Tom Jones (nope, still not that one) of the "Tampa Bay Times" (winner of 10 Pulitzer Prizes!) wants Joe Maddon to know that they are never ever getting back together. It's not a love story anymore between Maddon and the Rays. Jones thinks the Rays should have said "no" when they learned the Cubs were looking to hire Maddon, but knowing the vision of Maddon managing the Rays again was just another picture to burn and the story of them was over, it was time to begin again, shake it off, and recognize that everything has changed. Now that Tom Jones knows Joe Maddon was trouble, he also knows the deal with the Cubs was shady so the Rays continuing to win games without Maddon will be better than revenge.
It smells rotten and it looks shady and it feels dirty.
This is why you don't visit the red light district on Friday nights. Nothing good can ever come from it.
No matter how you slice it, it all just feels wrong.
Who knows if the Cubs tampered with Joe Maddon or not? Maybe they did, maybe they didn't. The bottom line is that Joe Maddon was going to be a popular manager once he left Tampa Bay even if the Cubs weren't interested in him. If the Cubs had not jumped on him, some other team would have suddenly found fault with their manager, fired that manager and hired Joe Maddon. It's not like Maddon would not have had options if the Cubs didn't exist. No team had to tamper with Maddon, he had to know his services would be wanted by another MLB team.
Joe Maddon is gone. It's official now. The Cubs introduced him as their manager Monday.
Considering the Rays have duped unsuspected MLB teams to sign players like B.J. Upton and Carl Crawford in free agency, I think karma bites them in the ass that they actually lost a member of the organization who may not suck once he is out of the Rays' employ.
He put on their hat. He put on their jersey. And that's when it truly sunk in.
Just start singing "Teardrops On My Guitar" and you will feel better, Tom. Don't be a sad fanboy. The Rays gave Maddon an opt-out clause, he used it, and now everyone moves on.
He isn't coming back to Tampa Bay next season. It's over.
This type of writing seems too mournful for a professional sportswriter.
He belongs to someone else now.
Oh boy. Maybe the Taylor Swift music isn't working. Perhaps some mid-90's Alanis Morrissette is a better option. You live, you learn.
On Monday, he talked about young talent and promise for the future and
winning pennants and, naturally, he did it in his oddball and charming
way. Except, this time, he wasn't talking about your team.
Yes, I'm pretty sure Rays fans are aware at this point that Joe Maddon is no longer talking about the Rays when he refers to talent and promise.
But, you know, Maddon leaving is not the awkward part. It's how he left. That's the part that's hard to swallow.
You mean the way he left in that he took advantage of a clause in his contract that allowed him to leave? Yeah, it is hard to swallow that he exercised his contractual rights to become a managerial free agent.
As far as leaving, who can blame him? He wanted more money and the Cubs gave him more money.
Then I fail to see the issue. Maddon wanted to leave if he wasn't going to be paid what he perceived as his market value. He wasn't getting a contract he wanted and so he left. Then a team who was willing to pay his market value jumped in, fired their manager (in a classy way if you ask me...in a tough situation the Cubs handled it really well), and hired Joe Maddon. Was there tampering? Who knows? Maybe, maybe not. Either way, Maddon was getting a new job either this season or next season if he wasn't managing the Rays. It was happening. Whether the Dodgers planted crack cocaine in Don Mattingly's car in mid-January, the Braves suddenly remembered that Fredi Gonzalez didn't in fact know "The Braves Way," or the Yankees disconnected the brakes on Joe Girardi's car, Joe Maddon would be managing for an MLB team in the next 12-15 months.
Maybe he thought the Cubs gave him a better chance than the Rays to win a
World Series. Maybe he wants to work with Cubs president Theo Epstein.
And honestly, that could very well be it. I would want to work with Theo Epstein while making more money, as opposed to working with a new GM in Tampa Bay while making less money. It's a pretty easy decision. Work with a GM who has won a World Series in a large market for more money or work with a new GM in Tampa Bay while making less money and ending up on the manager free agent market at some other point in the future when Maddon's stock may not be as high. It's not a tough call.
Whatever the reason, Maddon has every right to live his life how he wants.
Yes, he does. So what's the problem again?
Wanting more financial security, wanting to call Wrigley Field his
office, wanting the challenge of turning baseball's lovable losers into
champs doesn't make him a traitor.
So your point being that your point about this situation stinking to high heaven is wrong, because even if the Cubs did tamper with Maddon, he would have wanted to manage the Cubs anyway? This isn't a "J.D. Drew goes to the Red Sox" type of situation where Maddon wasn't sure he could get more money as a free agent manager and a team potentially tampered with him allowing him the knowledge of realizing for sure there were green pastures. Maddon was getting paid to manage a team. No team needed to tamper with him for him to know this as a fact. Maddon's value is too high in baseball circles for him to make less or the same money as he was making in Tampa Bay once he left the Rays.
He's not, suddenly, a bad guy.
But it felt shady. Nothing really was wrong with what Maddon did, but something was wrong with what Maddon did.
This was strictly business
Strictly shady business.
And you could bet your bottom dollar that the Rays would have had no
problem firing Maddon if he started losing more games than he was
winning.
You are killing your point that the move was shady by acknowledging the Rays could fire Maddon, it was strictly business and Maddon isn't a bad guy.
But it's how Maddon left that feels a little slimy.
It felt like the use of a contractual clause.
Let's start with the moment Andrew Friedman, the Rays vice president of
baseball operations, left to join the Dodgers. At the time, Maddon told Tampa Bay Times baseball
writer Marc Topkin, "I'm a Ray, I've said it all along, I want to
continue to be one. I still believe … it's the best place in all of
baseball to work, but I also stand by the fact that the ballpark needs
to be improved."
Yes, I think a quote like, "I will be investigating the use of a contractual clause that allows me to become a free agent" might have caused a greater stir than was required at that point. Joe Maddon has the right to leave his options open without stating outright that he will be leaving his options open and can do so contractually. Also, notice Maddon said he "wants" to continue to be a Ray and his mention of the ballpark needing improvement (and let's be honest, going from The Trop to Wrigley Field...that's "movin' on up" like hasn't been done since The Jeffersons took the plunge) tips off that all isn't 100% well. In that phrasing, it's clear that there is some reciprocity required for Maddon to continue to be the Rays manager past his next contract.
Fair enough. The Rays need a new ballpark. But other than that, Maddon said right here was the best place in all of baseball.
Yes, he also said he "wants" to be a Ray. I want to be a millionaire. I "will" not be a millionaire for the foreseeable future. One is a wish, the other is a statement of a current, more permanent condition. I want Chipotle for dinner. I will be eating something else.
He was signed through next season, and the Rays were trying to sign him to an extension. All seemed hunky-dory.
Did it though? I had not thought about it because I'm focused on the Braves manager who has won a lot of games, yet I still think he's incompetent at times. Did it make sense that the Rays would be able to sign Maddon to an extension and things seemed hunky-dory? If I remember correctly, and I do remember correctly, it took about 0.25 seconds for Maddon's name to be linked to the Dodgers after Friedman was hired by the team. So things did seem hunky-dory, unless you choose to ignore the immediate rumors that Joe Maddon would leave Tampa Bay to follow Friedman to the Dodgers. Once Friedman said Mattingly was the manager, it took 0.35 seconds for the Cubs to appear as a possible landing spot for Maddon.
Not to go Bill Simmons on everyone, but Tom Jones saying "all seemed hunky-dory" is like a guy and his very attractive girlfriend still dating while she goes to college and he stays at home to get a job after high school. She sees multiple opportunities to further herself personally and professionally, while he thinks everything is cool because nothing has changed for him. Yeah sure, if you want to ignore the life change (Friedman leaving), everything seems great, but she is attractive and potentially available to a whole new pool of men. Just because things didn't change for the Rays didn't mean things didn't change for Maddon. It all seemed hunky-dory only if the Rays wanted to ignore the reality they had a very attractive (talent-wise) manager and one of the reasons he seemingly stayed was just removed from the equation.
But then came the stunning news that Maddon had a brief opt-out clause
in his contract that was activated when Friedman left the organization.
Maddon took advantage of that window and, before you know it, he's
putting on a Cubs hat.
This is where the story gets a little more messy.
