The thoughts and opinions posted are those of Jacob Larsen and don't always represent the thoughts and opinions of the staff members of DRaysBay. -Jake
Brian Stokes Report
Still sucks, loathe him even more. Why can't we just dump him? He just allows baserunners and 2 consecutive miraculous innings shouldn't save his job.
Jamie Shields should have full permission to punch Stokes in the jaw, or get Gomes to.
Fans turn on Maddon, plan a protest
It's funny, to me at least, that Rays fans are so nitpicky in a year that we know that we're not going to make a run at contention(yet, at least) but are so "up in arms" that they're going to protest something.
Have any Rays fans, other than me, notice that walk-outs and protests have backfired on Rays fans for awhile.
"Oust Naimoli!"- He left, but on his own terms. He really didn't care about the walk-out because the people that walked out paid for the tickets. Lesson is, protest outside instead of paying for tickets.
"(Re)Sign Lugo!"- Didn't happen and we ended up trading him for players with potential. What's Lugo hitting for Boston again? .250/.309/.358? Aren't we pretty much getting the same production, or possibly better, from Harris than we would if we had Lugo? Hell, Briggy has a better statline in AA than Lugo in the majors.
"Draft Lincecum/Andrew Miller!"- Longoria, in most people's eyes, is the 2nd best hitting prospect in all of baseball. He'd be 1st if not for the age and potential/production of Justin Upton. Tiny Tim is doing alright in the majors, but he's not as "lights out" in the majors(see his debut) as people thought he'd be. I'd say something about Miller, but I'd rather think about David Price and how he's going to be the best pitching prospect drafted in the last 3 years.
"Rays & Disney, wtf?"- What was our record in our "home away from home?" Oh yeah, 3-0 and our attendance @ Orlando Vs. Texas was more than last year's attendance for the same series in St. Pete.
Now it's "Let's all bash Maddon's brain in for making stupid decisions?"- Yeah, it's going to be hilarious if we end up sweeping Seattle and Chicago in back-to-back series.
Look, we all know that Maddon is a good strategist but an average manager. However, what do you really want us to do? Call-up Hammel, Sonnanstine, Niemann and Ridgway? Yeah, it'd be nice to see the youth here but what positives really will we come out with? Niemann and Sonnanstine need AAA innings and I believe shouldn't be brought up until July-ish(another 4-5 AAA starts will suffice). Hammel is going to replace who? Jackson? Aren't they basically the same pitcher? One can't win in the majors and one can't win in the minors? Ridgway is the only pitcher that I'd love to see brought up, but I'm going to temper my expectations because of his Spring Training stats.
Sit on your hands awhile, it's going to be only for a month or so instead of years.
Trader Bay
We're coming into the point of the season thay we may become active in the transaction department. While it may not be as frequent as it last year, where it was about 2 weeks(or seemed that way) between each trade, I think we're going to be active this season.
I personally think that the Percival pick-up is more of a reality than it is a myth. There's not going to be a lot of teams looking at a 37 year old reliever and that'll work to our advantage.
In my opinion, I don't really see the Rays keeping Rocco Baldelli past this year. Once the reason that I become a Rays fan, I really don't see him staying the entire tenure of his contract.
Some Bad News
A long-time friend of the site and constant radio supporter of the site, Bobby Fenton, was relieved of his radio duties for Sports Radio 1470. I wish Bobby the best of luck in the future and hope to hear him on the radio again and I'm sure that we'll end up seeing/hearing from him again. What's Brantley going to do without his clean-shaven road-dog?