Sid Fields Records

History of Baseball expansion

2010-02-24T12:20:00.000-05:00

From 1903 – 1960, MLB operated with 16 teams. Over a 38 year period from 1960-1998 the league added 14 teams in 6 installments. If you look at how the league expanded it paints a picture of a pretty conservative approach to expansion. Take a look. I’ve added very little factual evidence in this discussion. Mostly observational.

1. 1961 – Washington Senators and LA Angels
a. The 1960 Senators moved to Minneapolis to become the Twins. The 1961 Senators were the expansion team. So really the new market explored here was the Minnesota market. But this wasn’t a case of MLB deciding to move into Minnesota, it was more Clark Griffith searching for greener pastures. This counts as a move, and not an expansion.
2. 1962 – New York Mets and Houston Astros
3. 1969 – KC Royals, Seattle Pilots, SD Padres, Montreal Expos
4. 1977 – Seattle Mariners, Toronto Blue Jays
5. 1993 – Colorado Rockies, Florida Marlins
6. 1998 – Arizona D-Backs, Tampa Bay D-Rays

That’s the list. Of the 14 teams, 8 of them were teams added to existing markets, or pre-existing markets, and demographics. I deem these to be low risk expansion efforts because a precedent already existed.

1. Senators (replaced the first incarnation that moved to Minnesota)
2. Angels (MLB places a second team in southern Cal)
3. Mets (MLB restocks the NY market after having lost two teams to Cali).
4. Royals (KC gets another shot after the A’s moved to Oakland)
5. Padres (SoCal gets a third team)
6. Mariners (MLB has mercy on Seattle after the Pilots moved to Milwaukee after one season)
7. Blue Jays (Second Canadian team)
8. Rays (Second Florida team)

That leaves six instances where baseball owners decided to go out on a limb and put a brand new baseball team in an area that previously did not have one.

1. 1962 – Baseball moves into Texas with the Astros
a. This has to be considered a success. The Rangers came to the state too when the second version of the Senators moved here.
2. 1969 – Baseball moves into the Pacific Northwest with the Pilots
a. Had it not been for Nintendo, Ken Griffey, Randy Johnson, Ichiro, and SafeCo Field, baseball would have failed in the Pacific Northwest. But they seem to have a good thing going here
3. 1969 – Baseball moves to Canada with the Expos
a. I think the decision to move to Canada was probably a good one. The thing that killed the Expos, and Jon probably has more to say on this than I, is the strike and impatient ownership. The strike angered all the French Canadians, but the Expos had good baseball people in place to keep the team relevant. Problem though is that the people who owned those teams became frustrated with the methods of the baseball people and next thing you know the Expos are playing games in Puerto Rico and Quebec gave up on the team. Now we have the Nationals. I think Montreal has the fire power to support a team.
4. 1993 – Baseball moves to Colorado
a. Seems to have worked
5. 1993 – Baseball moves to Florida
a. I’ll come back to this
6. 1998 – Baseball moves to Arizona
a. Seems to be working

The baseball in Florida thing is still up in the air. Miami and Tampa Bay have their own sets of excuses for why things haven’t gone according to plan. Miami’s market potential will be put to the final test in 2012 and beyond when their long awaited stadium opens. Tampa Bay….we all know the issues here.

In the spirit of keeping this a baseball talkin forum, I’m going to refrain from stadium talk. But this little exercise was intended to break down baseball expansion into larger categories and illustrate how fortunate Tampa Bay is to have gotten a franchise.

Training videos from ESPN, via RaysIndex

2010-02-15T17:39:00.002-05:00

The Longoria video is less compelling. The interesting things from the Crawford videos are the hands on approach that the new hitting coach has (I know Jon was not happy with Henderson). But more interesting is the base stealing one.

Crawford working with the new batting coach
http://www.raysindex.com/2010/02/carl-crawford-with-derek-shelton.html

Crawford working on his base stealing
http://www.raysindex.com/2010/02/carl-crawford-already-fast-now-quicker.html

Longo working out
http://www.raysindex.com/2010/02/evan-longoria-i-definitely-feel-100-stronger-than-i-did-last-year.html

Back in action

2010-02-14T10:16:00.001-05:00

On Wed, Feb 10, 2010 at 7:19 AM: Nate

Johnny Damon’s name keeps appearing in the Times. Raysindex keeps writing about it too. My gut reaction was that there wasn’t a big enough upgrade to justify the potential for having to bear the brunt of some of Burrell’s contract when we go to trade him to an unsuspecting team. Here’s the tale of the tape. I figured I’d give Burrell the benefit of the doubt and I included last year’s and his 2008 numbers in the matrix

Statistically Damon has a distinct edge. But it’s the Rays so there is always the matter of money. One thing that the writers never seem to mention is that the whole potential Burrell trade and Damon courting at this point is a product of writer chatter. I haven’t read anything to suggest real interest from the Rays. Also, the whole point of signing Pat Burrell was to add a right handed power hitter for the middle of the order. Johnny Damon is a left handed top of the order guy who isn’t primarily a power guy, so I’m not seeing the fit in that regard. I think the top of the Rays batting order is pretty much set at this point

Bartlett
Crawford
Longoria
Pena

You could even say that the #5 spot is most likely Zobrist on most nights assuming he continues playing good baseball. After that it gets interesting. BJ Upton’s spot in the order is going to be a question mark. We know Maddon likes having a quality hitter at #9, but that doesn’t seem to fit with what BJ has in mind for himself. You gotta think Navarro/Shoppach is slotted for the #8 spot. This would make the back part of the lineup:

Zobrist
DH
2B/RF (depending on where Zobrist isn’t playing that night)
Catcher
Upton

Those 6 and 7 spots are where we will see appearances from Rodriguez, Joyce, Aybar, Brignac (maybe Brignac is probably a #9 guy)

Also if you acquire Damon is he a better RF option than Zobrist? I don’t know how his arm stacks up. It seems like it might be worth a gamble to keep Burrell and hope he turns the corner into a prototype AL DH. But even then you would think Zobrist gets to hit at #5 ahead of him to start the season. I guess this is where the manager starts earning his salary.

2009 Johnny Damon (35)
2009 Pat Burrell (32)
2008 Pat Burrell
AB
550
412
536

Runs
107
45
74

HR
24
14
33

RBI
82
64
86

SB
12
2
0

AVG
.282
.221
.250

OBP
.365
.315
.367

SLG
.489
.367
.507

SO
98
119
136

From: Jon
My thoughts on Damon are that he knows the East and most of the pitchers in the East pretty well at this point. I don't know if you can look up his numbers against AL East pitching alone, but I would bet it's better than the rest of the AL. He also seems to be a good clubhouse guy, and will be able to keep guys loose during the year. He's also a pretty grizzled vet at this point, knows the frustration of playing for small-time clubs (from his KC days), and would probably be an asset in many other regards. My biggest issues with him would be a) the amount of money that it would take to sign him, and b) if his performance against the Rays was any indication, no player benefitted more from the shallow deck in new Yankee Stadium than Damon. He's also, in my opinion, a big time steroid risk.

On the other hand, F- Pat Burrell. He seemed to be a surly prick during most of the season, never came up big in situations that demanded it, and is getting paid far too much money for what was an embarrassing performance last year. I know his numbers picked up in the second half, but he rarely inspired confidence at the plate, and gave no indication that he liked anyone around him on the team. I wouldn't be sad to see him leave.

As for where Damon would lineup, I think he would be a good fit in the 9 hole. He'd be setting up our leadoff men, and would be in a good RBI spot for the back half of the lineup, which is surprisingly stronger than many other teams in the majors. I could see:
Bartlett
Crawford
Longo
Pena
Zobrist
Upton
Joyce/Rodriguez
Shoppach/Navi
Damon
That's a pretty good lineup, and Damon and Joyce/Rodriguez could always be flipped depending on performance.

I'm not against the switch, but mainly because I hate Pat Burrell.
On Wed, Feb 10, 2010 at 10:46 AM, Nate
Here’s a direct link to his performance by team (sortable)

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/split.cgi?n1=damonjo01&year=2009&t=b#oppon::18

It’s hard to draw conclusions on his performance against the AL East because of the unbalanced scheduling. You make a very strong case for why he would be an asset. I think Nick Swisher will go into mourning without Johnny Damon. To your point about Burrell being disliked, he was the only guy who didn’t get regular pies to the face during Kalas post game interviews. I’d like to know more about his confrontation with Crawford too. The fact that he is capable of published disagreement with Carl Crawford tells me that he’s out of his element. He killed rallies with untimely strikeouts. The guy never advanced runners with no outs.

Your lineup with Damon at #9 does look great, but it’s probably not worth getting frothy over it because it’s unlikely to happen.

Absentee blogging

2009-09-25T14:50:00.002-04:00

It's pretty obvious by the summaries by month to the right that I've neglected the blog this month. This is a function of three things 1) Things to do at work, 2) The Rays shitting their pants (and not just a little, it was full blown diarrhea), and 3) College Football starting (with most of the discussion organically taking place through emails)

With ten games to go on the Rays season, I wanted to weigh in before shifting into offseason/post season mode for baseball.

I think the 2009 Rays will ultimately be one of the most under-rated teams in Tampa Bay sports history. Yesterday I was listening to local radio here in Miami. The Dolphins are 0-2. A comment was made that Tony Sparano would have been better off if this year happened last year and last year happened this year. I think the same thing could be said for the Rays. With ten games remaining and a 78-74 record, the Rays will likely finish with a winning record. Second best season ever Rays fans. Nothing wrong with that. Yea, no World Series (or playoffs for that matter), but cmon we entered September with hope.
Our rotation for next year looks like it can be pretty good (Garza, Shields, Niemann, Price, Davis). All these guys have question marks. Shields was especially bad in the second half of the season, but I think that was an exception and not the rule. Young guys like Niemann, Price, and Davis will come with question marks but ultimately this is a nice staff at a very reasonable price. As stated earlier in this blog I think Kazmir had to be moved at some point (you can question the timing), but his salary along with more to come had to get moved.
John Romano wrote a column recently that stated one or two of either Crawford, Bartlett, or Pena would be traded this offseason. If that happens the outrage will be immeasurable. The Kazmir trade was palatable because you just assumed it would free up money to retain quality players already on the roster.
I'm eagerly awaiting to see what becomes of Aki. It doesn't make sense to bring him back into the fold considering money constraints, Brignac's presence, and Zobrists too. Brignac isn't ready to play everyday. So Zobrist probably gets the job at 2nd with a different platoon in right that would include Rodriguez and Joyce in some capacity. Rodriguez probably takes on that super-utility role once occupied by Zorilla.
God help our bullpen. I know 90% of all baseball teams have bullpen problems, but it's hard not to cry about it when you see it happening to your favorite team
Offseason stadium bickering will surely happen. The Times had a piece last Saturday about the mayoral candidates, the lease, and the possibilities of breaking it. Not a fun topic

I would post thought on college football here, but it seems like that banter is more of an email thing.

A look at Starting Pitching during the losing streak

2009-09-10T09:51:00.004-04:00

So, I post about how the season isn't lost, and the Rays promptly lose eight games in a row.

Lets look at starting pitching in that period

Sep 3 - Price 5.1 IP 4 ER (I believe he left the game when it was a tie ball game)
Sep 4 - Niemann 7.2 IP 1 ER (duel with Verlander, no decision)
Sep 5 - Shields 6.1 IP 6 ER (no decision, Rays put up 6 runs)
Sep 6 - Davis 7 IP 1 ER (no decision, blown save by the pen, Jackson gets the W)
Sep 7 - Garza 7 IP 0 ER (no decision, duel with Sabathia)
Sep 7 - Sonny 2.2 IP 8 ER
Sep 8 - Price 6 IP 2 ER
Sep 9 - Niemann 7 IP 1 ER

Of these 8 losses, starting pitching gave us the opportunity to win 6 of these games. If there is a silver lining to any of this, that would be it. I know it is way too soon to get excited about Wade Davis, but hey, nice MLB debut there for him. If we go into next year with a Shields/Garza/Niemann/Price/Davis rotation, that gives us a solid 5 man rotation that you could argue gives you a chance to win any given night regardless of the opponent. Garza did not meet expectations this year coming off his 2008 post-season but he seems like a prime candidate for a bounce back season next year in that regard. Shields just needs to keep his cool and hope for better run support next year. That ERA of his isn't indicative of the number of quality starts he put up this year that didn't yield wins because of poor run support or blown leads from the bullpen. Many of the media outlets covering the Rays have done some "what went wrong" pieces over the last week, and chief among the reasons were 1) unexpected dip in fielding, 2)Bullpen troubles, 3) Lack of production at the plate in situations that killed late inning rallies. That's the difference. But when you lose 8 games in a row to start September it is worth noting that starting pitching did come to play in 6 of those games. One of the two poor starts came from Sonnanstine who really shouldn't be occupying a starting rotation spot in the future.

Offseason personnel decision should be interesting. Particularly with the bullpen. A month ago there was probably consideration being given to JP Howell as full time closer, but you have to think that if they were considering that as an option, it is now being reconsidered. Speaking of reconsidering, how long before Grant Balfour isn't on the team? I could be wrong, but this guy doesn't seem to do well with inherited runners. I guess that could be said for a lot of the bullpen guys lately though.

OK Then...

2009-09-07T19:35:00.002-04:00

Since that last post where I discussed how great we've been since April, the Rays have promptly lost 5 straight and now this afternoon we learn that Pena is out for the year with a broken hand.