Things like this always are a little messy. It doesn't mean there was tampering. If I were in Joe Maddon's place (or any manager's place really), unless I were with a team I couldn't see ever leaving I would ALWAYS have a list of teams I would like to manage in my head. I would be focused on my team, but have a list of teams I wanted my agent to call ASAP if shit goes bad at my current location. So it's pretty easy to think that once Maddon used his opt-out he had a list of teams he wanted his agent to call. Again, Maddon has to have known he was wanted by other teams if he were ever not the manager of the Rays.
Maddon said he didn't even know he had an out clause until his agent, Alan Nero, told him.
I think he's lying. It doesn't matter if he is lying or not though, because the fact remains the clause was in the contract.
Seems hard to believe that Maddon left the Rays and walked away with no
idea that the Cubs were willing to fire their manager and give him $5
million a year for five years.
If you are in denial about Maddon's value then this could be hard to believe. I am not in denial. I know Maddon worked for a small market team that had a low payroll and he is considered one of the best managers in the game. Maddon had to figure he would get a raise of some sort when he went to a new team and he had to figure that even if he sat out a year his not managing would only make him more attractive. This has happened in other sports. How many times are Jon Gruden and Bill Cowher considered candidates for an NFL job? Absence makes the heart grow fonder of overpaying for a manager because if a team's current manager sucks there is always Joe Maddon sitting out there. I find it hard to believe that Maddon wouldn't know he had really great market value if he and the Rays ever parted ways.
Nero says the tampering charges are "silly'' and "insulting.''
Nero is just fiddling while the city burns to the ground.
No, what's silly and insulting is expecting reasonably intelligent
people to buy that Maddon left the Rays with no job lined up, especially
when rumors that he was headed to the Cubs cropped up almost
immediately.
I have no idea if there was tampering. It is NOT insulting to think Maddon had no job lined up. The fact the rumors said he was heading to the Dodgers before the opt-out clause was known goes to prove that. The rumors of Maddon heading to the Cubs immediately after opting-out is proof of Maddon's value. It's not silly and insulting to think Maddon would have a job soon after leaving the Rays. It's logical.
And, by the way, Nero calling the Rays' accusations "really sad'' as his
client is walking out the door? That's just poor form. Allow the Rays
to pout for a moment and leave it at that.
I understand, but "pouting" isn't accusing the Cubs and Nero of breaking MLB rules against tampering. Pouting is being sad and writing a column like this. Accusing the Cubs and Nero of violating MLB rules is more than just pouting.
Meantime, there's the ugly business that Maddon appeared to have gone after a job that was already filled by someone else.
Okay. It's a business. Do sportswriters get mad at B.J. Upton for going after a centerfield job that was someone else's prior to his joining the Braves?
It's hard to blame the Cubs. Epstein correctly pointed out that he had
an obligation to do what was best for the Cubs and, in his mind, firing
first-year manager Rick Renteria and hiring Maddon was the best thing to
do. Frankly, you can't argue with that.
And they did it in a really nice way. This does lead the world closer and closer to the Cubspocalypse where the Cubs win a World Series and Cubs fans in pink hats becoming 100 times more annoying than Red Sox fans in pink hats became in the mid-2000's. The world will be filled with new Cubs fans and real Cubs fans will go crazy knowing they were there from the beginning while the pretenders wear Rizzo jersey's and think Jerome Walton is Sam Walton's younger brother. I'm just saying, it's going to be a disaster when the Cubs win a World Series. By "disaster" I mean it's going to make the bandwagonism in other fan bases look small in comparison.
But did Maddon break some sort of code? Did he betray a member of the fraternity?
Don't be so dramatic. Players take the jobs of other players all the time. The same thing can happen with managers. What does it matter if the Cubs fire Renteria behind the lie of "cause" or just admit they wanted to hire Maddon? Maddon has a right to get money if another team wants to pay him.
Yeah, it feels like it. Put it this way: I'm guessing Maddon would not
have appreciated someone going after his job when he lost 101 games in
his first season as a major-league manager.
No, he would not have appreciated it. He would have eventually understood that the Rays had a chance to hire a really great manager and accepted a managerial job with another team or accepted a coaching job with another team.
If you're a Rays fan, it's easy to feel like a jilted lover. If you
watched Monday's news conference, it felt like Maddon had already
forgotten about you.
Oh, quit being such a drama queen. He's the Cubs' manager now and will only talk about how excited he is to be their manager. He's not going to cry tears and show a slideshow documenting his years in Tampa Bay with the Rays.
It took him until the 36th and last minute on the podium to finally get
around to thanking the Rays. He spoke almost exclusively about his
future with the Cubs and very little about his past with the Rays.
Because he had just been hired as the Cubs manager and didn't think anyone would act like a jilted lover if he didn't mention the Rays 10 times per sentence. Get out of the bitter barn and come play in the hay. Seriously, why should Joe Maddon talk about his past with the Rays when he takes a new job with the Cubs? Would Tom Jones (no, not that one) talk about his time at the "Tampa Bay Times" during most of his first day at his new job?
There were no apologies, no regrets, not even an acknowledgement that many Rays fans are upset to see him go.
I think it's laughable you wanted this from him.
He has clearly moved on and now the Rays must move on, too.
I feel like Jones is crying as he writes this sentence.
In the end, it's hard to blame anyone.
Except for the part of this column where Tom Jones (no, not that one) blames the Cubs for maybe, possibly, who knows, tampering with Joe Maddon and blames Maddon's agent for lying about whether the Cubs tampered. As long as a reader ignores the entire premise of this woeful column, it's hard to blame anyone. In the end, it's hard to see how Jones could write in this article that it's hard to blame anyone when the entire column is about blaming two parties.
Everyone tried to do the right thing. Maybe they even did the right thing.
Maybe they did or maybe they didn't do the right thing. The important thing is to ignore Joe Maddon's market value away from the Rays and focus on what the sadness surrounding Maddon's departure says. Be bitter, see that the Cubs tampered. Know that Maddon knows his market value, see that it doesn't matter if the Cubs tampered or not.
Still, the whole thing just feels wrong.
Turn the Taylor Swift as loud as possible and just dance until it doesn't hurt anymore. After you get done dancing the pain away, please understand that Joe Maddon knew a team would want to hire him as their manager and the rumors about him going to the Dodgers before he even opted-out support this statement as true.
Showing posts with label Joe Maddon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Joe Maddon. Show all posts
Friday, November 21, 2014
Monday, October 28, 2013
5 comments Jay Mariotti Wants to See the Rays Win the World Ser---Wait, They Lost to the Red Sox in the ALDS? In That Case, Jay Mariotti Wants Joe Maddon to Get a Job Managing a "Real" MLB Team Because the Rays Suck
I've linked the article about the Big East Tournament so many times everyone is tired of it, but Jay Mariotti has never been afraid to change course even after he has posted a column. The article I am referencing is where Jay completely re-wrote a column about the Big East Tournament where he went from criticizing the tournament for being irrelevant to reveling in the joy of the tournament...all because the Big East Tournament was exciting. He literally erased portions of his columns ripping the NCAA Tournament and then just replaced those words with how exciting the NCAA Tournament was. Jay is a whore. If he's not a whore then he is a mercenary writer. He has no beliefs and doesn't care who he works for as long as he is getting paid. His beliefs depend on what type of column he is currently writing. He doesn't want to work for a big, evil corporation after spending his entire writing career working for a big, evil corporation. So he writes an introduction on his new "Mariotti Show" site ripping large corporate sports networks. But hey, if ESPN calls and offers Jay a radio show and a writing opportunity don't doubt he is picking up the phone to hear them out.
I digress, but I felt I needed to in order to properly introduce one of Jay's columns so everyone understands that Jay doesn't believe what he writes. He just writes to get attention. After the Rays were eliminated from the ALDS by the Boston Red Sox, Jay wrote a column saying Joe Maddon deserves better than managing the Rays. This is an example of the typical sportswriter from a big city stating a manager isn't really relevant until he manages in a big city, which is just so impossibly stupid. Managing in a big city isn't a requirement for a manager to justify his status as being excellent at his job. Back to my point...on October 3 Jay Mariotti wrote a column stating he was cheering for the Rays to win the World Series. The same team who isn't worthy of being managed by Joe Maddon is worthy enough to have a World Series title. Go figure.
