Congratulations to the Tampa Bay — I’ll always want to call them them Devil Rays – Rays. Taking an ALCS from the defending World Series Champions, the Boston Red Sox, is no easy feat. This was one of the few games this post-season that I’ve stayed up all the way to watch from the start to the finish. Listening to Chip Caray on TBS is really, really hard at times, but I probably didn’t have to tell you that. I’m almost indifferent to Buck Martinez. He’ll occasionally say something resembling a thought but most of the time it’s tired repetitions of playerisms.
“Did you know that Jason Varitek is really valuable to the Red Sox even if his bat has turned into a wet noodle? Clubhouse presence! Gritty! Gutty! Gamer!”
Tek did hit a big HR in Game 6 but he still finishes the series 1-20 with 8 SO’s. That’s a line of: .050/.174/.200 and that’s what I love about the leadership — Hey, he wears a ‘C’ on his jersey! — angle that’s always played by the talking head announcers. You can mold it anyway to fit any argument that you’re trying to make. Tek strikes out three times in his final game? Leadership. He keeps the other dudes calm. His pitch calling ability borders on a 6th sense.
Another thing I realized from watching the Red Sox last night is that Mark Kotsay really was playing 1B for this series. I had somehow forgotten about Lowell’s injury — thus, shifting Youk to 3B — and having to play Kotsay at 1B was brutal. Kotsay played 9 games at 1B in the playoffs after only playing 34 career games at 1B in his previous 12 seasons of baseball. He didn’t hit much in the ALCS going: 7-30 with 3 2B’s, 0 BB’s, and 4 SO’s. Though, if you compare that to what Tek gave the Sox, then Kotsay looks like Ted Williams. Starting Alex Cora, Mark Kotsay, and Jason Varitek in the same lineup is pretty ugly but the Sox didn’t have much of a choice.
More ramblings: Ignore the MSM and the who-could-have-seen-this-happening mentality when it comes to discussing the Tampa Bay Rays. True, I’m guessing most didn’t see their turn around to be this good, but I think even the most average of baseball fans saw the Rays as a young team with a lot of talent at the BLL and at the MLL. The Rays made some great choices of adding low cost, cheap, productive talent to the team without overpaying both in years and salary. Guys like Cliff Floyd (114 OPS+), Gabe Gross (104 OPS+), and Eric Hinkse (111 OPS+) were all acquired for very little resources. Defensive position excluded, all three guys out hit Aaron Rowand soundly and will cost the Rays $55M less. And, the Rays won’t have to deal with them for 4+ years. Good teams do this.
The Rays also defend well. They ranked +24 by THT’s team defensive stats page in the American League. Only Toronto ranked higher. If you look at team defensive efficiency — the percentage of balls in play converted into outs — the Rays rank as the #1 team in the majors with a 71% of balls hit into play converted into outs. For comparison, the more defensively challenged Giants ranked #23 with a score of 68.5%.
Heading back to last nights game, Matt Garza was very good. Kudos to the Rays for flipping Delmon Young — in a trade that’s starting to look like they got the better end of — for Matt Garza. Garza went 7 innings while giving up just 2 H’s and 1 ER. He struck out 9 hitters in his 118 pitch effort. Some brief PFX numbers on Garza’s start.
~ Garza predominately threw his fastball last night. Here’s his breakdown by pitch-type: 89 fastballs, 16 curveballs, 12 sliders, and 1 changeup.
~ The average velocity on Garza’s fastball was 93.9mph. 76.9mph on his curveball. 85.5mph on his slider. And the lone tracked changeup was at 84.1mph.
~ Here’s a couple of plots. The first is Garza’s velocity plot for the game and the second is his fastball location, which I thought was key to his success.
As you can see, Garza game out of the gate throwing heat. A large clumping of 95mph fastballs to start the game. Garza’s offspeed stuff has some nice separation from his fastball. The markings in the 85mph range is Garza’s slider and if you go down another 10mph to the 75mph range, that’s his curveball. Garaza maintained his velocity well throughout the game, hitting 94mph near the end of his start.
Here’s the plot of Garza’s FB location, which like I stated above, I thought was key for him. Notice how Garza really pounded the right handed hitters on the inside of the plate. Lot’s of pitches in and down on RHB’s. The middle portion of the FB’s in the center of the zone might look hittable, but when you’re throwing near 95mph on each FB, you can get away with it. And Garza did get away with it.
A very nice start from the ALCS MVP.
Also, I didn’t work this into the original post, but I really liked the way that Maddon handled David Price last night. The Rays bullpen is a little iffy at the back end and Price could be their best reliever right now. Great way to actually use him at the end of the game. I think as everyone saw, he’s got great stuff.
I hate to make the comparison because the cases aren’t THAT similar, but Price could be Tampa’s K-Rod.
