Kuzul

Sayeth Bill Chastain of MLB.com:

“Joe Maddon has never been one to adhere to conventional wisdom for the sake of adhering to conventional wisdom, which leads to the topic of the Rays‘ No. 2 spot in the batting order.

“Right now there is a good chance that either Luke Scott or Carlos Pena will fill the second spot in the batting order. Using either of the sluggers in the second spot runs counter to conventional wisdom, a fact that doesn’t rattle the Rays’ manager in the least.

“‘I just think [conventional wisdom is] all based on the perception that a No. 2 hitter has to be a guy who can bunt, hit-and-run and move the runners,’ Maddon said. ‘It doesn’t happen anymore. That’s not part of the game right now.'”

Darned straight, Joe. But this isn’t anything new.

As Maddon himself pointed out, Jim Edmonds started more than 300 games batting second and did very well there, hitting .281/.363/.536 with 81 home runs.

Think about it: Forget the whole single, hit and run/stolen base, double thing—just get two runs straight away with the ol’ leadoff walk and home run. It’s not quite Earl Weaver, but in the first inning, it will do.

More to the point, the batting order is just a way of distributing playing time. The leadoff hitter will come to bat more often than any other player on the team, the No. 2 hitter a little less than the leadoff guy, the No. 3 hitter less than both and so on. With a slugger at or toward the top of the order, you simply give him more opportunities to do what he does best.

Managers have known this for a long time, but the old received wisdom dies hard, and each generation must discover anew that it makes more sense to give Mickey Mantle more chances to hit than it does, say, Scott Podsednik.

Consider this Red Sox batting order from my youth. Ralph Houk, not a brilliant manager despite a couple of World Series titles with teams other people built, used it 66 times in 1984:

1. Wade Boggs, 3B
2. Dwight Evans, RF
3. Jim Rice, LF
4. Tony Armas, CF
5. Mike Easler, DH
6. Bill Buckner, 1B
7. Rich Gedman, C
8. Marty Barrett, 2B
9. Jackie Guitierrez, SS

Two facts for those too young to remember these guys:

Boggs was a leadoff man who stole about two bases a season, both probably on busted hit-and-runs, yet he annually scored 100 runs.

Evans was not your prototypical No. 2 “bat-handler,” but was a slugger who walked as many as 114 times in a season and hit up to 34 home runs a year. That season, he hit .295/.388/.532 and, with all those power hitters coming up behind him, scored a league-leading 121 runs, while Boggs scored a mere 109.

Here’s another favorite from the next season, this time a New York Yankees-Billy Martin production. This one was used on Aug. 11, 1985 at Boston:

1. Rickey Henderson, CF
2. Don Mattingly, 1B
3. Dave Winfield, RF
4. Ken Griffey, LF
5. Don Baylor, DH
6. Willie Randolph, 2B
7. Butch Wynegar, C
8. Mike Pagliarulo, 3B
9. Bobby Meacham, SS

Normally, you would think of the patient, singles-hitting Randolph—who was also a good baserunner—behind Henderson, and the Yankees did quite a bit of that as well. But in this case, Mattingly’s contact-hitting abilities and power, combined with Henderson’s speed, meant that any time the latter reached, the worst-case scenario was that he would be on third base with one out for Winfield.

Mantle batted second sometimes. Willie Mays did as well. And if you’re impressed by Prince Fielder and Miguel Cabrera batting back-to-back, consider this San Francisco Giants lineup from August of 1959:

1. Jim Davenport, 3B
2. Willie Mays, CF
3. Willie McCovey, 1B
4. Orlando Cepeda, LF
5. Willie Kirkland, RF
6. Darryl Spencer, 2B
7. Hobie Landrith, C
8. Eddie Bressoud, SS
9. Jack Sanford, P

Davenport really had no business being a leadoff hitter, but check out Nos. 2-4: three straight future Hall of Famers, with 600 home runs followed by 500 home runs followed by almost 400 home runs, followed by Kirland, who slugged .475 that year. Mays had an off-year in 1959; he hit only .313/.381/.583 with 34 home runs. No wonder manager Bill Rigney felt like he had to hide him in the two-hole.

The real point here is a simple bit of common sense, one that goes hand-in-hand with the plate appearance/distribution concept of batting order construction: The Rays just don’t have a lot of hitting.