Here are some of the comments about the Rays that Jay made in his original column where he "hoped" the little guys win the World Series. It's funny how the Rays stink and aren't worthy of Joe Maddon once they've lost the ALDS, but prior to losing to the Red Sox the Rays don't stink quite enough to get Jay's support.
Being smart on a limited budget is way cooler these days than being stupid with $236.9 million.
Which explains why the Dodgers have a payroll very, very close to the Yankees payroll and Jay wrote an entire column about the Dodgers can't be beaten. I guess not having a limited budget is still cool, especially since Jay suggests six days after he wrote this October 3 column that Joe Maddon deserves to manage a team without a limited budget. So being smart on a limited budget is cool unless something happens and Jay has to change his point of view to where being smart on a limited budget is just being cheap. At that point, the manager of a team with a limited budget deserves to go to a team with a larger budget to maximize his potential as a manager. Yet, I disgress again. Jay's comments about the Rays from his October 3 column:
Yes, I’m openly rooting for the Rays, A’s and Pirates, even if it requires three flight connections and overtime pay to your GPS lady to find St. Petersburg, Oakland and Pittsburgh.
Right, because Pittsburgh is such a tiny city and Oakland isn't exactly small. But yeah Jay, are these cities even on a map?
Whether a championship is possible depends on those usual October variables: supreme pitching, experience in such moments and late-season hotness. Funny thing is, Tampa Bay has all three at the moment...In spite of such hardships, the Rays continue to look like a team that could beat anybody anywhere, advancing to the divisional round in Boston after winning two elimination games in three nights with typical airtight, Maddon-loose, pitching-and-fundamentals efficiency.
This is the same team that upon losing to the Red Sox is no longer worthy of Joe Maddon.
“Moneyball” became the norm for all franchises, small or large, but the Rays took shrewd front-office thinking to new and more consistent levels in recent years. While the A’s suffered through a lull period between the Brad Pitt era and their current run, Tampa Bay achieved something in 2008 that Beane has not — a World Series — and has continued to generate 90-win seasons while constantly dealing with low-budget constraints and hard-to-explain dumpings of star players. It’s astonishing that baseball boss Andrew Friedman, with basically no room for error, usually connects on every move, whether it’s something monumental like the James Shields-for-Wil Myers deal or seemingly trivial like the late-season pickup of Delmon Young, who ripped a big home run to help eliminate the Indians.
On October 3, the Rays were a well-run organization that dealt with budget constraints by continuing to win baseball games. Andrew Friedman connected on most moves and is probably one of the best GM's in baseball. It's funny how just six days later the Rays are no longer worthy of Maddon and he should go to a big city to prove he is a great manager, since the Rays suddenly don't deserve him. It's almost like Jay bases most of his criticism of the Rays on the outcome of the ALDS. What was once six days earlier a well-run organization that churned out 90-win seasons is now a cheap organization on the decline. Funny how sportswriters can base their conclusions all on the outcome of a five-game series.
People forget that Young, with Detroit, was MVP of the ALCS last autumn.
Jay apparently forgets that Young wasn't very good with the Phillies this year.
All of which is largely about the groovy vibe of Maddon, a master of positive reinforcement and gimmicks — you know about the penguins and snakes in the home clubhouse — intended to forge a fun atmosphere conducive to productive relaxation when October arrives. Oakland and Tampa Bay are mirror images in achieving the most with the fewest resources; at least The Trop has functional plumbing, unlike the deplorable Coliseum. On the flip side, Beane has just enough of a budget to chase a Cuban prodigy like Yoenis Cespedes; Tampa Bay doesn’t have the money to plunge into the global chase or buy major free agents.
But it's fun to cheer for the underdog, right? Well, as long as the underdog is winning of course. When the underdog loses, it's time to move Joe Maddon to a large market for him to prove what he has already proven in Tampa Bay.
Tell me: Why would anyone root for the Dodgers … or the Red Sox … or the there-every-year Cardinals … when you have three adorable overachievers?
That's a great point. Why would Joe Maddon leave to manage another team when he can manage a team full of adorable overachievers? Wait, we haven't gotten to the point where Jay bashes the Rays because the Rays haven't lost to the Red Sox yet.
Sounds like Tampa Bay. Sounds like Pittsburgh.
Sounds like the adorable kind of cause America should embrace this autumn, right?
Until the Rays lose, at which point fuck them, and they don't deserve to have Joe Maddon as their manager.
That is Jay's argument on October 9 at least.
My wish for Joe Maddon is simple, a lot simpler than he is. I want him to end this quirky run as baseball’s groovy hipster skipper — you know, ditch the black glasses and unorthodox strategies and even the ’56 Chevy Bel-Air — and find a conventional baseball team to manage far, far away from downtown St. Petersburg, Fla.
Adorable overachievers these Rays are no more. Now they are cheapskates who are holding their manager back from achieving the only thing that determines whether a baseball manager is truly good at his job or not, which is managing a team that plays in a large market with access to plenty of money.
That team will have money, resources, fans, a real ballpark.
Isn't it interesting how Andrew Friedman has gone from a guy who connects on every move (and helped the Rays make the playoffs four out of the last six years, which isn't something very many MLB teams can claim) to a guy presiding over a team with no resources or money? The script gets flipped when Jay sees a negative outcome, doesn't it?
I do agree with the Rays needing a real ballpark. Other than that, there's no guarantee Maddon would do better with a team that has more money and resources.
That team will not have a 20-foot python and penguins in the clubhouse, a 10,000-gallon fish tank with live cownose rays, and stadium catwalks that are in play if a ball strikes one.
If Joe Maddon is the manager then the team will have a 20-foot python and penguins in the clubhouse. That's the kind of manager that Joe Maddon is. I think the fish tank with the rays is kind of a neat thing for the Rays to have in order for kids to come to the game and have something to do should they get bored. After all, if the Rays are going to have such a crappy ballpark they may as well have something no other ballpark can claim to have...and the stadium catwalk which comes into play on pop-ups doesn't count.
It’s the only way Maddon will be perceived nationally as what he truly is — a wonderful manager and all-demographics ambassador of a sport that needs fun, smart characters —
Maybe for Jay Mariotti this is a true statement, but he doesn't speak for baseball fans everywhere (I shudder at the thought of Jay Mariotti speaking for anyone but himself). Maddon doesn't need to play for a team with money and resources to be recognized as one of the best managers in baseball. In fact, what he has done with the limited payroll and resources the Rays have only exemplifies how he is the best manager in baseball. Give Maddon more resources and money for players and his success as a manager can be waved away by saying he is expected to win baseball games with a $125 million payroll. Maddon's quirkiness isn't going away and what makes him a great manager would be diminished by giving him a larger payroll and higher expectations. 90-win seasons would be expected from him.
The man has taken this adorable little puppy about as far he possibly can, and after yet another divisional-round elimination, it’s now been five years since the Rays played in their one and only World Series.
My God! Five whole years! No wonder Dusty Baker got fired by the Reds. He hadn't managed them into the World Series the entire time he was there. Five years of not representing the American League in the World Series is far too long. Mike Scioscia and Ron Gardenhire should be fired too. I'm shocked the Braves didn't fire Bobby Cox in 2004 and allow him to find a job with another team in a larger market with a higher payroll after the Braves failed to make the World Series for the FIFTH STRAIGHT year. It's unheard of for a manager to stick around after such a long history of failure. Free Joe Maddon and let him go to another team where his success as a manager can be chalked up to the payroll and resources his team has, rather than attributed to Maddon's skill as a manager in helping a lower payroll team make the playoffs four of six seasons.
One large reason for that consistent overachievement is Maddon, but after awhile, even he must wonder how he’d fare with a Boston payroll, a San Francisco ballpark, a Mike Trout in the lineup.
Because we all know from the 2012 Miami Marlins Experience the higher the payroll, the nicer the ballpark and the more talented the roster then the better that team will perform on the field, right? Money can buy a team's success if the right players are getting paid the money (ahem, the Dodgers), but it also may not mean jackshit if the highly paid players don't perform on the field.
