August 10, 2008

Rays Magical Season

Here we are, heading into the second week of August and the Tampa Bay Rays stand alone… not as basement dwellers’ in the AL East but as the Division leaders.  If anyone would have told me that the Rays would be in this position back during spring training or when the season had started, I would have probably laughed and told them they’re crazy.  Now, the last laugh is on me.

Tampa Bay the worst franchise in the majors for much of its first decade of existence, is now the best team in a tough division, thanks largely to a beyond belief 45-17 home record.

With their win on Saturday night against Seattle, they matched their best season total in franchise history (70-69; 2004) and currently stand 70-46… 3.5 games up on the Boston Red Sox and 7.5 up on the New York Yankees.

If one looks down at their roster, there is no one single player that is having a “superstar” season, a la Carlos Pena 2007.  Contributions to the teams’ success are coming from everyone… starters, relievers, utility players; everyone has put a mark into the success.

Dioner Navarro, Akinori Iwamura are the only players hitting .280 or above, rookie sensation Evan Longoria leads the team in HRs (22), RBI (71), 2B (27), Slugging (.533), Total Bases (203) and OPS (on-base percentage plus slugging - .885) and could become the first Ray to win Rookie of the Year, pitcher Andy Sonnanstine leads the team in wins (11) but yet, has the highest ERA (4.40) of the starting five and has given up the most hits (161 in 141.0 innings pitched).  Troy Percival has managed to save 26 games despite having landed on the DL twice; Dan Wheeler is second in the majors in Holds (25).

If one would to ask what in particular has changed, one would be crazy not to pinpoint the bullpen and defense.  Historically the bullpen has been bad, but this year they’ve become one of the best in the majors, averaging close to three runs fewer per nine innings from the 2007 season.

In previous seasons, the Rays’ had a bullpen that was horrifically bad… and they always seemed to find ways of losing games after the 6th inning. This season the bullpen has been the saving grace, saving 36 games while winning 24 and pitching to a 3.32 ERA. 

Troy Percival has answered the call in the 9th inning saving 25 games.  Not bad considering Percy had retired almost two years ago to become a minor league pitcher instructor for the Los Angeles Angels and even threw out the first pitch at the Angels Opening Game in 2007.

Percival is not alone, as Grant Balfour, Dan Wheeler, J.P. Howell and Trevor Miller round out the relievers that have orchestrated one of the greatest turnarounds in baseball history.  Gary Glover and Al Reyes were other members of the bullpen, but have since been released, with Chad Bradford joining the staff.

Scott Kazmir, James Shields, Andy Sonnanstine, Edwin Jackson and Matt Garza, make up the starting rotation, which has accounted for 46 of the team’s 70 wins so far. 

In all, the entire pitching staff is working to an ERA of 3.77 (tied for 4th best in the majors)… last year they finished 2007 with a 5.53 ERA (30th in the majors).  Additionally, opponents are batting .245 against Rays’ pitching (3rd best in the majors), while last year opponents hit .290, the highest in the majors.

But, more improved has been their defense.  Committing fewer errors and allowing fewer runs no doubt has been the pitchers’ best friend.  Moving Akinori Iwamura from third to second base and having Evan Longoria at third and Jason Bartlett at shortstop gives the Rays’ one of the best, if not the best infield in all of baseball.  Through 116 games, the Rays as a team have succumbed to 60 errors – that’s good for 4th best in the AL and 5th best in the majors with a fielding pct. of .986. Last season they finished tied for 27th.

Flipping the coin from the defensive side of things to the offensive side, as manager Joe Maddon puts it, “Status quo in a lot of areas and let’s just push on the offense a little bit harder.”

It’s amazing that this team has gotten this far without the offensive production of most of their key players.  Carl Crawford, B.J. Upton, Carlos Pena and reserve role player Jonny Gomes prior to his option to Durham have had a subpar offensive season.

Crawford has been bothered for most of the season with sore hamstrings, which has accounted for his decrease in stolen bases (just 25 in 107 games, with 7 caught steals) Upton continues to have shoulder problems, which seems to have affected his longball swing (only 7 home runs in over 400 at-bats), but he’s increased his stolen bases to a team and career high 35.

