Tampa Bay Sports Blog

There were a few crazy things that went on over the last couple weeks that I wanted to touch on and didn’t have time, but nothing got my attention more than the A-Rod deal. There has already been a tremendous amount of backlash on this situation and some of it is just funny. The dumbest thing I’ve seen written so far is what Bill Madden of the New York Daily News wrote about releasing A-Rod (hat tip to Mets Police for that one). Madden wants the Yankees to cut A-Rod, no matter the cost, in order to make a statement. The Yankees have more money than any team in baseball and they show it consistently with their ridiculous spending sprees, but not even the Yankees can justify writing off $270 million. This has to be the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen a legitimate reporter write. The Yanks already looked like idiots for paying Rodriguez the amount of money they did before A-Rod was a known steroid user. If they get nothing out of him AND spend that money they would look worse, not better Bill. There is no statement they could make that is worth a quarter billion dollars.

I want to take this A-Rod thing in a different direction though. I’m not going to defend him, but the fact that the test that he popped on was supposed to be anonymous and got leaked is an atrocity and will do nothing but worsen the already rocky relationship between the players union and MLB. We haven’t heard A-Rod come out and say anything yet, but it’s coming soon as he has a ceremony in his honor upcoming at the University of Miami. In the aftermath of all of this I think Rodriguez could use this scenario as an opportunity to better his relationship with other players and actually boost himself in the eyes of others.

Follow me here. In my opinion this is what I think he should do. First off, he needs to come out and admit to doing steroids in the past in order to keep up with what he thought other players were doing. I could be wrong, but I don’t believe his contract can be voided if the test he was positive for was supposed to be anonymous. If he does this he can take some of the stink off of him in the eyes of the public and immediately turn the Government away from him. If he lies, the Government will want him to come in and testify under oath and go after him similar to Bonds, Clemens, etc. This has to be his first step toward redemption.

The next thing I would like to see Alex do is demand that the rest of the tests be destroyed and insist that no one else’s name be leaked and tarnished. If he falls on the sword and leads the charge against those who leaked this info he could become a much more popular figure within the players fraternity. Nearly every player would applaud and respect him for doing such a thing. It would also show some backbone and fortitude, which is something he gets knocked for lacking.

I would also like to see him lead the charge against Bud Selig and lobby to have him removed as the commissioner of Major League Baseball. What has gone on under Selig’s watch is atrocious and he needs to be held accountable for it. Rodriguez is the latest casualty under the mismanagement of Bud Selig.

I don’t feel sorry for Alex, the Yankees or anyone else in this, but the fact that the test he has popped for was supposed to be anonymous and just used “to measure the amount of users there were” is unacceptable. This is the same thing as police versus criminals. There are supposed to be rules limiting the cops to what they can do in order to catch a criminal and that’s why we call it justice. The smart criminals stay ahead of the cops and the good cops figure out how to catch them, legally! That’s the game and that’s how it’s played. There are always some cops and some criminals playing outside the lines, but the rules are in place to help maintain order. This situation with A-Rod is exactly the same. Alex will have to come to grips with the fact that his legacy is tainted and that it can’t be fixed on the field now. He can raise himself up in other ways now by not only holding himself accountable, but forcing those that caught him to be accountable also. Bud Selig gets too much credit for his newfound tough drug policy these days. Did everyone forget that MLB and Bud Selig had to be dragged in kicking and screaming by Congress in order to finally do something about it to begin with? Selig has done some stupid things as commissioner, as most any commissioner will, but this needs to be his final blunder.

You shouldn’t be the highest paid commissioner in sports if you’re going to allow crap like this. This was flat out wrong and shady. There is no argument for Selig either because this is his baby. He can’t play ignorant because he should have been monitoring this as close as possible. Alex Rodriguez’s life as he knows it is over. If he thought people were negative toward him before, just wait and see how he gets treated now. There is no excuse for what he did and he has created the attention himself by being the most greedy athlete we’ve seen to date, but he can still come out of this ok if he owns up to it and grows a pair (hard to do on roids, I know).

I’m going to get sick of this story pretty quick, but I do want to see how it plays out.

Technorati Tags: Alex Rodriguez, Barry Bonds, Bud Selig, New York Yankees, Roger Clemens, Tampa Bay Rays, University of Miami

As I try to catch up with everything there will be some rambling and I’ll start with this, the Hall of Fame vote is stupid. Not just baseball, which brought this on, but any Hall of Fame vote. I think this because the voters, aside from most of them being guys who never played the game professionally, only look at the entire body of work instead of putting the work into the era they played in. While not showing his picks, Marc Topkin brought this on with his post regarding his ballot (why the hell are there “Rays” on the ballot anyway?. I have a ton of respect for Marc as a sports writer, but I have problems with his ballot as much as anyone else. Here’s what I took from it.

