THE PETER GOLENBLOG

The Younger Alternative to Wagner now a Ray ?

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 19:41:06 -0500

The Rays didn't get Billy Wagner, but it appears they are about to announce the signing of a younger, equally talented closer in Rafael Soriano, who last year saved 27 games for the Atlanta Braves, the team that picked up Wagner. More than any other acquisition, this was a master stroke for Andrew Friendman and his team of talent evaluators. Now, for the first time since Troy Percival got hurt, the Rays have someone who can come into the game in the ninth inning and blow away the oppostion. Can Soriano bring a pennant back to Tampa Bay? The possibility now is there. Last year the team won 84 games despite a miserable start and a mid-season eleven game losing streak.  JP Howell, who blew ten saves, can go back to doing what he does best, get batters out in the 7th and 8th, and with the young kid Jake McGee coming up and Grant Balfour still throwing heat, it appears that Dan Wheeler just might be the odd man out of a very talented bullpen.
     There are two huge questions that need to be answered: Is BJ Upton Rickey Henderson or is he the marginal hitter he was last year? And who is going to catch? Dioner Navarro, as sweet a guy as he is, appears headed somewhere else in order to give Kelly Shoppach a shot at the job. Shoppach, who started in the Boston organization, is a better hitter and better receiver than Navarro, but last year slumped so bad that his numbers were worse than Dioner's. Who to keep and who to let go? There is no easy answer.
      Finally, what to do with Pat Burrell, who has joined Ben Grieve and Vinnie Castilla as those most often cited as "the worst Ray of all time." Grieve, who looked at more called strikes than any batter in history and never uttered a word or made a facial expression in disgust, and Castilla, who came to the Rays and decided to make as many errors as he could and strike out as often as he could in order to get his ass traded somewhere else, were horrible. Burrell, who hit thirty home runs four years in a row before coming to Tampa Bay, struck out as often as Grieve for his $8 million, hit fourteen home runs, drove in sixty, batted crappy, and was a downer in the clubhouse. Reports of his drunken behavior did not sit well with the front office either, which is why the Rays would consider trading him for Milton Bradley, the second-most disruptive player in baseball. Bradley can switch hit, and he's not a bad outfielder. Burrell was too slow to play the outfield, which is why the Rays made him a DH. And as a DH, he was a dismal failure. If the Rays had batted anyone else at DH, they'd have won five or six more games.
      The Yankees front office is allowing GM Brian Cashman to work his magic, and the savvy Cashman just traded for and signed the talented Curtis Granderson to lead off, keeping Derek Jeter in the second spot. The only way the Yankees don't repeat is if their older players are hit with injuries. Andy Pettitte signed for $11 million to return for another year. Damon and/or Matsui, two older players, might be back. The Yankees have to figure out what to do with Jorge Posada, a star for years but now an injury-prone liability behind the plate. Look for them to sign one of the Molinas.
       The Red Sox with Theo Epstein at the helm are equally cagey. They just traded Mike Lowell, a stalward, and seem about to sign Beltre formerly of the Seattle Mariners. Roy Halliday and John Lackey, two pitchers the Rays can't afford, are still out there, and the addition of one of them will make the Red Sox very difficult to catch.
       If the Rays were in either the Central or the West, they'd be considered as favorites (with the Angels), but in the East the question remains, as it does every year: can the Rays catch the Yankees or the Red Sox with a salary a third of the other two teams? With Rafael Soriano at the back of their pen, the answer is: if no one gets hurt, yeah, maybe they can.

Wagner on Rays Radar ?

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:30:30 -0500

I’m very excited. I was reading the sports wire, and I saw that the Rays are one of the teams who have expressed interest in signing free agent Billy Wagner. He's just what the team needs, an experienced guy who can close out games. The Rays let Aki go, saving themselves a bunch of money, and for the team to have any chance at all to catch New York or Boston, they are going to need to be able to finish games. As it stands no one on the roster can do that with the exception of David Price, and I doubt if the Rays want to take him from the rotation. Jake McGee, the kid in the minors who the experts say has the stuff to close, should have a couple of years as the set-up guy before being handed such an important job.
There is also talk that the Mets are talking to the Rays about signing Pat Burrell, who started the season with a stiff neck and finished it with a flaccid bat. Burrell is your quintessential National League. He can't field worth a lick, and he sure can't hit American League pitching. If the Rays can figure out some way to gull the overpriced, hapless Mets into taking Burrell, they should do it, and after they do it, they should go out and get drunk.
Meanwhile, Carl Crawford will be a Ray for at least one more season. CC has been the heart of this franchise for a long time, and even though he speaks with marbles in his mouth and has never found a way to get the fans warm up to him, he is still the best player the Rays have ever had. If BJ Upton can hit .250, the tandem of Crawford and Upton should produce a lot of runs this year.

These Yankee Free Agents not Like The Bad Old Days ...

