RAYS 5, KC 3 Kauffman Stadium Kansas City, MO

RAYS WIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BALDELLI ASSIGNED TO HIGH A FOR REHAB ASSIGNMENT:

OF Rocco Baldelli, having rehabbed for three months and played in a smattering of Extended Spring Training games, reached the next step in his comeback bid by being assigned to High A Vero Beach for a rehab assignment beginning Monday. Baldelli, the victim of a rare mitochondrial disorder that causes muscle fatigue, will be the Designated Hitter in Vero Beach's scheduled games on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

Baldelli had reported no problems with muscle fatigue DH'ing in every other Extended Spring Training game, though Executive Vice President Andrew Friedman asserted that the move was more of a necessity than a great advancement in his recovery.

"It's just an ongoing part of the process. I wouldn't say that at this point there have been any great revelations, but the important thing is, right now he feels good, so we're going to be smart about this thing."

With Extended Spring Training over, the Rays needed to do something with Baldelli to keep him on the field, and that beget the rehab assignment to Vero Beach. The Rays will run into problems, however, with a provision in the Collective Bargaining Agreement that limits the amount of days a player may spend on a rehab assignment in the minor leagues to 20. Marc Lancaster of the Tampa Tribune speculates that the Rays may pull Baldelli off of the rehab assignment at some point to buy time and put him back on at a later date. It is unlikely that he will be ready to complete his rehabilitation after just 20 days.

"It's our sense that if, by chance, we need more time - which at this point we have no idea whether we will or won't - that there will be ways to figure it out within the rules," Friedman said.

PEÑA RECOVERY:

Meanwhile, in other injury news, 1B Carlos Peña is recovering from a broken left index finger that he suffered a week and a half ago. Manager Joe Maddon said that Peña is close to returning, and the first baseman himself insists that he will be ready when eligible to come off the DL on the 19th. That doesn't square with an earlier prognostication by Maddon, so we'll see what comes of that. 

More "News & Notes" follow the jump

Continue reading this post »

FLOYD SITS FOR FOURTH STRAIGHT DAY:

For the past several days, Rays manager Joe Maddon has insisted that DH Cliff Floyd would return to the lineup the following day. Each day passed, and Floyd wasn't in the lineup. The only solace for the benched veteran had to be Maddon's assurances that he would play again "tomorrow". Yet the promised playing time never came, and Tuesday night's game was the fourth straight in which Floyd did not start.

So how did Floyd react to what seems like the surest sign yet of a benching?

"I don't blame him," Floyd said. "We're winning. We all have the same purpose: to win games. When you're on the road, it's tough to win games. Guys are swinging the bat great right now; I haven't. We're going to go with that and get me healthy, too."

"We're playing with the hot bats," Floyd said. "I'm a realist. I like to win, too. At the end of the day, who will give you the best chance to win? And that's life. That's how we're going to ride with it.

"I've never been selfish in my life. ... I just want to win. My swing is getting better, and I feel myself getting better every day."

Maddon insists that this is all there is to it; that it is merely the club riding the hot hand in 1B Willy Aybar, and that it has nothing to do with Floyd's surgically-repaired right knee. Floyd did acknowledge that one of the primary benfits of the time off was the opportunity to rest his knee, but he also said that it gave him the opportunity to hone his swing. Though Floyd is hitting .250/.329/.474 on the year, he is just 1 for his past 12. Aybar, meanwhile, was hitting .306/.358/.551 going into last night's game, including .412/.444/.765 in 18 PA since the start of the road trip.

But the move is about more than Aybar's hot bat. By resting Floyd, a hole opens up at DH where the Rays can slide in Eric Hinske. That removes a defensive liability from the field, and the net gain is huge when you figure that the opening allows defensively-adept Gabe Gross to start in his place in right field. Also, by starting the switch-hitting Aybar, the Rays remove the need for a pinch-hitter in late inning matchups. That is especially important when you consider that OF Jonny Gomes is in the midst of serving a five game suspension, thus shortening the bench.

The Rays are absolutely making the right call here. Is Aybar the better bat over the course of the season? Probably not, but you never mess with a hot streak, and Maddon is vigilant of this old adage. Besides, as mentioned above, Aybar's hot bat allows the Rays to start a defense that is appreciably better than what they would throw out normally. As we've seen in the year-to-year improvement over 2007-08, you can never underestimate the importance of a defensive improvement.