Chip Carey – World biggest benefactor from not being Buck Jr.? Martinez and Darling didn’t get in the way of enjoying the game that much for me so over all I thank them.
I think the Phillies have a better back end of the ‘Pen right now and recently (say past 10+ years) that seems to be the critical factor in most postseason series. I will be interested in seeing how both bullpens play out. It should be a fun series!
I agree Dave, I think it should be a great series.
The bullpen’s in the series should be fantastic. The Phillies had the best pen in the NL and the Rays had the best pen in the AL.
I have to say that I’m really pleased the Red Sox won’t be in the World Series this year, and that they didn’t once again crawl out of the 3-1 hole. I know they’re a good team and they’re probably good guys, but that whole narrative was getting so played out for me. Did anyone besides Red Sox fans want to see them win? I guess it’s more a fact of the “buzz” around them than anything else, but I find that whole organization immensely annoying. Anyone else agree?
@Wax
I agree. Having to listen to Chip Caray boom about THESE GUYS ON THE RED SOX and how they NEVER GIVE UP was really tiring. They’re an amazingly talented team that’s had great success over the last 5-6 years, but the narrative (as you put it very well) is constantly being forced upon the national audience by Fox and ESPN.
I want to see new teams in the WS, other than just the RED SOX and YANKEES and whoever else the media is trying to pump up at the moment. That’s why it’s been really amusing to see the Rays get in. Because the MSM keeps droning on about WHO COULD HAVE SEEN THIS COMING, well, I would say 90% of well informed baseball fans knew that the Rays had a lot of talent. It’s not that surprising.
OT: I’m listening to MLB on XM and Rob Dibble is currently on — one of my least favorite baseball personalities — and he’s going on about how the Mets would LOVE TO AQUIRE JASON VARITEK BECAUSE HE CALLS A GREAT GAME. Never mind that he’s 37-years-old next year and will probably get even worse. Teams would LOVE to have a catcher that hits .220/.313/.359
He wears a C! A C!
WaxPack: Just to because I am contrary I wouldn’t have been crushed by a BoSox win. They traded the biggest name ( for people outside of their fan base) and had a guy with a bad back and who had been on 2 trades this year playing out of position at first base. It would have been interesting to see if they had enough left in the tank. That said I will be immensely happy that next season when I get to see the Royals or the O’s or the M’s ( insert any other lower division team for ‘09) on a national feed it will not always be them playing the Red Sox!
“Guys like Cliff Floyd (114 OPS+), Gabe Gross (104 OPS+), and Eric Hinkse (111 OPS+) were all acquired for very little resources. Defensive position excluded, all three guys out hit Aaron Rowand soundly and will cost the Rays $55M less. And, the Rays won’t have to deal with them for 4+ years. Good teams do this.”
Good teams hire a frequently injured player like Floyd who hasn’t been reliable for years, a utility OF like Gabe Gross, and Eric Hinske, a utility corner fielder so bad already at age 30, when supposedly most players are at their physical peak, that he was with his third team in less than a year when he signed with the lowly Rays? And with them you compare Aaron Rowand?
I think you hit on it right, just stated it wrong: good teams, when they are ready to compete, hire extraneous vets to support the young crew in place.
The Giants were not in that place in 2008, or are you really suggesting that it would have been better if the Giants had signed Eric Hinske instead of Aaron Rowand?
Nobody was complaining about Rowand when his OPS was above 900 at the end of May. Nobody goes from above 900 to 600 OPS unless there was some sort of injury affecting him. I think his 2009 will be more representative of what he will deliver to us, for good or bad.
I think you should also include their astute acquisition of Iwamura, he has been a very economical acquisition and can play both 2B and 3B well enough.
As much as I would hate to see Feliz win a ring (I take solace that he did so poorly he didn’t play a full season and basically was in a platoon of some sort with Dobbs and Bruntlett after the ASG, giving the ring a bittersweet taste), I think have to root for the Phillies over the Rays because I can’t stand all the media commentators point at the Rays and mew about how “that’s the way to do it”.
“Nobody was complaining about Rowand when his OPS was above 900 at the end of May. Nobody goes from above 900 to 600 OPS unless there was some sort of injury affecting him. I think his 2009 will be more representative of what he will deliver to us, for good or bad”
Rowand also had a really high BABIP during the first 2 months – the decline wasn’t that surprising. And his line, when considering his age, home park, and tendency to run into walls, wasn’t that much worse than his career line. I hope he will surprise me, but I’m afraid that this is pretty much the Rowand that we’ll be getting for the next 4 years.
@OGC
Cookyman already beat me to the punch when it comes to Rowand, so I’ll just direct you to his comment.
And bad teams, or poorly run ones, pay free market dollars for positions that they already should have filled internally. Gamer!