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Travis MacKenzie is a student at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario, CanadaMore By TMyst
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The Travis Time Baseball Report: Rays @ A’s, May 19
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Travis watches two teams that he’s still shocked to see in the playoff picture, and doesn’t even mind!
· Happy May 19 th!
· Something finally dawned upon me while perusing the American League standings yesterday evening: This is the weakest the American League’s been in years. We didn’t destroy the NL in interleague quite yet, and, if the playoffs started today, there would only be two teams in it that fans would be serious about (it’s not a deep league outside of Boston and Anaheim). The best news for the league’s lesser regarded clubs: The Yankees aren’t that great this year! While I don’t believe this is great for fans in general (the mere presence of the Yankees raises the perceived importance of everything surrounding them), all of a sudden, there’s an open playoff spot in the American League! Assuming the Red Sox and Angels don’t choke brutally, we know who two of the teams are. The Central’s still a crapshoot, and I still believe Cleveland’s the best bet at the moment, but if nobody in the division makes their move, Detroit could eventually wake up and pass all of them (I still wouldn’t bet against this). If the Yankees don’t make their move, and one of Cleveland and Detroit stays down, we’ll have a surprise AL Wild Card this year. The candidates at this point are truly shocking: Tampa Bay, Baltimore, Oakland, Cleveland, Toronto, Texas, and Minnesota. With the exception of Cleveland, all of these teams are major surprises. Though Oakland and Minnesota have seen the playoffs fairly recently, it hasn’t been the core groups they have at this point that received those opportunities. So while this immediately becomes my favourite storyline of the season (just narrowly edging out the incredibly competitive National League), I’ll take the opportunity to watch two surprisingly good AL teams play each other when I get the chance. Tonight, I’m thrilled to watch the Rays and the A’s. Hopefully, I start making some sense of this AL Wild Card picture.
· Shortly before I tuned this game in, Jon Lester completed a no-hitter of the Kansas City Royals. I’ll own up to being surprised. I watched Lester’s last start, and wasn’t too impressed, though I think he’s a talented enough arm. Once again, though, Boston’s got another guy who’s lights out when he’s on his game. Chalk him up as reason #563 as why Boston’s the outright favourite to win the World Series this year.
25-19 Rays (James Shields, 4-3, 3.05) @ 24-21 Athletics (Joe Blanton, 2-6, 3.69)
· Definitely the most enjoyable game I’ve sat down for this year, despite the fact that it kept on going for awhile (and the morning crept uncomfortably closer). Oakland jumped on Shields early with homers by Frank Thomas and Emil Brown. Thomas’ home run brought up the fantastic on-screen graphic reading “SOLO HOME RUN – BIG HURT (4)”. After an assortment of Jack Cust defensive highlights (both good and bad), Tampa Bay charges back with an Eric Hinske home run (yes, an Eric Hinske home run), an Evan Longoria RBI double, and a Cliff Floyd (I’m in just as much shock as you are right now) sacrifice to take the lead. That all changed, however, in the bottom of the 6 th with “SOLO HOME RUN – BIG HURT (5)”, and we were tied at four. Tampa took the lead back with an Akinori Iwamura RBI double in the 7 th, but Oakland took it back in a way I wouldn’t be proud of in the 8 th. Cust, who should be a DH, walks and gets pinch run for. Thomas, the team’s current DH, then singles and gets pinch run for, before Ryan Sweeney drives in Rajai Davis, Cust’s pinch runner, to tie the game. If you’re a manager or general manager, are you comfortable with the idea of having the two biggest power bats in your lineup both needing to be run for in the clutch? I honestly don’t see the appeal of that, or the potential long-term success. We’ll fast-forward to the 13 th now (Don’t worry, all you missed was two dynamite pitching innings from Huston Street), where Evan Longoria, wrapping up Player of the Game honours, hits a two-run homer, giving Tampa the lead they needed to hold on to a 7-6 win.