Pena isn’t having quite the season he had last year.  Getting off to a very slow start, then spending almost a month on the DL with a fractured finger didn’t help, but of late the bat has come alive and so have the home runs.  In his last five games, Pena is hitting .444 with 2-HR and 7-RBIs to raise his average to a season high .245.

In 2006 and 2007, the Rays’ found “lightning in a bottle” with Ty Wigginton and Carlos Pena.  This season it could very well be Eric Hinske.

In 2002 with the Blue Jays Hinske won the AL Rookie of the Year… unfortunately, he could never duplicate that success and eventually found his way to the Red Sox late in the 2006 season as a bench player.

As a non-roster invitee this spring, Hinske made the 25-man roster out of spring training and is now having his best season since 2002 having played a variety of positions including third, first, right and left fields as well as designated hitter.

Another former first round draft pick of the Blue Jays Gabe Gross is having success as well for the Rays’.  Early in the 2008 season, with Gross getting little playing time in a crowded outfield in Milwaukee, Tampa Bay acquired him for pitching prospect Josh Butler. 

Although Gross hasn’t had the same offensive production as Hinske, he has had some timely hits that have either tied games or have given the Rays the lead… four times since joining the Rays a Gross base hit has won a ball game.

The team survived injuries and suspensions that hit them early on to stay in the race.  Playing without starters Scott Kazmir for the first month of the season and Matt Garza missing a couple of starts, then having their top two relievers in Troy Percival and Al Reyes down with hamstring and shoulder issues throughout the first half and of course you can’t forget the month lost early on from catcher Dioner Navarro, Cliff Floyd and Willy Aybar, Carlos Pena and most recently Jason Bartlett (knee and finger) and Evan Longoria (finger).

Never once did the rash of injuries cause the team to go into a “panic” mode.  Each game, day in and day out Joe Maddon and his coaches pushed the right buttons and no beats were missed.  The team continued to roll and play on.

There is one other area though that must be addressed which hasn’t been mentioned in the Rays success.  That is their “Home” record, which is best in the majors… having a good home record is something that this team has never had – well, at least not on a regular basis. 

Helping to attain that best record has been the increase in attendance at Tropicana Field, now easily becoming the “The Pit” that has been penned by manager Joe Maddon.

“The Pit” has become the place that Maddon envisioned when he became the manager of this team three years ago.  Attendance is up 33.5 percent over last season, and the Rays broke the 1-million mark in early July, their earliest since their inaugural season of 1998.

“When this place is filled up, our players will continue to feed off that and it’s going to result in more victories,” Maddon said. “There's no question in our mind it makes a difference.”

Many believe that the division race will still come down to Boston and New York as it has every season since 1998… but don’t tell that to the Rays’ players or their manager Joe Maddon.

The Rays’ opened many eyes this past Wednesday night with their 6-run come from behind 10-7 9th inning victory over the Cleveland Indians.  Trailing by four entering the inning, Eric Hinske had an RBI double in and then Gabe Gross tied it 7-all with a two-run homer off Edward Mujica, who was trying for his first major league save. Masahide Kobayashi (4-5) replaced Mujica and gave up an infield single to Akinori Iwamura, walked Ben Zobrist before Carlos Pena hit a three-run homer to center for his fifth career game-ending homer.

Manager Joe Maddon said it could be a season-defining win.  “It's is just one game. However, it’s the fact that it’s a win and the way that we won it,” Maddon said. “I like to believe this is the kind of game that we can build on.”

Sure, they expected improvement, but this?

“Certainly, I don’t think any of us saw this kind of year coming,” said Gerry Hunsicker, senior vice president of baseball operations.  “We were confident we were going to take that next step.  We were better and had a balanced, more talented team than we ever had. What that translated to, I don’t think any of us knew other than we felt we were going to be better.”

Joe Maddon talks about it “The Rays’ Way,” or his nine-equals-eight theory:  Playing hard for nine innings equals one of the eight playoff spots.

Rays Stingers…

Rays have won 4 of 5, 9 of their last 11, and 11 of 15 and are 15-7 since the break, 2nd-best mark in majors behind the Angels.

The Rays are a franchise-record 24 games over.500 and had never been more than 4 games over .500 at any point in their history entering 2008. At 70-46, Rays own the 2nd-best record in the majors behind the Angels (73-43, .629).