His latest October setback was a 3-1 loss to the Red Sox, who advance to the American League championship series, that can be viewed as either a chess match or a farce. Understandably showing little faith in Game 4 starter Jeremy Hellickson, whose talents are overwhelmed by his erratic streaks, Maddon yanked him at his first sign of trouble in the second inning — four-pitch walks of David Ortiz and Mike Napoli and a single by Daniel Nava.
This was a move that completely worked by the way. It sucks to lose a starter so quickly, but it got the Rays out of trouble in the first inning with no runs scored. The bottom line is that the postseason is a crapshoot at times. Managers can do some things to help his team win or do some things to help his team lose. The fact the Rays lost AGAIN in the playoffs doesn't mean Maddon has maxed out his ability as the Rays manager and should immediately go find a team with a higher payroll to manage. The Rays are good at finding young talent and maximizing that talent until it becomes expensive and then allows other teams to overpay for these players (see: Crawford, Carl or Upton, B.J.). There's always a chance the Rays will make another World Series. Going to a different team doesn't mean Maddon's genius will be even more recognized.
But this led to a calvalcade of relievers who performed well until the inevitable crash — Joel Peralta’s wild pitch in a two-run Boston seventh and Fernando Rodney’s latest failue in the ninth. In the end, the Rays simply don’t have the offense to mash the Boston mashers, and consider it a byproduct of having only a $62 million payroll.
It's also a byproduct of Jake Peavy pitching 5.2 innings of five-hit ball and the Red Sox getting 3.1 innings of one-hit ball from their bullpen. But yeah, it was mostly the Rays payroll that was the issue, not the Red Sox stellar pitching. Great analysis, Jay.
You can scratch out only so many victories before bigger lumber prevails.
I'm not sure what this even means. How do we know which team has "bigger lumber" until the game is over? So a team can scratch out victories until they lose the series? Great point.
Wild improvisation doesn’t win championships.
You mean putting Max Scherzer in the game with the bases loaded and no outs and having him get out of a jam is a bad idea? Tell Jim Leyland that. How about having Kirk Gibson come off the bench to bat in Game 1 of the World Series even though he can't run? That's a bad idea? The point was to win Game 4 so the Rays could force a Game 5. Maddon's improvisation and use of his relievers almost did work. It wasn't his wild improvisation that lost the game for the Rays, it was the Red Sox pitching which didn't allow the Rays to score that sealed the ALDS for Boston. I believe no matter which team with however large of a payroll that Maddon was managing he would have made a similar move. His starting pitcher was struggling and he had to make a move to give his team a chance to win the game and minimize the damage in the first inning.
The norm still applies — a quality start, an effective relief performance, a closer with the lockdown — and Boston’s Jake Peavy, Craig Breslow and Koji Uehara were better than Maddon’s nine-man roll call.
Well yes, getting a quality start from your starting pitcher followed by relievers giving up 1 hit over 3.1 innings is always a nice and preferred strategy. When the Rays starting pitcher loads the bases with no outs in an elimination game though, it's time to start thinking of different types of strategies. That's what Joe Maddon did and having him go manage a different MLB team would not stop him from improvising from time-to-time. He may just improvise with higher paid players, which wouldn't guarantee he would have greater success in his improvisation.
Crazier still, David Price was warming in the bullpen for a 10th-inning stint in case the Rays rallied. Other than Raymond, the team mascot, just who was going to be left to start Game 5?
Theoretically Jeremy Hellickson could have started Game 5. Or maybe Craig Kimbrel could have started since he's so well-rested. The Braves aren't planning on using him anytime soon in an elimination game, so maybe they will loan him to the Rays so he could pitch a couple of innings for them.
Jay is tying in the Rays lack of quality pitching in the ALDS into why Maddon needs to be released from the binding chains that is the Rays organization, but there is no guarantee Maddon would have better luck or better pitching if he went to work for a different organization. There were teams with high payrolls that didn't make the playoffs and didn't have good team ERA's this year, including Philadelphia, Toronto, the Los Angeles Angels, New York Yankees, and the Texas Rangers.
It's just silly to tie in Joe Maddon's improvisational tendencies to him managing a smaller market, lower payroll team. Possibly Maddon's managerial style fits better with a lower payroll team than it would with a higher payroll team. I'm not sure why all of a sudden the Rays are a team who will only have limited success and Maddon needs to go to another MLB team to achieve his potential as a manager. Again, much of what makes Maddon great is what he does with the limited resources the Rays have.
The topic is moot. The Rays have been beaten, again.
Yes, but they made the playoffs, again. For the fourth time in six years. This isn't something many MLB teams can state they have done over the last decade.
Though it appears Mike Scioscia and Jerry Dipoto will remain as that franchise’s manager and general manager, the two have had disagreements and likely will have a short shelf life together.
And really, wasn't the entire problem with the Angels this year the lack of a good manager and not the underperformance of expensive free agents like Albert Pujols and Josh Hamilton, as well as a pitching staff that was 24th in ERA, 26th in batting average against, 14th in quality starts and 24th in OPS against? It's just bad managing on Mike Scioscia's part obviously that causes Hamilton, Pujols and the pitching staff to struggle.
That could open a managerial job for Maddon if, say, Scioscia moves upstairs as GM.
Because anytime there is a disagreement between the manager and general manager of a team, it is common for ownership to choose a side and then give the winner of the disagreement the organizational position of the loser in the disagreement? I imagine Scioscia would keep Dipoto's head on a stick outside his office as a reminder that he not only won the disagreement, but took Dipoto's organizational position.
Even if the Angels ownership or upper management picks a side, are they going to give Scioscia Dipoto's job as GM or are they going to simply hire a new GM that fits with Scioscia's philosophy as a manager? Why would the Angels move a manager they clearly like out of his job into a position that he has no experience in? Just to hire Joe Maddon? I'm not sure that makes sense.
Imagine managing a team with 40,000 in the stands every night, a $165 million payroll, a lineup with Trout and Albert Pujols and a wayward soul named Josh Hamilton who could use faith-healing.
I imagine Maddon wouldn't be looked so kindly upon because the media would thrust unrealistic expectations upon him. I also imagine Joe Maddon can't magically make Albert Pujols or Josh Hamilton a better hitter. Yes, Maddon would have more resources to work with if he managed the Angels, but why does he have to go to Los Angeles to prove himself as a manager? I don't understand why Maddon deserves a team with a higher payroll and more resources, as if this is a gift and not a burden of heightened expectations.
He wouldn’t have to be the Maddon Scientist anymore.
But he may choose to still be the Maddon Scientist. That very well could be Joe Maddon's managerial style. So he would still bring animals into the locker room and make improvisational pitching changes, but just do it with a team that has a higher payroll. More importantly, why is it that Jay wants the Rays to win the World Series while painting them as the organization-that-could, then six days later state the Rays have hit their ceiling and are now an organization-that-never-will? There's nothing like a knee jerk reaction to a playoff loss.
I digress, but I felt I needed to in order to properly introduce one of Jay's columns so everyone understands that Jay doesn't believe what he writes. He just writes to get attention. After the Rays were eliminated from the ALDS by the Boston Red Sox, Jay wrote a column saying Joe Maddon deserves better than managing the Rays. This is an example of the typical sportswriter from a big city stating a manager isn't really relevant until he manages in a big city, which is just so impossibly stupid. Managing in a big city isn't a requirement for a manager to justify his status as being excellent at his job. Back to my point...on October 3 Jay Mariotti wrote a column stating he was cheering for the Rays to win the World Series. The same team who isn't worthy of being managed by Joe Maddon is worthy enough to have a World Series title. Go figure.
Here are some of the comments about the Rays that Jay made in his original column where he "hoped" the little guys win the World Series. It's funny how the Rays stink and aren't worthy of Joe Maddon once they've lost the ALDS, but prior to losing to the Red Sox the Rays don't stink quite enough to get Jay's support.
Being smart on a limited budget is way cooler these days than being stupid with $236.9 million.
