Evan Longoria To Return To Lineup Today
Last night's contest was rained out. The Rays and Yankees will play a day-night double-header with the first going at the originally scheduled 1:05 and the night-cap will be at 7:05...Boston beat the Jays last night 7-0, and will also play a double-header today...The Twins were rained out in Baltimore so the magic number remains 10.
DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA...
- DRays Bay doesn't understand why all 29 Major League GMs, who are actually, you know, paid to make such decisions, passed on the opportunity to add a guy to their roster who had 103 strikeouts and only 19 walks in triple-A. A player that will be out of minor league options in '09. A player that has a career minor league OBP of .311. A player, who despite all of his "power potential" has only hit 20 home runs once in 7 minor league seasons...And when we *tried* to have an intelligent discussion on the matter in their comments section, the only responses were vile attacks on our website and on us personally. Having a conversation with them is like a Martian talking to a fungo. [Drays Bay]
- In case you missed it last night in the Twitter updates in the right-hand column or this morning in the "Down on the Farm" segment, David Price, Jeff Niemann, Mitch Talbot and Jonny Gomes will join the Rays today, now that Durham's season is over. Despite pitching on Tuesday, Price is available to pitch during today's double-header. Niemann last pitched on Wednesday, so we expect he will not be available today. All three, Price, Niemann and Talbot will work out of the bullpen for now. [Rays Report]
- Evan Longoria will return to the lineup in game 1 today. He will not start in game 2. BJ Upton is not expected to play today and Troy Percival is expected to be day-to-day for the rest of the season. [Tampa Tribune]
- John Romano wants to give Joe Maddon the benefit of the doubt, but if Maddon truly has the team's best interest at heart, then Romano thinks Troy Percival should not be closing any longer. [St. Pete Times]
- Take away the historical context and the $20 million players, and we fully agree, the Trop is better than Yankee Stadium. And unlike 99% of the people that badmouth the Trop, we have actually been to games in both stadiums. I would also say that the level of comfort and enjoyment of the Trop is better than Fenway where only people 5'2" can be comfortable and half the seats face the outfield wall, Shea Stadium which is a dump and new Commiskey, which is boring. We are sure there are others. [Bugs and Cranks]
- The Rays lost the coin-flip to decide who would host a matchup should a one-game playoff be needed to decide the AL East crown...To clarify, a one-game playoff will only be necessary if both the White Sox and Twins have better records than the Rays and the Red Sox. One-game playoffs are not used if both teams are guaranteed a playoff spot. In this case it is very likely that both the Rays and the Red Sox will be in the playoffs making this entire matter moot. [The Heater]
- The Florida Aquarium has given five new baby Rays some familiar names. [Tampa Bay's 10]
Labels: BJ Upton, David Price, Evan Longoria, Jeff Niemann, Joe Maddon, Joel Guzman, Jonny Gomes, Mitch Talbot, The Trop, Troy Percival
posted by The Professor at 9:53 AM
20 Comments:
DRays Bay doesn't understand why all 29 Major League GMs, who are actually, you know, paid to make such decisions, passed on the opportunity to add a guy to their roster who had 103 strikeouts and only 19 walks in triple-A. A player that will be out of minor league options in '09. A player that has a career minor league OBP of .311. A player, who despite all of his "power potential" has only hit 20 home runs once in 7 minor league seasons...And when we *tried* to have an intelligent discussion on the matter in their comments section, the only responses were vile attacks on our website and on us personally. Having a conversation with them is like a Martian talking to a fungo. [Drays Bay]"
Uh, my argument was as a PLATOON PLAYER (.800 OPS against lefties in AAA this year) he would be worth a shot on a team like Seattle. How many GMs passed on Balfour on waivers? 29, you can't use that to justify a position. That's like saying "Well if Pena was so good why did 30 GMs basically pass on him?" Because as you should recall Friedman even released him.
He DOES have power potential .500 SLG against lefties. Just using homeruns to show that is skewing his numbers to act like I'm a moron.
good one RJ...take a player that has never proven he can be a major leaguer and make him a platoon player against lefties. sounds like the perfect player to waste a roster spot on.
i used to comment on DRB. Nowadays it is just a bunch of 12-year olds who fight to see who can come up with the biggest insult.
teams passed on Balfour in the spring when rosters are for the most part already set. every team passed on Guzman in September when it is pretty easy to come up with a spot on the 40-man. So yeah. Not a good comparison.
also, Balfour showed ZERO indication in the Spring that he would be this type of pitcher. I think i read that somebody said he was only throwing 90-91 in the Spring and now he is throwing 95-96. If he was throwing 96 in the Spring, somebody would have picked him up.
Balfour showed the potential to be a huge strikeout pitcher throughout his career despite his walk totals.
He had one tool that made him attractive to others and that is/was his ability to strike people out.
"good one RJ...take a player that has never proven he can be a major leaguer and make him a platoon player against lefties. sounds like the perfect player to waste a roster spot on."
I'm sorry, but do you even follow the Rays? What has Ben Zobrist proven that makes him a good candidate to platoon on a winning team as an outfielder? In fact Zobrist is actually better against righties. Yes Zobrist had better AAA numbers, but his bat speed doesn't seem to translate over and he's below average fielder and batter in left with little to no potential to grow.
I'm done, but I won't be bashing your readers.
The Professor's commentary is leaps and bounds above anything you'll find on DraysBay. The only thing DraysBay has going for it is that they basically do a live blog-a-baloo for every game. Try disagreeing with something the mods say, even if it's a matter of total opinion, and they just insult your intelligence.
