Miserable
June 27th, 2016
Ahh, the symbolism of TV’s notorious drinker throwing out the first pitch of the 2016 Rays season.
Batten down the hatches. Joe hopes you’re surviving the flood. There’s a whole bunch of rain coming down on your Rays this morning.
And even if a break in the storm comes soon, it feels like the season has become a wash.
They’ve lost a crazy 11 consecutive games, their longest losing streak since 2009, with the latest defeat a 12-5 pasting in Baltimore yesterday to cap a four-game sweep by the Orioles. They’ve allowed at least five runs in each of the contests during this horrible slide. They’ve looked awful everywhere: Pitching, offense, managing, you name it.
Yippee!
Joe is tired of watching this catastrophe. The Rays appeared to turn a corner when they climbed within one game of .500 with a 13-inning victory over Seattle on June 15.
Since, the bottom has fallen out. Now Tampa Bay trails Baltimore by 13 1/2 games in the American League East. Just brutal.
Until allowed to believe otherwise, it’s about moral victories at this point. Win a game. Get key names back from the disabled list. Let young players receive experience. Figure out who belongs in a Rays uniform and who doesn’t.
The coming months should be telling about the strength of the stomachs inside Tampa Bay’s clubhouse.
Right now, Joe feels queasy.
June 27th, 2016 at 2:14 pm
Panic ?? Yes, it’s time to panic. Turn the franchise upside down. We have come in last place three years in a row with Evan Longoria. Sooo, we can come last place without him. Trade him ! The Cubs have a lot of good players and Maddon would love to get Longoria. Also, you can sell high as Evan has put together the best season so far in the last 4 years. What do you think ?
June 27th, 2016 at 2:24 pm
Miguel Grande ! As you know, James Loney and his hair are with the New York Mets, batting fifth and hitting .300. But…he wasn’t good enough to play for the Last place Rays and the Last place Padres. But he’s good enough for the Mets who are battling for 1st place in their division. What does this say about the Rays and Padres Organizations ? If I were Stu, I’d be looking real closely at dumping it. Kit & Kaboodle.
It’s obvious that he veteran starting pitching staff have stopped listening to Coach Cashless. Everything goes ! On sale today.
June 27th, 2016 at 2:24 pm
Has Stu Sternberg ever fired anybody since he became Owner ? I don’t remember.
June 27th, 2016 at 3:03 pm
Hey darth Idiot, trade your best player…stupid. Silverman seems to be inept. he brought in players that can’t catch at both short, first and catcher. He with injuries brought in no one causing Motter and others that can’t catch in the outfield. Middle defense other than Kiermaier has been terrible from the start, making the starters lose confidence in them catching it early. It is easy to see on all of their faces, when yet another bad play gets made in the field, seemingly daily. Fall on the sword Matt and let someone with a clue make these decisions
June 28th, 2016 at 12:15 am
Bob – Do you call everyone you don’t agree with, “Idiot & Stupid ?” Back in the old neighborhood, that would not be a winning strategy. What I proposed is “Thinking outside the box.” I would much rather see a young, fast defensive team who catch the ball and steal bases (Kind of like the end of last year) than watch Longoria on another last place team. This front office has shown better aptitude in collecting talent via the trade route than through the draft.
1st round picks Tim Beckham (2008), Levon Washington (2009), Josh Sale (2010), Justin O’Connor (2011) all have sucked or been released. These are First Round Picks Bob. It ain’t happening with the draft Bob. Do what Stu Sternberg does with his equity trading; Buy low, sell high. Buy when people are selling, sell when people are buying. Trading Longoria is counter intuitive Bob.
June 28th, 2016 at 12:45 am
Sorry Bob, I shouldn’t have been that hard on you. You are one a few that still posts on this blog. Fans are going to stop caring (Where’s Miguel Grande?) pretty soon due anyway to the ineptitude of the front office in hiring a “not ready for prime time coach and not firing hitting coach Sheldon. So for that, I apologize. I believe we are both pissed at what we are seeing.
June 28th, 2016 at 1:51 pm
Bays beisball ben bery bery bad.
July 1st, 2016 at 2:35 pm
Darth: you have a point with the scouting department! Inept is the best word I can think of to describe it! So many oversights and examples of poor judgement with hitters, pitching and catchers. So many guys can not make the Rays 40 man roster yet they prosper elsewhere like Metland (Loney and even the catcher rene rivera who can actually cut down a runner unlike the 2016 ray catchers), Pittsburgh (Jaso, sean Rodriguez)etc. etc. The choice of Kevin cash as skipper is a lot like the Bucs hiring Raheem: it looks like its a $ thing….. Cash is a nice guy but does not seem to be able to motivate this roster…. I just hope they do not bring a Sciano clone to replace him; you know bringing in a hard@ss who will take what will likely be a 72-90 2016 team, run it like a bootcamp in 2017 and turn it into the Twins, Reds or Bravos and lose over 100 games with being too strict and disciplined which is exactly what kind of manager the Rays will likely go after if they figure out Cash is too soft on his players….