Which explains why the Dodgers have a payroll very, very close to the Yankees payroll and Jay wrote an entire column about the Dodgers can't be beaten. I guess not having a limited budget is still cool, especially since Jay suggests six days after he wrote this October 3 column that Joe Maddon deserves to manage a team without a limited budget. So being smart on a limited budget is cool unless something happens and Jay has to change his point of view to where being smart on a limited budget is just being cheap. At that point, the manager of a team with a limited budget deserves to go to a team with a larger budget to maximize his potential as a manager. Yet, I disgress again. Jay's comments about the Rays from his October 3 column:
Yes, I’m openly rooting for the Rays, A’s and Pirates, even if it requires three flight connections and overtime pay to your GPS lady to find St. Petersburg, Oakland and Pittsburgh.
Right, because Pittsburgh is such a tiny city and Oakland isn't exactly small. But yeah Jay, are these cities even on a map?
Whether a championship is possible depends on those usual October variables: supreme pitching, experience in such moments and late-season hotness. Funny thing is, Tampa Bay has all three at the moment...In spite of such hardships, the Rays continue to look like a team that could beat anybody anywhere, advancing to the divisional round in Boston after winning two elimination games in three nights with typical airtight, Maddon-loose, pitching-and-fundamentals efficiency.
This is the same team that upon losing to the Red Sox is no longer worthy of Joe Maddon.
“Moneyball” became the norm for all franchises, small or large, but the Rays took shrewd front-office thinking to new and more consistent levels in recent years. While the A’s suffered through a lull period between the Brad Pitt era and their current run, Tampa Bay achieved something in 2008 that Beane has not — a World Series — and has continued to generate 90-win seasons while constantly dealing with low-budget constraints and hard-to-explain dumpings of star players. It’s astonishing that baseball boss Andrew Friedman, with basically no room for error, usually connects on every move, whether it’s something monumental like the James Shields-for-Wil Myers deal or seemingly trivial like the late-season pickup of Delmon Young, who ripped a big home run to help eliminate the Indians.
On October 3, the Rays were a well-run organization that dealt with budget constraints by continuing to win baseball games. Andrew Friedman connected on most moves and is probably one of the best GM's in baseball. It's funny how just six days later the Rays are no longer worthy of Maddon and he should go to a big city to prove he is a great manager, since the Rays suddenly don't deserve him. It's almost like Jay bases most of his criticism of the Rays on the outcome of the ALDS. What was once six days earlier a well-run organization that churned out 90-win seasons is now a cheap organization on the decline. Funny how sportswriters can base their conclusions all on the outcome of a five-game series.
People forget that Young, with Detroit, was MVP of the ALCS last autumn.
Jay apparently forgets that Young wasn't very good with the Phillies this year.
All of which is largely about the groovy vibe of Maddon, a master of positive reinforcement and gimmicks — you know about the penguins and snakes in the home clubhouse — intended to forge a fun atmosphere conducive to productive relaxation when October arrives. Oakland and Tampa Bay are mirror images in achieving the most with the fewest resources; at least The Trop has functional plumbing, unlike the deplorable Coliseum. On the flip side, Beane has just enough of a budget to chase a Cuban prodigy like Yoenis Cespedes; Tampa Bay doesn’t have the money to plunge into the global chase or buy major free agents.
But it's fun to cheer for the underdog, right? Well, as long as the underdog is winning of course. When the underdog loses, it's time to move Joe Maddon to a large market for him to prove what he has already proven in Tampa Bay.
Tell me: Why would anyone root for the Dodgers … or the Red Sox … or the there-every-year Cardinals … when you have three adorable overachievers?
That's a great point. Why would Joe Maddon leave to manage another team when he can manage a team full of adorable overachievers? Wait, we haven't gotten to the point where Jay bashes the Rays because the Rays haven't lost to the Red Sox yet.
Sounds like Tampa Bay. Sounds like Pittsburgh.
Sounds like the adorable kind of cause America should embrace this autumn, right?
Until the Rays lose, at which point fuck them, and they don't deserve to have Joe Maddon as their manager.
That is Jay's argument on October 9 at least.
My wish for Joe Maddon is simple, a lot simpler than he is. I want him to end this quirky run as baseball’s groovy hipster skipper — you know, ditch the black glasses and unorthodox strategies and even the ’56 Chevy Bel-Air — and find a conventional baseball team to manage far, far away from downtown St. Petersburg, Fla.
Adorable overachievers these Rays are no more. Now they are cheapskates who are holding their manager back from achieving the only thing that determines whether a baseball manager is truly good at his job or not, which is managing a team that plays in a large market with access to plenty of money.
That team will have money, resources, fans, a real ballpark.
Isn't it interesting how Andrew Friedman has gone from a guy who connects on every move (and helped the Rays make the playoffs four out of the last six years, which isn't something very many MLB teams can claim) to a guy presiding over a team with no resources or money? The script gets flipped when Jay sees a negative outcome, doesn't it?
I do agree with the Rays needing a real ballpark. Other than that, there's no guarantee Maddon would do better with a team that has more money and resources.
That team will not have a 20-foot python and penguins in the clubhouse, a 10,000-gallon fish tank with live cownose rays, and stadium catwalks that are in play if a ball strikes one.
If Joe Maddon is the manager then the team will have a 20-foot python and penguins in the clubhouse. That's the kind of manager that Joe Maddon is. I think the fish tank with the rays is kind of a neat thing for the Rays to have in order for kids to come to the game and have something to do should they get bored. After all, if the Rays are going to have such a crappy ballpark they may as well have something no other ballpark can claim to have...and the stadium catwalk which comes into play on pop-ups doesn't count.
It’s the only way Maddon will be perceived nationally as what he truly is — a wonderful manager and all-demographics ambassador of a sport that needs fun, smart characters —
Maybe for Jay Mariotti this is a true statement, but he doesn't speak for baseball fans everywhere (I shudder at the thought of Jay Mariotti speaking for anyone but himself). Maddon doesn't need to play for a team with money and resources to be recognized as one of the best managers in baseball. In fact, what he has done with the limited payroll and resources the Rays have only exemplifies how he is the best manager in baseball. Give Maddon more resources and money for players and his success as a manager can be waved away by saying he is expected to win baseball games with a $125 million payroll. Maddon's quirkiness isn't going away and what makes him a great manager would be diminished by giving him a larger payroll and higher expectations. 90-win seasons would be expected from him.
The man has taken this adorable little puppy about as far he possibly can, and after yet another divisional-round elimination, it’s now been five years since the Rays played in their one and only World Series.
My God! Five whole years! No wonder Dusty Baker got fired by the Reds. He hadn't managed them into the World Series the entire time he was there. Five years of not representing the American League in the World Series is far too long. Mike Scioscia and Ron Gardenhire should be fired too. I'm shocked the Braves didn't fire Bobby Cox in 2004 and allow him to find a job with another team in a larger market with a higher payroll after the Braves failed to make the World Series for the FIFTH STRAIGHT year. It's unheard of for a manager to stick around after such a long history of failure. Free Joe Maddon and let him go to another team where his success as a manager can be chalked up to the payroll and resources his team has, rather than attributed to Maddon's skill as a manager in helping a lower payroll team make the playoffs four of six seasons.
One large reason for that consistent overachievement is Maddon, but after awhile, even he must wonder how he’d fare with a Boston payroll, a San Francisco ballpark, a Mike Trout in the lineup.
Because we all know from the 2012 Miami Marlins Experience the higher the payroll, the nicer the ballpark and the more talented the roster then the better that team will perform on the field, right? Money can buy a team's success if the right players are getting paid the money (ahem, the Dodgers), but it also may not mean jackshit if the highly paid players don't perform on the field.
His latest October setback was a 3-1 loss to the Red Sox, who advance to the American League championship series, that can be viewed as either a chess match or a farce. Understandably showing little faith in Game 4 starter Jeremy Hellickson, whose talents are overwhelmed by his erratic streaks, Maddon yanked him at his first sign of trouble in the second inning — four-pitch walks of David Ortiz and Mike Napoli and a single by Daniel Nava.
This was a move that completely worked by the way. It sucks to lose a starter so quickly, but it got the Rays out of trouble in the first inning with no runs scored. The bottom line is that the postseason is a crapshoot at times. Managers can do some things to help his team win or do some things to help his team lose. The fact the Rays lost AGAIN in the playoffs doesn't mean Maddon has maxed out his ability as the Rays manager and should immediately go find a team with a higher payroll to manage. The Rays are good at finding young talent and maximizing that talent until it becomes expensive and then allows other teams to overpay for these players (see: Crawford, Carl or Upton, B.J.). There's always a chance the Rays will make another World Series. Going to a different team doesn't mean Maddon's genius will be even more recognized.
