-Oh…the days of experiencing the Shoppacopter and the brief, but thrilling, Shoppachalypse that we witnessed during the 2011 ALDS are over. Catcher Kelly Shoppach has agreed to a one-year, $1.35 million contract with the Boston Red Sox, his original team.

Shoppach tweeted yesterday, “I’ve been saving tweet #1000 for this…I’m excited to be going back to Boston. Thanks #Rays twitfam. I hope we can still be friends.”

On the bright side, now at least there’s one Red Sox player who will give an interview I want to hear. Fare thee well, but not too well, especially when you plays the Rays, since you’ll be on the wrong team now, Kelly.

I’m sure Boston has plenty of Starbucks for ya.

-DRaysBay included a link to a piece about dirty baseball songs in The Rays Tank this morning. The article by Ben Lindbergh for Baseball Prospectus is called “Overthinking It” and it’s awesome. There’s apparently a slightly inappropriate baseball song for every adult occasion. Cleat chasers with standards might especially like, “If You Can’t Make A Hit In A Ball Game, You Can’t Make A Hit With Me.” » Continue reading “Tampa Bay Rays: Farewell, Shoppachalypse, Dirty Baseball Songs, David Price’s Tweets, And A Joe Maddon Interview”

[Editor's note: After this piece was written, MLBTradeRumors.com posted that it looks like Wade Davis could be traded for a catcher or outfielder. The Rays will listen to offers for James Shields, but Davis is te pitcher who is most likely to be traded.]

The Tampa Bay Rays picked up the option on pitchers Kyle Farnsworth and James Shields while cutting ties with catcher Kelly Shoppach and optioning Dan Johnson to AAA, an assignment Johnson passed on to take a shot at free agency along with Shoppach.

Farnsworth, 35, finished this past season with 25 saves, and a 2.18 ERA in 63 appearances. The big righthander will make $3.3 million in 2012.

Shields was 16-12, with 11 complete games and four shutouts. His contract for next season calls for a salary of $7 million. According to Bill Chastain of MLB.com, Andrew Friedman said “James and Kyle played very large roles in our postseason run and are ready to help lead us back there in 2012.”

Other Rays eligible for free agency include Joel Peralta, Johnny Damon, Casey Kotchman, and Juan Cruz. All had important roles in the club’s successes this past season.

Will Damon test the free agent waters and then return to the Rays? Damon brings some important ingredients to a ball club aside from talent. He hustles, has a smile on his face, and leads with his overall attitude. His interviews aren’t scripted, they are from the heart. And his heart kept the Rays season beating while Evan Longoria was out with injuries.

Kotchman is truly the hometown kid. With his slick glove and .306 average, he proved he was worth more than his salary. Will he decide to come back? Will there be a hometown discount?

To see Shoppach in an interview is worth the time taken. What a great team-centered guy with a sense of self-deprecating humor. Rumor has it that he would like to stay with the Rays. If he does come back, it will be for the right reasons. He knows how to play a role, and the Rays know how to assign them.

Juan Cruz gave Tampa Bay many important innings before handing the ball to Joel Peralta, who generally took over in the eighth inning. Middle relief and set-up men are incredibly important to any club. The Rays will make the right offer, and call on both.

There is the ongoing question regarding what the Rays will do with what seems to be more than enough starting pitching. Alex Cobb, Wade Davis, Jeremy Hellickson, Jeff Niemann, David Price, James Shields, and a kid named Matt Moore could all vie for the five spots in the starting rotation. Let’s see, that’s seven pitchers goes into five spots…who’s left out?
» Continue reading “How Warm Will The Hot Stove Be For Tampa Bay?”

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”

Some people (not me) questioned Joe Maddon’s decision to start southpaw Matt Moore in Game 1 of Tampa Bay’s American League Divisional Series against the Texas Rangers. I freakin’ love Matt Moore so you know I was on board with the skipper’s decision.

And no, I didn’t just want him in the game because he seems like a sweetheart. The kid made his first start in Yankee Stadium and showed incredible poise as he took the W last week. Some of our other starters, like Jeff Niemann, have looked a little off lately. So, in my opinion, you gotta go with the guy who’s “on” even if that guy happens to be a 22-year-old who was called up to the show about three weeks ago.