At least we can say that the Rays kept our hopes up into September (just barely). Thats baseball. There's a 1970's Reds post lurking in here. Look for it in the near future.

Rays / Red Sox Comparison again

2009-09-03T15:39:00.002-04:00

I kind of feel like I'm beating a dead horse here, but I felt compelled to look at the trend of this season again.

I don't have the email to back it up but midway through last season, even though we were positioned for a division title, Jon and I both were thinking about how we were going to get the wild card. A big reason why that turned into a division title is the Yankees downfall. Had the Yankees performed the way they have in recent years, (which is what they are doing this year), our 97 win season would have earned us a wild card in last year's post season.

To most people that would paint this September in a much different light. Currently Boston's winning percentage is right at where it was for the 2008 season as a whole. So really what we are seeing from Boston isn't much different than what we were up against last year. Yes there is a different mix of productivity (Ellsbury and Bay are a little better this year, Pedroia and Ortiz are a little worse), but the end result on the field (SO FAR) doesn't appear much different.

Take a look at the records by month this season. Toss April aside and the Rays and Red Sox are dead even. Exact same number of wins from May on.

But this year we are seeing lower draws at the gate for critical late season games, the press bitching about it, and our owner talking to media in tones that suggest we're inadequate this year.

Really what it comes down to is that ridiculous April that we had. Many attributed it to all the October baseball from last year. I don't have the evidence to prove it but theories abound regarding World Series teams and slow starts the following year. In our division that is crippling. The guy we just traded which has caused so much uproar had a lot to do with that slow start.

I honestly don't know what my point is, but it seems like everyone is acting like this team is a shadow of itself from last year, when in reality, it probably isn't much different. Our real problem happened in April, which depending on who you want to believe was bound to happen. It is just really irritating to hear gasbag announcers on ESPN talk shit about the Rays, ESPN showing "Red Sox stock up, Rays plummeting", and other nonsensical bullshit that is being shoveled our direction. Last night I heard Rick Sutcliffe going on and on about how Carlos Pena would have been cut by the Rays if his contract wasn't so big. I turned to the local broadcast to hear Dwayne Staats answering a viewer question about team MVP by saying "Well Bartlett, Crawford and Zobrist are the three front runners, but you can't really ignore the huge contribution from Pena this year". The guy leads the league in home runs, and walks but Rick Sutcliffe's sorry ass wants to cut him. It's been pretty fucking even since May 1, and the Yankees are having a more realistic season this year. That is why we are 5 back, (4 if things go our way tonight).

Smart baseball fans weren't hitting the panic button in April when the Rays went 2-5 in their first home stand of the season (which ironically included a big fucking pregame celebration before every game for something that happened last year), and followed that up with the turd sandwich road trip in which we went 3-6 against the A's, Twins, and Mariners. But looking back, that may have been when we killed our chances. We're keeping pace, but the competition isn't the Marlins and Braves. Life in the AL East.

Folks, I'm sorry but this is about as good as it is going to get.

PTBNL is Sean Rodriguez

2009-09-02T10:17:00.002-04:00

The Times has a nice rundown of his stats

http://blogs.tampabay.com/rays/2009/09/rays-name-could-be-sean-rodriguez.html

So we get a pitcher, a corner infield prospect, and a super-utility type in exchange for Kazmir. It seems like the addition of Rodriguez opens up the door for the Rays to pass on the option for Aki, which was $4.25 million. The Rays paid Aki $3.25 million this year, and Rodriguez will make the minimum next season, so that is a decent amount of money made up to help retain some other players. The two Gabe's have club options for next year and Willy Aybar is signed through next season. I wouldn't have a problem with the Rays giving Aybar more time on the field along with Rodriguez and passing on the two Gabes. Perhaps giving Brignac a ML roster spot too if need be. I browsed through some Angels boards and they seem pretty upset over losing this Rodriguez guy, but Jon maybe you can enlighten us.

Pretty disappointing about last night's attendance. I was under the impression that we were still in a playoff chase. I know we've kind of started getting the label of a front running town, but apparently that means the team has to literally be in the front. I'm really having a hard time wrapping my head around the low attendance for last nights game, which turned out to be a giant turd.

Win Tracker - September 1

2009-09-01T09:44:00.002-04:00

I think we all feel the panic beginning to fill the air. Boston looks like they're not letting up. This past road trip was actually a success when you compare it to others from this season. The Rays went 4-3. The annoying part is that it could have easily been 6-1 had it not been for late inning bullpen collapses, leaving the Rays three back for the Wild Card, with a chance to tie Boston after our series with them at the Trop which begins tonight. If the Rays fate hasn't already been determined, the next two weeks might just do that. Six of our next twelve games are against Boston. After that no more Red Sox games this season. If we blow their doors off, then we might be back in this thing, but holding steady only helps Boston, because time is not on our side.

Pitching matchups

Sonnanstine (6-7) vs Lester (10-7)

Garza (7-9) vs Beckett (14-5)

Price (7-6) vs Buchholz (3-3)

Wednesday's game is on ESPN for you out of market folk.

Sizing up the Rays chances with a month to go

2009-08-31T11:28:00.003-04:00

Today the Rays sit 5.5 games behind the Red Sox for the Wild Card. Take the Rays best month of the season and compare it with the Red Sox worst month

15-14 sox (win % - .517)
19-7 rays (win % - .730)

Applied to 32 games remaing for Boston, and 33 for the Rays you get

24 Rays wins and 17 Sox wins. 7 game difference.

It would be a miracle, but hey it's something. I don't see it happening though. The Red Sox are playing much better than a .500 ballclub now, and the Rays don't have enough games to catch up with that. Ultimately that slow start is what is hurting. The last couple months haven't been awful, but you can't play this way when you are playing catchup.

Also, Grant Balfour yesterday.....no need.

My take on the Kazmir trade

2009-08-29T09:47:00.003-04:00

As discussed earlier on this blog, I think it should not come as a surprise to anyone that Scott Kazmir will finish out his career elsewhere. The timing of the trade is a bit peculiar. Aside from a complete dismantling of the team, Rays fans can now say that they've run the gamut of emotions that one can experience when you throw your support behind a small market club with mediocre revenue streams. If you find yourself angry with the system, it could be worse. If it wasn't for revenue sharing the Montgomery Biscuits roster would be suiting up to play the Tigers tonight. There's imbalance in the league, but it could be much worse.

From a philosophical standpoint, this makes sense (brace yourself for lots of Marlins comparisons). The GMs with the most street cred subscribe to the theory that when dealing with limited resources it is best not to hand out lucrative long term deals to pitchers. The logic being that it is more likely that a hard throwing pitcher will break down and you won't get the value per dollar that you might get had you given that contract to a position player. The Marlins implemented this philosophy by cutting bait with the pitching staff from their 2003 World Series at about the same time the Rays traded Kazmir, who is 25 years old. Here is the Marlins 2003 rotation and the age each pitcher was when they were moved by the Marlins (note: AJ Burnett was not on the Marlins post season roster that year due to injury, but he did pitch for the team that year)

Josh Beckett - 25

AJ Burnett - 28

Dontrelle Willis - 26

Brad Penny - 26

Carl Pavano - 28

Beckett and Kazmir are similar in that their big league clock started earlier than most, hence they were dealt at 25, whereas the others on the list you see were a bit older because they didn't make it to the show when they were 20. The Rays have caught a lot of flack in the past for holding players back in the minors (Longoria last year at the beginning of the year, Delmon Young, Elijah Dukes, to name a few). This illustrates why the Rays have to do stuff like this.

Now Larry Beinfest, Marlins President of Baseball Operations (not the GM, Michael Hill is the GM, but Larry is incorrectly labeled as such by a lot of people), is commonly credited for being the best at dealing with limited resources. Yes, the Marlins won the series in 2003, but they haven't been back to the playoffs since. They have been competitive deep into the second half of the season many times since though. But the moves to dismantle the World Series team haven't yielded a playoff team just yet, and this is the National League we are talking about. If Andrew Friedman and Gerry Hunsicker are going to maneuver the Rays in a similar fashion, they are going to have to be much better at it than Beinfest, because we all know that the American League is a little less forgiving than the National League. No disrespect to Larry Beinfest, but I think people in south Florida need to open their eyes a bit with him. He's gotten a free pass for life. Anything they do, the reaction is "Well, if Larry says it's OK than it must be fine". Really? I'll spare you the laundry list, but this guy isn't perfect. He's getting a lot of mileage out of Hanley Ramirez (terrific at the plate, extremely pedestrian in the field). It's like people forget that he had to trade a Cy Young caliber pitcher to get this guy. Congratulations pal. Yes the Marlins front office is good, but they aren't splitting the atom. I personally think that their trade with the Tigers is (or at least should) kill some of their good will. Miguel Cabrera is a monster, and all they got in return was Andrew Miller and Cameron Maybin. Jury is still out, but I'm pessimistic on both.

Scott Kazmir is a small man who's money maker was a big fastball. That is a risky investment for a MLB team located in St Petersburg, FL, even if he does have his best years directly in front of him.

Having said all that, if the Rays missed the playoffs last season, I don't think this trade happens this year. I don't care if anyone disagrees, the bar was moved last year. I don't like it, but it was. If the Rays went 81-81 last season and were well out of the playoff chase by mid August, we would be evaluating the status quo much differently today. 4.5 games back with a month of baseball to go is far from out of it (although from looking at this team play, they don't appear to be playoff material). The backlash against the front office would be brutal if this trade happens in the franchise's first playoff chase ever. To make matters worse, we sat through a brutal stretch of starts from Kazmir with the hopes that he would break out of his funk, which he did! Kazmir has been great as of late, and I had him pegged as someone who would play a key role in the team's chances to make the postseason. The fantasy equivalent is when you take a guy in the first few rounds of your draft, only to see him shit the bed for half a season. You finally sell the guy off and he turns into a Cy Young candidate.

The depth at starting pitching in our organization is what made this possible. Wade Davis appears to be on his way to the rotation. While it seems to be a tall order to ask a rookie to replace a veteran, we are asking him to replace a 25 year old veteran, not CC Sabathia or Josh Beckett. Perhaps the drop-off won't be as great as you might think. Judging from Kazmir's recent outing though, I'm not optimistic on this front.

The Rays can spin this all they want, but I think this move signals the end of our season. Brace yourself for all the bitter bears who will come out of the wood works, and bitch and moan about cutting payroll. Our friends in Hillsborough County might even spin a yarn about how much more money the team would make there, and try to trick people into believing things would be different if the Rays played in their shithole.

So what did we get in return?:

21 year old (???) Venezuelan pitcher Alex Torres

21 year old third baseman Matt Sweeney

Player to be named later

I'm normally leery of the player to be named later, but in the case of a waiver trade, if a player traded is on the 40 man roster that player would have to clear waivers in order to be named. They can call it "player to be named later" and finish the trade in the off-season and circumvent the waiver process. I believe this player has been agreed upon and Joe Maddon calls this player "a very interesting player that I'm very excited about". The Times considers this player "closer to the majors" than the others. A quick glance at the Angels 40 man roster, the players on it whom aren't on the active roster are

Robert Mosebach - P

Sean O'Sullivan - P

Anthony Ortega - P

Fernando Rodriguez - P

Rich Thompson - P

Ryan Budde - C

Bobby Wilson - C

Matthew Brown - IF

Sean Rodriguez - IF

Freddy Sandoval - IF

Mark Trumbo - IF

Brandon Wood - IF

Terry Evans - OF

Reggie Willits - OF

http://losangeles.angels.mlb.com/team/roster_40man.jsp?c_id=ana

I don't know anything about any of these guys (or the players who have been named). I will stop short of giving Friedman and Hunsicker the Larry Beinfest treatment, and hold back on blind praise. But I will say that given the timing of this trade I suspect that the Angels were not a willing trade partner after the season. The players made available to the Rays were, in the eyes of the Rays, worth taking the risk of blowing our playoff chances because the Angels want Kazmir for the stretch run. A month ago I think we all thought there was a chance that the rest of the league had soured on Kazmir and that his trade value wasn't what it used to be. Well he's gone now, so keep your fingers crossed that this works out.

In the meantime, we are blowing it in Detroit. If we don't win today's game there is a strong possibility of a sweep which would basically bury us.

If any of you guys have info on these prospects please share, otherwise I will post some links next week if I find any about them.

UPDATE: Last thought. With one month to go, we're basically giving up 5 appearances from Kazmir to save $24 million. If the trade market was light on him before the non-waiver trade deadline, and the Angels suddenly came out of the wood work with a great deal, it's hard to question this. It should also be noted that Kazmir had to pass through every team except the Yankees to get to LA in the waiver process. Whatever that means. Lots of players get put on waivers, and pulled back when claims are put in on them, so there probably isn't too much to be taken from that since the waiver process is a mere formality this time of year.

Also, there is a strong liklihood that if you are the type to look around the internet for opinions on this trade that you will come across some that consider Kazmir past his prime. I don't subscribe to this theory. If anything he is entering his prime, which if you are an organization such as the Rays, is when you would get maximum value. By no means do I think we've pillaged the Mets and Angels by taking a young talent for our own personal gain and disposed of him just as he hit his decline. On the contrary, I think he's got some quality years...we just can't afford them.

Clips to get you ready for the college season

2009-08-28T11:26:00.002-04:00

Mostly halftime interviews with coaches, with some other nonsense mixed in

Michigan State Head Coach John L Smith

Houston Nutt
Pimping Darren McFadden for the Heisman
Enjoying him some post game Rebel fun

Joe Kines - "We just gotta keep playin"

The Bear (not Pat), doesn't appreciate all this question askin

Bobby Bowden
Questions some penalties
Enjoys Burger King

Les Miles

Halftime with LSU
Book learnin
Oklahoma State clip (1)
Oklahoma State clip (2)

Got any more?

