clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

The Rays Tank: Josh Beckett In Slo-Mo; JoePa And JoePoz; A-Rod The Above Average

By Steve Slowinski
Look at me, Mom: Dirt angels! (Photo by Al Messerschmidt/Getty Images)
Look at me, Mom: Dirt angels! (Photo by Al Messerschmidt/Getty Images)
Getty Images
  • Remember how Josh Beckett was taking forever between pitches during the first inning of yesterday's game? I don't, as I was blacked out of the game, but apparently it happened and apparently it was a touch ridiculous. As it turns out, Beckett's excuse was that he was actually quite sick with the flu and had bouts of dizziness on the mound. So maybe I'll give him a pass on the slowness thing, but I won't give the Rays' offense a pass for absolutely failing to get anything off him after the first. Le sigh.
  • Can't get enough #ProspectTalk? Mike Newman scouted Taylor Guerrieri at one of his most recent starts, and he has a full write-up over at FanGraphs.
  • This is actually an article from around a month ago, but I just found it this weekend through another link. Matt Lentzner wrote a guest article over at Baseball Prospectus about how pitch release point affects a pitch's perceived speed -- and no, he's not just talking about tall players releasing the ball a couple of extra inches closer to the plate. He gets into all sorts of discussions around the angle of the release point, and how pitch movement can affect a pitch's hittableness as well. Fascinating stuff.
  • Tim Lincecum may be on his way to pitching the worst season by any starter in baseball history -- or at least coming darn close. Needless to say, it's also one heck of a historic turnaround.
  • A-Rod The Elite seems to be a thing of the past, and now Brian Cashman has settled for A-Rod The Above Average At Third Base. Of course, then the question becomes: For how much longer? Remember, Rodriguez is still owed $118 million after this season.
  • This is a bit of a tangent, but Craig Calcaterra wrote up a couple posts this weekend on the Joe Paterno story and they're both such excellent reads that they deserve eyeballs. In his first article, Craig tackles the impending book by Joe Posnanski on Paterno, and like me, he's nervous about how the book will be received. Poz is a great writer, but this isn't exactly his sort of story; he's at his best when he's able to wax poetical and highlight the beautiful and magnificent in life. This is a much deeper, darker story than I've ever seen him cover, and I'm certain this story ended up being beyond Poz's comfort zone. And as one of the first books released (coming next month!) after the scandal, it's going to get a lot of people talking. We'll just have to see if that talk ends up being good to bad.

    Also, Bill James apparently made an fool of himself ESPN this weekend, taking the contrarian perspective and defending Joe Paterno. Love ya, Bill, but what?

More From DRaysBay