Tampa Bay Rays vs. Boston Red Sox Series Preview

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Tuesday, 7:10 PM: Tim Wakefield (4.88 FIP) vs. James Shields (3.50 FIP)
Wednesday, 7:10 PM: Josh Beckett (3.13 FIP) vs. Jeremy Hellickson (4.03 FIP)
Thursday, 7:10 PM: Clay Buchholz (4.38 FIP) vs. David Price (2.92 FIP)

The Red Sox enter St. Petersburg with a nine game winning streak and a 4.5 game lead over the Rays in the AL East. The Red Sox have put their early season slump behind them and are playing the best ball in the majors. If the Rays have any hope they might need to get feisty!

The Red Sox’s offense is nothing short of spectacular right now. The Red Sox’s are sporting an incredible .353 wOBA and bring numerous hot hitters such as “The Greatest Ray of All Time”, Carl Crawford. On paper, the only advantage the Rays hold is their pitching. By chance or maybe Maddons design the Rays have their three best starters for the series. If the Rays are going to win the series they will heav

This series also marks the beginning of a dreadfully hard schedule. They will face the Soxs or Yankees 14 times in the next 33 games. The Rays are a competitive bunch but I’m not sure if any team would look forward to that schedule. If your looking at the glass half full, then the Rays will definitively find out if they are buyers or sellers well before the trade deadline (aka move Upton).

As mentioned earlier, Carl Crawford is returning to the “Trop” for the first time since free agency. The twitter world has many of the Rays players encouraging the fans to cheer Crawford when he approaches the plate. I’m sure they will but in my opinion you won’t here them over the cheers from Red Sox fans. ☹

Where is Desmond Jennings?

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June is the unofficial month for clubs to promote their top prospects and this years crop shouldn’t disappoint. Just last week, the Dodgers called up SS Dee Gordon aka “The Flash”. The Royals followed suit by promoting third baseman Mike Moustakas and the Athletics have promoted super star Jemile Weeks. So what about the Tampa Bay Rays? Who’s the next Evan Longoria? Unless, you’ve been under a rock or just attained consciousness from a two-year coma you know the prospect is Desmond Jennings. So where is our guy?

Welcome to Super Two Purgatory! If you’re not familiar with Super Two eligibility here’s a quick refresher course. Under MLB’s salary and arbitration laws, players meet “Super Two Status” when the player records more than 130-140 days of service time. This allows the player to file for arbitration after two years as opposed to the standard three. Obviously, avoiding super two status benefits the club as they save money by paying the league minimum salary for an additional year. Because players accumulate service time each day they are on the team's 25-man roster the Rays will financially benefit by holding Jennings in the minor leagues until they are certain he won’t accumulate 130 service days.

I know? The Rays need Jennings now and would greatly benefit from him being in the lineup. The Rays are currently a few games behind both the Yankees and Red Soxs and neither of those organizations would procrastinate to save a few bucks. I know? That’s why the Yankees and Red Sox’s typically win the pennant. The fact of the matter is that the Rays don’t or can’t operate this way. The Rays currently don’t generate enough revenue to support our lofty expectations. It follows, that we must mind our P’s and Q’s especially when it comes to payroll.

With that said, Desmond Jennings is on his way. Jennings started the year with 33 days of service time due to past September callups, so the Rays likely won't call him up until the July 4th weekend. Desmond is considered the 22nd best prospect in all of baseball (Baseball Review). He’s a 24 year old 5 tool center fielder. He plays excellent defense, is incredibly fast, has great plate discipline, and hits consistently for average. His only weakness is power and he’s slowly developing it via 9 home runs in 59 games in Triple A.

What is Jennings expected to bring to the MLB roster? Think software upgrade! Now think two upgrades over BJ Upton or (Upton version 3.0). If you really love Jennings, and I do, then you compare him to Carl Crawford. I know I'm getting ahead of myself but the kid will make our club better just sitting on the pine next to Joe Maddon. He is expected to eventually replace Upton but will most likely start in left field once called up giving the Rays one of the best outfields in baseball.

