If nothing else, more eyes will be examining the lineup card from now on. Joe Maddon is going to be mocked for this and Andy Sonnanstine is going to be praised for his RBI double. It didn't kill us today, but holy hell Joe, be more careful. Sonnanstine's hitting WPA was actually in the positive, not so much for his pitching WPA. Eventually he's going to have to pitch better consistently, the strike zone did him a few disfavors today, but that can be said in just about every start it seems. I'll look at Sonnanstine's pitchfx data more later on, but right now he's not throwing a pitch that breaks in to righties, everything breaks towards lefties. Is that a reason for the struggles? Not sure. Here's the zone plot:
The more pressing news is Burrell to the DL and Isringhausen up. That leaves the Rays bench as: Zobrist, Kapler, and Hernandez most days. Not ideal. It also gives the Rays 13 pitchers. Frankly that seems like waste, even with the recent usage patterns. I'm more interested in how this works once Burrell comes off the disabled list, does someone else go on, or is a pitcher moved in a trade?