The GBT - The Good, The Bad and The Telling sandwich, where The Bad is nice and lean and the The Telling is ripe.
RAYS 11, Rockies 3 (boxscore)
THE GOOD: Have yourself a day, Tim Beckham! Beckham went 5-5 as the Rays crushed the Rockies for the second-straight day. If you want to poo-poo it a little bit, three of the hits were groundballs and only one of those reached the outfield. Two of the hits came on jam-shots, one a little roller to third base and one a looper to right field. But, the counter-argument is that he doesn’t go 5-5 without good bat speed and good running speed. Bat speed makes the field bigger. That is, defenders cover less ground because the ball is traveling faster and they have less time to stop a ball from getting by them. So when Beckham gets a ground ball past the shortstop that is because of bat speed. At the same time, Beckham is not a great base stealer, but he does have foot speed. And the two infield basehits only happen because the fielders have less time to make the play at first base (on one the fielder didn’t even try to get Beckham). And then on the fifth hit we saw the real bat speed when he hit a ball to the opposite field off the wall. We have said it before, Beckham has the skills to be a very good Major Leaguer. He just needs more consistency and more solid contact. He may never get there, but it is enough already that we get teased with occasional games like this.
THE BAD: I always hate doing “The Bad” on days like this. Why go sour when good wins like this are so rare? So, let me just say this. The last time the Rays scored 10+ runs in back-to-back games we have to go all the way back to May 16 and 17 against the Blue Jays. The Rays improved to 18-19 and looked like they were straightening things out and we were sure they were ready to go on a good run. Instead, the Rays lost 11 of their next 15 games. So we need to see a little more. Oh yeah, and Rays catchers went 0-6 with 2 Ks yesterday. Curt Casali also illustrates my point about Tim Beckham. This ball is arguably hit better than 4 of Beckham’s hits and yet Casali is out by 15 feet. Why? Because he has the speed of a three-legged sloth after Thanksgiving dinner.
THE TELLING: Over his last 59 games, Evan Longoria is hitting .323 with 16 home runs and 36 runs driven in. That would be .323 with 43 home runs and 99 RBI over a full season…Alex Cobb has been shut down to deal with fatigue and mechanical issues. We have been warning about this all season, but the idea of him returning “after the All-Star break” (which is what was being said in March and April) was always overly optimistic. Now we have to wonder if Cobb is going to lose a second full season, having not pitched a regular season game since 2014…[Rochester 6, Durham 2] Jacob Faria gave up 6 runs, including 2 home runs, in 5 innings. Nick Franklin went 2-4. Hank Conger was 0-4 with 2 Ks.
THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…
- No big surprise here, but a lot of Yankees fans in New York have jumped off the bandwagon and are now following the Mets. [BI Sports]
- Roger Mooney caught up with former Rays pitcher Dewon Brazelton. [TampaBay.com]
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The answer is clear. We need to move the Rays to Coors Field!
I get that Coors Field is huge and the thin air makes balls fly farther, but it seemed to me like the Rays were just having way more comfortable ABs than in most games. Wondering if it was mental because they knew where they were playing?
Here is an interesting article on Wil Myers improvement this year. If you don't want to read it, it basically shows that he is hitting the ball to all fields, and is especially taking pitches away and out of the zone to right field. The article also mentions he is healthy for the first time. It doesn't mention the fact that he now has a different hitting coach, so I will.