Obviously, having Jennings on the 25 man roster NOW would be great. However, being a Rays fan you must first learn the virtue of patience. Until our team builds higher revenue streams we are best suited to improve our club by using internal options from our MLB best farm system. Jennings is a better option than most clubs will find internally or externally and by keeping him in Triple A for another two weeks we are saving our club the money needed to compete with the dominating Yankees and Red Sox’s. Thank goodness for Andrew Friedman.

Tampa Bay Rays Recap 6/11/2011

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W: J. Cruz (4-0)
L: J. Accardo (3-2)
S: K. Farnsworth (14)

Friday was not a good night. The Baltimore Orioles dominated the Rays in every aspect resulting in an embarrassing 7-0 shutout. The Rays were so atrocious I neglected the game recap as I felt it best to forget the night altogether. Thus, for purposes of Consider This! Consider That!; the Rays didn’t play on June 11, 2011. It was simply that bad.

Fortunately, Saturday was a different story. The night started off with Longoria driving in Johnny Damon after doubling to deep right. The run production continued in the 5th with Zobrist’s RBI double scoring Mr. Damon and Longoria promptly driving in Zobrist to give the Rays a 3-0 lead. With David Price pitching the game was Tampa’s to lose.

Entering Saturday, David Price had only allowed one career home run in 39 1/3 innings to the Orioles. Mark Reynolds promptly ended that streak with a 400 foot bomb in the 5th. After Reynolds four bagger Price became shaky and never settled down. He allowed another run in the fifth via an Adam Jones ground rule double scoring Snyder and in the 6th, Mark Reynolds returned to the plate where he took Price deep for the second time in the game. Baltimore took the lead 4-3 and Price was taken out of the game.

The Rays tied the game when Ben Zobrist scored on a Casey Kotchman double in the 7th. With David Price out of the game Maddon brought in Peralto to record the HOLD. However, Paeralto quickly loaded the bases and eventually WALKED in the go ahead run. Baltimore, AGAIN, took the lead 5-4.

Thank goodness for Ben Zobrist as he led of the 9th with a lead off triple eventually getting knocked in by another Casey Kotchman single. So for the next second time in three games the Rays were heading into extra innings.

In the 11th Zobrist recorded his fourth extra base hit of the night setting a franchise record for the Rays. Longoria followed by knocking in Zobrist for the go ahead run and THIS TIME the Rays wouldn’t relinquish it. Longoria scored off a Kotchman double adding another insurance run for Farnsworth to handle in the bottom half of the inning. Farnsworth recorded his 14th save of the year and the Rays pulled off another extra innings (W).

After the game, Joe Maddon almost ran out of breath trying to pass around the credit for the victory. "Just go around the field," Maddon said. "Whether it was Ruggiano going over the wall, B.J. doing the Willie Mays thing, Matt moving runners, Jaso really good game behind the plate ... every player contributed tonight to that win." In addition to Zobrist’s three doubles, triple, and 4 runs, Kotchman went 4-6 with two RBI’s; and Longoria went 3-5 with three RBI’s.

With tonight’s victory the Tampa Bay Rays ended the Orioles four-game winning streak. The series finale is tomorrow at Camden Yards 1: 35 EST.

Rays vs. Orioles Preview

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The Rays will look to continue their winning ways against the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards this weekend. Tonight, they begin a three game series following their recent sweep of the Anaheim Angles. The Rays are currently a 1/2 game behind the AL East leading Boston Red Soxs. Jeremy Hellickson will take the mound tonight in the series opener. Hellickson is 7-3 with a 2.64 ERA on the season. Last time out he allowed 1 earned on 3 hits in 7.1 innings pitched against the Mariners.

The Rays bats have heated up lately and will look to continue the trend when the face the Orioles Jake Arrieta. Arrieta is 7-3 with a 4.93 ERA so far this season. Last time out he allowed 3 earned on 5 hits in 6 innings to the Blue Jays. The Fighting Showalters just swept the depleted Athletics and are also looking to build upon their recent wins.

First pitch @ 7:05 EST. Go RAYS!