· Tonight’s broadcasters: Glen Kuiper and Ray Fosse on Comcast Sportsnet (Bay Area). All in all, they were good early, nondescript (which isn’t always a bad thing) in the middle, and went back to being solid in extras. This included Fosse saying “I hope he’s not like that guy Hamels on Philadelphia” when Jason Hammel came in to pitch for Tampa Bay. Needless to say, lines like that amuse me endlessly, especially when the partner responds with laughter before coming up with a quip.
· Going in, I was surprised by two things about Joe Blanton: His 2-6 record (with a 3.69 ERA), and his reliance on the defense. I’ll assume he’s better than the record advertises, but even with that correction, there’s a tonne of reliance on the batted ball (29/15 K/BB over 68.1 innings). What scares me about the guy? His physique reminds mostly of David Wells. However good Boomer’s career was, I wouldn’t treat that as a good sign. Regardless, I enjoyed Blanton today. Though his no-decision kept his record as misleading as it already was, he had a good start, and is a fun-to-watch quick worker. The only con was that he definitely gassed early on.
· My opinion on James Shields going in was that an already-solid pitcher had improved this year by keeping the home runs down. He then went out and allowed three today. I’m gonna assume that I can’t just judge him on this start (and he improved as the game went on, almost going eight innings), but it was a disappointing start that certainly somewhat marred my opinion on the Rays as a whole.
· By the way, I missed the majority of the 4 th inning to watch the conclusion of Spurs/Hornets game 7. I’m still saying a San Antonio/Detroit finals at this point, though I didn’t think the Spurs would take it tonight. The group that Gregg Popovich has put together never buckles under pressure. You’re gonna need to outplay them to win, and New Orleans couldn’t do that. I think the Lakers could potentially have that in them, though.
· The Tampa Bay verdict: They could be a legit Wild Card team if that spot stays open. Sure, Carlos Pena, Cliff Floyd, and Eric Hinske aren’t guys that I’d rest all of my hopes on, but a Crawford/Upton/Longoria 2-3-4 is a pretty solid group, and, with Scott Kazmir back, their pitching is pretty deep. I’ll finally say it about the Rays: For the first time ever, I might be impressed.
· The Oakland verdict: I know that Billy Beane’s done it before, but putting Frank Thomas and Jack Cust in the same starting lineup (Like I did before the game, we’ll forget Mike Sweeney for now) is a recipe for defensive disaster. Beane’s again found some excellent value guys, specifically in the rotation, and, as always, if Rich Harden stays healthy, this team’s gonna win a few more games (which might be all they need to be the Wild Card at this rate). Regardless, I’ve seen enough of Frank Thomas over the past couple of seasons to know that games like tonight, where he single-handedly keeps Oakland in the game, are pretty rare. As well as they played tonight, I can’t see Oakland hanging around contendership too much longer.
May teams left to watch
NY Yankees
Chicago White Sox
Detroit
Kansas City
Minnesota
LA Angels
Seattle
Texas
Atlanta
Florida
NY Mets
Philadelphia
Washington
Chicago Cubs
Cincinnati
Houston
Milwaukee
Pittsburgh
St. Louis
LA Dodgers
San Diego
San Francisco
All of Travis MacKenzie’s work can be found on his site, Travis Time. He also covers sports for the Brock Press. Any questions or comments directed towards Travis can be placed in comments on Travis Time, on any of his Armchair GM posts, or e-mailed to TravisTime@gmail.com
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Play the Picture Game
It's Glen Kuiper and Ray Fosse!!! hilarious...
Anyway - yes, what a game! Longlorious with his second GW HR in his short career...
This is a lot of extra inning game for the Rays this week and the bullpen really hasn't been worked that hard, yet.
If you haven't been "impressed" yet about the Rays, realize that many of the Rays batters haven't really started to hit yet...
It's all been pitching and good defense...