I know that Topkin has more knowledge of the game than I do and knowing he is building this story toward the big reveal, I have a hard time understanding who his picks are and why. The why is my problem. As he discusses Harold Baines’ hit count, Mar McGuire’s steroid use and Andre Dawson “playing the game right”, I get confused. How can you compare Dawson’s play to Baines’ hits? It doesn’t make any sense to me. Either go by stats or go by era and gameplay, don’t try to combine the two. This is all nuts to me.

With these votes a lot of things must be considered and I’m not arguing that, but I have a huge problem with comparing stats from the 80’s or 90’s to the 40’s and what not. You can’t compare those because the game was different in so many ways that you can’t even discuss it. In my opinion, you have to compare stats within the game as it was at the time. To say that McGuire’s HR’s don’t count as much as Mickey Mantle’s is stupid because of the evolution of sports.

Mantle played in bigger parks, against higher mounds and a bigger strike zone. That would lead most to believe that his HR’s, hits and other offensive stats were harder to come by than players today, but were they really? He didn’t  face specialized pitching, multi-cultural players or roided up pitchers, so was it really harder? Babe Ruth is praised as a the greatest player ever because hit he hit so much and was a pitcher first, but what were the athletes like then? I can guarantee you he couldn’t do today what he did then, but I can’t say he couldn’t do either, you follow? If McGuire or Sammy Sosa hit so many HR’s and people discount it because of steroid allegations, they are narrow minded idiots. If you think they were the only ones doing it you’re dumb, if you think pitchers weren’t doing it against them you’re even more stupid.

If you want to argue with that already, that’s the point. You have to judge a guy based on what he does within the era that he’s in against the stats from other guys in the era that he’s in. You can’t compare A-Rod to Hank Aaron, you have to compare him to Barry Bonds and Manny Ramirez. Steroids or not, anyone will agree that Bonds and Ramirez were the greatest hitters of their generation, the problem with these guys is that you compare them to the past guys and things get distorted then. People think less of Ty Cobb now than they did in his day because we know he was a racist, but that has no effect on how he played the game. Cobb was one of the greatest hitters of his time, and in MLB history for that fact, and his personal opinions should have no effect on that.

It’s the greatest and worst argument of all time. Let me tell you a story. My father was a gambler and used to make a living at the dog track in St. Pete (doing fairly well by the way) and there’s a story and opinion that always stuck with me. As he gambled at the dog track he met guys like Pete Rose and Don Zimmer. He hates Pete Rose because he was such a rude guy that he cussed and spoke ill in front of his less than 10 year old son (me) and ended up having to deck Rose because of his behavior. With this personal agenda and acknowledging Rose as a piece of crap person, he still states that he belongs in the Hall of Fame due to his hitting ability alone. This taught me a lot. You can hate someone and still acknowledge their accomplishments.

I’m not trying to start the argument that Rose belongs in the Hall, which I feel he does, I’m just using it as an example of a person throwing personal interests aside for the sake of the accomplishment. Rose bet on games, that’s a fact now, but whether he bet or not doesn’t effect how many hits he got while playing. These are facts and that’s that. The bottom line in all this is this, to include your personal opinions into the argument is ridiculous.

There will always be an argument as to who belongs in the Hall, but it should never include personal opinions on the person. Athletes, Actors and any of us at WORK should only be judged on the performance at work relative to the job now. Don’t judge someone on what someone did 20 years ago, it was a different time, and don’t judge work performance on who the person is outside of the job. It only matters on the performance at work.

The Hall of Fame vote is similar to the MVP vote in this aspect. Example here, why the hell was Tim Tebow voted the MVP of the National Championship game over Percy Harvin? I’ve gotta believe that anyone who watched that game thought Harvin was more valuable than Tebow on that day, maybe not the whole year, but that game. Nothing will ever change in all of this, but I felt the need to put my opinion out here anyway. I’ll get to the rest of the Tampa Bay goings on later.

Technorati Tags: Alex Rodriguez, Andre Dawson, Babe Ruth, Barry Bonds, Don Zimmer, Florida Gators, Hall of Fame, Hank Aaron, Harold Baines, Manny Ramirez, Mark McGuire, Mickey Mantle, National Championship, New York Yankees, Percy Harvin, Pete Rose, Sammy Sosa, Tampa Bay Rays, Tim Tebow, Ty Cobb

It was a busy week in the AL East and I had to sit down and look at it tonight. I’ve been listening to the radio and reading about the moves being made and I came up with this. The Rays are much smarter than the Yankees.  There are a few good things about being a small market team and they’re showing during the winter baseball season. Let’s break it down.

