SB Nation User Blog: PriceMultiCyYoungs

Bye-Bye Joe Magrane...you will be missed.

PriceMultiCyYoungs — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 13:51:50 -0000

Bye-Bye Joe Magrane...you will be missed.

I'm very happy he'll be apart of MLB Network but he'll be missed around here on game days.

FUCKING AWESOME

PriceMultiCyYoungs — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 17:14:17 -0000

FUCKING AWESOME

Not that anyone needed anymore excitement for the launch of MLB TV but now REALLY fired up for 1/1/2009

Spring Training

PriceMultiCyYoungs — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 12:37:43 -0000

Spring Training

Does anyone know/think that Spring Training tickets will be hard to get in 2009 with the new stadium and city? I'm trying to decide if a depost may be smart. Also, it would be cool if we had some type of running clock on this site counting down to the three best words in the world "Pitchers and Catchers" My two cents.

Is Maddon being too smart for Rays good?

PriceMultiCyYoungs — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 15:21:42 -0000

This is per Rob Neyer's blog on ESPN. It's for Insiders only so I'll cut and paste whole text...

Game 4 wound up being a laugher, with the Phillies crushing the Rays in an October edition of Home Run Derby. But the first three games were close, and any of them might have been determined by the managers. Color Mitchel Lichtman unimpressed. A sample:

It might just be my perception, but the likely winner of the AL manager of the year, Joe Maddon, and the NL manager who will probably receive a few votes, Charlie Manuel, are just butchering the game, on an almost inning-by-inning basis.

Let's forget about the games in the past. They have been aptly analyzed by the good folks here and on other web sites. I'll focus only on last night's game, Game 3 of the World Series. That will give me plenty of fodder.

Let's start in the AL manager's office before the game, while he is sitting down and contemplating his lineup, or perhaps just throwing darts at the wall. Let's see, a lefty pitcher on the mound in Jamie Moyer, who doesn't have a huge career platoon split, but a conventional split nonetheless. Hmmm. Last game I started my right-handed batter Rocco Baldelli (I am not sure he should be playing at all -- he does not look well to me, but that's another story) against a right-handed starting pitcher, so what the heck, I'll start my lefty batter against a lefty pitcher. It is better to be consistent than right, right? Don't dare peek at Greg Gross' splits. You might be "Gross'd" out. He is positively anemic against lefty pitchers, not that he plays much against them -- so you never know.

Here's Maddon's explanation for starting Gross against Moyer in Game 4:

Maddon conceded the decision to start Gross did not come easy.

"I really was pondering that one a lot," Maddon said. "Again, it's versus Jamie Moyer, the left-handed situation. You look at Jamie -- I've known him for years -- you look at our right-handed hitters versus him, you look at our left-handed hitters against him. Believe me, that one I went back and forth with a lot. I was not comfortable making that decision until I really let it stir a bit."

Gross' swing turned out to be one of the deciding factors.

"The swing path where Jamie likes to throw the ball, I felt Gabe was the best matchup with him, even over our right-handed hitters tonight," Maddon said. "So we chose to go in that direction, and that's quite frankly the reasons.

"Again, not trying to get too smart, but when we have so many options, almost too many options, like in right field, we could go [with] either Ben [Zobrist] or Fernando [Perez] or Rocco [Baldelli], and of course Gabe, and the other guys being right-handed, it looks like you might go that way. For those of you that have watched Jamie pitch in the past, sometimes it might be better left-handed."

I don't know a swing path from a cowpath. But if starting Gabe Gross against Jamie Moyer isn't "trying to get too smart," then what exactly is it?

I think I would like Joe Maddon if I spent some time with him. I appreciate his creativity and his intelligence, and he's certainly one of the more interesting men managing in the majors today. But managers have been looking to gain the platoon advantage for a long, long time, and there's a pretty good reason for it. I think Lichtman is mostly wrong when he says Moyer has a "conventional" career platoon split; Moyer has actually given up slightly more to left-handed hitters than right-handed hitters over his entire career. But Gabe Gross? He's a lifetime .148 hitter against lefties. Granted, that's only 122 at-bats and Gross can't really be that bad. Also granted: Maybe there's something going on that we don't know about.

But usually the game isn't really so complicated. Fernando Perez and Ben Zobrist are both subpar hitters. If there's a lefty starting, Baldelli should almost always start. If a righty, then Gross should start. Stray far from that formula -- as Maddon has, almost completely -- and you're wide open to charges of trying to get too smart. And it's really hard to outsmart the game at this point, after more than a century.