Many managers might stick Jeff Keppinger or Sean Rodriguez up there, simply for lack of anything better to do with them. Rather than burying them at the bottom of the order, where they would receive the fewest at-bats, they would get what amounts to a promotion.

Maddon is smarter than that. He will give his best hitters the most chances to do damage. It’s an elementary bit of thinking, but it eludes 9.9 or 10 skippers working today.

Just ask Dusty Baker.

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David Price is going to have to win 20 games if the Tampa Bay Rays have any aspirations to repeat as AL East Champions.

In Friday night’s 8-5 loss to the Los Angeles Angels, he got put to the test and fell short…very short. It brought his record to 3-3.

“I didn’t play very well at all,” Price said in reference to his outing. “You know, our offense did a great job, gave me some runs early and that’s all I can ask for, and we played good defense. I just didn’t throw the ball very well and the mistakes I made, they hit them.”

“That’s why you get 33 starts. I didn’t beat myself, they beat me.”

It was Price’s worst outing since getting pulled after 1.1 innings against the Texas Rangers in 2009 when he allowed six earned runs and walked five batters.

Price threw 98 pitches and gave up five earned runs in 4.1 innings of work against Angels. His performance tied his shortest career outing at Tropicana Field.

He allowed a career-high 12 hits.  His previous career high for hits allowed was 10 on two occasions.

During the Rays‘ 13-3 run, starters threw for seven or more innings in 12 of the 16 games. They also held opponents to a .209 average during that stretch.

The weakest link by far for the 2011 Rays is the bullpen. The team has been able to compensate with losses at the other positions by having players like Sam Fuld step in and perform beyond expectation.

Cesar Ramos entered Friday night’s game with the Rays trailing by a run. He was quickly pulled after 0.1 innings, allowing two earned runs and increasing the deficit to three.

During the team’s five-game win streak, Rays relievers only threw 106 pitches. On Friday night, they threw 98 pitches in 4.2 innings.

“You won’t see David with that kind of performance very often,” Rays manager Joe Maddon said about Price’s performance. “David is such a professional and that’s the thing with a guy like that—he’s not a machine. Everybody expects him to be almost perfect on a nightly basis.”

“Overall, David just wasn’t on tonight and that’s a big part of our problem tonight.”

The Rays will have a big problem for the season if Price isn’t on enough to get 20 wins.

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The most common phrase in professional sports (also the most overused phrase) that players and coaches use to describe a recent transaction is “it’s a business.” As a student of business, I can confidently confirm this brilliant diagnosis.

As a business, the Tampa Bay Rays must first outline their goal for the 2011 season. A successful season would entail making the playoffs, most likely as the American League wild card, and compete in the postseason. Check that off.

Next, they must begin basic preparation. This is primarily training employees and allowing managers to learn the strengths and weaknesses of their people, i.e. Spring Training. Check that off, too.

Finally, the club has to analyze its environment for the 2011 season. The most common tool to assess a given business at any time is with a Five Forces Analysis.

The Five Forces are: supplier power, buyer power, substitutes, rivalry, and competition, but for the sake of relevance, buyer power and substitutes have been omitted. Ticket sales and the NFL and NBA don’t seem to have much say in the success of the 2011 Rays.

If baseball teams truly are businesses, grading and understanding the Three Forces will lead to accomplishing the 2011 Rays’ playoff goal.

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The Rays’ journey to becoming a constant playoff-contender took awhile, but came all of sudden when it finally happened.

Contending with the power-house teams of the AL East—the Yankees and Red Sox—is the toughest thing to do for any team to have to do. It’s makes it even tougher when you can’t spend half the money of the those two teams.

But the Rays haven’t used any excuses, rather using lower-risk, high-reward pickups and their minor league system to create a nucleus for a championship-caliber squad.

Two division championships and an American League pennant in three years is good for any team (except maybe if your from the Bronx), but under the circumstances of being a small-market club, it’s amazing what the Rays have been able to accomplish.

Here’s a list of five things you may or may not expect, but have kept the Rays at, or near the top of the tough AL East.

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The Tampa Bay Rays enter the 2011 season with lower expectations than the last few years, and for good reason. This past offseason saw the Rays lose some of their most valuable players.

While the losses of players like Carl Crawford, Rafael Soriano, Matt Garza and Carlos Pena will hurt, all is not lost for this team.

