X-Rays Spex – Page 619 – A Below fWAR Rays Fan Site

Wait, ESPN Isn’t Very Objective?

John+Kruk+Travelocity — ESPN baseball analyst, John Kruk, as a very bloated garden gnome. Technically, this has nothing to do with this article...or does it?

Last night the Rays won their fifth series of the season with a 5-2 win over the Rangers. Yet you certainly didn’t hear Orel or Tito mention it on last night’s nationally televised broadcast, on ESPN. Why? Because the narrative was almost entirely about the Rangers and how much they’re yadayadayada. And if anything was mentioned about the Rays, it was more often negative.

…The Rangers are going for their seventh straight series victory, Josh Hamilton’s back, Derek Holland’s mustache, that Derek Holland is quite a cut-up, blah-blah, blah.

To be fair, Francona and Co. did have a few things to say about the Rays. But their nice little anecdotes about how Maddon is unconventional, or how the Rays would utilize the shift against Ian Kinsler (cough, the Rays never did utilize the shift against Kinsler) was peppered with some fairly scathing criticisms of BJ Upton’s base running and fielding, among other things.

Now I’ll admit, ESPN’s website is a great source for stats and photos, and I plunder it with little abandon. However, your (being ESPN, that is) responsibility is to

A) Call a good game
B) Be objective when you do so.

Great, we need a new stadium…no kidding. This just in: we, the fans, don’t benefit any from your advocacy on that issue. Hey ESPN, you suck! Ugh!!!

Even Justin Upton was critical of ESPN. Below is a series of tweets about ESPN’s non-objective calling of last nights nationally televised game. Enjoy.

1) Amazing that my brother has made two good baseball plays tonight and the #ESPN so called analysts have bashed him for both of them.

2) For the kids out there, when your coach gives you the safety squeeze you don’t have to bunt the ball if its not a strike.

3) And when you’re on second base with no outs your job is to tag on a fly ball and make sure you can advance to third base #ESPN.

4) Tito was a great manager and Orel was a great pitcher, I just don’t understand why they can’t call the game the way it is.

Rays vs. Rangers, 4/29/12 (updated with the starting lineup)

Update:

Tampa Bay Rays 4/29/12 Starting Lineup

Jennings LF
Pena 1B
Longoria 3B
Zobrist RF
Keppinger 2B
Upton CF
Scott DH
Rodriguez SS
Gimenez C
Price LHP

I’d really like to forget last night’s abomination; the 7-2 loss at the hands of the Rangers. I will give a lukewarm hats-off to Jeff Niemann for doing a decent job in his start. Going 5-2/3 IP, Niemann gave up three runs (two earned) on five hits and two walks, while striking out four. Niemann is now 1-3 on the season.

Save for the shaky 20-plus pitch first and fourth innings, Niemann wasn’t horrible. In the end Niemann threw 101 pitches, with 63 of them for strikes. I imagine that if he had a more efficient first or fourth, he’d have gone deeper into the game. This isn’t anything new though, and I think most teams are aware that it takes the tall right-hander an inning to get going fully.

Nevertheless, Niemann kept the Rays in the game. It wasn’t until the four run seventh that a Rays victory became out of reach. In the end, it was a tale of an offense that couldn’t get going after a big first game (sound familiar?) and a pen that let the game get away.

Tampa Bay attempts to salvage things in tonight’s rubber match. David Price (3-1, 2.62 ERA) will go up against the man with the white-trash ‘stache, Derek Holland (2-1, 4.78 ERA). Price

Price is coming off of a big five hit, complete game, shutout against the Angels on the 24th. What he did against Pujols and Co. will come in handy tonight against the Rangers. That is to say, location-location-location…of his pitches. He made the Angels look the Marlins, and he has the stuff to make the Rangers look the same. The caveat: Price is 0-6 with a 5.63 ERA in nine career starts against the Rangers. The Rangers have had his number.

What the Rays have seen out of Holland in the past, courtesy of Baseball IQ.

On the flip side, Holland is looking to bounce back after a miserable 6.0 IP/7 ER/9 H/4 BB start against the Yankees on the 23rd of April. Holland is 4-1 (regular season + post-season) in six career starts against the Rays. Don’t let the 4-1 record deceive you, Holland has been touched up by Tampa Bay.

The Rays have a .298 opponents batting average against ye old “Dutch Oven“. Holland also has a 5.79 ERA against the Rays. Those aren’t stellar numbers. In his short career, Holland has given up six home runs (total) to Ben Zobrist (1), BJ Upton (1), Evan Longoria (2), Matt Joyce (1), and Chris Gimenez (1). Zobrist, not to mention that Upton, Molina, Longoria, Keppinger, Joyce, and Gimenez all have, between, a .294 and .500 BA against Holland.

With all of this in mind, the Rays strategy will have to be two fold: A) Price will need to go into today’s game with the same plan of attack that he went into his last start, and B) The Offense will need to be firing on all cylinders at the plate, similar to two nights ago.

We’ll update this with the starting lineup when it’s released.

