The GBT - The Good, The Bad and The Telling sandwich, where The Bad is nice and lean and the The Telling is ripe.
RAYS 7, Twins 5 (boxscore)
THE GOOD: It turns out the Twins were exactly what the Rays and Evan Longoria needed. After the loss on Thursday, it looked like the Rays were destined to lose 3 or 4 of the games in the series. Instead, Longo got hot and maybe as hot as he has ever been. Longoria hit 5 home runs in the series, including 2 on Sunday, and got on base 9 times in 18 plate appearances. But as hot as he was in this series, it actually started before this series. Going back to the Yankees series, Longo has 16 hits, including 6 home runs, in his last 9 games. He has also been on base 19 times in that stretch. In those 9 games alone, his batting average has gone from .254 to .281, his OBP has gone from .302 to .329, and he now ranks 5th in the AL in home runs.
THE BAD: Brandon Guyer is the latest casualty for the Rays, going on the DL with a hamstring injury. Even before that, Guyer had been struggling. He was just 1-22 with 1 walk in his last 5 games before missing a couple of games and then landing on the DL.
THE TELLING: When Brad Boxberger went on the DL, Tim Beckham was called up. Now with Brandon Guyer on the DL, Nick Franklin is back with the Rays for the first time since last fall. On Sunday, Franklin made his 2016 debut with the Rays, walking as a pinch hitter and then playing left field for the first time in his big-league career. Meanwhile, Beckham started both games over the weekend and went 1-7, including 0-3 with 3 strikeouts on Sunday…The Rays are in the middle of a weird stretch where they will not play any AL East foes for about a month. Starting with the Royals series, the Rays have 22 games against teams in other divisions. Next up is the Diamondbacks…The Rays are now 25-30, 7.0 games behind the Orioles and a half-game behind the Yankees for 4th place…[Durham 9, Gwinnett 0] Blake Snell struck out 9 in 6 shutout innings, giving up 5 hits and 3 walks. His ERA is now 3.14. Johnny Field (his first) and Dayron Varona (7th) both went deep for the Bulls.
THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…
- The sad story of Carl Crawford continues as has been put on waivers by the Dodgers and will likely be released. He still has $35 million remaining on that monster contract he signed with the Red Sox. As for any possible reunion with the Rays, it won’t happen. Crawford blames the turf for downward direction of his career. [MLBTR]
- Marc Topkin suggests a few ways the Rays can shake things up, starting with something we have been asking for for a while, either cutting or demoting Desmond Jennings. [TampaBay.com]
- Here is a video report from Rays consigliere Ken Rosenthal in which he says the Rays could trade Steve Pearce before the deadline. [Fox Sports]
- Five members of the Charlotte Stone Crabs have been named to the FSL All-Star team. [Josh Vitale]
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With Franklin's promotion that means three weak hitting, sub .200 middle infielders are on the roster at one time. That doesn't bode well.
Truly a wonderful example of Boy Wonder Friedman's baseball acumen both through the trade (Franklin) and the draft (Beckham and Motter). Meanwhile back on other ranches, Jaso, Vogt, SRod, Kazmir, Chirinos, Karns, Dietrich, and others are playing well enough to help their teams win. Oh shoot, forgot to mention that guy named Price. Thanks Andy.
This is a bit unfair. He actually traded Kazmir for Srod. He also did not trade Karns. I guess he does not get credit for drafting Longo, Price, Moore, or KK? How about both Garza trades, those were both major wins. Or Zobrist for Huff. Sure wish he had signed CC and Upton to long term deals that would have put us over the top.
Ohhhhhhh---I don't know 'bout Upton. Had Crawford remained with the Ray, the back half of his career may have turned out much better, but not his bank account.
It is incredible that Souza is still performing well overall while striking out in 36% of his plate appearances. Something has to give.
Souza is the most feast or famine player I have seen in a long time, maybe ever. And not just at the plate -- his defense too. It features a number of insane catches, some nice throws and then pratfalls that make him look like he's never played outfield before. He runs well but takes bad routes. He reminds me of -- don't shoot me here -- Bo Jackson.
Career Bo: .250/.309/.474/.784 K's at 35%
2016 Souza: .259/.324/.466/.789 K's at 36%
Reminds me of this: https://youtu.be/eB9wi_zvMdM
Rays have only 3 batters hitting over .200 in the starting lineup tonight.
Archer is a mess.