MLB joins the foolish game of "diss the team."

After I returned home from Tropicana Field last night, I was ready to wallow in the pain brought by the end of Tampa Bay’s postseason run for the evening. This morning, I planned to write a heartfelt “thank you” to my team for a season that included four more games than I expected.

Instead, I have to take care of this first. I logged in to my Facebook account and saw the photo to the right in my newfangled newsfeed. Thanks for the punch to the gut, MLB. Maybe it’s good that I haven’t eaten breakfast yet.

Call me crazy, call me sensitive, call me whatever name you typically throw at Rays fans but I don’t think that the day after the biggest loss of the season is the time to be making fun of a team and their fan base. I still haven’t talked trash to the Red Sox fans I know. Apparently, MLB’s social media team doesn’t agree with me.

I’m not going to get into an argument over what kind of fandom is “better” but I can tell you this, I’m more tolerable to be around at a sports bar when your game is on than people who fall into that other category.

The more sports fans I meet, the more I feel like I’m in a very small minority of people who would rather expend their energy cheering for their team instead of piling on another team. Seriously, I can’t be one of the only people who feels this way, right?

I’m not a bitter fan. Yes, I’m sad that my team’s offseason has started, but I am proud of them and the improbable season they put together. The magic in their Cinderella story simply ran out more quickly than us Rays fans would have liked.

One of the 300 something comments, and counting, on the photo was this one, “First you say the Rays don’t have any true fans. And then Rays fans stick up for their team…and now people are laughing at them for being irritated by the clear lack of respect that both they and the team get? Come on.”

Tampa Bay has a lot going for them as an organization, and last week I told you why you should be their fan. It’s a good thing I warned you that others would denigrate you and your team. I’m all about the full disclosure. As a Rays fan, you’ll probably learn how to channel your inner Rodney Dangerfield and you just might catch yourself saying, “I get no respect.”

We get it, MLB, you didn’t want the Rays to move on in the postseason, but next time could you at least make sure Tampa Bay is written as two words? » Continue reading “MLB Plays A Foolish Game On Facebook”

Here we go. The Tampa Bay Rays will host the Texas Rangers in Game 4 of the ALDS. The Rays are down 2-1 in the series.

Win today and they head back to Arlington for Game 5.

Lose today and I have to start coming up with off-season content. I’d rather do that in November and let me be clear: I am not a lazy person and I can get pretty damn creative. I’d just like to write about Tampa Bay’s games as long as possible.

The 2 o’clock start stinks, but I’ll be at Tropicana Field. I even did laundry before I ran out of clean underwear just so I could wear the same Rays shirt I sported all day Friday when Tampa Bay beat Texas 9-0. Maybe I’m a little superstitious, maybe I was just happy that my friend said I looked skinny when I went out to World of Beer on Friday night. Whatever it is, I hope that shirt helps bring a good day to me and my team.

The Rays will hand the ball to Jeremy Hellickson in what will be the biggest start of the young Iowan’s career. Hellickson went 13-10 with a 2.95 ERA in the 2011 regular season. The 24-year-old righthander rarely shows emotion during a game, but his family enjoyed seeing him celebrate when the Rays won the American League Wild Card last week.

All of us Rays fans would like to see the AL Rookie of the Year candidate get a chance to let loose again after Game 5 on Thursday night. Hellboy just has to get the Rays to Arlington.

That one hurt.

As far as the feeling in my stomach goes, Saturday’s 8-6 loss in Arlington just doesn’t even come close to Monday’s 4-3 loss in St. Petersburg.

Game 3 started off well enough. When we were through three innings, it looked like David Price and Colby Lewis were ready for a pitcher’s duel. Tampa Bay’s Price had allowed three hits, but still had a shutout going.  Lewis took control for Texas defensively and did not give up a single hit in the first third of the game.

In the bottom of the fourth, rookie Desmond Jennings went yard with the Rays’ first hit of the day.

Neither team could send a man home in the fifth or sixth inning. Then came the seventh.

Texas leadoff man Adrian Beltre singled and then reached second on a wild pitch by Price. Mike Napoli, the man who heard his name chanted in Texas on Saturday, was up next. If the series was still in Arlington, he would’ve heard chants again after he homered to left.

Price seemed to settle down a bit and was able to get Nelson Cruz and Mitch Moreland to ground out. Then Craig Gentry singled and Brandon Gomes was called upon to relieve Price.

Gentry stole second, then Gomes walked Ian Kinsler. Then we witnessed a double steal by Gentry and Kinsler. Gomes walked Elvis Andrus and the Rays looked to reliever J.P. Howell.

At that time, I had to look away. I have not felt comfortable watching Howell on the hill all year long. This time, Howell faced Josh Hamilton. No big deal, right? Hamilton, as he tends to do, got a hit. His single allowed Gentry and Kinsler to score and the Rays saw themselves on the bad end of a 4-1 ballgame.