Also, Floyd is no spring chicken. He was injury-prone even when he was younger, and even the DH is not going to make him an everyday player. That time in his career is past, so he will need spells of time off like this. It is best to pace them with his slumps, so as not to suffer a loss in offensive productivity. This isn't a long term changing of the guard, methinks, but in the immediate it is the best utilization of the present personnel. And give Floyd credit for being a team player about the whole thing and being selfless. He is still a very useful baseball player, but he might be an even better teammate as this matter shows.

Continue reading this post »

YET ANOTHER BRAWL:

The mound and dugout altercations between RHP Matt Garza and C Dioner Navarro during yesterday's 6-3 loss to the Rangers got their spin in the morning papers today. The information you'll get from the involved parties and Manager Joe Maddon is something to the effect of how the two players are fierce competitors who got caught up in the heat of the moment, and that the issue will be handled "in-house". Should you believe that this incident is no big deal? You are well within your rights to think otherwise, but the Rays are 100% correct in keeping you ignorant. Regardless of what the "truth" is here, the aftermath is nothing that needs to be paraded about in the media. It was embarrassing enough to see the incident itself occur in such a conspicuous setting, and the Rays are right in stemming the tide of information leaking outward about this going forward.

Listen, regardless of the specificities of the incident, we can gather that Navarro is not a culpable party, at least in any meaningful sense. First of all, he doesn't have any sort of track record that would indicate that he works poorly with his pitchers. Secondly, Maddon all but indemnified him from blame in the matter in his postgame remarks. Can't get much more explicit than that, at least as far as stuff like this goes.

So that leaves us to this conclusion: Garza needs to grow up. This isn't the first time he's been held captive by his hot temper on the mound, certainly not if you include his days in the Minnesota Twins organization. This is a problem that has been ongoing throughout his development, and that it is continuing now without seemingly any improvement over the years is discouraging. I'm going to go ahead and speculate that perhaps Navarro didn't handle Garza well following 3B German Duran's home run. That's obviously something he needs to work on as a catcher, adjusting to the mental temperaments of his battery mates, but this is by no means laying the blame on him. He obviously should facilitate a productive relationship with whomever he is catching, but Navarro can't be a full-blown psychologist. There are some issues greater than even he can address at play here, and it is Garza's responsibility to get a grip. Lasting immaturity is guaranteed to hinder his advancement, and there is a sense of personal responsibility in that he needs to take care of matters himself. As it is, given that he is a valuable commodity in the organization, the team inevitably will have to step in to facilitate a lasting improvement in that regard.

While we're at it, the zealots calling for Garza's head need to cool it as well. It would be the pinnacle of absurdity for the team to give up on Garza at this point and try and deal him, or worse. It's not even a particularly good idea to demote him. I've never been a big fan of his, but for the love of all things holy, he isn't even old enough to legally rent a car yet. Is his maturity behind where it should be? Obviously. But the problem is just that, immaturity and the inability to exercise self-control. This isn't some inoperable character flaw that is bound to keep perpetuating itself; it can be mitigated given time and proactivity from all of the involved parties. His peripherals have been unsatisfactory thus far, but his performance to date has been very much in line with that of RHP Andy Sonnanstine and RHP Edwin Jackson, and over the long haul it will improve. Give him time, both on the field and off.

DIFFICULT DECISION?

Both RaysBaseball.com and the Tampa Tribune ran blurbs (an entire story in the team website's case) painting the impending decision of who will be replaced upon the return of RHP Troy Percival to be a "tough choice". Of the present bullpen personnel, only RHP Grant Balfour is mentioned as a potential target to be jettisoned, in both pieces.

The nature of both pieces is cocerning to me, if only because of the conspicuous lack of "Gary Glover" on the chopping block. He should definitely be placed on the hot seat, and there is absolutely no valid reason for Glover to be given an unquestioned pass at a detriment to Balfour when he hasn't been appreciably better. I will be exceedingly disappointed if the implications in this article prove to be true. His success in Boston notwithstanding, Glover has been the weak link in the bullpen since RHP Scott Dohmann was jettisoned, and probably before that as well. The "long relief/mopup" benefit that he brought to the table last year isn't even a factor anymore either, since the team has RHP Jason Hammel for those situations. Now granted, Hammel hasn't been particularly effective, but there's no way a young pitcher like Hammel gets exposed to waivers.

