”. Our report cards would have looked a lot better if schools followed the same sytem. The Oaks are managed by Stu Cole, who played nine games with the Kansas City Royals as a middle infielder.

Key players we will be keeping tabs on throughout the season

Reid Brignac, 20 years old, SS. Brignac was the second round pick of the D-Rays in the 2004 amateur draft. After a promising debut season in 2004, he struggled last season at Southwest Michigan (.264-15-61-5). Hopefully it was just a sophomore slump and Brignac begins to show everyone why he was worthy of a high draft pick, and his nickname, “The Cajun God of Baseball.” Umm? Ok.

Christopher Mason, 21, RHP. Mason was the second pick of the D-Rays in the 2005 amateur draft, out of UNC-Greensboro, and possesses a 95 mph fastball. Used sparingly out of the bullpen last season, he posted strong numbers and will try to build on those in his first full professional season. Look for Mason to be in Montgomery midway through this season.

Francisco Leandro, 25, OF. Leandro has only two years of professional ball under his belt and his numbers have been impressive. He spent the second half of 2005 in Visalia and batted .355, with a .449 OBP and .569 SLG. Overall, he has batted .320 in his career. Look for Leandro to receive a quick promotion to Montgomery and possibly Durham before the season is over.

Fernando Perez, 22, OF. Perez is considered one of the fastest players in all of baseball. He led the Midwest League last season with 58 stolen bases in 134 games and batted .289 with a .361 OBP.

Tomorrow: Southwest Michigan Devil Rays