The GBT - The Good, The Bad and The Telling sandwich, where The Bad is nice and lean and the The Telling is ripe.
Royals 3, RAYS 0 (boxscore)
THE GOOD: The Rays looked like they were going to get no-hit last night. That they did not is good, I guess. Desmond Jennings led of the 9th inning with a double. That led to this tweet from the Rays’ official account. This is good social media.
We doubled off Duffy.
— Tampa Bay Rays (@RaysBaseball) August 2, 2016
THE BAD: The Rays got 1 hit and it didn’t some until the 8th inning. There was some speculation that the Rays were just suffering from a trade deadline hangover. But that’s BS. For one, 90% of the trade speculation dealt with the pitchers and the one hitter that kept coming up (Steve Pearce) was gone. Also, nobody was hitting Danny Duffy last night. He struck out a Royals record 16 batters and even that doesn’t do justice to just how good he was. The Rays swung-and-missed 35 times. That ties the MLB high for swing-and-misses by a pitcher in the last 15 years. The only other pitcher to do that was a guy named Clayton Kershaw. He’s pretty good at the throwing baseball thing. Also, the Rays swung-and-missed 35 times even though they only swung the bats 60 times. That’s a 58.3% swing-and-miss rate. That’s the highest by any pitcher (min. 100 pitches) in the last 15 years.
THE TELLING: Chris Archer deserved a better fate, but he lost and is now 5-15 with 11-12 starts to go…Taylor Motter and Ryan Garton have been called up to take the spots of traded players…Matt Andriese will take Matt Moore’s spot in the rotation, but Matt Silverman says others will get startshttp://www.tampabay.com/sports/baseball/rays/andriese-first-choice-to-fill-moores-spot-in-rays-rotation/2287746…[Norfolk 3, Durham 0] Justin Marks gave up 3 runs in 7 innings with 5 Ks and 1 walk. The Bulls managed just 4 hits.
THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…
- Matt Silverman on the Rays’ deadline deals: “If you take a snapshot of our system today compared to yesterday, we’re in much better shape.” So there you have it. Better farm system, still not good MLB team. [TampaBay.com]
- SBNation calls the Rays one of the “Winners” at the trade deadline. [SBNation]
- Big League Stew writes that the Giants paid a lot for Matt Moore. [Yahoo Sports]
- Giants fans seem sad that Matt Duffy is gone. Several threads on Reddit have some form of “please take care of Duffy!” [Reddit]
- Here is a little more on the players the Rays picked up at the deadline. [TampaBay.com]
- I have given a lot of nicknames to Rays players over the years. It was mostly just for our own sh*ts and giggles and for use around here, never expecting any of them to stick. So I was a bit surprised to see one of the first nicknames I ever came up with is still being used. Back in 2006 I called Carl Crawford “The Perfect Storm” because there were rumors of him being traded and I said it wouldn’t happen because he is young, talented, and cheap, The Perfect Storm. Ten years later, Crawford is none of those things anymore, and yet his nickname lives on at places like Baseball Reference and Wikipedia. Weird.
Here is a highlight video a fan made of Matt Duffy.
(0)Dislikes
(1)
12 Comments
It's not the fact of "another pitcher" being traded as much as it's "another pitcher" for question marks, or as they say "prospects", more IF prospects. We traded 3 starting players for prospects when a Catcher Jonathan Lucroy will make less then Matty, bats 300, and grew up in Orlando, but yet we continue playing "framing" catchers that bat 100 in the 9 hole! Our bullpen still sucks, no power bats, no LF, and Wil Myers is fantasy player ranking 10th best so far this year, 10th best, Souza's NOT even in the top 200! Oh, and Zorilla & Wade Davis is All-Stars again! What are we doing?
Well, at least "the Perfect Storm" didn't rain us out...
Had a no trade clause. Has a team option for $5.25mil next season, then the contract is up. You think we can resign him? He was a rental for 1.5 seasons. Do you think the Rays have a realistic shot at fielding a strong playoff team this season or next season?
Yes we need a catcher and I wish they would get one, but Lucroy is/was not the guy to get based on our current situation.
Let's just hope Nick Ciuffo or Justin O'Conner, 2 of their last 10 1st rd draft picks, pan out...
The Rays have no shot at contention for the next 5 years or longer. Longo goes this off season or gets sold on the cheap by next July, Souza and Dickerson can't field and can't hit same sided pitching. There's no empirical evidence that Duffy can play short. Logan is gone by next July, so is Cobb. KK has yet to prove he can hit. Their Milb system is in shambles. The front office will continually suppress salaries thus losing attendance. But...the owners will still fill their coffers from revenue sharing and TV money.
It has always been "next man up" even though we still had our core. Now that everyone but Longo is gone, I'm starting to think they should just cut the cord...
Tank and get a top 3 pick, trade Longo to Dodgers for more high-end prospects, AND announce the new stadium plans, like the Braves are doing, develop prospects, and go into a new ballpark in a few years fresh?
With the clock winding down in 2014 mid season trading period the Rays traded a franchise corner stone for a back of the rotation starter, a mediocre middle in fielder and a Milb SS with "upside". I heavily criticized the trade. It was panic driven. Apologist Rays fan stated too early to judge as Adames is our SS of the future. Notably the mastermind of that trade jumped ship once the season was over.