Gator Depth Chart 2009 - Defense

2009-08-24T10:12:00.003-04:00

The Gainesville Sun ran previews and depth charts over the last month. I'm compiling them here, along with a graphic that brings the entire offensive and defensive units together for ease of review.

Now the defense.

The big story after the championship game last year was that we were returning our entire two deep defensive unit. That still seems to be the party line, and while it is more true than false there are a couple things to point out.

1. Dustin Doe started last year, and has missed just about every offseason workout because of his suspended drivers license problem. Supposedly everything is worked out now, but I'm sure this guy will miss some time, not to mention he's probably been passed by Stamper.

2. Defensive tackle. We didn't have a first and second string rotation that was set in stone last year. We lost Javier Estopinan, who contributed at times. We also lost Torrey Davis. Now I know Torrey wasn't a consistent contributor, but it looked like he was finally getting on the field and making plays, and that all came to a sudden end with his unceremonious departure. Brandon Antwine is back, but he has really been battling injuries. So much so, that the Sun has him listed pretty far down on the depth chart. Lastly, John Brown, one of the big seven Lakeland recruits from a few years back, finally gave up and transferred. Bottom line, there is an element of turnover in the interior of the line that should be acknowledged.

3. This depth chart lists Major Wright as a starter, but Will Hill is killing it in practice. The coaches think he may be the best player on the defense. Will Hill can play both strong safety and free safety, and the prevailing opinion is that Ahmad Black is too good to sit, which makes Major Wright the odd man out. It wouldn't be shocking if the starting secondary was Haden/Black/Hill/Jenkins.

The talk on the team is that the defense wants to be the "best ever". Please do so. If the Gators want to repeat the defense will have to play a major role.

Previews from the Sun

Defensive Line

Linebackers

Secondary

Gator Depth Chart 2009 - Offense

2009-08-24T09:54:00.006-04:00

The Gainesville Sun ran previews and depth charts over the last month. I'm compiling them here, along with a graphic that brings the entire offensive and defensive units together for ease of review. First the offense. The comings and goings of the team are obvious, and have been discussed many times over (Percy, Murphy, Trautwein, Watkins, Tartt). So basically your biggest playmaker, your best receiver, and both starting tackles. If you told me, without naming the team, that a major college program would lose both starting tackles, their top two receivers, and the player who had the most rushing yards amongst all WRs/RBs, then I would have a hard time predicting success for that team. That speaks to the magnitude of Tebow to this team. With all due respect to Traut and Watkins, I think the feeling among a lot of people is that Matt Patchan and Marcus Gilbert are quite capable of filling the shoes, and perhaps play better. Trautwein was very mistake prone towards the end of the season. Matt Patchan's emergence has allowed Carl Johnson to stay at guard and solidify the interior with the Pouncey twins which is huge for the running game. Demps, Rainey, & Co. showed flashes last year to make us feel that someone out there is capable of running the football. I worry about replacing Murphy. I watched the SEC Championship game Sunday morning and that guy was better than people realize. The Bama corners were really physical with him, and he was able to fight them off, get separation with his speed, make catches in traffic, and get yards after the catch consistently. Percy was the best WR but Murphy did things that I'm not sure can be duplicated by anyone else on this year's roster. I'm really excited about seeing Aaron Hernandez. He was awesome in 2007 when he first saw playing time, and even better last year. I expect big things from him.

Links to Gainesville Sun Previews

Backfield

Wide Receivers

Offensive Line

Here's to hoping we know how to play the Tigers

2009-08-24T09:30:00.002-04:00

Seven of the Rays next thirteen games are against Detroit. Tonight we get to face Roy Halladay...again. I feel like that guy pitches every game Toronto plays against us.

It would have been nice to have swept at least one of those series in the last homestand, but you can't complain about winning all three series, and reeling Texas in a little bit. I feel like Texas is screwed. They have a ton of road games left this year. Boston is an interesting case because while they appear to be sucking wind right now, they show signs of life every now and then (kind of sounds like the Rays). They just put in a claim for Billy Wagner and his surgically repaired elbow. The Mets...the 2009 Mets have no room for Billy Wagner, but the Red Sox do. That is a good sign for the Rays.

Yesterday's game was tough. The Rays brought nothing to the plate. David Price wasn't dominant, but I was impressed. He got some really tough breaks that lead to the three earned runs, but he kept things under control despite it all. If that game happend earlier in the year I could see him unraveling. Most exciting performance of the weekend has to go to Kazmir. Everyone who cares about the Rays breathed a sigh of relief after seeing that outing. The guy was pitching, he wasn't just standing up there throwing the ball at the catcher.

I expect the Yankees to hand Texas some more losses this week. Our road record in Toronto has been quite good this year (4-2). It seems like we're setting up for a nice series against Toronto followed by some disappointment in Detroit. We have a terrible record on Sundays, and a terrible record on the last game of home stand and road trips. The Tigers series is four games (Friday - Monday). So it stands to reason that the Sunday and Monday games are going to be difficult for the team to win. Those Friday/Saturday games would be nice to get.

Email back n forth on 09 Gators

2009-08-19T09:51:00.003-04:00

Chain of emails to follow between Threet and me discussing the upcoming season. The email that triggered was a cut n paste job from a message board post that served as a "season preview". It's much too long to include here.

The Emails
***********************************************************

From: Threet Sent: Tuesday, August 18, 2009 10:24 AM

My thoughts on the write up:

Interesting read. I agree about Arkansas, they concern me for the exact reasons he pointed out.

Additionally, I don’t think we completely blow out Tennessee. I think we dominate the game with the outcome never really being in doubt, but the score will not reflect the domination, 34 – 7 we win. However, I’d love 56 - 0.

Finally, I completely agree about Will Hill – but, the real question is who will he replace? Black or Wright? I think he’ll overtake Wright. Black has proven to be a opportunistic ball hawk with an uncanny ability to be in the right place at the right time. Wright, while a big hitter, seems to struggle in coverage occasionally, which is why I think Hill will take his starting job. Or maybe one of them gets injured, who knows? Hill seems capable of making the big hits and aptly covering WRs in the open field, plus he has a fun name to say. Last year on every kickoff, I’d look over at Erica and say watch Will Hill, sure enough he would usually come flying down the field and make the tackle.

From: Nate Sent: Tuesday, August 18, 2009 10:16 AM

That guy started to lose me with his kooky details like “Tebow fakes an injury”. I jotted some notes as I read. Overall though it isn’t silly to predict an unbeaten successful
Defense of the title. A few thoughts in bullet form

· I disagree that TX/OU and USC/OSU are elimination games. Anything can happen in college football. That year GA Tech/and Colorado split the national title was dropped right in the middle of a run where Notre Dame and Miami were dominant and winning titles. Out of the blue we had a year when teams for seemingly no reason were losing multiple games.
· I agree that Penn State is a real possibility to go all the way. I wouldn’t call them dark horse though. An unbeaten Big Ten team, unless there are three unbeatens, should not be excluded from the title game.
· His logic on Tebow’s Heisman win is flawed. Voters aren’t going to get all misty eyed when they vote. His “third candidate” thing, referring to Harrell last year, is wrong. Harrell wasn’t on anyone’s ballot last August, so why can’t there be someone else potentially waiting to explode that isn’t talked about now (Reesing from Kansas maybe). I’m not saying Tebow won’t win, but it isn’t going to be due to anything that has to do with last season or lifetime achievement awards. If anything Colt McCoy has the lifetime achievement award potential because he doesn’t have that award on his resume yet.
· I agree that the defense stepping up and giving us more three and outs is going to play a big part in the offense’s ability to generate points
· Comparing the defense to the 60’s is asinine. That was a completely different era of football. To say “we won’t approach the 1960 defense for points allowed is like predicting that David Price won’t pass Cy Young for all time wins. But then he says we will compare to the1963 team, which is total BS. Our defense is good but they aren’t going to be that freakishly good, to where we routinely hold opponents to around 10 points a game.
· Black and Jenkins didn’t come out of the blue. Both guys were giant recruits that were expected to start and play well.
· I agree on Will Hill. No offense Major Wright, because he’s a good safety, but Black is too good to sit down. I think it is funny that he says nobody will emerge, and in the next point he predicts that Will Hill will supplant a current starter.
· Totally agree on Hernandez. I love that guy. I think there is strong evidence for his statement on the receivers. Percy was so good, we really couldn’t take touches away from him. There is a stable of talent that is untested, I think that is the best way to put it.
· Hysterical that he predicates all his statements on “no injuries” and then predicts a major injury in the Charleston Southern game.
· He has Brantley playing against LSU. Not going to happen. Tebow doesn’t sit in a game played on the road against a national title contender unless it’s 70-0.
· You and I discussed Arkansas a few weeks ago, so we’re all on the same page here. Agreed that this is the sleeper game.

I’m not ready to predict a final outcome to our season. I will say though:

· I know we are deep on offensive line, but you cannot avoid the fact that we’ve lost both starting tackles. The poster discounts OU as a contender because they lost starters on the line. Well so did we. I wasn’t a big fan of Trautwein, but he was a 5th year senior. I have a little concern about our tackles. I’ll leave it at that.
· Ironically the Gainesville sun has an article on this today. I think losing Murphy is a big f-ing deal. I worry that we won’t have a receiver that can play the role he played last season. He was a completely different player than Percy, and we need someone like him to run those routes and make those catches. Riley Cooper is not up to the challenge. Cooper has a role that he plays nicely, and he shouldn’t be asked to do anything differently this year. I’m hoping Nelson can fill Murphy’s shoes.
· I’ve always felt that people worried too much about LSU. I’ve been a big believer that, even in the years we’ve lost to them, we were good enough to beat them. This year I think people are underestimating LSU. They went in the tank at the end of last year. They’re a better team than their record indicates. I think we can all agree that Auburn, Mississippi State, and Arkansas are not serious threats to win the West. Of the remaining three (LSU, Bama, and Ole Miss) LSU looks like the favorite. I question our ability to beat a team more than once, simply because we’ve never been given that task in the Meyer era. In my years of watching Gator football I can only recall four rematches within a season.
o 1994 FSU – Tied in the regular season and lost in the Sugar Bowl
o 1996 FSU – Lost in the regular season and won the Sugar Bowl
o 1999 Bama – Lost both games
o 2000 Auburn – Won both games
That 2000 Auburn team pales in comparison to the LSU teams of recent years. If we played Auburn 20 times that year I think we would have won 20 times. The other three examples are good indicators of why I am worried about rematches. That 1994 tie felt like a loss by the way. That reminds me. I saw a message board poster yesterday comment that the 2007 LSU game was the most upset he has ever been watching a gator game. Most people agreed with him. I think this is a pretty strong indicator that the message board community, by and large, is made up people who were out of touch prior to Meyer’s arrival. I’ve had other losses that stung more, but I’ve never been blindsided the way I was in November of 1994 when FSU tied us. I remember Bobby Bowden being interviewed on the field afterward and he slipped and called it a win. I can’t blame him for that.

The poster also alluded to our rivals being giddy over our impending doom when Timmy graduates. I have a lot of faith in Brantley. I feel he is better positioned than Doug Johnson was in 97 to take over for a seemingly irreplaceable quarterback, and Doug Johnson was two Friday night benders away from having a really nice season that year.

I think the Gators are in really good shape. It’s really just the tackles and the untested WR talent that concern me. Other than that I see no reason why we shouldn’t be able to beat everyone on our schedule. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for Ole Miss or Bama to win the west.

From: ThreetSent: Tuesday, August 18, 2009 2:07 PM

- Agree about Penn State being a legitimate contender for BCS NC game, but let’s say at the end of the year Texas is the undefeated Big 12 Champion, Penn State is the undefeated Big 10 Champion, and either Florida or LSU is the 1 loss SEC Champion. I don’t think it’s out of the realm of possibility to think a 1 loss SEC Champion, especially considering Florida and LSU completely destroyed Big 10 Champs in recent BCS NC games, could get in ahead of Penn State. I don’t want to delve into the math of the BCS, but I do know human polls account for 2/3 of the final BCS tally. If both the human polls voted the 1 loss SEC team ahead of Penn State, couldn’t the SEC team get in? Now there are a lot of other factors out there, mainly – would voters (including other coaches) do that to an aging Joe Paterno? Who knows what would/could happen, but as usual the BCS could turn into a real mess.

- He’s right on about our rivals (and other non-Gator fans) being giddy about Tebow finally being gone in 2010 and predicting mediocrity. I hear this all the time – “you better enjoy it this year, because next year you won’t have Tebow,” etc.. Usually I just smile and say, “We’ll see.” Many people don’t realize how well Meyer has recruited the past few years and how much talent we have. I don’t expect 2010 to be a NC year, but I certainly think we can contend for the SEC. I think the common misconception is that Tim Tebow is Florida football, but in reality Urban Meyer currently is Florida football, which is why we’ll be fine after Tebow leaves.