» Continue reading “Postseason Pain: Rays Unravel In The Top Of The Seventh”

I. Am. FUMING.

Around 8pm ET on Sunday night, MLB released the schedule for the remainder of the ALDS and NLDS games. And guess what? Rays and Rangers fans got royally screwed.

This one's for you, MLB scheduling "gurus."

Here’s the way the Divisional Series’ schedules shake out:

ALDS-Detroit Tigers and New York Yankees

ALDS-Tampa Bay Rays and Texas Rangers

NLDS-St. Louis Cardinals and Philadelphia Phillies

NLDS-Arizona Diamondbacks and Milwaukee Brewers

Umm…what? Let’s review: Out of a possible five game series, the latest start time for the Rays and Rangers would be Saturday night’s 7pm ET Game 2. The series could feature up to three 5 pm ET starts with the fan favorite 2pm ET start thrown in for good measure. The Rays and Rangers will have the most early starts out of any Divisional Series during the 2011 MLB Postseason.

The Tigers and Yankees could have up to five 8:30 starts if they need all five games. I am sorry that Mother Nature took away their off day and required them to return to the ballpark on Sunday afternoon, but that doesn’t make this schedule right.

I needed to vent out loud so I called home. Both of my parents saw things my way. We discussed how the early start times for the Rays and Rangers make it difficult for a small market team like Tampa Bay to build a fan base. I know that a lot of folks outside the Tampa Bay area, including Aerys Sports’ own LOHO crew, have chosen the Rays as their postseason team and now they may not get much of a chance to watch them during the ALDS.

Dad, quoting Cool Hand Luke, described Major League Baseball’s relationship with its fans by saying, “What we’ve got here is a failure a to communicate.”

Mom’s response, “They’re communicating. They don’t give a crap about you.”

» Continue reading “A Postseason Scheduling Cluster…”

Well, it’s back to Tampa Bay with the ALDS knotted at one game apiece. I can live with that. Sure, the Rays wanted to head home with two wins under their belts, but that’s often not the way baseball works. If you had told the Rays they would split in Texas before they left the Sunshine State, they would have taken it.

Yes, they would have wanted to come home in need of only one victory to take the series, but in baseball, a split on the road is generally considered OK. It’s just that when you win the series opener, you tend to get greedy. And that’s as it should be.

However, as a friend of mine, Art Pollock, used to say, baseball is “a 60% game.” Basically, if you win 60% of the time, you make the post-season. And in a five-game series, you need to win 60% to stay alive. The Rays can get that done.

James Shields suffered through a bad fourth inning, and was lifted after giving up back-to-back singles to Mike Napoli and Nelson Cruz to start the seventh. After pitching effectively for the first three innings, it looked pretty good for the Rays. In the top of the fourth, Matt Joyce absolutely torched a high fastball from Texas started Derek Holland, and Shields had a 3-0 lead. Then, it fell apart. Shields took full responsibility for the inning:

“I hit Andrus and things really started rolling there for me. I made some bad pitches and they capitalized.”

Even great pitchers have rough outings once in a while. He’ll be back and pitch well. That’s my prediction.

» Continue reading “The 60% Rule And “Keep on drivin’ ‘em””

By Ricardo André Frantz (User:Tetraktys) (taken by Ricardo André Frantz) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) via Wikimedia Commons

When I first heard that Matt Moore was starting the ALDS, I simply put my faith in the Rays’ organization. They do their homework, and when it comes time for the test, they seem to pass with flying colors more often than not.

Granted, I predicted they would win 83 games this year, and ultimately not make the playoffs. That doesn’t mean I didn’t have faith. It meant that I saw how much they had lost in the off-season.

I also said that if Joe Maddon and Jim Hickey could work their magic, especially with the bullpen, the Rays could go beyond that number of 83.

Well, add Andrew Friedman to the Maddon/Hickey equation and that’s how Moore got the start in Texas. And the kid more than held up is end of the deal.

When watching Moore, the first thing you notice is his composure. Then, you see a smooth, repeatable delivery. Along with that delivery comes a fastball of 95-97 MPH, a breaking ball that snaps toward the back foot of a right-handed hitter, leaving him defenseless, and then, the change-up of death.

It’s hard to call a fastball that is mid- to upper 90s sneaky, but with his quiet, fluid delivery, Moore’s fastball appears even more sudden. Out of 98 pitches, 76 he threw were fastballs. The key was how he mixed his change and breaking ball in. The change forced hitters to have to cover both sides of the plate at what I call “stretch” velocity – plus fastball, plus change = tough for the hitter to sit on anything.

Then, the breaking ball added tilt and stayed in the bottom of the zone, as opposed to the fastball, which was generally up – good up, in the PITCHER’S zone, not the hitter’s zone. That adds the North/South factor for hitters. In the end, the hitter ends up playing a shell game that he just can’t win. Moore has the stuff. He has the makeup. And against the Yankees and Rangers, he has shown he can truly execute with pressure on. Winner, winner, great steak dinner!

» Continue reading “From The Kid To Complete Game James, Rays Look To Take Two In Texas”