juggernaut on a rug: 2010 Tampa Bay Rays

No thread yet for a team that has a +68 run differential already; what kind of fuckin' board is this?

NYY 2nd with +39

it's a board where no one is a rays fan iirc

Burrell DFA'ed, they're gonna try Hank Blalock instead

wow, had no idea. RIP.

The full text message from Pat Burrell to the St. Petersburg Times last week included a choice seven-letter adjective between "lose my" and "#" (number).

colorful

RAYS OUTFIELDER CARL CRAWFORD AND MANAGER JOE MADDON WERE EJECTED IN THE BOTTOM OF THE 5TH INNING FOR ARGUING BALLS AND STRIKES BY HOME PLATE UMPIRE BOB DAVIDSON.

http://www.raysindex.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/16.jpg

1/3 of the season in, the rays have 4 pitchers in the top 28 VORP rankings which is pretty wau...

(almost 1/3 i should say, i'm 1 week off)

Ray stung by Ray!!!

lol at pena tryna get time called

http://www.insidethebook.com/ee/index.php/site/article/reason_12_why_i_think_joe_maddon_is_an_idiot/

had 7 total hits this wkend vs arizona

who made more errors this weekend in the upton vs. upton challenge?

benoit is filthy, team has nice bullpen

BJ just injured himself very bizarrely while fielding the longest, hardest ball ever hit by the David Eckstein of the minors (must've gone at least 120' before hitting the carpet).

Reidco Brognac in the game.

Debarring Coco
Coercing Broad
Accordion Berg
Raccoon Bridge

is that Rico Brogna under a new name?

Oh Camus Tao

Last night, Joe Maddon was faced with a very specific situation for the third time in the Tigers series: Runners on first and second, 2 outs in the 7th inning and Miguel Cabrera due up. And for the 3rd straight game, JoeMa intentionally walked Cabrera. And for the 3rd straight game the Rays got Brennan Boesch to end the threat.

But what if the bases had been loaded in the one-run game? Certainly, JoeMa wouldn’t have walked Cabrera then, right? RIGHT!?!…

“Fortunately, there was one base open,” Maddon said. “If there’s none, then you’d have to go after him. And I was even thinking about it, even if it is 3-2, just walk him and let the score get tied and move on from there.”

So does this count as a bed shitting by TB this weekend?

y

it was unbridled domination.

good eye, dan johnson

benoit has 10 holds since the AS break

cant wait 2 see the ratings for this O's @ rays game on fox

when was the last time the O's were on fox

the jeffrey maier game?

on the subject of sports tv ratings/popularity, i was shocked to read recently that the nba is a distant third, in terms of mass popularity, trailing the nfl (no. 1, no surprise there) and mlb (no. 2, which is what shocked me).

Really not surprising at all unless you don't watch much baseball. The average attendance for a baseball game is twice as much as a basketball game, and they play twice as many games. Not to mention all the social/cultural aspects.

all the social/cultural aspects

this is what i figured would heavily favor basketball. the world's gotten much faster -- basketball is fast; baseball is slow. scoring is a big draw -- there's constant scoring and many thrilling highlights in basketball; far fewer in baseball.

Baseball is too slow, not thrilling enough. Gotcha.

EYEROOOOLLL

no no. i like baseball fine. just far less than basketball, and for those reasons, largely.

the build+release of tension that you get in good baseball games is something that's not replicated in any other sport imo

basketball is more a game of attrition and doesnt lend itself to The Big Moment nearly as well as baseball or football

and people like The Big Moments, is what i'm saying

yeah. i mean, a home run can be thrilling (which is why, i assume, steroids were so rampant in baseball). a lot of baseball is watching a good at-bat play out, but that demands patience and knowledge/understanding (there's a lot of strategy in, say, football, too; but the thrill, i think, is largely watching the athleticism, fast-paced action, and violence).

smdh

FIRST PLACE

Rico Brogniac!

no AL team outside the East has a winning record against the East. the Royals are the best at 15-16

