Drew Smyly
RAYS (Off day)
THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…
- John Jaso became the 9th player the Rays have placed on the DL. Mikie Mahtook, a first round pick in the 2011 draft, has been called up for his big league debut. Mahtook has always reminded me of a bigger Sam Fuld, a decent hitter with good speed and a completely reckless abandon in the field.
- Reliever Steve Geltz will start tonight’s game in Miami. With the extra reliever on the staff, the Rays may view this as an opportunity to just avoid having the pitcher hit tonight or at least try to minimize the number of times the pitcher hits.
- MLB games are 11 minutes faster this year so far. [BI Sports]
- DOWN on the FARM [Boxscores]: Yesterday was opening day for the Rays’ top 4 minor league affiliates. In triple-A, Ryan Brett went 0-4 with a strikeout. Mikie Mahtook was also 0-4 with a K. Hak-Ju Lee went 0-3 with 2 strikeouts. In double-A, Daniel Robertson went 0-4 with 2 strikeouts. Boog Powell went 3-4 with a walk. Richie Shaffer was 0-3 with a walk and 3 strkeouts. Justin O’Conner had a pair of singles in 4 ABs. Andrew Velazquez had 2 singles for Charlotte and Willy Adames went 0-3 with a walk. After Drew Smylypitched 2 scoreless innings, Blake Snell came in and threw 6 shutout innings with 10 Ks and no walks. He gave up just 3 hits. Casey Gillaspie went 0-4 with 2 strikeouts for Bowling Green and Justin Williams was 0-4 with 2 Ks. Nick Ciuffo had 2 singles. Brent Honeywell gave up 1 run in 4 innings with 6 strikeouts.
- Drew Smyly pitched 2 scoreless innings for the Charlotte Stone Crabs in a rehab start.
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14 Comments
Gee whiz, Cork. Bulls pitchers threw a three-hit shutout and all you can see is the 0-fors?.
I totally understand the concept of having Geltz start, but I'm not convinced that I like it.
If Andriese and/or Erasmo are on the roster as starters and Geltz is a reliever they should be used as such (or at least 1 of them). If you don't trust them (the starters) to start then they should either be bullpen guys or not taking up space.
On the other side of the coin, I don't hate the idea of creating a pseudo-DH scenario where they just pinch hit the pitcher as often as possible. I'm just not seeing why they wouldn't start a starter and pinch hit him then use a reliever as opposed to putting a reliever as starter and a starter as a reliever.
I think Geltz will only be pitching until his spot in the batting order comes up, which would be a max of 2 innings on the road. Once his spot comes up in the top of the 2nd or top of the 3rd, I expect to see a pinch hitter.
I get that, but I'm still not sure why you don't start a starter with the same end in mind as opposed to starting a reliever.
Seems to me that the concept is go ahead and use the reliever initially, PH right away, then go to one of the starters in long relief. That way, you increase the odds you're working with a lead through 4-5 ABs when the pitchers spot comes up the second time and might be comfortable letting an Andriese hit once in the middle of the game.
If the starter pitched two innings and looked strong, you might have a tendency to leave him in. By starting a reliever you have already made your decision up front that you are pinch hitting the first time he comes up to bat.
The Erasmo thing is odd. He's nominally a starter, but I figured we were going to make him a reliever... otherwise, why go get him so late in camp? Not a lot of sense in spending resources just to get a couple of early-seasons starts out of a guy.
And if he is a reliever, then he was never in line to start this thing anyway... or maybe he's the long-relief guy tonight, after Geltz gets 2 innings in...
Looks like it totally blew up in his face.
I think Kevin Cash just wanted to beat Madden at some off the wall manager move. Why didn't JoeMa think of this last year???
Looks like it totally blew up in his face.
In this organization, is a Kevin Cash solely responsible for choosing a nightly lineup and starter? Or is it more a collaborative effort?
My own personal guess is that he gets it handed down from the FO and throughout the season will have grater input as he gets to know the club.
The computer "Hal" does most of the work.
They are actually planning on having "Hal" do the post-game interviews.
Fwiw, Souza should take a chill pill thrice a day. Relax. Forego the deer-in-the-headlights look in your eyes.
In the words of the great philosopher, Joe Maddon... "You belong here". There. With the MLB team.
Here is my questions:
Mikie Mahtook as the call up. I like Mahtook but if you are trying to piece together innings with relievers, why not bring another arm up. Do we need six outfielders on the roster?
Why pitch to Stanton in the eight?
If you are going to employ the bullpen approach, why not do it on Wednesday so you have the off day for recovery? Now you have used almost everyone and are looking at a 10 game stretch without a day off. Hope we get 7 out of Arch today.
They knew this was going to be an issue with 10 days left in spring training. This was the "best" bad idea they could come up with?