- It’s probably too early to chart this, but it’s still fun. Barring injuries, Meyer has the depth chart at QB setup perfectly. Brantley, after 3 years on campus, will be a redshirt junior next year, 2010, when he will likely be the starter. Behind Brantley we have Jordan Reed, who will likely redshirt this year, and we have Trey Burton committed in the 2010 class, who will likely redshirt in 2010. So we have 2 years of Brantley, then Reed, who will be a redshirt junior, and Burton, who will be a redshirt sophomore, left to compete for the 2012 starting job. Granted a lot of things can happen, Jordan Reed can decide he wants to steal a laptop, Trey Burton could go somewhere else, John Brantley could suffer a career ending injury, maybe Brantley develops a lazy eye, but it’s interesting to look at how Meyer has built the depth at QB. I had to make a table to make sure I got it all straight:

Year Starter Backup 3rd String
2009 Tebow (Sr.) Brantley (R So.) Reed (Redshirt)
2010 Brantley (R Jr.) Reed (R. Fr.) Burton (Redshirt)
2011 Brantley (R Sr.) Reed (R. So.) Burton (R. Fr.)
2012 Reed (R. Jr.)? Burton (R. So.)?

- During FSU’s glory years, I think a significant part of their success was how they managed depth at QB, of course they also had great defenses and skill position players. Once someone graduated, the incumbent starter was usually a junior who had been on campus for at least a couple years and was familiar with the system and the game at the collegiate level, which seems to translate into more consistency between years and ease the transition of breaking in a new QB. Take a look back at their QBs in the 90s, it’s a pretty solid list – 2 Heisman trophy winners. Things really started to go downhill once Weinke graduated and they were forced to play a young, inexperienced Chris Rix.

Year Player Class Comments
1990 Weldon Jr.
1991 Weldon Sr. Later on as a Buc, had it out with Trent Dilfer on the golf course
1992 Ward Jr.
1993 Ward Sr. Won Heisman and NC
1994 Kanell Jr.
1995 Kanell Sr.
1996 Busby Jr. Played for NC
1997 Busby Sr.
1998 Weinke So. Played for NC
1999 Weinke Jr. Won NC
2000 Weinke Sr. Won Heisman and played for NC

- Not really related to the QB depth and progression, but I got started with this and I thought it was interesting - Looking at recent NCs it appears having an upperclassman at QB is a prerequisite (except for 2003 USC):

YearTeamQBClass
1993Florida StateWardSenior
1994NebraskaFrazierJunior
1995NebraskaFrazierSenior
1996FloridaWuerffelSenior
1997Michigain/NebraskaGriese/FrostSenior/Senior
1998TennesseeMartinJunior
1999Florida StateWeinkeJunior
2000OklahomaHuepelSenior
2001MiamiDorseyJunior
2002Ohio StateKrenzelSenior
2003LSU/USCMauck/LeinartSenior/Sophomore
2004USCLeinartJunior
2005TexasYoungSenior
2006FloridaLeakSenior
2007LSUFlynnSenior
2008FloridaTebowJunior

From: Nate Sent: Tuesday, August 18, 2009 2:45 PM

Good table on big ten champs. I had no idea it was that bad. I agree that Florida, regardless of what happens on the field against the SEC, would destroy any team from the Big Ten this year. But then again, I would have said the same thing going into 2007, and look what we did in the Citrus Bowl against Michigan.

Your hypothetical involving FL/TX/PSU is the BCS nightmare for this season. I still think Penn State would get in over Florida. If the schedule plays out the way it should, your scenario would have Florida losing the toughest game on the schedule. The only quality win to our name would be Georgia (neutral site). Yes, I know your scenario also calls for us mopping the floor with LSU in Atlanta, but that still wouldn’t erase the fact that our only true test on the road was failed. I think there is a big backlash against SEC hype in this country, and given the amount of respect (deserved or not) that the Big Ten gets, I cannot envision a scenario that puts the screws to Penn State like that. Plus their coach is Joe Pa. Joe Pa has been f-ed numerous times by polls in his younger days. I think the human polls would see to it that their votes outweighed anything the computers would do to them because of their paltry schedule. Check out Penn State’s schedule

(Bold games are conference games prior year’s record in brackets)
Akron
Syracuse
Temple
Iowa (9-4)
@Illinois (5-7)
Eastern Illinois
Minnesota (7-6)
@ Michigan (3-9)
@ Northwestern (9-4)
Ohio State (10-3)
Indiana (3-9)
@ Michigan State (9-4)

These guys will probably win their home games. So we’re counting on Northwestern or Michigan State to hand them an L.

Other than UGA and LSU our schedule isn’t very daunting. We can’t afford a misstep.

From: Threet Sent: Tuesday, August 18, 2009 3:51 PM

Our schedule may not be daunting, but I wouldn’t mind trading it for Penn State’s schedule, which is a joke.

I enjoyed the On Rocky Top except. I’ll probably read it once my old man is done with it.

From: Nate Sent: Tuesday, August 18, 2009 2:56 PM

We talked about Jordan Reed earlier. This was in the Sun today:

Days after freshmen Jonotthan Harrison and Mike Gillislee got their black stripes taken off their helmets, coach Urban Meyer said that quarterback Jordan Reed had his removed as well.
It wasn’t necessarily Reed’s progression as a quarterback that has impressed Meyer; it was his ability to take down freshman defensive lineman Kedric Johnson in the “Circle of Life” drill.
“He’s really going hard,” Meyer said after Monday’s practice. “(He has) no idea what he’s doing, but we’ll get that done.”
Reed’s performance might also have an affect on how future quarterbacks are treated.
“I guess we’ll start that tradition. If you’re a quarterback and you defeat a defensive lineman (in the circle of life drill) you get your stripe off,” Meyer said.
From: Threet Sent: Tuesday, August 18, 2009 4:03 PM

I’ve heard a little bit about him and that clip from the Sun reinforces what I’ve heard – he’s a big physical guy, similar to Cam Newton. Maybe in 2010, we’ll use him in the 2006 Tebow role.

From: NateSent: Tuesday, August 18, 2009 3:05 PM

One thing I forgot to mention about the 2010 team: the way recruiting has gone on defense, we have a ton of great players on that side of the ball, it makes it easier for the offense to transition between key players at the skill position when in all likelihood we will have a defense every year that keeps opponents at bay. I think we have more talent on defense now than I can ever remember.

From: Threet Our depth at LB is ridiculous. There’s another beast at LB we’re after this year – Jeff Luc. He looks like a hoss and I think Urb will reel him in.

http://insider.espn.go.com/ncf/recruiting/tracker/player?recruitId=78240&action=login&appRedirect=http%3a%2f%2finsider.espn.go.com%2fncf%2frecruiting%2ftracker%2fplayer%3frecruitId%3d78240

From: Nate
Sent: Tuesday, August 18, 2009 3:24 PM

I just got through listening to Finebaum interview some media type (named Hooker) from Knoxville about the Vols upcoming season. Hooker painted a pretty bleak picture. Said that they are lacking in talent. For all his shortcomings Kiffin did reel in a decent class. Even if he can’t coach a lick, if Kiffin hangs around for 3 or 4 years and stocks their cupboard Tennessee could be in good shape to bring in another coach and their program could be back on track. Kiffin had a good track record recruiting at USC, but you could argue that isn’t hard to do. Imagine how easy any of the big 3 Florida schools would have had it in the 90s if they were the only school worth going to in the state.

I understand where UT fans are coming from. In the summer of 2002 we were all spinning the impending Ron Zook era to be something we all subconsciously knew it would not be. My uncle from Maryland predicted in the summer of 1997 that we would go undefeated and repeat as national champions because he had been reading glowing reports about Doug Johnson in “Gatorbait”. He was dead serious too. I get more worked up thinking about the 98 team than I do the 97 team. Neither of those losses should have happened. 2001 is the most referenced disappointing season, but 1998 ranks right up there. We had a really good team, and our season changed on two plays. We would have torched Tennessee in the Fiesta Bowl that year if given the chance.

From: Threet Funny you mention both ’97 and ’98 – I was thinking about those teams on the can earlier (I’m serious, that isn’t a joke) and I came to the same conclusion – ’97 was a good team, tough loss to LSU and a bad loss to UGA. Then they assumed the underdog role and pulled the upset on Florida State and finished the season with a ho hum Citrus Bowl victory over Penn State. The ’98 team was very good, potentially great. We lost a heartbreaker to UT in Knoxville and somehow lost to FSU with the Rooster as QB (f-ing Marquand Manual) and we finished the season by destroying a Donovan McNabb led Syracuse team in the Orange Bowl.

From: Nate Sent: Tuesday, August 18, 2009 4:00 PM

That literally made me laugh out loud.

The five season of Spurrier after the national championship did not go the way people envisioned. From 90-96 the program was on a steady ascent to the top. All the pieces were in place.

In 97 LSU beat us by one lousy touchdown. Doug Johnson threw 4 freaking interceptions that day, and no touchdowns. Any average QB could have quarterbacked us to a win that night. I know Georgia beat us by 20 that year, but Johnson and Brindise combined for 0 TDs and 3 INTs. The Gators basically gave up in the 4th quarter of that game. It was almost like the team decided not to give a sh1t because we already had a loss.

98 we’ve covered ad nausea. That team could have won a national title.

The 99 season turned when DJax dropped that punt against Bama. We probably still lose to FSU, and Bama probably still drills us in Atlanta, but the season seemed to turn after that home loss.

In 00 heading into FSU our only loss was to Miss St (inexplicably). I still can’t believe Spurrier started Jesse over Rex in that game. His biggest mistake as head coach

01 – We all know what happened

The Meyer era has a different tone. We ascended to the top so fast, and it feels like the whole goal now is to stay on top. Quite a different feel than the 90s. The difference makers from year to year are always one or two games, and our championship teams completed the task and teams like 97 and 98 I guess just weren’t good enough. 98 for me is becoming increasingly difficult to swallow.

From: Threet That ’99 loss to Alabama in the Swamp was tough. I remember strutting into that game with no doubt that we would win. I also remember some lunatic slamming his visor into the aluminum seating at Ben Hill Griffin about 700 times that afternoon.

Who else loves the new catcher

2009-08-17T09:48:00.003-04:00

Pinch hit grand slams by the new guy go a long way towards making people love him, and making Dioner Navarro more maligned. The Rays roller-coaster is climbing again. Two straight wins to snap the 6 game skid, and Baltimore coming in on Tuesday, which is a series that we should be winning. Next weekend's series with Texas is gargantuan. Interestingly our last road trip of the season is a three game trip to Arlington. Texas had a huge May and July. You would think that they should be cooling off about now. I still have a hard time accepting that the Rays are only an above average team. This underachieving has to stop eventually. They are fortunate to be 3.5 back after what has transpired this season.

The Yankees resurgence has been a difference maker too. In hindsight it is unwise to think that the Yankees would duplicate last season's poor finish. They had been making the playoffs every year since '96, so it would only make sense that they would rebound from last year's letdown. The fact that we're basically out of the division race has left a lot of people disappointed but really it is hard to question the players when they say "we are right where we want to be". 44 games left, and still controlling their own fate. The team is relatively healthy. The thing that blindsided a lot of people has been the poor performance against the good teams in the AL that aren't fixtures at the top (Texas, Seattle, Chicago). All .500 or better, but none of them were on the radar as teams to look out for. Pitching matchups for Baltimore

Price (5-5) vs. Berken (2-10)

Niemann (10-5) vs. Tillman (1-0)

Shields (7-9) vs. Matusz (1-2)

We are 1-1 vs. Baltimore at home this year and 3-4 overall for the year. Sorriness.

Staats column in Tampa Tribune

2009-08-14T11:59:00.001-04:00

LINK

Rays Projections from another angle

2009-08-14T10:45:00.002-04:00

Taking a quick look at the Rays performance at home and on the road against the teams left on the schedule you get a projected total of 85 wins, which is slightly lower than the 87 that their current winning percentage has them targeted for. I had to improvise for the teams they haven't faced yet in the respective locations. Also included below are the list of AL Wild Card winners since the creation of the Wild Card and their win totals. Doesn't look good on paper. The Red Sox slide is keeping us relevant, but the Rangers don't seem to be showing any signs of letting up.

At this point we need to hope for a run similar to what the Phillies had last year and what the Rockies has the year before last. Last year at the 114 game mark the Phillies had a 62-52 record (1 game better than our 61-53 mark). In 2007 the Rockies were 59-55, but their win streak to end the season was unprecedented and you cannot count on something like that to happen. Point being, this isn't out of the realm of possibility. But, both the examples cited are National League teams, which is pretty telling.

Falling off pace

2009-08-13T10:53:00.005-04:00

The Rays fell short by a game in their last home stand. The road trip added two more games to make up down the road. Putting the 95 wins aside, the focus at this point is really on catching Boston and Texas.. The Yankees show no sign of letting up. The Rays had a golden opportunity to catch the Red Sox in their recent swoon, and not only came up short, but now have fallen back to 4.5 games behind. Yes, we still have six games against Boston, but it is unlikely they win all six of those games. You'd like to see us get at least 4 of the six, but that only gets us two games back from the 4.5 we still have to make up. Hopefully Baltimore and Toronto at home will provide some relief, but I'm nervous about Texas coming in. The Central and the West seem to own us. We also have a ton of games against the Tigers on the horizon, and I don't believe we have seen them yet this year. It's a damn shame we couldn't pull out a win in that first game against the Angels, and an even bigger shame that we blew that lead Friday night against the Mariners. This season is filled with games like those, and last season it seemed like we were on the winning side of most of those situations.

FLORIDA TUSKERS

2009-08-12T14:42:00.003-04:00

The Tampa Bay Rays own a share of the new Florida UFL team

Here are the uniforms if you care

The interesting thing here is that the Rays are the LP, not Stuart Sternberg. This will certainly draw some attention from people upset about team spending on payroll, and their eagerness to solicit public dollars for a stadium. Interesting play by Rays ownership.

Thoughts?