The ever-comical wealthy-athletes-calling-out-their-fans-for-not-filling-seats routine...

http://www.boston.com/sports/columnists/wilbur/2010/09/price_longoria.html

If you make millions of dollars and are going to the playoffs, moaning about "the fan base," which actually means the city and surrounding area -- instead of acknowledging those who do pay close attention throughout the season, at the stadium, through radio and/or television -- is really dumb.

i pretty much agree that if you can't get more than 10k to a potentially clinching game that you probably shouldn't have a team

i assume the ticket prices are pretty reasonable

i guess we'll see what their playoff crowds are like

heard their team prez in an interview a week or so ago say any playoff games would definitely be sellouts

If you make millions of dollars and are going to the playoffs, moaning about "the fan base," which actually means the city and surrounding area -- instead of acknowledging those who do pay close attention throughout the season, at the stadium, through radio and/or television -- is really dumb.

Completely disagree.

What is the point in doing that?

If you fill one of those seats, and the players acknowledge the empty ones instead, would that irritate you?

If the Tigers were in a similar situation and some players griped about attendance, it would irritate me. I get to one or two games a year. I can only watch or listen to just about every game and wouldn't think of subjecting the rest of my family to something they do not care about. I'd rather be at home with my wife and kids than at the stadium without them. Besides, my disposable income would not allow me to go to more than a handful of games each season, and I am not the cheering type.

When players complain like that they aren't complaining directly to you, Andy. Teams can't stay competitive without butts in the seat. If you can't fill a house with a winning team in September, that is bad news.

Who cares about wins and losses anymore, the name of the game is ~profitablity~.

That said, Tampa is targeting a payroll cut next year.

just move the goddamn team already

Right -- they're seeing the empty seats instead of the filled seats and are complaining about people who don't care about baseball, don't like the Rays enough to go to a game, don't like the Rays at all, don't like the dump in which the Rays play, etc. That is pointless.

the crowds at the marlins games are almost always super sad & i try and go once every few weeks if i'm home & i'd rather have someone like dan uggla make a plea to fans to show up than "thank" me for showing up sometimes and watching on tv every night

There's attempting to appeal to casual fans, and then there is bitching.

Rays will give away 20,000 free tickets to Wednesday game. Will be available at Trop starting at 4:45. Details to come.

haha lets all go.

san diego is having some attendance issues too.. they had low 20,000s in attendance last night..

the crowds at the marlins games are almost always super sad & i try and go once every few weeks if i'm home & i'd rather have someone like dan uggla make a plea to fans to show up than "thank" me for showing up sometimes and watching on tv every night

OTM. Has there ever been any franchise in which attendance wasn't correlated to the city's overall interest in the team?

I mean, playoff bound teams always see a spike in attendance as the season progresses (if they weren't selling out the stadium already) so Andy unless you're saying that the Rays have stumbled onto a radically new business model for running a successful team, then I don't really get your point.

i will fucking laugh my ass off if the Rays give out 20,000 tickets and only 16,000 people take them up on the offer.

you guys keep taking your eye off the real issue at stake.

PROFIT

I don't care if your team goes to the playoffs or freefalls into the basement, I just want to make sure my favorite team makes the owners rich at the end of the year. That is the true measure of any well-managed baseball team and if you disagree, vaffanculo ya goombahs.

My point is that Longoria and Price could have addressed low attendance with more tact and intelligence.

way to score a run in front of an actual crowd

haha moments like this and the like what 8 times they were no-hit this season will be funny 2 look back on when they win it all

Jason (Sarasota): Does the window of opportunity for the Rays close after the playoffs?

Joe Sheehan: No, because even if you take Pena, Crawford, Soriano and a starting pitcher (Shields or Garza) off the roster, it's a good team. The pressure will really be on that front office to find the low-cost, high-value replacements if Sternberg really does crash the payroll. It's one thing to let the FAs go -- only Crawford might be worth the money -- but if they Huizenga the thing by dumping a starter, Bartlett, et al, then you have a problem.

I really really really like Maddon, he seems like such a cool dude to play for.