• The Yankees signed CC Sabathia to a $161 million deal and brought one of the best pitchers in baseball to New York. But how much did this improve them? I honestly don’t think it improved them much at all. Think about it like this. They signed a guy that won 17 games last year to replace a guy that won 20. Now I’ll say that Sabathia is better than Mussina and he would’ve probably won 22 or 23 games with the Yankees last year with the same run support Mussina got, but that’s still only a 3 game improvement. Not enough for that kind of money. They also signed AJ Burnett to fill in the rotation but they haven’t re-signed Andy Pettitte yet. That’s a 4 game improvement if Andy doesn’t come back. Not enough either. If Pettitte comes back and teams with Wang and Sabathia that should be a decent three man rotation. Then they’re counting on Joba Chamberlain and Phil Hughes to handle the rest of the load. I’ll take my chances. Burnett will get hurt, Wang and Sabathia will probably be ok, but I don’t think Chamberlain and Hughes will do what they’re expecting. The Yanks also are going to lose Bobby Abreu and Jason Giambi, Jeter is another year older and slower and A-Rod will be useless when needed as he always is. I’m not writing the Yankees off before the season starts, but how many of these store bought teams have done what they’re supposed to do? Even Sabathia realizes that the pressure in NY is so silly that he got an opt-out clause after three years. How much you wanna bet that that gets exercised?
• In comparison, the Rays traded their fifth starter for a young RF prospect who is already an upgrade over anything they put out there last year in Matt Joyce. Replacing Jackson will be the best pitching prospect in baseball who already proved himself at the Major League level at the end of last season, including the playoffs. This move also puts a guy on the bench, Gabe Gross, who contributed in a major way throughout a championship season.  
• If we look at who’s not coming back and who is it’s a big difference as well. The Yankees may not have lost all these guys yet but have Andy Pettitte, Bobby Abreu, Mike Mussina and Wilson Betemit. Kyle Farnsworth is gone and so is Carl Pavano (useless) . I personally think Abreu will end up in Chicago and Pettite with the Dodgers. Mussina is retired and that tells me something right there. This is a guy, who at the age of 40 and just came off his first 20 win season, has decided to retire rather than come back to NY or anywhere else. How big a toll did playing in NY take on him? I can’t think of any other reason that he wouldn’t come back to play somewhere for a couple years and try to get his 300th win other than the pressure of playing in NY completely beat him down. There’s no telling what the same pressure will do to Sabathia, who has an awful postseason record, and Burnett. Burnett comes in with an injury history similar to Carl Pavano’s and don’t think that the NY media won’t be harping on that either. The Rays lost Jonny Gomes (finally), who was phased out anyway, Trever Miller and possibly Rocco Baldelli. Miller can be replaced without damage and Baldelli wasn’t counted on anyway.

In wrapping this up I come up with this. The Rays got better already while making one move, the Yankees may or may not have depending on who comes back. The Yankees could still get Abreu, Giambi and Pettite back and that would make them a better team. The main component there would be Pettitte. Even if all these guys came back, who do the Yankees have to fill in if someone goes down? The rotation could end up being a high priced nightmare if one or more of their pitchers get hurt. Who do they have to replace any one of those guys if someone goes down, Darrell Rasner? Again, I’ll take my chances. Their bullpen has already been weakened as well with the loss of Farnsworth and Chamberlain. They could sign Derek Lowe, but I think he’ll end up in Boston. On the Rays end, they have replaced Jackson with Price, Gross with Joyce and still may sign some guys to fill out the DH and bullpen needs. If one or more of the Rays pitchers gets hurt there’s guys like Wade Davis, Jason Hammel, Mitch Talbot, Jeremy Hellickson and Jeff Niemann to fill in. It shows that being small market forces a team to think about the future. Remember when George Steinbrenner was forced out and the team finally had to develop players? They got Bernie Williams, Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera out of that deal, among others. They got role players then like Scott Brosius, Chuck Knoblauch and Jim Leyritz to fill out the roster and that’s how they won all those Series rings. That’s the path the Rays are on now with pieces like Longoria, Price and Upton as they sign guys like Iwamura, Pena and Percival to fill things out. It’s the smart baseball people that win, not the big money teams. We’ve seen it over and over again with teams that try to outspend everyone and don’t succeed and it amazes me that more teams don’t do it better. The Red Soxhave the best combination of both sides right now unfortunately as they have great development and lots of money. They can sign anyone if they want and are developing guys like Papelbon, Pedroia and Youklis. That’s a hard mix to beat but the Rays have the core to compete with them right now, maybe not forever, but right now. The entire perception of these things make me laugh because people are too caught up in the money aspect to see what’s real. The Yankees are supposed to win because they have the most money, they won’t because they don’t have good baseball people. The Red Soxwin because they have both money and good baseball people. They can afford to pay Ortiz, Beckett and Matsuzaka but they don’t win if they don’t develop Pedroia, Youklis and Papelbon. We all hope the Rays can spend the money to keep all these guys but the realistic fact is that, 2 or 3 years from now, they will have to trade a Kazmir, Crawford or Upton to help reload with younger, cheaper players. I hate the thought of that but it’s the reality we live in as a small market team. The great part of it though is that we don’t have distorted thoughts about our teams here and appreciate the winning much more because of it. I can’t wait to see what happens during the rest of this off-season and the regular season next year.

