I’ll be honest, I went to bed with the Rays trailing 3-0. Not because they were losing, but because I needed the sleep. The Rays have been scoring runs lately, so I figured they surely had a chance to come back on the Angels. This morning, I woke up, and took a look at my ambient Baseball Scorecast*, which posts scores almost immediately. I’ll often look at it before ESPN or MLB, because I don’t have to wait for the scroll to run the scores. Plus, it gives you the divisional standings, six days of schedules, and the projected starting pitchers, usually for the next several games.

*A special thanks to my daughters, Sarah and Hannah for the Scorecast, a gift for my birthday in 2010. Some of my favorite technology. The first number I saw was the “eight” for the Angels. I had to squint my eyes to see “10” for the Rays. Then I turned on the kitchen lights to be sure I had seen correctly. Then I looked at the line score and noticed they had come from EIGHT down to win. Great start to Sunday morning. » Continue reading “Rays Explode In Huge Comeback, Take Angels 10-8″

The things that happened while I had no wifi were mostly happy.

Things that happened on a day I had no access to wifi:

-The Rays added Burke Badenhop to the bullpen. My, oh my, I love alliteration. This is going to be a fun season. Badenhop comes from the Marlins. In exchange, Miami picked up Rays’ minor league catcher Jake Jefferies. Matt Snyder of CBS Sports called the move “vintage Andrew Friedman.” I like the sound of that.

Snyder also states:

Badenhop, 28, had a 4.10 ERA and 1.40 WHIP in 63 2/3 innings last season for the Marlins. Sabermetric stats showed he pitched much better than those numbers and suffered from bad fortune. His FIP was 2.95 and BABIP allowed was a high .327. So if things regress to the norm, Badenhop’s numbers will come down.

Fingers crossed.

-In addition to Badenhop, the Rays tendered B.J. Upton, David Price, Jeff Niemann, Joel Peralta and dun…dun…dun….J.P. Howell. I’m going to have to keep my faith in Friedman who had this to say to the St. Pete Times regarding Howell:

“We’re big believers in who J.P. is and what he’s done to put himself in position to have a good 2012 season. J.P. is one of those guys you bet on.”

See you soon?

-As you’re reading that list of tendered players, you might notice that the name Andy Sonnanstine is missing. Sonny was non-tendered. Steve Slowinski of DRaysBay has put together a lovely ode to Andy, one of the last true Devil Rays.

-Rays Digest is still rolling out their list of the top prospects for Tampa Bay in 2012. Yesterday’s profile featured Lenny Linksy.

Linsky, a righty reliever out of the University of Hawaii, comes in at number 18 on Rays Digest’s list of the team’s top 50 prospects for next year.

Fun fact: I got to meet Linksy in St. Pete on the day he signed. Yes, he had seen the piece I wrote following the draft in which he was a co-recipient of the “Most Likely to Make Me Feel Like a Cougar” award. Our meeting was much less awkward than one might have guessed based on that tidbit of information. He was a nice guy who was genuinely excited to start his journey to the bigs.

Normally, I am not much of one for predictions. I chuckled at all the interest Y2K brought about, and I am not concerned that the world is coming to an end any time soon.

So why, on April 1st did I post Fearful Prognostication? Was it because it was All Fools’ Day? No, it was just for fun. Just something to look back on over the season to see where things were falling for the Rays.

Simply a few harmless guesses to check on after the season is over – and hopefully, the W-L prediction will fall short of reality. So, here’s a look back at what I had to say on St. Hugh’s Day – by the way, my first name is Hugh – maybe that’s why I go by my middle name.

Wins – David Price – 16

ERA – Price – 2.90

Ks – Price – 235

BA – Manny Ramirez – .305

RBI – Evan Longoria – 96

HR – Longoria – 31

Pitching X-factor – the return of JP Howell

Offensive X-factor – BJ Upton

Bounce-back – Ben Zobrist

W-L – 83-79

MVP – Joe Maddon

So, to update where I would stand on those predictions at this time:
» Continue reading “One-Third Down, And Where Are The Rays?”

This past Sunday, James Shields was the story against the Florida Marlins. He struck out thirteen, a personal best that tied the Rays’ team record, and allowed only one walk. That walk came with two outs in the ninth inning.

I liked two things about that walk, and subsequently, the end of the game: first, Shields was disgusted with himself after getting ahead of Logan Morrison 0-2, and secondly, he took a deep breath, regrouped, and then he shut the door with a strikeout of Gaby Sanchez.

He showed everything a starting pitcher needs to show in the ninth inning – stuff, emotion, presence, and the desire, followed by the ability, to finish things off. Shields isn’t getting results with smoke and mirrors – he’s doing with ability, command, variety of pitches, and guts.
» Continue reading “Big Game James Went Big Time”