Here are eleven bold predictions, both good and bad, for the Tampa Bay Rays this season.

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Does any other MLB fan find it weird when a team goes out and buys former superstars, seemingly anticipating that putting them back together will magically bring back the spark from seven years before?

It’s happening again this year, and it’s certainly not the first time that two World Series champions have played on entirely different teams together. It’s just weird to have it happen in the AL East and for it to not be the Yankees doing the purchasing.

Today it was announced that Manny Ramirez and Johnny Damon (2004 World Series Champions) will be joining the recently depleted/farmed out Tampa Bay Rays. It’s not unrealistic that Tampa Bay would sign a few players (practicality says they needed to do so after losing the talent they let walk out the door over the offseason for nothing in return), but this is not the Tampa way.

As a Red Sox fan in Minneapolis, I take a lot of guff: “They’re just like the Yankees” tends to be the weapon of choice from the loyal Twins fans up here. I don’t understand the argument, and this latest move by the Rays emphasizes the point that I attempt to make every time I am forced to defend a contender in the AL East that doesn’t have the highest payroll. If you want to contend in a competitive division, money must be spent. The difference between the Red Sox and the Yankees, is the Red Sox spend money to keep talent, whereas the Yankees spend money to acquire talent.

In order to amass the team that Theo Epstein has over the last 10 years, talent acquisition had to take place, but talent retention and development also took place. I don’t see the same technique employed by the Yankees nor the Rays. After the 2007 World Series, the Red Sox had some decisions to make – they let Alex Gonzalez walk, but they retained staples (home-grown staples) like Dustin Pedroia, Kevin Youkilis, Jonathan Papelbon, etc.

Of course, not all of the talent of the 2004 and 2007 squads was drafted and developed, Manny, Papi, Curt Schilling, ‘Tek and the gang were acquired through trades and free agency – but it was a balance.

The Yankees transaction history from this offseason alone could easily take an article to chronicle, but the song remains the same in New York – the core four plus the highest paid free agents of any given year.

I thought the Rays were more like the Red Sox (develop and retain) than the Yankees (catch and release, then buy). With these signings today, coupled with the exit of solid talent such as Carl Crawford and Rafael Soriano, I begin to wonder about the managerial know-how of their front office.

I’m not complaining mind you, as a Red Sox fan, I’d love to see Tampa and the hipster doofus that is Joe Maddon fall into last place where they belong, but it is sad to see a team that took the division from the Yankees last year (with one of the smallest payrolls in the league) go from the top to the bottom.

Perhaps it is too early to speculate, but given the performance of Manny and Johnny in 2010, I think it’s safe to say the 2011 Rays can only hope for the same outcome as the Red Sox of 2004 enjoyed.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

This week, Bleacher Report’s Featured Columnists continued our 16-part series on Major League Baseball’s end-of-season awards with the results of our Rookie of the Year votes in the AL and the NL.

Today, one week before the Baseball Writers Association of America names the 2010 Managers of the Year, we’re unveiling our picks for the American League’s top skippers.

The top five vote-getters are featured here with commentary from people who chose them. The full list of votes is at the end.

So read on, see how we did and be sure to let us know what we got wrong!

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As a diehard Rays fan, last night’s Game 5 loss hurt especially hard.  Yes, it was an elimination game that ended what I thought would be a season ending with the World Series coming to Tampa.  

But it also means the likely end to 1B Carlos Pena, LF Carlos Crawford and closer Rafael Soriano.

Crawford—the heart and face of the franchise for the past nine seasons, will likely (and rightfully so) seek greener pastures next season.  But contrary to popular belief, the Rays will be just fine come next season. 

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Major League Baseball continues to live on the edge of insanity by only having a limited numbers of plays that can be reviewed. The instances where a play can be looked at is on a home run call, and that’s either did the ball go over the yellow line? Did a fan interfere and reach in to grab the ball? Finally, was the ball fair or foul? 

That’s it! Which, is tough to believe because there are so many close plays at any of the bases and with check swings. The two main arguments on why replay has not been expanded is because baseball is already a game that can go for three hours or more and stopping the game to review a play would add onto the time of the game, and the second argument is that baseball has had the human element involved. 