Technorati Tags: AJ Burnett, Akinori Iwamura, Alex Rodriguez, Andy Pettitte, Bernie Williams, BJ Upton, Bobby Abreu, Boston Red Sox, Carl Crawford, Carl Pavano, Carlos Pena, CC Sabathia, Chien-Min Wang, Chuck Knoblauch, Darrell Rasner, David Ortiz, David Price, Derek Jeter, Derek Lowe, Dustin Pedroia, Edwin Jackson, Evan Longoria, Gabe Gross, George Steinbrenner, Jason Giambi, Jason Hammel, Jeff Niemann, Jeremy Hellickson, Jim Leyritz, Joba Chamberlain, Johnathan Papelbon, Jonny Gomes, Kevin Youkilis, Kyle Farnsworth, Los Angeles Dodgers, Mariano Rivera, Matt Joyce, Mike Mussina, Mitch Talbot, New York Yankees, Phil Hughes, Rocco Baldelli, Scott Brosius, Scott Kazmir, Tampa Bay Rays, Trever Miller, Troy Percival, Wade Davis, Wilson Betemit

The Rays ended the madness tonight and got away with a 7-5 win to avoid being swept by the retirement home bandits. They had a big inning in the second in which they scored 5 runs on hits by Gross, Aki and Aybar and things looked back to normal on the mound and in the field. The crowds picked up the last two nights also with 25,000 plus at both games. It got scary but it worked out. Anyway, let’s get to it.

• Kazmir still isn’t right. He is slowly improving but there still appears to be something wrong with him. He threw 6 innings of one hit ball with five walks. That’s right, 5 freakin walks! I don’t know how he got away with it against the Yanks but he did. I can only hope that there’s nothing seriously wrong with him and it all is corrected by the time the playoffs roll around.
• I have given credit to Jason Hammel in the past for having the toughest job on the team. No more. That was completely embarrassing tonight to have to bring in your closer to finish off a game that you were winning 7-0 in the ninth. The role that Hammel fills is a thankless role, but c’mon, 5 runs in 2/3 on an inning?! What are you doing?!
• A-Rod is still useless when he’s needed. Just thought I’d throw that out there.
• I guess I need to lay off Melvin for now. The St. Pete Times broke the story today where Upton said he needs surgery after the season and that’s why he hasn’t been hitting any homeruns. Interperet that any way you want but I have a couple questions. If he’s not driving in runs and he’s looking to get on base for others, why is he not batting leadoff? I’ve been puzzled by this for a while and it only goes to prove the point even more. He draws walks, steals bases and has been downgraded to having warning track power. He’s obviously our best leadoff hitter so……….. My other question is toward Melvin. Haven’t you had this problem for some years now? He has apparently battled this shoulder thing since the minor league days at least, so why hasn’t this been addressed sooner? I tore my rotator cuff in high school so I know how bad a shoulder injury can hurt and if I had the resources I would’ve had surgery but we couldn’t afford it. You could afford it Melvin so what’s the excuse here?
• Last thing is to Barty and Whiskers. I dogged these guys hard early in the year, and with the bet with Rays Index looming, I want to give both of these guys credit. I looked at the stats when the game started and these two guys have the highest avg. of all the regulars on the team. Outstanding! Gotta give credit when it’s due.

