Rays Win 4-1 Over Blue Jays, 16-15 Over Pirates
This is starting to get ridiculous. The Rays have now won nine games in a row to make their Spring Training record 9-1, tops in the American League. They're 4.0 games up on the Yankees and 2.5 games up on the Red Sox. If only today was the middle of April instead of March...
The injury bug struck the Rays again today, with Dioner Navarro having to leave the game against the Pirates in the 3rd inning after being struck in the left thumb by a pick-off thrown gone bad. So far it's just been labeled as a "contusion", but x-rays were inconclusive. He'll rest for a couple days and then be re-examined. That's five Rays that are dealing with injuries now: Aybar and his wrist, Jennings and his wrist, Price and his right palm, Joyce and his elbow (which has now been classified as a "sprain", according to The Tampa Tribune), and Navarro and his thumb. Thankfully none of these injuries is severe, although it appears that Jennings will be resting the remainder of the spring and starting the season in Triple-A.
As for actual performances today, Andy Sonnanstine and Jacob McGee stole the day. Sonnanstine pitched four scoreless innings against the Blue Jays, allowing only one hit, one walk, and striking out three. He also posted a 5:4 ground ball to fly ball ratio. McGee pitched two scoreless innings in relief, allowing one hit and striking out two. Wade Davis started in the game against the Pirates and got hammered, letting up five earned runs in two innings. He walked three, struck out two, and allowed three hits (including one home run).
Offensively, Crawford, Burrell, Jaso, Ruggiano, and Chavez all homered. Burrell was 2-2 on the day with a walk, while Brignac was 2-3 with 3 RBI, making his spring total 13 RBIs.
Also, according to Marc Topkin, the Rays cut Tim Beckham, Jacob McGee, Nevin Ashley today, re-assigning Ashley and Beckham to minor league camp and optioning McGee to the minors.
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No Joyce?
PTB FOR EVERYDAY RF!
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by FreeZorilla on Mar 11, 2010 5:08 PM EST reply actions 1 recs
"@TBO_Rays: An MRI on OF Matt Joyce's right elbow showed a strain."
Don’t know the extent or how long / if he’ll be out.
It’d be worth having PTB out there for the comedy value, at least…
I love Casey Fossum. Now try and take me seriously.
by Steve Slowinski on Mar 11, 2010 5:12 PM EST up reply actions
With Joyce out for any significant amount of time
It would all but assure that Kapler is on the team
If Joyce ends up missing a significant portion of ST
I wouldn’t be shocked to see Zo in RF and a Brignac/Rodriguez platoon at 2B.
I'm thinking Brignac starts off in Durham barring anything happening to king jason
Otherwise I think most likely would be Rodriguez being the everyday 2B. I just don’t see us starting Brignac’s Arbitration clock for a platoon job
by benderbrodriguez on Mar 11, 2010 5:34 PM EST up reply actions
The Rays need to sign Cevallos
Ruggiano for his career has a BB rate of 5.2% and K rate of 35.6%.
This Spring he is 9-17 with 2 HR and a 2B with 2 BB and 3 K
If he was able to patch up the hole in his swing or find some plate discipline, he could become a player.
Its a tiny sample size, but it beats a 1:7 BB/K
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Ruggiano, Zobrist, and (recently) Nevin Ashley all have
by benderbrodriguez on Mar 11, 2010 6:11 PM EST up reply actions
Out of interest, did Ashley see Cevallos before the AZ Fall league?
If that was the source of Ashley’s sudden upgrade in offensive production then Cevallos needs to work independently with the Rays’ players only. Agreed, sign him up considering what he’s done for Zobrist and perhaps Ruggiano.
I thought that Ashley just followed Desme like a puppy dog all Fall and copied his obviously successful routine.
Has he started a game yet?
I’m asking because my impression is he is achieving those numbers against minor league quality pitching, which he has already proved he can succeed against. Its the major leaguers he seems to struggle against.
I'll throw 5 bucks into the pot to sign him
I love Casey Fossum. Now try and take me seriously.
by Steve Slowinski on Mar 11, 2010 7:24 PM EST up reply actions
I'm always fearful when i hear "it's nothing"
We’ve seen many of those “nothings” last 4-6 weeks
Or all season, in the case of PTB last year.
"Sure, because of the "cold weather" and rain." More bait and switch tactics by the New York owners of this team." --NikoHoullis, the lead blogger at Buc'em on racial and anti-semitic insensitivity.
Guess the Rays saw all they needed from McGee. Time to build arm strength and become the next Billy Wagner (w/o injury)
www.draysbay.com, www.bloombergsports.mlblogs.com, Twitter @trancel
by Tommy Rancel on Mar 11, 2010 6:55 PM EST via mobile reply actions
Or the next (left-handed) Josh Johnson. That'd be nice too.
by benderbrodriguez on Mar 11, 2010 6:56 PM EST up reply actions
I really don't understand this move
I think he could have been a back end reliever right now
Looking at Balfour’s career, what is there to suggest that ’08 was not an anamoly?
he needs to go to the minors to build up the endurance to become a starting pitcher again. if he proves that he cant be a successful starter Im sure theyll call him up as a reliever quickly
Regressing to the mean streets of St. Pete
by stpetelawyer on Mar 11, 2010 7:32 PM EST via mobile up reply actions
Nothing. 2008 was as good as he'll ever be and he'll likely never duplicate that again.
Fortunately in 2009 he was still an above average reliever and that’s all we need him to be.
As for McGee, it’s nice to have 4 great innings in spring, but there was no chance of him breaking camp with the team. It’s just not what the Rays do. There is no rush on McGee when we have four or five really good options ahead of him.
www.draysbay.com, www.bloombergsports.mlblogs.com, Twitter @trancel
by Tommy Rancel on Mar 11, 2010 11:20 PM EST up reply actions
You can't try to force the joke, you'll just strangle all the humor out of it. You definitely choked here.
"Sure, because of the "cold weather" and rain." More bait and switch tactics by the New York owners of this team." --NikoHoullis, the lead blogger at Buc'em on racial and anti-semitic insensitivity.
by kericr on Mar 11, 2010 10:41 PM EST up reply actions 1 recs
Does anyone know who
De La Cruz is? I saw him make a very nice play at SS at the Bradenton game and he hit the ball hard on the line for a double-I think it was to deep CF but am not sure I remember correctly. I think his other AB also resulted in a very hard hit line drive, but again may be mis-remembering.
I have tried to find out something about him but he is not listed on the Cube and when clicking him at the mlb.com box score it comes up that there are no stats on him. I checked the 2009 rosters of the VSl and DSL Rays teams, and again he does not appear.
Thank you.
I assumed that he was a Latin American signing by the Rays.
And now when I type in
Chris de la Cruz, he appears on the Cube. Apparently a non-prospect just had a good day.

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