Garza Loses His Control
THE GOOD: Akinori Iwamura's defense. We can't stop praising how seamlessly he has moved to his new position. If he does not win the gold glove, it would be a bigger injustice than Evan Longoria not winning the rookie of the year. Last night, the Rays turned 2 double-plays in the first two innings. Most teams would have only been able to get the lead out. Not with Aki. Aki's turns at second base are as quick as anybody we have ever seen and he always has zip on his throws to first. Those double-plays probably saved Matt Garza at least 1, and maybe more, runs. It also got Garza out of the first two innings with 14 pitches total.
THE BAD: Matt Garza. The Garza Complex, who seemed to have turned his season around, walked 4 and did not strike a batter out. A pitcher with Garza's stuff, should be able to strike out at least 3 batters in 5 innings based on chance alone. His 4 walks matched his season-high and was the first time he had more than 2 since May 23.
THE TELLING: Can we stop with the "struggles versus lefties" nonsense. This team is in an offensive funk, no matter who is on the mound...Jason Bartlett returned to the lineup and went 3-3.
DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA...
- Jayson Stark says the Rays are telling other teams that David Price, Wade Davis and Jeremy Hellickson are not available at any price...He also says that their first choice is to use David Price or Rocco Baldelli, rather than trade for a rental. [ESPN]
- Joe Maddon continues to bat BJ Upton in the 2-hole to break-up the lefties in the lineup and offer them a bit of protection against left-handed relievers. [MLB]
- Joe Maddon was very hesitant but did acknowledge that Rocco Baldelli could be the right-handed bat the Rays need. [St. Pete Times]
"You don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves," Maddon said. "It's possible, but I don't know when. He's still going through this process. I don't want to say we're going to hang our hat on that quite yet. But it's possible."...Maddon said it was important that Baldelli felt good the day after, but also that he felt good about it in a conversation with head trainer Ron Porterfield..."He spoke really well, he spoke in a very encouraging, positive way," Maddon said. "It was the kind of script we haven't heard, so it's good."
- Just curious...does anybody find "The Sports Comedian" at Fox Sports funny? Anybody? [Fox Sports]
- The Rays are back on top of Bugs and Cranks "Top 30". [Bugs and Cranks]
- First he brought us an interview with Reid Brignac, now we have one with Dan Wheeler. This guy at the New York Daily News will interview anybody. [New York Daily News]
Labels: BJ Upton, Dan Wheeler, David Price, Jason Bartlett, Jeremy Hellickson, Joe Maddon, Rocco Baldelli, Wade Davis
posted by The Professor at 10:29 AM
4 Comments:
From Stark's article:
"Everybody loves David Price," says one NL executive. "But you're talking about another inexperienced guy on a team with too little [big-game] experience to begin with....."
So we are supposed to throw away our top tier prospects for somebody with the "big-game" experience of Jason Bay or Nady? I do think the Rays' offense is struggling and needs some kind of pick-me-up, but I would hate to see them sacrifice the future to acquire someone that is only marginally better than players on the current roster.
i always love it when somebody feels the need to tell you what you need
Cork,
The guy from the Daily News is the same guy who said that CC was the best leadoff hitter in baseball and picked the Rays to finish last, I believe. Perhaps he is trying to make up for that.
The fox "comedian", comedian be a very subjective term is nearly offensive, and no where near funny.
As far as Price, I went to see him in what was his eventual last start at A+ Vero Beach, and he was good, he had pure 'stuff'. but his control was shaky at times and he had a hard time putting guys with two strikes away. I was a little maddening to watch him blow his 4 seam fastball by a guy twice, and then not just finish off a guy, clearly over matched by the volocity, and try thowing him another pitch. I mean pitch selection can be corrected easy, and it could have been Price just having too much faith in the catchers call. Control, when I saw Price pitch it was his 5th or 6th, and he was coming off of the preseason Injury, so it could just be him not having his mecanics down. My point here, he's put up some great numbers, but based on the one time I saw him in person, I really didn't think that he was this guy destin to be called up in Sept. It sounds nice, but to say lets call him up he's the arm were looking, hey look at these numbers he put up in AA, but a month ago he looked good, not great pitching to HiA, I really don't want to see him in our Sept. games that at this pace are going to count, 'learning'.
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