The presence of Hammel does sort of add an interesting wrinkle to this situation though. I would not be surprised if Executive VP Andrew Friedman were burning up the phones inquiring to see if there is any interest around the league in Hammel. Obviously if he's here, there's no way he will get the ax in lieu of Glover or Balfour, but the Rays may just opt to skip that decision altogether and see what value they can get for Hammel. Granted, they might need him for a spot start soon due to the brawl suspensions, but that's nothing that RHP Jeff Niemann can't take care of, given that he has options left. With Hammel proving ineffective in the bullpen, and no rotation spots expected to be open for him in the near-term, Hammel's career could be at a dead end here that the Rays might be wise to try and navigate out of.

ELSEWHERE:

Both papers are reporting that DH Cliff Floyd has been kept out of the lineup for the past two days due to no health issue, but rather an overarching desire to keep hot-hitting Willy Aybar in the starting lineup. With the Rays facing Angels lefty Joe Saunders this evening in Anaheim, Floyd will get his third straight day off. He is expecting to be in the starting lineup tomorrow night.

Meanwhile, the Rays' swing through Anaheim brings an annual slew of re-unions for numerous personnel on both sides. For the first time, that will include Percival, who last pitched at Angel Stadium when he threw out the first pitch at the Angels' home opener last year. Though not active, he will throw a simulated inning either today or tomorrow in Anaheim as he continues his recovery process.

Lastly, here are the previously-undisclosed fines that MLB doled out to Rays players for their involvement in Thursday's bench-clearing brawl in Boston:

The going rate seemed to be $500 for each suspended game as Jonny Gomes and James Shields (who got a slight discount) were fined $2,500, LF Carl Crawford and Jackson and $2,000 and Akinori Iwamura around $1,500.

Brant James of the St. Petersburg Times reports that LHP Scott Kazmir will throw five or six innings and a "maximum" of 85 pitches tonight in his final minor league rehab outing for AAA Durham. He is on track to join the rotation this weekend against the Boston Red Sox, most likely for Sunday's game. James also reports that RHP Al Reyes will make his second and final one inning rehab stint for A+ Vero Beach this evening. His fastball apparently "reached" 85 mph in his last outing on Saturday, but he is still expected to be activated when eligible to come off of the DL on Thursday. More injury news from Bill Chastain of RaysBaseball.com:

Willy Aybar [left hamstring strain] said he expects to start playing in games in a week. ... Cliff Floyd [right knee surgery] is expected to begin playing in some games later this week.

Chastain produced another article, the latest to focus on the Rays' impending rotation crunch, and he does a fairly decent job in summarizing things. Chastain also says that LHP Kurt Birkins, who has not pitched in a week, will be optioned to AAA Durham once Reyes is activated from the DL. Essentially, the team faces two tough choices. First, who exactly will be bumped from the rotation? Second, who will be bumped from the active roster? The answer to both questions could easily be the same person, either RHP Andy Sonnanstine or RHP Matt Garza (unlikely). Otherwise, they will need to not only move someone to the bullpen, but bump someone from the bullpen off of the active roster. Should be an interesting choice for the team. Although it isn't my personal preference, I'm guessing based on the circumstances that Sonnanstine will get demoted to AAA Durham since he still has options and the team won't have to disrupt the bullpen by moving him out.

IF Ben Zobrist is due to get the pins out of his fractured thumb today, and he could begin playing in Extended Spring Training games as soon as this week. That from Marc Lancaster of the Tribune, who also had this to report concerning late inning pitching roles:

When RHP Al Reyes rejoins the Rays on Thursday after finishing a stint on the disabled list with a shoulder impingement, he won't necessarily slide back into the eighth-inning spot he had held before. Maddon indicated Sunday he was inclined to keep RHP Dan Wheeler in the primary setup role, though he has done plenty of mixing and matching over the past week.

Lancaster also reports that RHP Jeff Niemann has not made a start for AAA Durham since being optioned down one week ago. He did throw a bullpen session with no problems, however, and thus should make his next start sometime this week. Lancaster speculates that day will be Thursday.

Elsewhere, Adam Morris of Lone Star Ball goes behind the ESPN paywall to retrieve a few Buster Olney bits from ESPN on the state of the Rangers franchise. Hat tip to Rays Index. Here's the paragraph pertinent to the Rays:

Texas general manager Jon Daniels recently received an extension, but if Ryan ultimately decides he wants somebody else making the baseball choices, others who know Ryan wonder if he'll ask former Houston GM Gerry Hunsicker -- now an advisor with Tampa Bay -- to come on board. Even if that happens, friends say Hunsicker very much likes his role with the Rays.

RAYS 13, New York 4 Yankee Stadium Bronx, NY

For my thoughts on the game, please follow the jump

Continue reading this post »