Series Preview: 7/7-7/9 Toronto Blue Jays @ Tampa Bay Rays

by R.J. Anderson on Jul 7, 2009 10:45 AM EDT

7/7 Marc Rzepczynski vs. James Shields (7:08 SS)

7/8 Brian Tallet vs. Scott Kazmir (7:08 FSF)

7/9 Roy Halladay vs. David Price (12:08 FSF)

We just played these guys, but I suppose Rzepczynski is worth covering. He's a young lefty with fantastic minor league numbers. He gets a ton of whiffs and groundballs despite throwing in the low-90s. This could be a rather unfun match-up. Tallet is Tallet and Halladay is Halladay. I would suggest taking Thursday off work and attending that fantastic looking duel.

Playoff Odds

CoolStandings 39%

BP w/o PECOTA 51%

BP w/ PECOTA 20%

All over the place, a series victory would be nice.

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I can't wait until we trade Kaz for a reliever

And then Price faces Kaz, 250 pitches combined through 3 innings, 8 hr games, oh man it should be fun.

SOSH AUCTION to K ALS

by Sandy Kazmir on Jul 7, 2009 11:01 AM EDT up reply actions

I'm sold on 'new new new' Kaz by the way.

I think the last two starts we’ve seen out of him are going to be about the worst we can expect from him for the rest of the year.

I can't wait until we trade him for a reliever.

by kericr on Jul 7, 2009 11:03 AM EDT up reply actions

I hope so

I’m still not getting my hopes up, but there really has been nothing to complain about. That slider to Fatloch could have been up or out a little more, but it was a horrible pitch. He seems humble out there and has been using all his pitches to great effect.

SOSH AUCTION to K ALS

by Sandy Kazmir on Jul 7, 2009 11:20 AM EDT up reply actions

See, that's why I'm encouraged.

Kazmir hasn’t thrown a really good slider in a year and a half, last year he didn’t even touch the pitch and all of them this year came from whatever inconsistent whacked-out delivery he was using. Even though he hung that pitch to Blaylock, and most of his sliders were of the ‘straight to the lower corner’ variety, he had two that looked like his real ’it’s a fastball until it dives down and in to righties’ variety. Granted, they were both pitches to the hack-a-licious twins on the Rangers, but those pitches would have struck just about anybody out. I think his slider is going to get better as he starts to use it more and starts finding it again; when that happens, look out.

I can't wait until we trade him for a reliever.

by kericr on Jul 7, 2009 12:02 PM EDT up reply actions