Devil Rays 4, Rangers 3.
Bubble Boy goes down with another hamstring injury. In the first inning Rocco Baldelli pulled up with a sore hamstring running to first base and had to be removed from the game. Is it us or is Rocco starting to look an awful lot like another talented center fielder, Ken Griffey? We only wish we could have gotten a few hundred more home runs before Rocco decided to made of glass. Very thin glass...Of course the true significance of this latest injury is that there is now much less chance of the Devil Rays moving one of their outfielders for pitching. The most likely players to be traded were Rocco and Elijah Dukes. No team was going to give value for Rocco before and there is no chance they will give value for Rocco now. With the fragile nature of Baldelli, and the emergence of BJ Upton as a legitimate infielder, Dukes is looking more and more like the center fielder of the future for the Rays.
On a brighter note is Brendan Harris. Harris was 4-5 last night including the game-winning single through a drawn-in infield. Don't look now but Harris is hitting .340 on the season with a .383 OBP. In spring training Joe Maddon looked to Ben Zobrist (Ben who?) to fill a very traditional role as a #2 hitter. A guy who could take a few pitches, move runners along and get on base. He had the right position, just the wrong player. We are not the sort to tell Papa Joe how to fill out the lineup card (our managers never trusted us), but we wouldn't be surprised if we start to see Harris in the #2 spot very soon.
Fleecing Harris from the Reds for basically a bag-of-balls, could help ease the pain of losing Josh Hamilton to the same team...Who the hell are we kidding? Nothing will ease that pain except a 5th of Jack.
DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA...
- It wasn't quite a sellout, but 8,443 is a respectable number...we guess.
- Akinori Iwamura could be ready to begin a rehab assignment as early as next week.
- Did you know that BJ Upton, at 6'3", is the tallest second baseman in the bigs? Neither did we. Is it important? Nah.
- A former Tampa Bay Devil Rays batboy won his major league debut for the Blue Jays.
- The Rays have not won 3 in a row this season. With Casey Fossum on the mound tonight, that streak is likely to continue.
Labels: Akinori Iwamura, BJ Upton, Brendan Harris, Elijah Dukes, Rocco Baldelli
posted by The Professor at 11:00 AM
2 Comments:
Would love to get some insight from someone that follows the Ray so closely.
What is the deal with Rocco and hamstrings? Is there some kind of freak weakness? Or does he simply not understand how to stretch?
So much potential...
I heard a quote from Rocco recently that got me thinking about this very question. He was an incredible athlete in high school. Basketball, Volleyball. Basically all-world. Then he robbed somebody of a home run in baltimore and he commented about how he used to have a 40-inch vertical but that now that he is a baseball player he only jumps like that once-a-year or so. I think his body just never adjusted to being less of an athlete. He doesnt have the need to be such an all-around athlete anymore. run fast. thats it. and now that flood-gates have opened, it is hard to stop it. it is most likely going to be an issue the rest of his career
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