UPDATE
Gary Shelton revealed the investment in his column today
http://www.tampabay.com/sports/baseball/rays/article1027214.ece
Less than $2 million. I have to agree with Gary. This isn't a big deal at all.

Shelton on Upton

2009-08-11T09:35:00.003-04:00

http://www.tampabay.com/sports/baseball/rays/article1026505.ece

This just puts in print what we've all been thinking this entire season. Some of us famously bashed Upton profusely in the months leading into the 2007 season, and he went on to put up very nice numbers that year. Last year he dropped back off, but his postseason made us all quickly forget. Same goes this season, save June when he was player of the month.

BJ's career has been a roller coaster. Drafted as a SS, later tested the waters at 2b, and settling in at center field. At the time he landed in the OF it was very disappointing in light of the logjam in the OF (Crawford, Baldelli, Young, Dukes, Hamilton, and then Upton). His 2004 call up for 45 games was a disappointment, but at the age of 19 that shouldn't have been surprising as it was a bit premature. By the time we saw him again two years later he had been grouped together with Young and Dukes in the papers for their antics in Durham. Then you had the benchings from Maddon for not hustling.

From BJ's point of view you can understand the frustration. His career hasn't gone as smoothly as Crawford's. I think Maddon probably did right by giving him a lot of time this year to turn it around. The guy needs stability. But now it appears maybe that stability should be at the bottom of the order.

There's really no telling how his future will turn out. If BJ turns into a regular .240 hitter that strikeouts a lot, but plays amazing defense and steals tons of bases, perhaps that would be in the Rays best interest. It could lower his market value, and justify his slot in the 9 hole, making him cheap enough to retain.

It is interesting to look at BJ's draft class
http://www.mymlbdraft.com/2002/

As the second pick overall it's pretty obvious why expectations are high. Other names that stand out

Zack Greinke (underachiever)
Prince Fielder - Best player in the first round
Jeff Francis - spotty at best
Jeremy Hermida - Giant bust.
Joe Saunders - Nice selection
Khalil Greene - Horrible
Scott Kazmir - great until this year
Nick Swisher - solid player
Cole Hamels - excellent
Matt Cain - coming back around
Loney, Span, Guthrie, Francoeur, and Blanton - all servicable major leaguers.

Career stats per baseball-reference.com
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/u/uptonbj01.shtml

Gainesville in the eyes of Urban Meyer

2009-08-06T11:17:00.004-04:00

Pat Dooley did an interesting piece on Urban Meyer today (as long as you can cut through the Sister Hazel nonsense. On a side note, when I was at UF Dooley did a daily radio show that wasn't that bad. He would however on occasion talk about music. Long story short, his taste in music is horrific. There were many a time that he wondered aloud what the best Tom Petty song is. disastrous radio) .

Jon, you may not enjoy the article so much.

Perhaps my head was in the sand, but I wasn't aware of the extent that Meyer was struggling to adapt to Gainesville. I think the fact that he has found a comfort zone there is sort of a big deal for his longevity as Head Football Coach.

The most interesting part for me was the bit about the 2005 team. I would like to know what seniors "tried to implode it". According to Gatorzone.com the seniors on the 2005 team were:

Matt Kynes, Vernell Brown, Deshawn Carter, Kyle Morgan, Jarvis Herring, Todd McCullough, Shan Cimock, Bryan Royal, Jeremy Mincey, Jonathan Marvin, Mike Degory, Lance Butler, Randy Hand, Tavares Washington, Dallas Baker, Otto Graham, Jimmy Newmeyer, Markell Thompson, and Nick Flemming. The article implies that Vernell, Herring, and Mincey were boys with Meyer. We know Dallas Baker was on board. Go back to that list and eliminate all the spares, and your left with Todd MuCullough, and a group of offensive linemen (Mike Degory, Lance Butler, Jonathan Marvin, Randy Hand, Tavares Wasshington.

So one could draw the conclusion that Urban Meyer is blaming the three losses (at Bama, at LSU, and at USC) on a group of angry offensive linemen who miss their weight lifting buddy Ron Zook.

Nothing like a text message from James Bates to go play bocci to lift your spirits, eh.

Thoughts heading out west

2009-08-06T09:57:00.004-04:00

From the man that brought you this article last week, comes the proclamation that the Rays are playoff contenders because of Wednesday's game. Not that I disagree with him on that point, but I think this is pretty good evidence that Gary Shelton is a bit of a loose cannon in his Rays coverage.

Game comments

During the first part of the game, bullpen coach Bobby Ramos was being interviewed by Todd Kalas. I commented to Gayle that the guy sitting in the party area directly behind Ramos looked like Roberto Hernandez (he was even wearing the old Ray on top of the rainbow oval hat). Three innings later, the crew pointed it out and confirmed it was indeed Roberto Hernandez. This disconcerting part is that he was in close proximity to the point where he could be coaching up the bullpen, which isn't what you want from that guy.

Dewayne Staats has taken his game up a level this year. His tone continues to be that of a fan. He spent a lot of the broadcast coaxing Kevin Kennedy into admitting that the Rays are more badass than he envisioned when he took Joe Magrane's seat in the booth. Staats also took the liberty of talking crap about the national media and their comments on the Rays. I'm paraphrasing but he said something along the lines of "All these guys saying the Rays are out of it...well I never see them at Tropicana Field, or on the road covering the away games. They don't know what they are talking about". Dewayne's stock is rising in my estimation.

The FSN crew showed a lot of footage of Pat Burrell's sleeveless one on one batting practice session with Joe Maddon. It drew some sympathetic comments from my wife ("I feel sorry for him. He's trying"). I guess it worked, since he slugged a home run later in the game.

Win Tracker

The team fell short of the target by a game this homestand, but considering they took both games from the Red Sox, it's not all bad. It would be nice for the team to take at least 2 games from the Mariners over the weekend considering the Yanks and Sox play a four game set beginning tonight. There is ground to be made up in either the wild card or the division race. so opportunity knocks.

Price vs Penny tonight

2009-08-05T12:45:00.002-04:00

Price's stats at home vs road this year

Home (MIN, LAA, PHI, FLA, TOR, KC)
4-1 with a 2.67 ERA, 1.34 WHIP in 6 games

Road (CLE, NYY, COL, TEX, CHW, TOR)
0-3 with a 8.20 ERA, 2.01 WHIP in 6 games

So he looks good at home. But consider the opponents. Those road starts were against tough opponents (sans Cleveland, but that start was during the sweep).

Rays still in control

2009-08-05T10:12:00.003-04:00

There's an overall sense of desperation among the media covering the Rays, and among a lot of the vocal fans (radio callers, message board posters, etc). The team seems to be keeping it together. Every interview I see they all say "we are right where we want to be" (which seems like a lie because you'd think they would want to be in first place right now). But it's kind of true actually. We sit 5.5 back of the Yankees for first, and 4 back of the Red Sox for the Wild Card. We still have 7 games left against the Sox (4 home 3 away) and 6 against the Yankees (3/3 home/road). That is enough to truly say we can make our own bed still. A win tonight and we're three out of the wild card with over 50 games left.

Normally you want to win your division, but it would appear that a wild card winner coming from the AL East will draw the AL West winner (most likely the Angels), based on our performance against the Central Division front runners I think I would rather take my chances without home field advantage against the Angels than risk facing the White Sox again, who seem to own us this year.

Dewayne Staats sticks to his guns

2009-08-05T09:21:00.003-04:00

I'll defer to the Times for the details on last night's game.

Dewayne Staats stole the show for me last night. This year, Staats has shown a propensity for a calling a game with Rays colored glasses. He spent a good solid inning raking Laz Diaz across the coals last road trip. He was at it again last night with the umpiring crew after the dead ball ruling that left Zobrist at 3rd and Aybar at 2nd. I wish there was some video online because you would have thought you were watching the game with him in his living room. Subsequently in extras, the Rays had the bases loaded again with nobody out and he was still making comments like "Well, the Rays will have to win this game for a second time here". Todd Kalas was dispersed to track down a rule book and by the time the game ended shortly after midnight the air had been cleared, and it appeared the right call was made.

Not good enough for Dewayne though. In the post game show he still harped on it, claiming, "Well they called it by the book, but that's a bad rule. They should change it".

Dewayne Staats is about 30 years, and a drinking problem away from calling Rays games the same way Harry Caray called the Cubs games on WGN.

Tribune article on the Ring of Honor

2009-08-03T10:09:00.003-04:00

Martin Fennelly weighs in with his opinion on who should be in. Far too liberal in my opinion. His whole list loses credibility when he suggests that a sports writer should be on the list. His logic for Doug Williams isn't strong enough (he was our Quarterback when we made the playoffs). If anything that is an indictment on him, since the offense killed that team's chances of a Super Bowl.

Warrick Dunn is a nice player, but c'mon.

Brad Johnson is a joke.

Basically any player that had any sort of positive press, this guy is ready to erect a statue.

Rays roster beyond '09

2009-08-03T09:30:00.003-04:00

Buster Olney touched on the Rays in his post trade deadline wrap up. John Romano also discussed Carl Crawford's future during the All Star Break. This link provides a good summary of the current year's payroll obligation, and this one gives a little more detail by player.

If the Rays are serious about moving payroll in the offseason the only way to do it and make a dent would be to focus on guys making $2 million plus. In order of 2010 obligations that would be

1. CC - $10 million club option for 2010

2. Pena - $10.125

3. Burrell - $9 million

4. Kaz - $8 million

5. Aki - $4.25 million club option

6. Wheeler - $3.5 million

7. Navi - Currently earning $2.1 but is aribtration eligible for 2010

8. Bartlett - Arbitration eligible currently making $1.9

Other arbitration players are

Joe Nelson

Grant Balfour

Gabe Gross

Lance Cormier

BJ Upton

JP Howell

Matt Garza

Shawn Riggans

Free Agents for Next year (with current year's salary in brackets)

Percy ($4.4 M)

Bradford ($3.6 M)

Obviously Percy is not welcome back. I like Bradford, but for the number of times he has gone to the DL, I don't think he is someone worth offering a contract to. There is $8 million right off the bat. Of all the arbitration guys Bartlett, Upton, Howell, and Garza will see pay increases. Particularly the last three guys, all of whom are below $500K. Navi is grossly overpaid, and I can't see the Rays getting killed on his case.

Feel free to draw your own conclusions but the Rays don't appear to be in a position to keep all the current players and still satisfy the impending raises that appear to be headed to the arbitration guys. It seems that one or two of CC, Pena, Burrell, and Kaz would need to be moved. If it were up to me I'd like to see Burrell ($9 M) moved and perhaps decline on Aki and cut bait with Navi instead of moving another one of the top four.

I feel like CC is too valuable to move, but he would fetch more on the open market than any of the others.

Thoughts?

Credit to Threet..

2009-08-01T09:26:00.004-04:00

Found this after reading his comments on the Bucs post from yesterday

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LLpUbBCwLA&NR=1

Some others...

John Lynch

Reidel Anthony

Mark Cotney

Lastly, not a commercial, but better. The intro to the Bucs Eagles playoff from '79. The intro to CBS NFL Football is awesome. Way better than the shit they put out today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3irRA_mt_w&feature=related

"You are looking LIVE...at Tampa Florida"

Rays - month by month

2009-07-31T10:21:00.002-04:00

Check out the Rays record by month dating back to last year

2008

mo / w / l / %

APR- 14-12 .538

MAY-19-10 .655

JUN- 16-10 .615

JUL- 13-12 .520

AUG- 21-7 .750

SEP - 13-14 .481

2009

mo / w / l / %

APR- 9-14 .391

MAY- 16-14 .533

JUN - 19-7 .731

JUL- 11-12 .478

Our July through Septemeber of 2008 is almost identical to May through July of 2009. Our slow start in April is really killing us right now. The first three months last year we logged 14, 19, and 16 wins. I don't doubt that we could get 16 or so wins in August and September, but that won't be enough to overcome our brutal April from this year. It's really sad when you consider that of those 14 losses 11 of them were to teams that have records worse than ours, and it also included a 7 game homestand in which we lost 5 games (most of those games involved some sort of pre game patting of the back for last years accomplishments).

Bucs Ring of Honor

2009-07-31T09:19:00.004-04:00

The Times had a piece today about the Bucs Ring of Honor that is coming this season. The pose the question: Who should be in first? Good question, but I think there are better issues to consider. Like, "How exclusive should this thing be?", "Is it based on stats alone or intangibles?", "How many can go in at one time?", and "How long after retirement should you have to wait to be included?".

At the very least they need to avoid turning this into a Boston Celtics or New York Yankees situation where you have an overload of shitbags on the list which defeats the purpose of starting the thing to begin with. The Gators made the mistake of coming up with hard and fast rules when they started their Ring of Honor in 2006. By doing so the initial inductees were Emmitt Smith, Steve Spurrier, Danny Wuerffel, and Jack Youngblood, leaving Wilber Marshall out of the fold the the dismay of a lot of people. Not surprisingly the rules were changed and Marshall was inducted the following season. The downside of not setting hard and fast rules are obvious. The Miami Dolphins have one of these things too. I'm not as well versed in their history, so to comment on the validity of their selections (19 in total), but the number is probably about right considering they've been to the Super Bowl 5 times in 43 years.

As for the Bucs, the names that will be kicked around are John McKay, Jimmie Giles, Richard Wood, Lee Roy Selmon, Doug Williams, Ricky Bell, James Wilder, Hardy Nickerson, Paul Gruber, Tony Dungy, John Gruden, John Lynch, Warren Sapp, Derrick Brooks, Mike Alstott, , Shelton Quarles. This based on my own memory and glancing at the all time stats leaders in passing, rushing, receiving, interceptions, sacks, and tackles. That list is entirely too long.