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:10:20 -0400

A lot of people are chortling because former Rays cover boy Scott Kazmir contributed to the Angels' 5-2 loss in the final game of the ALCS against the Yankees. I don't share their glee. The Angels got into the playoffs because they went out and added to their roster -- Kazmir pitched well for them down the stretch -- while the Rays didn't do enough to improve. Gregg Zaun was a nice addition, but he wasn't a game changer like Cliff Lee, who was swiped from the Indians by the Philadelphia Phillies. The Phils also signed Pedro Martinez in a risky move that seems to have paid off. Pedro won an important game for the Phils during the playoffs. Look for Pedro to pitch against the Yankees in the series.
The Yankees are in the World Series in part because George Steinbrenner no longer is making his hair-brained personnel decisions over the objections of Brian Cashman. The Yanks are still spending the same extravagant amount of money, but in the post-George era they are getting quality players for their money. From the point of view of a Rays fan, I hate to think what the Yanks' $400 million a year advantage from the profits of the YES Network will bring. A trade for Roy Halladay next year? The acquisition of Zack Greinke after he becomes a free agent? There's talk John Lackey, who is a horse of a pitcher, wants $20 million a year. What if the Yankees end up with a starting rotation of C.C. Sabathia, A.J. Burnett, Halladay, Geinke, and Lackey? What if the Yankees win 140 games in a season? Will there be an outcry? Will anybody listen or care?
I remember when researching Dynasty, my book about the Yankees during the Casey Stengel era, fans from around the country screamed bloody murder about the Yankees' buying pennants. In the 1950s the Yankees one year bought Johnny Mize from the Giants, another year Enos Slaughter from the Cards, and another year Jim Konstanty from the Phils. Later the Yankees developed a very cosy relationship with the Kansas City A's. stealing their best players like Roger Maris, Clete Boyer, and Ryne Duren in exchange for second-stringers. The baseball world howled then. But that howling won't be anything compared to the howling that will arise once everyone sees how wisely the Yankees are spending their many millions. As long as the Yankees paid millions for washed up players like Steve Trout, John Mayberry, and Dave Collins few complained. How many millions were given to Carl Pavano for only a handful of wins? But those days are over. With the addition of C.C. Sabathia, A.J. Burnett, and Mark Teixiera, the Yankees demonstrated that dollars can turn into wins. Look out, American League. This could really get ugly.

Come on Stu Compared to Health Care Reform Getting a Catcher is a Piece of Cake !