As fas as the Guzman thing goes, someone would have to give up a spot on their 40-man now and all winter, for the hope that he'd accept an assingment to their minor league team in the spring instead of becoming a free agent. They'd be burning that 40-man spot and in all likelihood get nothing out of it. What's the point of that? The Balfour and Dan Johnson situations were different because all or 80% of the minor league season was left and the Rays had a team to send them to. Now, with the minor league season being over Guzman would take up 40-man spot for the Mariners, be a Mariner in name only for the winter, and still get to pick who he wants to play for in the spring unless they put him on the 25-man. Maybe he'd want to play for the Mariners minor leagues next year, but he doesn't need to be on their 40-man all winter to do it.
Yes, Guzman slugged .493 against lefties in AAA, but that was in 142 ABs and he also posted 35 strike-outs, 6 walks, and a .291 OBP in those same 142 ABs against AAA lefties. Ben Zobrist's best asset is not that he's a good first option to platoon as an OF, but that doesn't mean he's useless. It's that he can play decent to good defense in the OF and all IF positions as a pure backup. His .716 OPS isn't pretty, but for a guy that can plug a lot of holes defensively it's OK. Zobrist also posted 1.049 in AAA this year vs .714 overall OPS for Guzman in AAA.
Wow, 8 whole comments. Well done. Your site traffic must be crazy high.
How dare thee disagree with the Lord's opinion!
Vin, we could have a lot more comments if we posted pictures and sophomoric insults too. Get back to your fiddle cats.
So you would have more comments if you had a little more fun and the site's owner wasn't such a prick?
I think that's fair to say.
I would be a prick too if I were dealing with arrogant a-holes.
I am mystified by the hostility between people on these two sites. I looked again at that thread, and it seemed to me to start out reasonably cordial but became increasingly confrontational. In my view, both the Professor and R.J. used language that, without the body language clues and such, could be read as aggressive and so the conversation deteriorated, at which point other posters exacerbated the situation somewhat.
Anyway, as one who loves reading both sites and posting as well, I do not understand why each will not recognize the tremendous contributions to intelligent discussion that both make. Nor do I understand why anyone considers R.J either arrogant or narrow minded. Seems to me that critics on both sides are a bit thin-skinned and are looking for grievances, sort of like fans who accuse fans of other teams of rude behavior and just as silly.
As for the specific issue, my own response is that I was initially surprised that nobody picked Guzman up, but the Professor's explanation makes a lot of sense to me, as it usually does when discussing roster management (even when I disagree). I also think it entirely possible to accept the Professor's take on the issue while also recognizing that R.J. makes points that might qualify that acceptance, that signing a player who just 3 years ago was listed as the 5th best prospect in the minors by BA (I think) could give you a leg up on keeping him and might be worth the gamble in some front office.
Incidentally, I would be curious to find a site manager who makes a practice of considering himself wrong. A difference I do see on DRays Bay is that many of the posters, including R.J, attempt to support their views with data and reason. If that is condescending then condescension is good, but I think it only offends those who are unwilling or unable to respond in kind.
And I am a fairly regular poster at DRays Bay, and I am not 12 years old. And I think the Professor will agree that I have sometimes been very critical here of some of his posts, in retrospect occasionally using immoderate language even, but have been grateful for his rational and courteous responses, although I do not recall him wavering in his position, at least not overtly.
Just because there aren't a ton of posts with the same 4 people repeating everything each other says doesn't mean no one visits the site. The live blog-a-baloos the Professor does are very lively and a lot more enjoyable than the GDTs at DraysBay.
And while I wouldn't say you guys over at DraysBays are idiots, it's definitely true that you're not nearly as smart as the think you are.
vin,
This is a serious question. How old are you? I really do hope for the sake of everybdy that you are not more than 8.
one of the many things I love about this site is that all of the a-holes are over at DRB. Do us all a favor. RJ, Vin...go home. Thanks. Now maybe the rest of us can get back to discussing the Rays
hey Vin
check out these rankings
http://ballhype.com/mlb/blogs/
tell me where DRaysBay is?
will, the difference is, that is the everyday discourse over there. i beg you to find another day when that happens over here.
Having been the object on occasion of some vile responses, I can attest that there are posters here who make a habit of ad hominem and mean spirited commentary. (Not from the Professor, but by some regular posters.)
It is not surprising that a site that elicits so much commentary-as DRays Bay does-is going to attract foolish people to post. And there are a few regulars who engage in juvenile humor and turn some threads into inside jokes (at least to me). As this site seems to have less traffic, it probably does have fewer really useless contributors. By the same token, it also has more truly outstanding contributors with in-depth understanding of issues and a willingness to engage in real conversation. And in both cases, the people who run the site set high standards for commentary by their own contributions. (Although again, as the Professor might attest, I have had some issues with certain types of his posts.)
But none of that is really the issue. Both sites have a lot to offer. The DRays Bay effort to focus attention on progressive statistical analysis, and the posters there who are very informed in that area, are exceptionally interesting. This site also uses stats intelligently and like DRays Bay provides other types of insightful analyses of events and developments in the Rays' universe.
The sniping and hostile responses from both sides are distracting and do credit to nobody. And neither side is more or less responsible for it; both share the blame in my view.
Oops. I realize I left something in that reads wrong. I intended to point out that by sheer numbers, DRays Bay probably has more really exceptional posters with in-depth knowledge and understanding of issues and statistics than this site does. I should add that it also draws some very interesting fans of other teams who come to converse and not simply to be trolls.
Again that is more a function of greater traffic than anything else I think, but I also think it is due to the example set by R.J and his confreres who run the site.
Wow, I missed all of this. I am also very surprised at the hostility between the sites. It's a bit of a shame, considering they're both here for the same overall reason. I frequent both sites (and will continue to do so), so I hope this issue can, like the Yanks season, die.
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