Current players should not be included (that would remove Brooks from consideration since he hasn't officially retired just yet). Simply winning a Super Bowl should not result in automatic inclusion. I don't think Barry Switzer is making any Cowboy Hall of Fame, nor is Larry Coker being honored by the Canes. This would eliminate John Gruden. Ricky Bell didn't do enough on the field before he died. Shelton Quarles I threw on the list based on his total tackles, but he doesn't pass the smell test.

If I were in charge my list would be Selmon, Wilder, Nickerson, Gruber, and Dungy.

Selmon is in the Hall so that is an easy one. Look at James Wilder's all purpose yards. He accomplished this on the worst teams in Bucs history. If you took 1985 James Wilder and put him on the 1979 team or any of the late 90s teams, he would have gotten a lot more attention. Hardy Nickerson is important because he was statistically great but also what he represented when he showed up. He signed as a free agent in 1993, and really without him on the field, it would have been more difficult for the Sapp/Brooks/Lynch nucleus to turn into the leadership unit that guided our defense for so many years. Nickerson was the only guy on the field for a while there that wasn't OK with losing, and plus he was an absolute beast. Paul Gruber kind of goes without saying as does Dungy.

So what about Doug Williams, John Lynch, Warren Sapp, and Mike Alstott? I think a waiting period should be in order for Lynch, Sapp, and Alstott. As for Doug Williams, maybe Trey can speak more to this, but on paper he doesn't appear to have been good enough. He quarterbacked very average offensive teams. The defense carried those late 70s early 80s Bucs teams. I think Doug Williams got a lot of run in Tampa for a long time because the franchise was lacking star quality in it's roots until the 90's and 00's teams came along. If the Bucs had logged 20 years of great teams prior to Doug Williams playing for the Bucs, I doubt he would have gotten the recognition he received.

Thoughts from you guys?

UPDATE: Throwbacks were unveiled today. And merchendise is available

Tampa Sports Authority and Baseball

2009-07-28T13:15:00.006-04:00

With a stadium debate going on in the subconscious of the community, the Yankees in town, and their fans at the Trop, now seems like a good time to remind all the people who support a Rays move to Hillsborough County exactly where their allegiances lay.

Scan the Times archived articles below and you’ll see that in 1993 and 1994 the Tampa Sports Authority and Hillsborough County were willing partners with the Yankees to get together for some good old fashioned publically financed stadium building. I don’t question that any of the three people that read this don’t already know this, but it is worth revisiting. The situation isn’t transparent to the casual observer. I wouldn’t fault someone for assuming that a small stadium, with a field bearing George Steinbrenner’s name, would have been 100% financed by the richest team in baseball. But of course, it is not.

I guess I feel this all matter because the County decided to get in bed with another franchise, while our own community was in the midst of trying to land a team of its own. To me, the decision was made in 1994 that Tampa was not in the business of housing a Tampa Bay baseball team. End of discussion.

How would it look if the City of St Petersburg redeveloped Al Land Stadium into a practice facility for the Carolina Panthers, erected road signs directing traffic to “Panthers Stadium” so fans could go watch practice? That’s basically what Hillsborough’s partnership with the Yankees is akin to.

St Petersburg Times Articles on Legends Field

HCC, the TSA and the Yankees - August 1993

Yankees talk with TSA - Septemeber 1993

Yankees price tag increases - September 1993

Intial proposal - October 1993

Delays - December 1993

Parties agree to site - January 1994

More expensive plan passes - April 1994

Prison site affected - April 1994

Final deal - April 1994

Gary Shelton knee-jerks over last night's debacle.

2009-07-28T09:53:00.004-04:00

Nice reaction Gary.

It's no secret that everyone feels this homestand is huge. Which, in hindsight is reason enough to feel that it won't go well. But Shelton proclaiming last night's game as "The most important of the season" is silly. Making statements like these should generally be reserved for when the season ends and you reflect back. Take last year. Most people point to that Red Sox game in Boston that Dan Johnson won with his pinch hit home run as the biggest game of the year. However, at that moment in time, while it was certainly a big game, it didn't feel like the biggest game of the year yet (Note: A lot of people feel the Zobrist homer against the Jays to end the 7 game slide heading into the All Star break was the biggest game last year).

Was last night a let down? Yes. But, that article was not the proper reaction.

Additionally, Shelton doesn't appear to have a firm grasp on reality. That reality being, we are the Tampa Bay Rays, and despite our current $60 payroll, all roster moves have to be made in the context that we are Tampa Bay. Trading for a average fielding, good hitting $7 million a year catcher doesn't make sense for this organization. It's tough to argue on behalf of trading FOR a starting pitcher (Halladay) when just last offseason the decision was made to move Edwin Jackson because there was a logjam in the rotation. In most cases the Rays do fit the description of a team that is buying at the trade deadline. In the Rays case though, I don't think they should ever consider themselves buyers unless they are serious contenders to win a World Series. Our shortcomings against the AL Central and AL West tell me that the Rays will have a difficult time in the ALDS against the likes of the Angels, Rangers, Tigers, White Sox, or Twins. There argument exists that adding one pitcher is just enough in a 5 game series, but not with this team.

July has been a rough month for the Rays. We have exactly 1 win that was a no doubter: the July 10th win over the A's. Final score 6-0. Niemann's complete game shutout. The Rays are 10-11 in July, but 9 of those ten wins could have easily gone the other way. Maybe a trade is what they need, but not at the expense of future seasons. Sternberg has been pretty public about the bloated payroll, and warning the fans not to expect $60 million to be the new norm.

I expect the Rays to either stand pat, or possibly move a higher salary guy to a willing suitor.

A shift in Spurrier's demeanor

2009-07-27T15:14:00.002-04:00

I think we can all agree that the whole search to find out who didn't vote Tebow as the preseason 1st team all SEC was completely insane. Maybe it's just me but I don't have a memory for things like "Who's first team All-whatever", preseason rankings, and things of that nature. I first took note of it when I read the Sun-Sentinel afterthought that three players were unanimous selections, and Tebow wasn't on the list. I was actually amused. Knowing that coaches can't vote for their own players I thought maybe some renegade coach threw their guy on the list, or maybe Les Miles because Snead led the Rebels to a W against LSU last year, or maybe Lane Kiffin for obvious reasons. I thought the story was dead until SEC Media Days when the press decided to make public a stupid private ballot. Before Steve fessed up I thought maybe he had been the one and he decided to vote for Snead just to needle the UF contingent. Seems like a subtle, unimportant opportunity to be a wise ass. Who knows. But I wasn't prepared for his reaction (see Pat Dooley's article).

I don't recall ever seeing Steve backtrack like this. There are different levels of "coming out with it" and I couldn't foresee this as a possibility". More likely responses would have included (read the following in a Spurrier voice):

"Well, Tim Tebow is a fine football player, but he does lots of good things besides throw the football, and figured well....Jevon Snead can certainly throw it pretty good, so I'll put him as my first team quarterback"
"I just figured Tim Tebow would get all the votes, and I thought Snead deserved some attention"
"My assistant fills those things out and I guess he thinks Snead deserved to be a first teamer".

I wouldn't have bet any amount of money that the response would be a shame filled speech that included phrases such as

"I didn't sleep worth a damn last night"
"I'm embarrassed"
"I apologize"
"I went to Commissioner Slive and changed my vote, so no he's unanimous"

Seriously, this isn't the 2001 and prior Steve Spurrier. What gives? He's never caved to this type of scrutiny before, so why do it now for something so stupid?

I think the best possible explanation is that he's concerned about how people perceive him in Florida. When Steve left for the Redskins he was the face of Florida football, for all of time. Before last season, I don't think anyone would have said any differently. But Urban and Timmy have certainly moved up on that list pretty fast and maybe Steve felt that by not genuflecting at the alter of Tim Tebow it would paint him in a somewhat jealous light (which isn't good). Who knows?

I think Steve has always been proud of his accomplishments, and has enjoyed being the figurehead of the program so to speak. He probably has some regrets about leaving, and is disappointed in how things went when Bernie Machen asked him for a resume when Jeremy Foley was interviewing candidates to replace Zooker. He obviously is glad for the success of the program, but in the last few years it has come at the expense of his own success, so there has to be some conflicting emotions there. He put himself in that position though.

It's just strange to see him behaving like this.

Beards

2009-07-27T13:38:00.003-04:00

I checked out a few innings of the Phillies/Cardinals game on FOX last Saturday. Charlie Manuel made a call to the bullpen and what emerged appeared to be a burly Central American fellow, was actually Chan Ho Park. Am I wrong, or does this guy's beard completely transform his look?

Road to 95 Wins - July 27

2009-07-27T10:14:00.004-04:00

Is it just me, or did that road trip seem to last forever? It was certainly defined by comeback wins. The Rays trailed in the final three innings in five of their six wins. The other game was the Garza vs. Halladay donnybrook that went into extras. Six wins on a ten game road trip is great, and we were a strike away from another win in Chicago. But when you are facing these types of opponents you'd like to see the Rays put the game away a little quicker.

It goes without saying that this home stand is huge. Five games against New York and Boston (with four against the Royals in between. We're undefeated against the Royals this year, so it would be nice to continue that). Pitching matchups for the Yankees series:

James Shields vs. AJ Burnett

Scott Kazmir vs. CC Sabathia

Matt Garza vs. Joba Chamberlain (National TV game on ESPN).

It seems like the Rays mindset is that they're chasing the division leader at all time, not the wild card. Probably smart by them. It wasn't long ago that the Sox had the edge, and that could always change again. The Yankees are on pace for 100 wins, and they don't have the look and feel of a team that is going to win 100 games. Yes, they lead MLB in runs scored, but that figure is bloated by the new Yankee Stadium. The run differential is more indicative and that number is about the same for the Yankees, Red Sox, and Rays (+77, +78, +73 respectively).

An interesting sub plot to this weeks games will be the non-waiver trade deadline that is upon us. It would seem that the Yankees Rays are going to stand pat with what they have, and the Red Sox seem to have already made the moves they had intended to make. But who knows. If some NL team comes calling looking for an arm and makes Friedman an offer he can't refuse for Kazmir....you never know.

If the Playoffs started today...

2009-07-25T08:37:00.002-04:00

Our LDS matchups would be as follows:

Yankees vs. Tigers
Red Sox vs. Angels

Dodgers vs. Cardinals
Rockies/Giants vs. Phillies

In the NL I'm read to annoint the Phillies East Division Champs. The Marlins are in second, and that team doesn't resemble a playoff team in the slightest. If someone wants to crown a division champ this early, the Dodgers are as close as you could come to being a sure thing. The Wild Card race and the Central race are both closely contested (credit to St. Louis for pulling the trigger on the Matt Holliday trade).

As far as I'm concerned the whole AL is up for grabs. The only certainty is that either the Yankees, Red Sox, or Rays will win the AL East. The Wild Card is very much up for grabs, the Central is a three team race (Tigers, Twins, White Sox), and the A's are the only team in the west that I'm willing to count out.

2009 Florida Gators

2009-07-24T15:26:00.003-04:00

The amount of praise being heaped on the Gators this summer is something that I don't recall seeing.

In the Atlanta-Journal Constitution Tony Barnhart is saying that if the loftiest goals are attained this year that Tim Tebow should be considered the greatest college player ever.

Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel is calling Urban Meyer the second coming of Bear Bryant

In what is supposed to be considered an anonymous ballot, the southern media felt the need to smoke out the person who didn't vote Tim Tebow first team All SEC, and it was The Head Ball Coach.

The best team I've seen was the mid 90s Nebraska Cornhuskers. I don't ever recall these types of superlatives being laced into the discussions about the Huskers. Same thing too with the 2001 Miami Hurricanes. Can anyone come up with a suggestion?

FYI - I think it is premature to be comparing Urban Meyer to Bear Bryant. He's been at Florida for 4 football seasons only. If the Gators fail to win any sort of title this year, and Tebow fails to win any sort of individual award, despite what they say I think people will view him in a less glorified light than if they manage to meet all the lofty expectations.

Rays problems on display for 2 hours

2009-07-24T09:12:00.005-04:00

Yesterday I alluded to our poor record against the White Sox this season, yesterday makes it 2-6 to a mediocre team for the year. I don't think this warrants a tantrum like the guy at Raysindex threw this morning, but he does dance around a few good points. When this season ends, if the Rays find themselves 4 games short of the playoffs, the team's shortcomings will be glaring.

9-14 in the month of April

14-16 in one run games

3-4 against the Orioles

2-6 against the White Sox

3-5 against the Indians (including a 4 game sweep in Cleveland)

4-6 against Oakland

On the flip side the Rays were 13-5 in interleague play, and are 6-0 against the Royals. So it isn't that they aren't capable of beating weaker opponents. Perhaps the upcoming 9 game homestand against the Yankees, Royals, and Red Sox are what they need.

Make no mistake, the Rays aren't putting on a 2008 performance, but remember last year we actually won the division. A wild card will suffice. The Red Sox are currently crapping the bed. Outisde of Jason Bay, Kevin Youkilis, and Dustin Pedroia their lineup isn't that scary. Pitching-wise, Dice-K has been terrible, Brad Penny still hasn't regained his 2007 form, and Time Wakefield is what he always is. Lester and Becket are their two best starters by far and this season we've managed a combined 3-2 record against those guys. It was this time of year last year when the Yankees took a nose dive, and the Sox appear to be doing just that.