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 18:16:38 -0400

The Red Sox this past week showed us just how far the Tampa Bay Rays are from returning to the playoffs. The Sox had bolstered their team in August by adding catcher/first baseman/hitter extraordinaire Victor Martinez, relief star Billy Wagner, defensive whiz at first base Casey Kotchman, and a fine defensive shortstop in Alex Gonzalez, and it still wasn't enough for the Sox to defeat the California Angels, who had better starting pitching and better clutch hitting. The Sox must now decide whether David Ortiz at age 34 is too old to be their clean up hitter, and whether to empty their coffers to re-sign the productive Jason Bay, who should have been a Ray two Augusts ago. They are also faced with having to decide on Josh Beckett, who had a great first half but faded down the stretch.
       Having said that, the Red Sox are still a heck of a lot better off than the Rays, who need to decide what to do with a centerfielder who hits .220, a catcher who can't hit at all, and an $8 million dollar designated hitter who was so bad that if the Rays wanted to give him away, it's hard to imagine anyone would take him. Making things worse, Pat the Bat is a bad actor who has pissed off management. If the Rays did give him away, I, for one, wouldn't be surprised. Adding to the Rays woes: their bench is terrible, and they don't have a closer, the one factor more than any other that cost the team a shot at a wild card spot.
       The purchase of Greg Zaun made Dioner Navarro's nose dive less problematic, but Zaun is 38 years old and can't catch every day, as much as we'd like him to. Management expressed it's hopes and prayers that Navarro would return to his All Star form of two years ago, but you don't win pennants on hopes and dreams. The Rays need to get themselves a reliable catcher who can hit .250. The Angels have two, Mathis and Napoli. Maybe Andy Friedman can pry one of them loose. If he can't, the pitchers better step up and hold teams under three runs each game, because we'll never score with four .220 hitters in our line up like we had last year. (Carlos Pena was the other one.)
       The centerfield problem is more easily solved. The Rays last year traded starter Edwin Jackson to the Detroit Tigers for outfield phenom Matt Joyce. The kid can hit, hit with power, run, and throw. But this year he didn't get to play. The team chose to go with its Gabe platoon -- Gross and Kapler -- two fine men, but journeymen players, and production suffered. It is expected that Joyce will be the Rays' starting right fielder next year, if he doesn't end up in center. The Rays also have their poet laureate Fernando Perez, but Perez, who is injury-prone, is a far better wordsmith than hitter. He appears to be a bench player at best. If by chance the Rays do trade BJ Upton, Joyce could go to center, and once again the two Gabes would play in right.
        I am at a loss at why the Rays wouldn't spend an extra $5 mil to buy a closer. Without one, the team will lose that much money in lost season ticket sales. Everyone is totally pissed off that the Rays sent fan favorite Scott Kazmir to the Angels in the middle of the pennant race. And when JP Howell blew eleven games, everyone waited -- in vain -- for the Rays to shore up the pen. Now we are being told that a rookie named Jake McGee is going to be the closer next year. He has a great name, but good luck with that. Let's see. The Twins have Joe Nathan. The Yankees have Mariano Rivera. The Red Sox have Jonathan Papelbon (who suddenly developed Grant Balfour disease throwing twenty straight fastballs to lose to the Angels in the final playoff game.)   Can Jake McGee do what those other guys can do? Will Rays fans rush out to buy season tickets on that possibility?   Don't count on it.
        Once again Rays management made it clear towards the end of the season that the reason the Rays can't afford to buy a closer -- or anyone else -- is the fault of us fans. Even though attendance was up 30 percent, that didn't satisfy ownership. After one good year Rays fans wanted attendance doubled. Sorry boys. That's not how it works. You're going to have to build your fan base slowly. After ten crappy years of Devil Rays baseball, the Rays have very skeptical fans. We feel about Rays management the way Republicans feel about Barack Obama -- that talk is greater than action.   Making excuses for why management doesn't do something doesn't cut it with anyone. You traded two excellent starting pitchers, Edwin Jackson and Jason Hammel, for minor leaguers. Try trading your top kids in the minors for major leaguers. That's what Detroit did when they acquired Edwin Jackson and Aubrey Huff. And that still wasn't good enough to get them into the playoffs.  The shortstop kid Brignac looks pretty good. Trade him and a pitching prospect for a closer. It's what you could have done when Jason Bay became available two years ago. There's a kid pitcher closing in San Diego named Heath Bell. Trade for him. Trade for Billy Wagner. Trade for anyone with experience who can get people out in the ninth inning.
         There are no greater fans in the world than Rays fans. We go to all the games. We have endured Esteban Yan, Jesus Colome, Vinnie Castilla, Juan Guzman, Casey Fossum, and even the utterly deplorable Ben Grieve.   We have put up with Chuck Lamar's trades, and Vince Namoli's tirades. We have watched as Larry Rothschild, Hal McRae, and Lou Pinella managed teams that were never able to win more than 70 games in a season, not hard to do when the owner was taking all the profits and the millions in salary tax money and putting it all into his pocket. And then in 2008 the Rays went to the World Series. No one will ever forget that year. There were actually two World Series games at Tropicana Field!
          But fans being fans, we are no longer satisfied with finishing third to the Yankees and the Red Sox. We want to be competitive. We want to be able to win 90 games again. But we need a catcher who can hit, and a reliable closer in order to be able to compete. And we don't want to hear that the reason we can't have those players is because the Rays don't have enough money to get them. And we certainly don't want to hear that the reason the Rays don't have enough money is that not enough fans turn out for games. Prove to us that 2008 isn't a fluke, and the fans will turn out in droves. Barack Obama will need to come through on health care, global warming reform, and Afghanistan is he's going to be considered a success. Stuart Sternberg need only get us a catcher who can hit and a closer. Compared to what Obama has to do, it's not too much to ask.

Stupid is as Stupid Does...

Wed, 7 Oct 2009 16:25:18 -0400

The season is over, and as I suspected back in April, the Rays were able to have a winning season, but they were not able to do better than either the Yankees or the Red Sox. And the reason for that: when Billy Wagner was put on waivers by the Mets and made available, even though Wagner was the answer to our prayers, Stewart Sternberg and Andy Friedman determined that the team couldn't afford the one guy who could bring us (and them) a wild card spot. Then the Indians made Victor Martinez available. Martinez is a quality bat, something the Rays desperately needed, but Sternberg and Friedman determined they couldn't afford to sign him. After the Rays passed on both of these players, the Boston Red Sox signed them both, and Wagner and Martinez helped lead the Red Sox to the promised land.
   Now I read in the paper today that because of attendance (which has increased dramatically), the Rays cannot afford to buy a closer for next year.
   Okay, we're rooting for a team that can't compete financially with the Red Sox and Yankees. And if we as fans don't show up in large numbers to watch a team that is consigned to third place, it's OUR FAULT we're in the mess we're in. Sorry, I don't buy it. If you can't compete, find another investor so you can. Rush Limbaugh is trying to buy the St. Louis Cardinal football team. He's rich. Go get him to invest. My guess is that Glenn Beck is looking for some sports action. Get him as a partner.
    Another suggestion: instead of spending money to start a franchise in some shitty professional football league that won't last two seasons, take that money and buy a closer. You guys must think we're stupid. The truth is, we are stupid. We live in St. Pete, and we're not going to root for anyone else, and you know it. We'll buy the tickets and watch our nice, sweet little team in our comfy little bandbox struggle, while the Yankees and Red Sox go to the post season. There are worse fates. We could be Bucs, Lightning, or FSU fans.