But this led to a calvalcade of relievers who performed well until the inevitable crash — Joel Peralta’s wild pitch in a two-run Boston seventh and Fernando Rodney’s latest failue in the ninth. In the end, the Rays simply don’t have the offense to mash the Boston mashers, and consider it a byproduct of having only a $62 million payroll.
It's also a byproduct of Jake Peavy pitching 5.2 innings of five-hit ball and the Red Sox getting 3.1 innings of one-hit ball from their bullpen. But yeah, it was mostly the Rays payroll that was the issue, not the Red Sox stellar pitching. Great analysis, Jay.
You can scratch out only so many victories before bigger lumber prevails.
I'm not sure what this even means. How do we know which team has "bigger lumber" until the game is over? So a team can scratch out victories until they lose the series? Great point.
Wild improvisation doesn’t win championships.
You mean putting Max Scherzer in the game with the bases loaded and no outs and having him get out of a jam is a bad idea? Tell Jim Leyland that. How about having Kirk Gibson come off the bench to bat in Game 1 of the World Series even though he can't run? That's a bad idea? The point was to win Game 4 so the Rays could force a Game 5. Maddon's improvisation and use of his relievers almost did work. It wasn't his wild improvisation that lost the game for the Rays, it was the Red Sox pitching which didn't allow the Rays to score that sealed the ALDS for Boston. I believe no matter which team with however large of a payroll that Maddon was managing he would have made a similar move. His starting pitcher was struggling and he had to make a move to give his team a chance to win the game and minimize the damage in the first inning.
The norm still applies — a quality start, an effective relief performance, a closer with the lockdown — and Boston’s Jake Peavy, Craig Breslow and Koji Uehara were better than Maddon’s nine-man roll call.
Well yes, getting a quality start from your starting pitcher followed by relievers giving up 1 hit over 3.1 innings is always a nice and preferred strategy. When the Rays starting pitcher loads the bases with no outs in an elimination game though, it's time to start thinking of different types of strategies. That's what Joe Maddon did and having him go manage a different MLB team would not stop him from improvising from time-to-time. He may just improvise with higher paid players, which wouldn't guarantee he would have greater success in his improvisation.
Crazier still, David Price was warming in the bullpen for a 10th-inning stint in case the Rays rallied. Other than Raymond, the team mascot, just who was going to be left to start Game 5?
Theoretically Jeremy Hellickson could have started Game 5. Or maybe Craig Kimbrel could have started since he's so well-rested. The Braves aren't planning on using him anytime soon in an elimination game, so maybe they will loan him to the Rays so he could pitch a couple of innings for them.
Jay is tying in the Rays lack of quality pitching in the ALDS into why Maddon needs to be released from the binding chains that is the Rays organization, but there is no guarantee Maddon would have better luck or better pitching if he went to work for a different organization. There were teams with high payrolls that didn't make the playoffs and didn't have good team ERA's this year, including Philadelphia, Toronto, the Los Angeles Angels, New York Yankees, and the Texas Rangers.
It's just silly to tie in Joe Maddon's improvisational tendencies to him managing a smaller market, lower payroll team. Possibly Maddon's managerial style fits better with a lower payroll team than it would with a higher payroll team. I'm not sure why all of a sudden the Rays are a team who will only have limited success and Maddon needs to go to another MLB team to achieve his potential as a manager. Again, much of what makes Maddon great is what he does with the limited resources the Rays have.
The topic is moot. The Rays have been beaten, again.
Yes, but they made the playoffs, again. For the fourth time in six years. This isn't something many MLB teams can state they have done over the last decade.
Though it appears Mike Scioscia and Jerry Dipoto will remain as that franchise’s manager and general manager, the two have had disagreements and likely will have a short shelf life together.
And really, wasn't the entire problem with the Angels this year the lack of a good manager and not the underperformance of expensive free agents like Albert Pujols and Josh Hamilton, as well as a pitching staff that was 24th in ERA, 26th in batting average against, 14th in quality starts and 24th in OPS against? It's just bad managing on Mike Scioscia's part obviously that causes Hamilton, Pujols and the pitching staff to struggle.
That could open a managerial job for Maddon if, say, Scioscia moves upstairs as GM.
Because anytime there is a disagreement between the manager and general manager of a team, it is common for ownership to choose a side and then give the winner of the disagreement the organizational position of the loser in the disagreement? I imagine Scioscia would keep Dipoto's head on a stick outside his office as a reminder that he not only won the disagreement, but took Dipoto's organizational position.
Even if the Angels ownership or upper management picks a side, are they going to give Scioscia Dipoto's job as GM or are they going to simply hire a new GM that fits with Scioscia's philosophy as a manager? Why would the Angels move a manager they clearly like out of his job into a position that he has no experience in? Just to hire Joe Maddon? I'm not sure that makes sense.
Imagine managing a team with 40,000 in the stands every night, a $165 million payroll, a lineup with Trout and Albert Pujols and a wayward soul named Josh Hamilton who could use faith-healing.
I imagine Maddon wouldn't be looked so kindly upon because the media would thrust unrealistic expectations upon him. I also imagine Joe Maddon can't magically make Albert Pujols or Josh Hamilton a better hitter. Yes, Maddon would have more resources to work with if he managed the Angels, but why does he have to go to Los Angeles to prove himself as a manager? I don't understand why Maddon deserves a team with a higher payroll and more resources, as if this is a gift and not a burden of heightened expectations.
He wouldn’t have to be the Maddon Scientist anymore.
But he may choose to still be the Maddon Scientist. That very well could be Joe Maddon's managerial style. So he would still bring animals into the locker room and make improvisational pitching changes, but just do it with a team that has a higher payroll. More importantly, why is it that Jay wants the Rays to win the World Series while painting them as the organization-that-could, then six days later state the Rays have hit their ceiling and are now an organization-that-never-will? There's nothing like a knee jerk reaction to a playoff loss.
My
wish for Joe Maddon is simple, a lot simpler than he is. I want him to
end this quirky run as baseball’s groovy hipster skipper — you know,
ditch the black glasses and unorthodox strategies and even the ’56 Chevy
Bel-Air — and find a conventional baseball team to manage far, far away
from downtown St. Petersburg, Fla.
Read more at http://www.sportstalkflorida.com/maddon-scientist-deserves-bigger-better-job/#w3vVLqZG61LIsIZ2.99
Read more at http://www.sportstalkflorida.com/maddon-scientist-deserves-bigger-better-job/#w3vVLqZG61LIsIZ2.99
Being smart on a limited budget is way cooler these days than being stupid with $236.9 million.
Read more at http://www.sportstalkflorida.com/heres-hoping-little-guys-win-big-trophy/#VE8G4XxeKVuZqYMQ.99
Read more at http://www.sportstalkflorida.com/heres-hoping-little-guys-win-big-trophy/#VE8G4XxeKVuZqYMQ.99
Being smart on a limited budget is way cooler these days than being stupid with $236.9 million.
Read more at http://www.sportstalkflorida.com/heres-hoping-little-guys-win-big-trophy/#TthsgZOttAiAVJsz.99
Read more at http://www.sportstalkflorida.com/heres-hoping-little-guys-win-big-trophy/#TthsgZOttAiAVJsz.99
Being smart on a limited budget is way cooler these days than being stupid with $236.9 million.
Read more at http://www.sportstalkflorida.com/heres-hoping-little-guys-win-big-trophy/#TthsgZOttAiAVJsz.99
Read more at http://www.sportstalkflorida.com/heres-hoping-little-guys-win-big-trophy/#TthsgZOttAiAVJsz.99
Being smart on a limited budget is way cooler these days than being stupid with $236.9 million.
Read more at http://www.sportstalkflorida.com/heres-hoping-little-guys-win-big-trophy/#TthsgZOttAiAVJsz.99
Read more at http://www.sportstalkflorida.com/heres-hoping-little-guys-win-big-trophy/#TthsgZOttAiAVJsz.99
Monday, September 15, 2008
1 comments 9=8x3=27!