Pictures Are Worth A Thousand Words, AKA Rays vs. Rangers 4/28/12 (Starting lineup included)

Update: In a tweet by Marc Topkin, the absence of CF BJ Upton was cleared up. “#Rays Maddon said CF B.J. Upton planned day off and wanted to get Allen a start to be ready for PH duty.” Ah, Gotcha.

Tampa Bay attempts to tack on another game onto their six game winning streak against the 15-5 Rangers, as well as clinch another series. Texas is a very potent team, and we all witnessed how easy it is for the Rangers to turn what, by all intents and purposes, was a blowout into a win last night. When all was said and done, the Rangers made an 8-4 game look like a 2-1 game. Thankfully both James Shields and the pen were able to hold it together, allowing the Rays to put another tally in the win column.

RHP Colby Lewis (2-0, 2.03 ERA) will attempt to do what Matt Harrison couldn’t do last night: depress the Rays offense. Facing Colby Lewis will be no walk in the park. Those on the roster, that have some experience against Lewis, are hitting a robust .119 against the tough right-hander. Against the Rays, Lewis has given up only eight hits, including one home run, and eight walks while striking out 22. Lewis primarily leans on his fastball, slider, and curveball against the Rays. Tampa Bay went after Harrison’s first pitches last night, many of which were fastballs. They will need to attack Lewis in the same manner. They’ll also need to be patient in the batters box, forcing Lewis throw some pitches over the heart of the plate.

Opposing Lewis is Jeff Niemann (1-2, 4.11 ERA) who is a work in progress. Every start seems to be better than the last which is good, because Jeff Niemann, along with the fielders (cough…Longo error last night), will need to be nearly flawless against a very dangerous Rangers offense. After all, we saw how Shields got knocked around last night, giving up four runs on 11 hits. Niemann is 29-15 with a 3.73 ERA in night games, as well as 17-8 when playing on grass. Hey, I’m trying to grab at any positives here! Interestingly enough, ninth inning walk-off home run hitting hero, Brandon Allen, is getting the start in left-field tonight, with Jennings moving to center. One wonders why a very hot BJ Upton isn’t in the lineup tonight? The starting lineup is below. As always, Let’s Go Rays!

Tampa Bay Rays (13-7) 4/28/12 starting lineup:

Pictures Are Worth A Thousand Words, AKA Rays vs. Rangers 4/27/12 (Starting lineup included)

Tampa Bay enters Arlington for a short road trip tonight. Rays ace, James Shields (3-0, 2.76 ERA) will take the bump against the tough lefty, Matt Harrison (3-0, 1.66 ERA). Tampa bay went 4-5 against Texas in 2011 regular season play, and 1-3 in the post-season. Texas is red hot, and are quite good at the plate with a team .296 BA. Then again, the Rays are coming off of a three game sweep of the Angels, and are on a five-game winning streak. They’re pretty red hot themselves.

Below is a table of the usual suspects; that is the pitches Harrison likes to throw, and how many (by percent) of those pitches he throws for balls and strikes. I’ve also included a table of how the Rays batters, historically, have fared against the tough lefty. I crossed off the players that are no longer in the Rays organization, or are currently in triple-A. Why Damon, Baldelli, and Aybar are still listed in the first place is beyond me! Nevertheless, when you adjust the team batting average, taking the four players in question (including Rhymes) out of the equation, the Rays have a .294 BA against Harrison, with one homer, five walks, and 13 strikeouts. That said, the Rays are lukewarm at the plate against Harrison. Tampa Bay is coming off of a huge win, and one wonders how much their momentum from that may come into play tonight.

photo(2) — Harrison's pitches (by type) against the Rays, courtesy of Baseball IQ

Rays 4/27/12 Starting Lineup:

Jennings LF
Pena 1B
Longoria 3B
Zobrist RF
Keppinger DH
Upton CF
Rodriguez SS
Gimenez C
Johnson 2B
Shields RHP

Another Game, Another Sweep (Updated with Brandon Allen video)

fileXMMwEx — The swing of a frustrated super star, the sting of a 1 for 22 showing in the Rays vs. Angels series, AKA: the Rays pitchers made LOLZ.

Q: An estimated 431 foot blast to RF? A: What is, not a bad way to start your career with a new team, Brandon Allen! The sweep is pretty swell too! Welcome to the Rays, Brandon.

The Rays improve their record to 12-7, and will waltz into Arlington on a five game win streak. Tampa Bay is now 8-1 at home in 2012. I’ll put, somewhat of, a synopsis up in a bit. In the meantime, soak it in Rays fans!

[brightcove vid=1594567758001&exp3=2441023001&surl=http://c.brightcove.com/services&pubid=1486870331&pk=AQ~~,AAAAAFif1zs~,HOg5vNGW0TIBo6eV2AIpHfaqwfy2rSg0&w=486&h=412]

Brandon Allen post game interview, courtesy of the Tampa Bay Times.

PS, Albert Pujols went 1-22 in this series, with a single and a walk. Technically, he was on base only one time though since he was thrown out by BJ Upton, in an errant attempt to stretch a single into a double. $240 MM for Reid Brignac like numbers…seems reasonable.

PPS,

.000 BABIP, eh? That was a real relevant stat today, wasn't it?