The Rays have been outplayed to this point. Obviously. And as Lichtman points out, Charlie Manuel hasn't exactly covered himself in tactical glory, either. (Does Pedro Feliz really have to keep hitting against right-handed pitchers?) But it's Maddon's team on the verge of getting knocked out quicker than most of us imagined. So it's Maddon who's going to be second-guessed if that happens.

What do you guys think?

Bullpen

PriceMultiCyYoungs — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 12:16:49 -0000

I really hate to second guess Joe Maddon, I can't complain with much of what he has done this year. Which is why I will not second guess him....the below complaints are things I was yelling at the TV WHILE it was happening.

1. Why did he not bring Kazmir back out for the 7th? I know it was a long half inning but I'm sure he would have been fine. Give him the quick hook if needed.

2. I did not think Balfour should have been in the game. He is a extremely emotional person. I think he was not 100% focused with that lead.

3. My choice at the time was to biring Price in to start the 7th. Price would have been 100% focused because of the point in his career, he's trying to establish himself and would have treated that inning like the bottom of the 9th with a 1 run lead.

4. Why did he stick with Wheeler so long? He should have went to Howell a bit earlier and used his whole pen the rest of the way. Match-ups.

5. When did we sign Raul Ibanez to play RF? Johnny Damon thinks that was a great throw home by him in the 8th. (I'm not saying Gross is bad, just had a bad night)

Peter Gammons said he had no idea why Nado was not in RF the last 2-3 innings as he is a much better defender than Gross...maybe, but nobody doubted Gross with the golve before nor do I think they should now. I'm not worried.

This was NOT us being tense and letting the pressure to finish them off get to us. We OWNED them the last three games, bullpen just coughed it up.

Nothing more to it. It happens.

We'll get it done on Saturday. Big Game James is better than Beckett this postseason.

Last, please avoid all National Media today... all you will hear is how the Rays are done and the big bad Sawx are going to win in seven.

Rays Among Top 10 Most Likely To Relocate In All of Professional Sports

PriceMultiCyYoungs — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 14:07:04 -0000

Rays Among Top 10 Most Likely To Relocate In All of Professional Sports

"...even a World Series championship is unlikely to save baseball in Tampa."

Ticket Lottery

PriceMultiCyYoungs — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 12:06:50 -0000

Ticket Lottery

Dies anyone know when the game 6 and 7 ticket lottery is or when the selection emails go out? And do you need to re-register for this drawing or are previous entries kept for this drawing?

My Story From Game 1

PriceMultiCyYoungs — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 17:17:14 -0000

So there I am, sitting in the LF seats with my girlfriend and just my luck I'm sitting next to a handful of Boston Fans.

These are EXACTLY what you would think Boston fans would be. Meatheads in their jean shorts and freshly purchased Boston Jerseys...all with matching "B" tats on their forearms. And just to top it off, there all had matching gold chains.

Fast forward to middle of the 7th inning and I have several 24 oz beers from Ferg's in me from before the game and a few more $8 Trop beers (in a smaller glass than usual by the way) and I notice that we do not have 1 god damn hit against Dice-K. Normally this is something I'm very aware of but after said beers it does not sink in...also having men on base often throws me off too.

I think to myself, what can I do to help break this fucking no hitter up? Well, I'm pretty sure at this point that the douche bag Sawx fans in the jorts and gold chains don't know that you DO NOT talk about the no hitter while its happening. So I say to the chump "Holy shit, Dice-K is throwing a no-hitter, I didn't even realize that."

Hook. Line. Sinker.

Him and all his tool box buddies then start yelling at the Rays fans in front of us that they had been jawing with all game..."Hey buddy, I dont think you guys have any hits yet, Dice-K is throwing a no hitter...HAHAHAHAHA"

In steps CC I believe, no hitter gone right after he opened his big Irish mouth.

If i could have rec'd myself right there I would have. Credit goes to me.

The New Rayhawk

PriceMultiCyYoungs — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 17:58:26 -0000

The New Rayhawk

WTF?

Friedman Gets Some Love....Finally

PriceMultiCyYoungs — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 12:11:33 -0000

Friedman Gets Some Love....Finally

Any chance of another team trying to take him from us? Philly? Seattle?

"Such is life for Friedman, 31, the Rays' impossibly young, impressively accomplished director of baseball operations. Every move seems to work. He is Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius. He is Young Sherlock Holmes. He is Monty Hall, and every move seems to be the Big Deal of the Day."