Let's wind up the baseball season. Come on now, let's put some real thought into it. We're professional journalists, with a world of baseball resources at our fingertips, we can get some really unheralded story out there that offers a unique perspective. I mean, day after day we hear the same old stories, and that's fine, but this once, with the entirity of the baseball season now in the rear view mirror, let's dig deeper and find something really profound, original. Just this once, let's not take the easy way out and beat something even further into the ground than the mineshaft that it has become.
Sigh.
In a season of feel-good stories, no team shined brighter than the Rays
...alternatively.
NEW YORK - The baseball Story of the Year? The worst-to-first Rays, of course.
you were a fool to even ask, morons.
The team that never before exceeded 70 victories still leads the Red Sox, already has buried the Yankees and is basically guaranteed a playoff spot thanks to its young roster, an almost-as-young baseball front office and a can-do attitude that began in spring training and has carried throughout the long season.
not mentioned; 3.65ERA, tops in the AL, quite literally worst to first, a drop of 1.88.
not mentioned; .715OPSA, third in the AL, a drop this time of one hundred and eleven points. To put it another way, last year, every hitter facing Tampa was Derek Lee, this year, Mark Teahen.
not mentioned; 1.28WHIP, lowest in the AL, again, worst to first, a drop of three baserunners per game, which is quite amazing when you think about it.
not mentioned; 80 errors, third in the AL behind New York and Boston (didn't expect to see the Yankees there huh!), down by 37 from the previous year
and probably like a billion more advanced metrics that I don't quite understand or know where to find. In fact, not a single number, even runs scored or allowed appears in this paragraph. Wake up sleepyhead! The Rays have always had a young team, Joe Maddon and his "can-do attitude" (215-256 record with this team, an average record of 74-88, but don't let that stand in your way Jon) have been there for the last three years. Basically, Heyman is suggesting that the Rays just fucking decided to win this year and so they have. Ugh.
"It's crazy,'' Rays owner Stu Sternberg, a New York investment banker, agreed on Sunday at Yankee Stadium, where a sellout crowd came to say good-bye to a storied place and team, both on the way out, and generally ignored the story of the year.
and we come to the third point of this holy trinity of, apparently, inexplicable winning, the "almost-as-young" front office. Which is fucking stunned at the success. Never planned on it, shocked as anyone. Basically throwing it's hands up and going "fuck me...never thought we would actually win games!" Maybe Stu is like a male, less hot Rachel Phelps and assumed he could get some kind of buy-out or something. Yes, the Rays fans were wise to hitch their wagon to his star.
Rays players quietly went about their business so as not to anger or disturb their rich fourth-place sad-sack hosts while Rays' team hierarchy beamed in the hot rays.
I've discovered the secret behind journalism - use as many emotive adverbs/adjectives as humanly possible, forget about anything approaching analysis. Here is the same sentence with the emotive bullshit highlighted.
Rays players quietly went about their business so as not to anger or disturb their rich fourth-place sad-sack hosts while Rays' team hierarchy beamed in the hot rays.
Also, Jon, that "hot Rays" thing. Genius dude.
Sternberg, a native of Canarsie in Brooklyn, who grew up a fan of the Amazin' Mets and is old enough (barely, he's 49) to recall the Impossible Dream Red Sox of 1967, was looking for the one descriptive word to characterize his Rays. "If you can think of an adjective, let me know,'' he said.
finally, a job Jon Heyman is eminantly qualified for - finding adjectives, no issue with that at all.
Sternberg suggested the Improbable Rays. But that doesn't quite do it, not for me anyway. They are at least as impossible as the '67 Red Sox,no?
anyone else think people are going a bit overboard with the whole "no one saw the Rays coming!" angle?
In 2006, ESPN ranked them 22nd in the Majors despite coming into the season with the second worst record in baseball.
Yahoo Answers has a post from seven months ago asking who would be the surprise team in 2008, the answer was Tampa Bay.
The time? 2/4/2008. The place? The official website of Major League Baseball.
"Time to settle some scores? The rest of the AL East is concerned. In fact, Toronto general manager J.P. Ricciardi has frankly branded the Rays a team "no one will want to face."
...it could be graduation time for the guys who've endured growing pains together for years -- Carl Crawford, B.J. Upton, Jonny Gomes and, health willing, Rocco Baldelli. Ricciardi hits the nail. No team will eagerly enter a Tampa Bay series, knowing it is certain of seeing at least part of the top of the Rays' rotation, Scott Kazmir, James Shields or Matt Garza.
To tie it all together, Tampa Bay has brought in its own bullpen therapist (see: 2007 Reds). While trailing the Majors with 28 saves last season, the Rays lost 42 games in which they held a lead -- not too firmly, evidently. Enter Troy Percival, of whose 324 career saves 316 came in the presence of manager Joe Maddon, while he was an Angels coach."
Look, I know that the Rays were a surprise, but it simply isn't true that people weren't picking them this year, in fact, people had picked them as a sleeper for several years, eventually they had to deliver.
Manager Joe Maddon on Sunday agreed at least that the emergence was "a little bit of a surprise.'' But Maddon is the one who instilled a feeling of belief in the spring when he told the team "9 equals 8,'' a motto that became the clubhouse catchphrase. The saying suggests not only nine players working together for nine innings but also a team aiming for nine more wins via each of three categories: pitching, defense and hitting. For those scoring at home, that's 27 more wins, which is thought in most parts to be an impossibility.
wow, that's so retarded not even I know where to start.
The players seemed to catch on a few months into the season. Clubhouse leader Cliff Floyd said they "got that swagger'' in June and are now happily taking an "arrogant'' or even "cocky'' attitude into games for the first time in their mostly sorry history.
they actually started "pitching" better which "led" to them "winning" more "games".
Floyd said, "Everbody's stoked that 'postseason' is in our vocabulary".
hard on for quotation marks.
2. Cubs. The rise of the star-crossed franchise in the 100th anniversary of their last title will add intrigue to the postseason. Perhaps Carlos Zambrano's no-hitter was a sign of the magic to come. Rays-Cubs World Series, anyone.
yeah that's it. The no-hitter. What about the eighty-seven other wins Jon?
3. Cliff Lee, Indians pitcher. He's 22-2 for a losing team, not all that far off the unbelievable achievement of Steve Carlton, who won 27 games for the 59-win 1972 Phillies, as Mike Lupica pointed out in Sunday's New York Daily News. With the Giants' Tim Lincecum, we should probably have two Cy Young winners on losing teams. (Even if Brandon Webb should win in the NL, well, the Diamondbacks may have a losing record, too).
say what you will about wins in pitching, and I get it, really, but if you didn't go "holy shit Cliff Lee is 22-2" right there, I dunno what to tell you, this is pretty fucking amazing IMO.
5. Josh Hamilton, Rangers slugger. Recovering drug addict finally showed the world his talent, including on the big stage of the All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium, where he put on the greatest Home Run Derby display ever.
look, I mean this in the very best possible taste, but Josh Hamilton is to baseball what Ellen is to comedy. If he wasn't a recovering drug addict and she wasn't a lesbian, no one would give a shit. I'm not comparing the two on their own merits, I'm just saying that both careers are pretty "gimmicky". I'm impressed with Hamilton's season too, but I wanna see if this is a season and a half fluke or what. Juan Gonzalez etc.
6. K-Rod, Angels closer. Broke Bobby Thigpen's save record en route to free-agent riches.
quite literally a record that would not exist if his offense was better.
8. Dustin Pedroia, little Red Sox hitter. White Sox motormouth manager Ozzie Guillen called him a jockey, but as former White Sox minor leaguer Michael Jordan can tell you, height does not a hitter make.
I know readers, we've danced this dance before but still, fucking ridiculous, all of this, vomit inducingly bad.
14. Jamie Moyer, Phillies starter. He turned in a stellar season at age 45 (14-7, 3.68 ERA) and gave hope to all us older guys.
look, I don't wanna hang a guy with literally zero evidence, but we are generally aware now that steroids help more in recouperation than actual strength when it comes to baseball. And thus are generally more of a benifit to pitchers, who do far more damage in far more intense a way, to their bodies, than hitters. I'm saying someone like Moyer, with his stuff, posting an era a full run below that of his last sixty-six starts (hell, .41 below his career average)...let's just see how that plays out before worshipping it as a great "feel-good" story.