In just his second major league start, and his first postseason outing, Moore with this line: 7 innings pitched, 2 hits, 0 runs, 0 earned runs, 2 walks, 6 strikeouts.

Have any other questions about Maddon’s lineup choices? Digest the fact that the Rays, who have had an anemic offense at times this year, were able to put up nine runs. Eight of those runs, six earned, were scored against C.J. Wilson who went 16-7 with a 2.94 ERA during the regular season.

In the bottom of the ninth, the TBS crew noted that “Matt Moore can barely contain his joy on the bench.”

Good. He has an infectious smile and that’s a great attitude to be sharing with the other guys in the dugout.

At the other end of the baseball player age spectrum, Johnny Damon showed us that he’s still got it. He homered in the second to give the Rays a two run lead. In the top of the fifth, he hustled to first on an error to keep the inning going. Kelly Shoppach was up next. With two outs, he went yard to extend Tampa Bay’s lead to eight.

That fifth inning shot was Shoppach’s second bomb of the day, and his third hit. Our Dana Wagner was the first person on my Twitter timeline to use the term “Shoppachalypse” to describe what we were witnessing.

In baseball, the catcher and the pitcher are supposed to set the defensive tone for the game.  On Thursday, Shoppach and Moore did that but Shop went a step further and kept the offense rolling too.  The Starbucks enthusiast provided the boost Tampa Bay needed to get the 9-0 win over Texas  in Game 1.

» Continue reading “Moore Than Enough: Rays Rock Rangers With Rookie And The Shoppachalypse”

Righthander Jeremy Hellickson got the nod on Sunday to start at the Rays looked to take their weekend series against the Orioles.

Hellickson did not disappoint.   He improved his record to 12-10 on the year with a complete game, allowing just four hits and one run with no walks and five strikeouts.  Hellickson needed just 97 pitches to get W.  Wow.  As the “Post Game Shot of Joe” on Rays Index suggests, Hellickson deserved a standing ovation for his outing.

You can watch highlights from Hellickson’s day here.

Tampa Bay’s bats were lively on Sunday afternoon which always calms this fan’s nerves.  The Rays put up eight runs on eight hits in the victory.  Sean Rodriguez was the only Rays player with more than one hit.  SRod went 2-for-4 with a homerun.

Matt Joyce also went yard and is adjusting well to his relatively new spot in the middle of the lineup.  Check out Joyce’s sixth inning shot here.

After securing the victory, it looks like the Rays enjoyed the rest of their Sunday.  Some members of the team took part in the Rays League Fantasy Football draft.  Kelly Shoppach is hoping to defend his title from 2010.  But the catcher might be getting ahead of himself, just ask David Price.

Shoppach shared his roster on Twitter:

Shoppach might want to keep an eye on Evan Longoria this football season because the third baseman believes he has what it takes to win.

Baseball, football and friends?  Not a bad way to spend a Sunday.

The Rays showed their support for another Bay area team last week by wearing Lightning shirts on Thursday night as they made their trip to Toronto.  Tonight, the Lightning face the Penguins at 8 p.m. ET in Pittsburgh for Game 7 of the first round of the playoffs.  The Rays are in Minnesota and begin a three game series against the Twins at 8:10 p.m. ET (yesterday’s game was postponed due to rain).  Wade Davis (2-2, 2.72 ERA) will start for Tampa Bay while lefty Francisco Liriano (1-3, 7.40 ERA) will be on the mound for Minnesota.

A picture is supposed to tell 1000 words and blah blah blah, but I’m going to keep my observations on this one short and sweet:

1. I want to hang out with David Price.

2. All of the guys wearing their caps backwards need to remember that they’re baseball players and turn those things around.  I’m talking to you, Joel Peralta, Evan Longoria, B.J. Upton, Sean Rodriguez and James Shields.  I heard my dad talk to his players on a regular basis about wearing their cap properly but I can tell the Rays one thing my dad would never say to them: You’re more attractive when you wear the cap the right way.  (Jeremy Hellickson isn’t wearing his cap backwards…but he’s not wearing it right either.)

3. Sometimes it’s hard for me to remember that Johnny Damon is from Orlando because, and I mean this in the best way possible, he could almost fit in with the cast of Jersey Shore.

4 And finally, Kelly Shoppach: You are not Tony Romo and you should not want to be like Tony Romo.