Technorati Tags: Akinori Iwamura, Alex Rodriguez, BJ Upton, Dioner Navarro, Gabe Gross, Jason Bartlett, Jason Hammel, New York Yankees, Scott Kazmir, Tampa Bay Rays, Willy Aybar

I can’t bring myself to say that the Yankees win, so I say we lose. Apparently the Devil Rays have suited up again and the Yankees have found the fountain of juice. There were a ton of broken bat bloopers, bad infield play and just all around bad luck. I don’t feel Jackson pitched awful, he was more a victim of circumstance tonight. I’m not saying he was good, just that the Yanks were catching all the breaks. As much as I hate the Yankees, I’m not going to overreact to all this though. We’re still down a couple players, the pitching is going to have some bad outings and the defense can’t be stellar every night. We all have to remember how things have gone for us this year. Most of the year, with guys like Gabe Gross batting .230ish, we got hits at all the right times in all the right places. I don’t like any slump coming now, but it happens. So let’s all just chill.

Note time…

• No one should ever throw a fastball low and inside to Gabe Gross. That was an absolute bomb he hit. You couldn’t draw up a better pitch for him to hit and he gets his props for demolishing that ball!
• Melvin should pretend the bases are empty with runners on. I’m sure someone will throw some stupid stat at me here but it’s too obvious not to point out. Upton looked like he was afraid to swing last night as he continuously came up with runners on. Tonight he had the bases empty the entire night and was stroking shots all over. I hope he can put it together for the playoffs.
• The gods have come to smack us. I admit that I got a little cocky towards the Yanks when they came to town (as did all of us), and we all have been smacked down by the baseball gods. It’s a reality check at the right time.
• The umpires still suck. The ball the stat padder hit was fair, but he shouldn’t have been able to hit it. The pitch before was a strike and the ass-kissing Yankee umpires were at it again. Look, we were gonna lose anyway, so I’m not making excuses, but why do the Yanks and Red Sox players get rewarded so much for not swinging the bat?
• Jason Giambi is the ugliest juiced up porn start I’ve ever seen. I would rather watch Ron Jeremy hit.

Technorati Tags: Alex Rodriguez, BJ Upton, Edwin Jackson, Gabe Gross, Jason Giambi, New York Yankees, Tampa Bay Rays

I know, I know, but you should all know by now that since my life is chaotic, my postings become chaotic. I’m trying to slow things down a little now but we’ll see how it goes. Anyway, the ancient relics in pinstripes came to town and took game one of the series 7-2. I heard their pathetic chants at the game and I’m sure they’ll have a whole lot to say tomorrow so I will only say one thing, wait til the series is over idiots! The stat padder in blowout games that is Gay-Rod, oops A-Rod, came out to play and the man who should be wearing a Rays uni hit a bomb to left. It was hard to watch and even harder to listen to. The Yanks may have the oldest, most over-rated and overpaid team in baseball but they still have the most annoying fans. These are fans who didn’t bother to show up to the game either. I also hate to sound like one of those people here too but did anyone else feel like Matt Garza was being screwed tonight? Talk about an erratic umpire!

Now some notes….

• Even though the Rays didn’t produce too much, it’s still nice to see Barty, Pena, Aybar and Hinske still swinging the bat well. These guys have been very good lately, especially Barty, Pena and Aybar. I don’t think you could ask much more from these guys. How bout that bomb by Barty on Sunday too? I gotta admit, I didn’t think he had it in him.
• Melvin still hasn’t realized that he has to SWING the bat in order to drive in runs. He obviously doesn’t want to swing Maddon, he only appears interested in drawing walks and acts like he’s allergic to runners on base. How bout a benching for striking out looking too much with runners on?
• Garza got screwed by a Yankees paid umpire. How much did Mussina and the Yanks pay you Brian Runge? We could offer up some cash if you’re for sale. Shake it off Matt.
• And I must get to the attendance. There are a ton of reasons people are saying that they don’t go to games ranging from location, the team history, lack of time, etc… The one reason I do buy into is the economy. There is no real reason not to go, but this economy is hurting us all. It’s killing me and I know I’m not the only one. I’ve been to 50+ games this year and the only reason I don’t go to more is the fact that I have no money! Tickets are cheap, but not every night. I expected a bigger turnout for the Yankees but I guess their fans are either broke or embarrassed. Either way, I do think the Rays will draw here.

Technorati Tags: Alex Rodriguez, BJ Upton, Brian Runge, Carlos Pena, Eric Hinske, Jason Bartlett, Joe Maddon, Matt Garza, Mike Mussina, New York Yankees, Tampa Bay Rays, Willy Aybar, Xavier Nady