There's more, there's always more. We keep shovelling it away, they keep bringing it back in.
Sigh.
In a season of feel-good stories, no team shined brighter than the Rays
...alternatively.
NEW YORK - The baseball Story of the Year? The worst-to-first Rays, of course.
you were a fool to even ask, morons.
The team that never before exceeded 70 victories still leads the Red Sox, already has buried the Yankees and is basically guaranteed a playoff spot thanks to its young roster, an almost-as-young baseball front office and a can-do attitude that began in spring training and has carried throughout the long season.
not mentioned; 3.65ERA, tops in the AL, quite literally worst to first, a drop of 1.88.
not mentioned; .715OPSA, third in the AL, a drop this time of one hundred and eleven points. To put it another way, last year, every hitter facing Tampa was Derek Lee, this year, Mark Teahen.
not mentioned; 1.28WHIP, lowest in the AL, again, worst to first, a drop of three baserunners per game, which is quite amazing when you think about it.
not mentioned; 80 errors, third in the AL behind New York and Boston (didn't expect to see the Yankees there huh!), down by 37 from the previous year
and probably like a billion more advanced metrics that I don't quite understand or know where to find. In fact, not a single number, even runs scored or allowed appears in this paragraph. Wake up sleepyhead! The Rays have always had a young team, Joe Maddon and his "can-do attitude" (215-256 record with this team, an average record of 74-88, but don't let that stand in your way Jon) have been there for the last three years. Basically, Heyman is suggesting that the Rays just fucking decided to win this year and so they have. Ugh.
"It's crazy,'' Rays owner Stu Sternberg, a New York investment banker, agreed on Sunday at Yankee Stadium, where a sellout crowd came to say good-bye to a storied place and team, both on the way out, and generally ignored the story of the year.
and we come to the third point of this holy trinity of, apparently, inexplicable winning, the "almost-as-young" front office. Which is fucking stunned at the success. Never planned on it, shocked as anyone. Basically throwing it's hands up and going "fuck me...never thought we would actually win games!" Maybe Stu is like a male, less hot Rachel Phelps and assumed he could get some kind of buy-out or something. Yes, the Rays fans were wise to hitch their wagon to his star.
Rays players quietly went about their business so as not to anger or disturb their rich fourth-place sad-sack hosts while Rays' team hierarchy beamed in the hot rays.
I've discovered the secret behind journalism - use as many emotive adverbs/adjectives as humanly possible, forget about anything approaching analysis. Here is the same sentence with the emotive bullshit highlighted.
Rays players quietly went about their business so as not to anger or disturb their rich fourth-place sad-sack hosts while Rays' team hierarchy beamed in the hot rays.
Also, Jon, that "hot Rays" thing. Genius dude.
Sternberg, a native of Canarsie in Brooklyn, who grew up a fan of the Amazin' Mets and is old enough (barely, he's 49) to recall the Impossible Dream Red Sox of 1967, was looking for the one descriptive word to characterize his Rays. "If you can think of an adjective, let me know,'' he said.
finally, a job Jon Heyman is eminantly qualified for - finding adjectives, no issue with that at all.
Sternberg suggested the Improbable Rays. But that doesn't quite do it, not for me anyway. They are at least as impossible as the '67 Red Sox,no?
anyone else think people are going a bit overboard with the whole "no one saw the Rays coming!" angle?
In 2006, ESPN ranked them 22nd in the Majors despite coming into the season with the second worst record in baseball.
Yahoo Answers has a post from seven months ago asking who would be the surprise team in 2008, the answer was Tampa Bay.
The time? 2/4/2008. The place? The official website of Major League Baseball.
"Time to settle some scores? The rest of the AL East is concerned. In fact, Toronto general manager J.P. Ricciardi has frankly branded the Rays a team "no one will want to face."
...it could be graduation time for the guys who've endured growing pains together for years -- Carl Crawford, B.J. Upton, Jonny Gomes and, health willing, Rocco Baldelli. Ricciardi hits the nail. No team will eagerly enter a Tampa Bay series, knowing it is certain of seeing at least part of the top of the Rays' rotation, Scott Kazmir, James Shields or Matt Garza.
To tie it all together, Tampa Bay has brought in its own bullpen therapist (see: 2007 Reds). While trailing the Majors with 28 saves last season, the Rays lost 42 games in which they held a lead -- not too firmly, evidently. Enter Troy Percival, of whose 324 career saves 316 came in the presence of manager Joe Maddon, while he was an Angels coach."
Look, I know that the Rays were a surprise, but it simply isn't true that people weren't picking them this year, in fact, people had picked them as a sleeper for several years, eventually they had to deliver.
Manager Joe Maddon on Sunday agreed at least that the emergence was "a little bit of a surprise.'' But Maddon is the one who instilled a feeling of belief in the spring when he told the team "9 equals 8,'' a motto that became the clubhouse catchphrase. The saying suggests not only nine players working together for nine innings but also a team aiming for nine more wins via each of three categories: pitching, defense and hitting. For those scoring at home, that's 27 more wins, which is thought in most parts to be an impossibility.
wow, that's so retarded not even I know where to start.
The players seemed to catch on a few months into the season. Clubhouse leader Cliff Floyd said they "got that swagger'' in June and are now happily taking an "arrogant'' or even "cocky'' attitude into games for the first time in their mostly sorry history.
they actually started "pitching" better which "led" to them "winning" more "games".
Floyd said, "Everbody's stoked that 'postseason' is in our vocabulary".
hard on for quotation marks.
2. Cubs. The rise of the star-crossed franchise in the 100th anniversary of their last title will add intrigue to the postseason. Perhaps Carlos Zambrano's no-hitter was a sign of the magic to come. Rays-Cubs World Series, anyone.
yeah that's it. The no-hitter. What about the eighty-seven other wins Jon?
3. Cliff Lee, Indians pitcher. He's 22-2 for a losing team, not all that far off the unbelievable achievement of Steve Carlton, who won 27 games for the 59-win 1972 Phillies, as Mike Lupica pointed out in Sunday's New York Daily News. With the Giants' Tim Lincecum, we should probably have two Cy Young winners on losing teams. (Even if Brandon Webb should win in the NL, well, the Diamondbacks may have a losing record, too).
say what you will about wins in pitching, and I get it, really, but if you didn't go "holy shit Cliff Lee is 22-2" right there, I dunno what to tell you, this is pretty fucking amazing IMO.
5. Josh Hamilton, Rangers slugger. Recovering drug addict finally showed the world his talent, including on the big stage of the All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium, where he put on the greatest Home Run Derby display ever.
look, I mean this in the very best possible taste, but Josh Hamilton is to baseball what Ellen is to comedy. If he wasn't a recovering drug addict and she wasn't a lesbian, no one would give a shit. I'm not comparing the two on their own merits, I'm just saying that both careers are pretty "gimmicky". I'm impressed with Hamilton's season too, but I wanna see if this is a season and a half fluke or what. Juan Gonzalez etc.
6. K-Rod, Angels closer. Broke Bobby Thigpen's save record en route to free-agent riches.
quite literally a record that would not exist if his offense was better.
8. Dustin Pedroia, little Red Sox hitter. White Sox motormouth manager Ozzie Guillen called him a jockey, but as former White Sox minor leaguer Michael Jordan can tell you, height does not a hitter make.
I know readers, we've danced this dance before but still, fucking ridiculous, all of this, vomit inducingly bad.
14. Jamie Moyer, Phillies starter. He turned in a stellar season at age 45 (14-7, 3.68 ERA) and gave hope to all us older guys.
look, I don't wanna hang a guy with literally zero evidence, but we are generally aware now that steroids help more in recouperation than actual strength when it comes to baseball. And thus are generally more of a benifit to pitchers, who do far more damage in far more intense a way, to their bodies, than hitters. I'm saying someone like Moyer, with his stuff, posting an era a full run below that of his last sixty-six starts (hell, .41 below his career average)...let's just see how that plays out before worshipping it as a great "feel-good" story.
There's more, there's always more. We keep shovelling it away, they keep bringing it back in.
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