2015 comes and goes with the Rays remaining an incomplete, mediocre team with a lousy offense, injuried starters and a 80-82 record. Oh yeah, we shipped out Zorilla for the next great SS in Daniel Robertson.
Then that winter we trade for yet another SS in Brad Miller. Miller, after a rough start, has a very productive 1/2 year at the plate but can't field.
So, what to do? Wait on Robertson? Nah. Wait on Adames? Nah. We trade a highly sought after LH starter for (drum roll please) another SS, though he's not played there in MLB, though he's on the DL, though he has only 1.5 years in the bigs and has never batted .300, never hit for power (12 homers) and are going to hand him the job.
Good luck to all three traded players, all fan and clubhouse favorites as they move on to play for contenders and play for three of the best managers in baseball.
As for the Rays, Same Sh*t, different year. Mark my words, Longo goes this off season for...you guessed it...another SS.
I understand some of the bitterness, but Moore was not "highly sought after." If he was, we would've gotten a better return. With a self imposed salary cap, the Rays will always have to trade players with 1-2 years left hoping to find a future starter with 6 years of control. That's the reason we trade one player for three, in the hopes than one pans out.
So I'm to assume then that Silverman was lying when he stated that he had discussions with as many as 10 teams about Moore's availability? That he publicly pulled his offer of Moore for Brinson from the Rangers as not enough of a return? What is our self imposed salary cap? Moore as scheduled to make 7 million next year. Is that to high for a pitcher of Moore's caliber?
We didn't get a better return because of Silverman's ineptitude as a GM. Read the SF blog posts. Giants offered Susac, we rejected it. They then turned around and traded him to the Brewers along with 2015 #1 pick Bickford for a LH set up guy.
Your logic makes no sense. 3+ years of Moore for what? A pitcher who makes it to the bigs that we're going to trade after 4 years considering he makes it that far. Get a grip.
Yikes, my man! Just pointing out that Moore is not a "ace" by any means. His ERA over his last 200 innings is 4.52.
I'm not trying to defend Silverman here but you and I are not in on all the discussions that take place. Susac looks good to me too and looks like Silverman should've traded Cedeno for him and Bickford.
Ken H you are correct. I think you can draw a line before and after Gerry Hunsicker's departure and see that most of the moves post-Hunsicker have been awful (I was with you on the Price panic driven trade) and trading the wrong guys. They won't say it, but the Duffy trade has to be Longo insurance in case he (a) demands to be out or (b) Sternberg and his partners want more cash out of the franchise.
Ultimately, the Rays have spent their money terribly (Loney and Morrison alone are almost 20% of the payroll in 2016!) and despite an explosion of MLB revenue and inflation, the Rays are going backwards in their expenditures (what about the local TV contract?). Payroll is less than 2009, about the same as 2000. Brutal.
RAYS PAYROLLS (From Cot's Contracts):
Year 25-man Opening Day 40-man Year End (rank)
2016 $ 66,681,991 $ ( )
2015 $ 75,794,234 $ 77,018,676 (29)
2014 $ 76,872,384 $ 77,085,054 (28)
2013 $ 61,928,975 $ 64,610,387 (28)
2012 $ 63,627,200 $ 70,425,489 (24)
2011 $ 42,171,308 $ 44,969,740 (29)
2010 $ 72,847,133 $ 77,510,502 (20)
2009 $ 63,313,034 $ 71,222,532 (25)
2008 $ 43,745,597 $ 51,020,720 (28)
2007 $ 24,123,500 $ 31,817,020 (30)
2006 $ 35,417,967 $ 36,446,477 (29)
2005 $ 29,679,067 $ 26,615,413 (30)
2004 $ 29,556,667 $ 24,427,167 (30)
2003 $ 19,630,000 $ 31,660,602 (30)
2002 $ 34,380,000 $ 34,728,540 (30)
2001 $ 56,980,000 $ 50,974,068 (19)
2000 $ 64,400,000 $ 61,231,853 (11)
Ken H.: You da man! Thanks for keeping it real and saying what sooo many Rays fans are saying or thinking to themselves. We have a finance guy as our GM. An owner who roots for the Mets and probably wishes he owned THEM. How do they expect to build a fan base when they keep trading young guys the fans like, robbing them of their "connections?" We need a real baseball guy running the organization who has a philosophy and wants that instilled throughout the organization. Sandy Alderson of the Mets only wants players drafted who are patient hitters. The Royals want guys who are contact hitters. I'd guess we really have no organizational philosophy other than making money for the owners. We need a manager who has been a bench coach from a very successful organization. How about Bruce Bochy's guy? I believe he was in the running along with Cash. Problem may have been he wouldn't play by the Rays' rules of using the numbers and doing what the front office guys with little baseball experience expect, rather than being to use his gut feelings.
Keep up the good work, Ken H. You are saying what very knowledgeable baseball fans are saying.
We traded Moore for a player that is going to play a new infield position and hope he’s able to transition a very demanding position. Everyone else that we got on trade day will struggle to make it to the majors if at all. Hell we struggle to develop talent, yet we are somehow going to nurse these “A” players all the way to the majors.
My GM ability seems to be better than the one we currently have. The only holes we filled was a big question mark at SS.