The frustrating thing wasn't the 27 outs from yesterday, it was the whole four game series. We lose game 1 by a run (a game that David Price gives up a 3 run homer to Konerko), we pull off a miracle in game two in the bottom of the 9th (first ninth inning comeback all year), Game 3 falls apart in the 7th with 2 outs and nobody on, and then to top it off perfect game #18 happens to us yesterday afternoon. All in all, the Rays should be happy to be getting out of Chicago. I think they need to take 2 of 3 from the Blue Jays this weekend. The Blue Jays are 6-14 in their last twenty games.

Jon texted me something along the lines of "nice catch" after the Kapler near-homer in the 9th. I had no idea what was happening, so of course I reply "Did we win". Good job by me being on top of things. Perfect games are fun, but not when it happens to your team. The nice thing about baseball is that when your team loses, 24 hours later it's old news, except when your team loses in a perfect game.

Stadium sites

2009-07-23T09:41:00.003-04:00

Google Maps image with data

This shows the results of the ABC Committee research.

I also found this interesting thread which includes some old Cincinnati Enquirer articles that discuss the options the Reds had available when they were looking to replace Riverfront Stadium. There are some excellent points made on the pros and cons of a neighborhood stadium vs. a waterfront stadium.

Some graphics depicting the Broadway Commons site.
The guy who did this Broadway Commons concept also developed something called Armour Field in Chicago. Jon you probably know something about this. It looks like the Polo Grounds in a way with short distances down the line and a huge center field which Yankee Stadium also had before the renovation in the mid 70s. Speaking of Yankee stadium, it amazing how close those two parks were to one another

Old picture of baseball played at the Orange Bowl

Rays / White Sox

2009-07-23T09:07:00.003-04:00

I think I may know what this guy was thinking.

James Shields was good for 6 2/3 inning last night. He consistently retired the first batter each inning. He was getting ahead of hitters. In typical James Shields fashion he did give up a home run, and a few other batters came close, but after recording the second out in the bottom of the 7th with nobody on things came unraveled. The next batter drew a walk on a perfect 3-2 pitch that home plate umpire Laz Diaz called a ball. I've never heard Dwayne Staats so upset in all my years watching Rays broadcasts. That would have been the end of the inning, but one thing lead to another and the Rays lose. Yes, BJ could have avoided any damage had he not misread the Alexei Ramirez line drive, but it really didn't have to come down to that. The karma train went in reverse last night after the good fortune from the night before.

We're now 2-4 against the White Sox this year, and 3-5 against the Indians. I don't understand how that is possible when you consider how we've done against the Red Sox and Yankees. This afternoon we get Kazmir vs. Buehrle in an afternoon game

Midweek blitz

2009-07-22T10:33:00.004-04:00

I'm out of the loop because of work, but if you are interested in the official findings from the ABC Committee they are here. In short, new stadiums cost the public lots of money, and no matter what people from San Francisco will tell you, the cost is never covered entirely by owners. Also, Tampa/Hillsborough County are on the hook for a lot of money tied to Raymond James Stadium and the St Pete Times Forum. It also appears that Orange County is way ahead of the rest of the state in terms of being able to generate revenue from which to pull taxes from to fund a facility.

A guy who blogs about the Oakland A's stadium quest posted about the Rays recently.

I got home from work at 10 pm on Monday. I watched half an inning and went to bed. I saw Balfour pitch himself out of a 1st and 3rd with nobody out jam. I know Jon and I have joked in the past that he's a poor man's Rob Dibble, but you can't deny that the guy guys amped when he pitches against the White Sox. Too bad we lost that game, because he came through in that spot.

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm pretty freaking excited about Jeff Niemann this year. The back end of the rotation really came down to deciding between 2 of 4 guys (Sonny, Jackson, Price, and Niemann). I still think the Rays did the right thing. Price had options, so he was sent down. Niemann was out of options, and as a former first round pick you have to give him a shot. We needed depth in the system in the way of right handed OFers, and Jackson seemed to be able to fetch more in a deal than Sonny. I have no problem with how things worked out. RaysIndex.com is even suggesting that Matt Joyce's presence makes it more likely that the Rays would move Crawford so that they could keep Pena, because affordable power at first base is non existent. That is a discussion for another time. Back to the original point; Niemann had another huge outing last night and it is awesome to see him continue to improve. Maddon commented that he has our three best starts all year.

Marlins break ground

2009-07-19T11:06:00.004-04:00

The Marlins had their groundbreaking ceremony, which included some more detailed graphics of the stadium. If you ask me the only thing this stadium has that Tropicana Field doesn't are glass walls beyond the outfield that allow for views to the outside and, a grass playing surface. Not to mention a moat that separates the first several rows of seats around the infield similar to what the new Yankee Stadium has. I wonder if the group that released the study to renovate the Trop, could perform a similar feasibility study to see what the cost of replacing the paneling between the support beams, seen here from the outside during construction and here on the inside, with glass. Inside shots from the modern day here, here, and here.

If the Marlins represent the modern day benchmark for baseball facilities in Florida, it seems much more cost effective to look into a glass wall option than pay for a roof that will be closed 90% of the time. The only other difference is the playing surface, and I think we can all agree that the modern day turf is a huge upgrade from what used to be installed in stadiums. Many NFL teams (Bengals, and Ravens come to mind) even use this despite playing outdoors.

Who thinks this is feasible?

Follow ups on comments from the stadium post

2009-07-18T10:03:00.009-04:00

Just a follow up on a few items I commented on in the Stadium thread:

This article ran in the Tampa Tribune this week. At the bottom they note that Tropicana Field has 60 suites, and the ABC Committee is recommending 60 at most. Remember i mentioned earlier that the Marlins just lowered their numbers in their new park from 60 down into the 40s because the demand wasn't there. If a team owner feels he needs a new stadium to gain access to facilities that allow them to sell premium seats, perhaps Tropicana Field already fills this need. Consider the revenue sources available t0 a baseball team :

Game ticket revenue
Local radio and television deal
Revenue sharing
Royalties from merchandising
Concessions
Advertising
Sponsorships/Promotions

(As it relates to the stadium issue, there is an expense side that would change if the Rays moved (lease expense), but any new facility would probably represent an increase in that expense.)

When you really look at these revenue streams the only one that a new stadium would significantly impact would be the first. Ticket revenue is their largest source of revenue (maybe second largest but we don't know what the Rays get in revenue sharing from the league) , but as the Tampa Tribune is noting, a new facility isn't giving the Rays a huge leap in premium seating to gouge their wealthier constituents, and the total capacity would be less than Tropicana Field. So what gives?

Exact Bob Howsam Quote from "Baseball in Cincinnati: From Wooden Fences to Astroturf"

Remember, his words not mine

Also, I fought hard to get permission for artificial turf covering the whole field of play - except of course for the sliding areas around the bases. At that time, although there were artificial turf stadiums, they all had dirt infields as with the natural grass fields. At first I was given permission to have such a field for only a year. Then I won approval to keep it and now several fields are made that way.

There are really only a few things you have to do well in order to have a successful franchise. Some of them have to do with the stadium itself: a design that will involve the fan in the game as fully as possible. Then there is the look of the place and its condition. It should be clean and attractive. If you expect people to spend three or four hours there, they should feel as comfortable as in their own homes. But since the stadium is also a setting, the field of play should be as attractive as a well set stage.

So the artificial turf comes in for a number of reasons. It always looks good. It doesn't need cutting and trimming and watering. It is a pleasing color allowing a contrast with the white of the ball, a contrast that allows the eye to follow the ball wherever it goes against the turf.

Most important, turf allows the game to be played the way it was meant to be played. Why should we...work so hard to get a perfect dirt and grass infield? We can come much closer with the artificial turf. Therefore chance has less to do with the outcome. Home teams can't tamper with the surface and give themselves an unfair advantage. The fast bounces on the carpet , coupled with good arms in the outfield, make for close plays on base runners: excitement. And of course this is what the fans love.

Back to the Rays..

All the little pieces of evidence when taken as a whole are ridiculous. We've got an ownership group saying that Tropicana Field isn't a good enough facility. Yet, when you look at the revenue streams the area that an owner would want in a new stadium to exploit their rich fans, the Rays already have that (luxury suites). Then you have this ABC Committee saying we need a closed roof to make things comfortable. It is silly to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on a retractable roof when ultimately the roof will always be closed when people are inside. We already have that. Then you read this quote from a dude in the 60s talking about how awesome artificial turf is....it is enough to make your head explode. Lastly, a new expensive stadium will equal higher rent expense for the Rays. None of this adds up

You can sort of understand the new stadium in cases like the Brewers replacing County Stadium. That facility didn't allow ownership to financially rape their fans. But I don't see how Tropicana Field handcuffs Sternberg from pillaging the passive fan who isn't just there to watch a game.

A new stadium will increase the value of Stu's investment in the Rays partnership exponentially. That is the reason the Rays want this to happen. All these other factors are a smokescreen.

Ethan Skolnick of the Sun-Sentinel wrote an article today about the Marlins new stadium. Most of it is Marlin specific, but the facts he gives about attendance in new stadiums applies to our situation too. Take those comments, and then figure that after year 2 or 3 when the new car smell wears off, the team will be right back to where we are now in terms of attendance. Weekend draws have been great this year too! Because the team is good. This stadium thing is ridiculous. If they move away from downtown, and the move isn't to the Carillon area, then the Rays have risked alienated half of their fan base for very little to gain

Links - Did you know Mickey Mantle liked beer?

2009-07-16T15:57:00.005-04:00

UM has Jacory Harris calling season ticket holders - It's probably not going to help recruiting when your starting QB has to work the phones to get people excited for the upcoming season.

The Gainesville Sun is running a "Top 25 Players in the SEC" feature.

Natural Light is running television ads now.

When I was searching for the Natty Light add I came across this ad from the past featuring Mickey Mantle.

Total estimated cost of the new Marlins stadium is now up to $2.4 billion over 40 years.

Rays stadium is a circus

2009-07-16T13:48:00.003-04:00

The ABC (A Baseball Community) Committee has come out that the Rays need a retractable roof because "we need to have a fully air-conditioned interior". Wow, sounds a lot like what we have right now. Earlier in the week this column ran an touched on a lot of the reasons why I've been saying a new stadium is a bad idea, namely 1) The renovation bill is almost as much as a total rebuild, 2) Selling the land now to a developer would be bad business (low market value) 3) The community is still paying off the Trop.

I have a book called "Baseball in Cincinnati: From wooden fences to astroturf". It is a collection of articles published over several decades. The book was released in 1988. The article that gets into the period of time when Riverfront Stadium was conceived was particularly fascinating. Bob Howsam was the Reds GM at the time. I can post the actual quotes later when I get home, but the quotes were in stark contrast to the feelings people have now about stadiums.

Howsam pushed hard for astroturf because he felt it was more pleasing to the eye, and he wanted to ensure that the facility was a nice place to look at. He also said that baseball would be played the way it was meant to be played if they installed astroturf. His words, not mine.

The elected officials in Cincinnati really wanted a multi purpose facility on the water front. Reds ownership did not want a new stadium, and preferred to stay in Crosley Field. Bill DeWitt owned the team at the time, and the Mayor of Cincinnati Eugene Ruehlmann pleaded with him to sell the team if he wouldn't cooperate with the city. Ruehlmann also wanted the Reds to sign a 40 year lease, something DeWitt did not want (this would have put the Reds in Riverfront stadium until the year 2010.

So in 1966 we have a case where an owner doesn't want a new stadium, and city officials are waiting in line to spend public dollars on a facility that would be torn down 33 years later because it was considered outdated. Thirty years ago teams were moving into larger facilities which provided more tickets to sell, which meant more revenue. Now teams are moving into smaller facilities, with the hope that this will increase demand...and price. Some teams put tarps on their extra seats to achieve this goal. This of course hurts people who want to spend $10-$15 on a ticket at most. If you use Bob Howsam's criteria for a stadium, Tropicana Field fits the bill. But as we know Sternberg says it isn't a sufficient facility. I could accept this argument if the Rays were playing at a stadium without club suites, or premium box seating (Wrigley Field), but Tropicana Field has both of these things. The entire second level is lined with suites, and the first rows just behind home plate are priced at a premium. Premium seating is the only variable in a new facility that would affect the bottom line. So my question is: How much more premium seating would a new facility have? The Marlins just decided to lower the number of premium seats from 60 down to 49. I don't know the exact numbers on Tropicana Field but they appear to have a decent inventory of suites at the stadium.

So if a new stadium will have a roof that is constantly closed, and the increase in luxury boxes doesn't result in a material increase in revenues, are we spending hundreds of millions of dollars on a new building so that we can watch baseball on grass?

All Star festivities prove to be eventful

2009-07-15T12:20:00.003-04:00

This year's All Star game was a fine example of how far the Rays have come since 2007. Once upon a time our lone All Star representative was Lance Carter, who wasn't an All-Star caliber player. He was a quota selection. I think Lance Carter's greatest accomplishment was that he and Danys Baez fetched Edwin Jackson and Chuck Tiffany in a January 2006 trade. Nowadays we're getting guys voted in by fans to start the game (Longoria), we've got our manager coaching the AL team, a guy participating in the Derby, and five representatives (Longo, CC, Pena, Zobrist, Bartlett) in all. To top it all off, CC wins the freaking game MVP award. Of course none of this means jack squat, but its at least another indicator that the Rays aren't the same (in a good way).