Rays maintain a 3.5 game lead over the Red Sox in the East, while increasing their lead over 3rd-place NY to 7.5, which is their largest lead in just over a month, since a 4.0-game advantage on July 7.

The Rays have been in first place for 36 of the last 41 days (missing only Sunday thru Thursday over the All-Star break) and for the past 23 days (starting July 18). They have been in first place 62 days total, 44 more than their first 10 seasons combined.

The Rays are the 6th team to be in first place on August 10 or later after having the worst record in the majors the year before… they join the 2001 Phillies (in 1st as late as 9/24), 2001 Cubs (8/17), 1991 Braves (finished first), 1989 Orioles (8/31) and the 1902 St. Louis Browns (8/14). The 1991 Braves are the only team to finish first the year after having the majors’ worst mark.

Rays are on pace for 98 wins… Rays were 66-96 a year ago

David Price, the Rays first overall pick in the 2007 First-Year Player Draft was promoted from Double-A Montgomery to Triple-A Durham on Saturday.  Price will make his first start for Durham on Wednesday against Norfolk.  Price went 7-0 with a 1.89 ERA in nine starts at Montgomery. The left-hander pitched 57 innings for the Biscuits and walked just 16 while striking out 55.  Prior to joining Montgomery, Price went 4-0 with a 1.82 ERA in six starts at Class-A Vero Beach.

On Thursday, the Rays picked up Chad Bradford a veteran reliever in a trade with the Orioles.  Bradford was assigned to the Rays via a waiver claim for a player to be named later. Friday night the Rays cleared a spot on their 25-man Major League roster by designating for assignment right-hander Al Reyes.
Bradford, who delivers the ball submarine style, was 3-3 with a 2.45 ERA in 47 relief appearances for the Orioles this season got into action with his new team hours after his arrival on Saturday.  Bradford in two innings escaped a bases-loaded jam with one out in the bottom of the tenth getting Adrian Beltre to hit into a 5-2-3 double play to end the inning and eventually picked up the win as Dioner Navarro’s sac fly scored Ben Zobrist, giving the Rays an 8-7 lead.

Jason Bartlett has not been in the lineup at shortstop since leaving last Sunday’s game against the Indians, though he’s been in the lineup twice as the team’s DH.  Bartlett remains out with a bruised index finger sustained last Sunday when he was hit by pitch in a bunt attempt against the Indians. While his right index finger does not bother him hitting, he continues to feel the pain when trying to throw.

Evan Longoria was not in the Rays’ starting lineup on Friday or Saturday nights.  Longoria still felt a little sore after getting hit on his right wrist in the ninth inning of Thursday night’s 2-1 loss to the Mariners.
With the Rays having an off-day on Monday, it’s likely that both Longoria and Bartlett will return to the field on Tuesday when the Rays’ open up a 3-game series against the A’s in Oakland.

Late Breaking News...

Carl Crawford was put on the 15-day DL with a right hand injury that could sideline him for 6-8 weeks and possibly require season-ending surgery, though the Rays say they don’t yet know the severity of the injury or how long he is likely to be out.

Rocco Baldelli has been activated and is starting in rightfield and batting cleanup.  The Rays will use Monday’s off-day to discuss further options, with the possibility of recalling Justin Ruggiano or Jonny Gomes from the minors, of using Ben Zobrist in the outfield (once Jason Bartlett returns to shortstop) and/or seeking outside help by trading for a player who cleared waivers.

The Rays are officially calling Crawford’s injury “right middle finger tendon subluxation” and head athletic trainer Ron Porterfield said to was too early to predict how much beyond the 15-day DL period Crawford will be out until he sees team hand specialist Dr. Doug Carlan today in St. Petersburg.  “I wouldn't even put a timeframe on it right now until our doctor sees him,” Porterfield said.

Crawford, who was to fly back to Tampa Sunday afternoon, said he was hurt on his final at-bat Saturday, checking his swing on a 3-1 pitch before a 10th-inning walk.

Baldelli said he was told after Saturday’s game that he would be activated and in the field, but didn’t know all the details. Just do what they tell you, right.  As soon as he arrived Sunday, he said he immediately went to watch video of Mariners’ starter R.A. Dickey, who he’d never seen. “We’ll see how it goes,” Baldelli said. “I’ll let you after the game.”