I know everybody feels home field in the World Series is a joke and I agree. It certainly didn't help us last year. I still can't believe we lost that series to the freaking Phillies. Look at those guys this year; they are courting Pedro Martinez to shore up their rotation. 2009 Pedro Martinez. And we couldn't beat those guys last year! Before that series started last year I was saying all the things a fan would say trying to avoid "jinxing" the Rays. But you know what, f-that, we should have won that series. In 2009 while the Rays are optioning guys like Sonny to AAA and sending David Price to start the season in Durham, the f-ing Phillies are digging up a corpse for a stretch run in a division that we absolutely destroyed in interleague play this year. The Marlins are still in it! The same Marlins that we beat 5 out of 6 times this year. If the Dodgers don't win the National League pennant this year there is no way you can convince me that the NL representative in the World Series should't get the 1999 Braves treatment from whoever wins the AL.

Home Run Derby inspires nothing

2009-07-14T09:26:00.006-04:00

Ever notice the inverse relationship between your age and the amount of pleasure derived from watching the Home Run Derby. I timed my viewing to see Carlos Pena and his upside down Rays logo (courtesy of uniwatchblog.com), take his hacks. Also thanks to ESPN for interviewing one of our franchise's biggest disappointments during Pena's turn at bat. My only other observation was that Joe Morgan seemed very defensive anytime he reminisced about his playing days. I'm guessing this had something to do with it.

Urb denied the Notre Dame rumors again yesterday. He was responding to this article written by Paul Finebaum. If you aren't familiar with Finebaum's "brand", he's an Alabama homer (despite being a Tennessee grad), and he likes to piss on the rest of the conference. Take this piece, which ran today as a good example of the angle he works. Ole Miss poses the biggest threat to Bama this season, so it stands to reason that Finebaum would take shots at them in the preseason. Basically, he is "biased southern football guy". His bitter bear routine on Urban giving a scouting report to his old buddy from Utah is hysterical.

Lastly, Brian Griese was released. This was inevitable. I kind of thought Byron Leftwich would get the axe at some point, but it is hard to envision a QB depth chart of Freeman, McCown, and Josh Johnson. Freeman and McCown are shoe-ins for roster spots. So it really comes down to whether or not the Bucs want to give up on a guy with one year of service in lieu of Leftwich or not. I would rather roll the dice on Johnson, and possibly end up with a quality young player. The Bucs have nothing to lose this year. I suppose they could put Johnson on the practice squad, but there is probably some process he would have to go through that would make him available to other teams first.

Road to 95 Wins

2009-07-13T15:24:00.006-04:00

Last year I scanned through the list of teams that made the playoffs in the wild card era of MLB, and it stood to reason that a good goal for any team looking to make the playoffs is 95 wins. Outside a few exceptions 95 wins will generally get you in. Last year the Rays got to 97 and it was good enough to win the division. Boston got the wild card with 95 wins, but 90 would have been enough thanks to the Yankees slow finish to the season.

The All Star break seems as good of a time as any to break out this year's version of the road to 95 wins. Sadly the Rays are on pace for 87 wins. Good enough to be competing for a spot in September, but things will have to change in order for the Rays to make the mark. I'm well aware that we are a mere 3.5 games behind New York which that in and of itself is reason enough to go with the flow and chase the leader (who is within reach). But I like looking at the rest of the season in this fashion too. It's a good coping mechanism for when we go on road trips and lay an egg.

With 72 games left (36 home, and 36 road), the Rays must win 47 games.

My rationale was to start with the thought that they need to at least go .500 on the road, and win every home series. That wasn't enough, so I went back and chose certain home and road series where I thought an additional win wasn't out of the realm of possibilities. Obviously baseball lends itself to streaks, both positive and negative so this is really just a road map. Last year when I did this it was much less daunting. We had a .585 winning percentage on this date last year compared to .539 this year.

With tons of series against the Yankees still left on the schedule those obviously remain most important, but lets not forget about Texas. They are very much in the race this year. The Angels aren't a shoe-in to win the West, and the runner up in the West could take the wild card this year. That fact alone make the Rays sweep at the hands of the Rangers in July that much more painful, because that may be the deciding factor of our playoff fate.

After the Zorilla walk-off this past week Joe Maddon was saying in the post game show that the team hadn't had a really long homestand all year and the second half of the season was much friendlier in that regard. I didn't check his facts on that, but I do see a couple 9 game homestands and a 7 gamer to round out the season. But I also see a couple 10 game road trips and one more trip to the west coast.

Rays fans should be rejoicing. We're in the playoff hunt at the midway point of the season for a second year in a row. Of course expectations are much greater this year, but after 10 straight years of having your season end in May, it is still pretty exciting to be talking this way in July.

Too soon?

2009-07-12T09:25:00.005-04:00

Last night's game wasn't on TV, so all I have is observations of a box score and uniform commentary. You can read a box score, so here's my best Paul Lukas impression.

Last year's St. Pete Pelicans was the best throwback promotion the Rays have done. The St. Pete Saints is OK too I guess, but it doesn't really excite me the way the Pelicans did. I think we could all get on board with a St Pete Cardinals if not for the one big problem. It would basically be our team wearing another MLB team's uniform with one of these on the hat.

Good idea by the Rays, but it is at least ten years too soon. I like how they went with the Rays against the gradient oval on the hat as opposed to the TB hat. I think the Turn Back the Clock promos that teams do are cool for the most part. But in order to make the promotion fun, you have to wait long enough to turn back the clock. There are several rules of thumb you could apply, but in our case we have a player on our current roster who was on the team when these throwbacks were our standard uniform. Also, we still play in the same stadium, and not enough has happened to separate the vibe of that team and the current team. It just doesn't "feel" that long ago.

The Buccaneers are going to wear throwback uniforms during a game this year when they unveil the Ring of Honor at RJS. Good timing on the Bucs part. The time lapse isn't much different than that of the Rays and the unis they wore last night, but it feels longer for the Bucs. All those old Bucs are gone, the team is playing in a new stadium, they won a freaking Super Bowl, and an entire decade has passed since they were considered a last place stalwart. I'm curious to see what they go with. There were several variations to their Orange & White uniform.

In their first year they actually had orange numbers on the white jerseys.
This was changed fairly quickly to red numbers, which is how we all remember them.
In the early 90's the Bucs introduced orange pants, and a Bucco Bruce logo that was larger than the original. Check our Errict Rhett, and compare back the to James Wilder picture from #2.
Of course they could always go with the Orange Jersey. The orange appeared brighter in later years, but I don't think this was a change made by the Bucs, rather it was a byproduct of a change in by the manufacturer that made the orange appear brighter than before.

If I was in charge of putting this thing together for the Bucs I would opt for the small Bruce logo and orange jersey noted in the Lee Roy Selmon picture above. We shall see. Great timing by the Bucs. They passed up some opportunities in the past (Thanksgiving Day games) when they could have worn these, and the end result was more anticipation for their throwbacks than the Rays had last night. I think the Rays should take a few years off from the throwback promos and use that money to pass out some more bobbleheads at the door.

I'm willing to bet a million dollars they showed the footage of the cotton eye joe guy on the big screen last night. After all the uniforms were the same as the day that footage was shot.

Whew, so if we're winning we won't cut payroll.

2009-07-11T09:15:00.002-04:00

Does this even have to be clarified? You would think conference calls to discuss the payroll would announce things like "Hey, if we're in it this year, we will be buyers at the trading deadline". Not, "If we're contending for the playoffs, we won't cut payroll". Although there is a precedent for giving up while contending for a playoff spot late in the season.

Navi plans pie attacks in lieu of batting practice

2009-07-11T08:23:00.004-04:00

Niemann's second complete game win wasn't as impressive as the first one, but it was still very good. His breaking ball was working well for him, and aside from the 9th inning he stayed out of trouble for the most part.

So we're looking at a second half with Niemann and Price being the 2009 version of Sonny and Edwin last year. Block out Edwin Jackson's performance for the Tigers this year, and you would think the 2009 back part of the rotation would give you more than the 2008 version.

I know Price has had his struggles this year, but it is ridiculous to expect a guy who is basically a rookie starting pitcher to come in and dominate. I heard Duemig talking about how important these innings are to Price's future when I was in St Pete a couple weeks ago. The payoff long term will be huge, and if the rest of the rotation gets it's act together this doesn't have to come at the expense of the team. Check out the number from Sandy Koufax early in his career. When he was 23, as Price is this year, the Dodgers kept running him out there to start games, and the payoff was very big, albeit short lived (I don't wish retirement at the age of 30 on David Price by any means). During Bill Simmons podcast with Jack-O he meandered down the path of saying David Price is better off in the closers role. It's just way too early in his career to be making statements like that. The guy had one career start before this season. I think the Rays are doing the right thing. I know he has had his struggles this year, but outing like he had against Toronto are a clear indicator that he's on the right track. The Rays are really fast tracking him compared to Jeff Niemann. They each got their first call up to the bigs last year, but Niemann is three years older than Price. Both guys are first round picks out of college, both were aces on their respective staffs in college, and both guys had significant mileage on their arms when drafted which seems to be pretty common amongst starting pitchers from the college ranks. I think the Rays definitely did the right thing with Niemann, especially considering what Chicago did with Mark Prior (drafting him in 2001, and starting him 19 times the following season). I just hope that they've given Price the rest he needed after his run at Vandy

One more thing on the game last night; Longoria's timely home run. In the bottom of the 6th, the Rays have CC at 1st and BJ at 3rd with two outs and Longo at the plate. Crawford gets tied up between 1st and 2nd on a pick-off move to first, BJ breaks for home plate and gets thrown out on his attempt to score ending the inning. I immediately text Jon expressing my understanding of the attempt to score because Longoria has been an automatic out since he pulled his hamstring. Normally you wouldn't want guys on the basepaths ending an inning like that with an All Star at the plate. Of course, when Longoria resumes is AB at the bottom of the 7th he promptly hits a solo home run to left field, once again making me look like an idiot. Even in hindsight though I'll take mistakes on the basepaths like that once in a while, because more often than not the results are going in our favor this year. Upton especially has been manufacturing runs on his own lately. Just this week against the Blue Jays he reached base, was aggressive on the base paths and ended up scoring by stealing home. Plus, it is chaotic for opposing pitchers when either or both of those guys are on base. One thing I will say about Crawford, is it seems like he has been getting hung up between bases a lot since his streak of consecutive steals to start the season was snapped. I have no problem with this because he's freaking Carl Crawford, but it's worth pointing out (a very small price to pay I might add).

This has changed my viewing pleasure

2009-07-10T12:49:00.003-04:00

I saw this article linked to another site recently. It discusses the offset camera angle that most teams use in their broadcast. Now I'm obsessed with it

http://www.slate.com/id/2221384/

Baseball Tonight last night had the Red Sox highlights via NESN, and it is superior, except for the fact that the pitchers head often blocks the plate.

It should be noted that the Rays have both camera angles but opt for the off set camera for the live broadcast, saving the dead center camera for replays of close calls. One of my favorite cameras is the one at home directly over home plate, something you don't see in any other park

Anyway I thought it was interesting, especially the effect the offset angle has on making off speed pitches look nastier than they really are. I'm sitting in training now, but I've got more thoughts on Price's outing from yesterday and the Rays placement in the standings. I'll try to post it today, and if not tomorrow morning.

Rays sweep Jays in front of the campers

2009-07-09T15:38:00.001-04:00

Through a combination of finishing some projects early, and having others moved back, coupled with the man keeping a close watch over our charge-ability, I found myself taking PTO today with a rare opportunity to take in a weekday afternoon Rays game. It was a dandy of a match up: Halladay vs. Price.

Today Tropicana Field played host to tens of thousands of youth campers from across the bay area. In the past this game amused me because, in stark contrast to most weekday afternoon games, they were heavily attended by kids who were really into the game and who wanted the Rays to win. Rays management generally invited the campers for sub-par games. Times have changed; the campers weren't the only ones interested today.

David Price had some good stuff today. He used his slider and fastball effectively to put batters away (he struck out Lyle Overbay three times), and logged 6 quality innings en route to the Rays win. You gotta feel good about starts like these from Price. You have to say it was his best outing this year. Only 1 walk, with 6 hits scattered in 6 innings, and he got out of trouble in the 6th by putting away Overbay to end the threat. Second win in the last two weeks over Halladay for the Rays too. Now if we could only meet expectations against the Derek Hollands and Tommy Hunters of the league.

Rays wrap up the first half with a three game set against Oakland. Try to bridle your enthusiasm, because it will crush your soul when Vin Mazzaro, Gio Gonzalez, and Brett Anderson do things to the league's second most potent offense that they have no business doing

As I type we sit 4 games behind the Yankees for the Wild Card spot. July is really too early to be making statements like that. Look at the number of disappointments this team has endured and it has to make you feel good about a second half surge. Imagine how many games this team wins in April during Longoria's hot streak, if BJ Upton was getting on base then at the rate he has been lately. The bullpen is starting to come around, and the starting pitching is too talented to be this inconsistent all year.

Brace yourself for another playoff hunt.

Sid Fields Records comes to life

2009-07-09T12:34:00.000-04:00

Guys,

It dawned on me last night while watching the late innings of the Rays/Blue Jays game that I spend an inordinate amount of time composing e-mails and text messages. Therefore I'm going to try this on for size. Even if it turns out to be a poor alternative to e-mail communication, at the very least I can use it as a means to archive quality e-mails. When I left my first job, I left behind a significant archive of e-mail genius which is basically lost forever. At the very least this can act to prevent that, since as we all know it is likely that any current or future work email archives will be lost for similar reasons as the first, and I'll have something to show for time wasted.