In the game of the Texas Rangers taking on the Tampa Bay Rays, Joe Maddon was ejected on a blown check swing call. It was obvious that Michael Young who was up with two men on wasn’t able to check his swing, and if the correct call had been made the Rays would have gotten out of the inning only trailing 2-0, instead Young was given a fresh life and on the next pitch from Chad Qualls, Young homered staking the Rangers out to an insurmountable 5-0 lead. 

Check swings should be part of the instant replay expansion. Why? Because the check swings happen so quickly that it’s nearly impossible for the umpire looking at the play to make the correct call, although there are times when it’s clear that a hitter went through the zone, but what happens when a player moves a lot of their body and not the bat, and the hitter is called for the swing even though he never went around? 

In the case of Maddon and the Rays, the argument was that a strikeout with two runners on and Qualls being able to keep the score close could have been a momentum changer for the Rays. Instead it was the Rangers who were the beneficiary of the blown call by Jerry Meals. 

If the call had been in the regular season, it may not have been as big of a deal, but in this case the call has helped the Rangers take control of the series with a 2-0 lead on the Rays. Also, this is the playoffs; this is where only the best umpires should be calling the game, and that big of a blown call reflects on the ignorance of Bud Selig. 

Replay should have been expanded, but again Selig refused. 

Check swings aren’t the only plays that should be eligible to be reviewed. Plays at any base should be reviewed especially the close plays making sure that the runner either beat the throw, the tag was missed, or didn’t leave the base too early when tagging up. Also, if a ball is hit down the right or left field line whether the ball was fair or foul. 

Those would be the most common plays, but others would be making sure a fielder has caught the ball, so if the ball was trapped, if the outfielder goes for a catch but the ball hits the wall before being caught, or if there are runners on base the outfielder makes the catch but on transfer drops the ball, that could be reviewed, in terms of on the bases the play that needs to be reviewed are attempted double plays did the fielder actually have their foot on the bag when the ball was caught or was it in the vicinity of the bag?

Balls and strikes are the only plays that should not be reviewed, but hit by pitches should be. 

Don’t know how many times there’d be a replay in the process of a double play and the second basemen or short stop were nowhere near having the foot on the bag, yet the runner sliding into second is called out because the fielder was close to the bag. 

One of the more interesting plays that happened this year that could have been reviewed was a double play turned by the Oakland Athletics against the Minnesota Twins in Minnesota. Jim Thome was at the plate, and Delmon Young was on first base. 

Thome hit a flyball into left center where Rajai Davis camped underneath the ball, Young went half way and watched Davis because if he dropped the ball he’d easily get to second and if he caught the ball he’d go back to first. 

Davis did catch the ball but in the process of transferring the ball out of his glove, the ball fell. Young went to second without tagging up and was tagged out because he had not tagged up from first base as the ball was caught. 

Confusing play for Young right? From his vantage point he believed that Davis had dropped the ball and therefore did not have to tag up. The replay showed that Davis did in fact catch the ball, but in the process of throwing the ball back is when Davis dropped the ball. 

Even worse was the original ruling on the field that the ball was dropped, so Young was safe at second and Thome as well at first. Of course if that call stood it would have meant an entirely different scenario for the A’s. 

Instead of being two outs with no one on base it would have been no outs and runners on first and second. Bob Geren immediately ran out of the dugout to plead his case with the umpires and after a few minutes checking in with each umpire, the play was finally ruled correct a catch by Davis making Thome out and with Young not tagging up and being tagged out, he was out as well. 

Double play for the A’s. An irate Ron Gardenhire went out to argue his case, but it was too no avail, and eventually he was thrown out of the game. 

Now, if there was replay in baseball all Geren would have had to do is asked the umpire to review the play. Now after watching the replay the umpires could go over to both managers explain what happened and that’s the end of that; Gardenhire would have had the same explanation, and the umpire would have had visual proof that Davis caught the ball. 

The Florida Marlins had a game taken away from them because Bob Davidson made the wrong call. Even worse is the fact that even after watching the replay after the game, Davidson still believed he made the right call. Instead of a game-ending double, the Marlins went into extra innings and lost. 

Derek Jeter showed his true colors a few weeks ago when he pretended like he was hit by a pitch, when the reality was that the ball hit off the handle of the bat. So, instead of a foul ball, he was allowed first base. A few days later Jorge Posada tried doing the same thing, but the umpire wasn’t fooled.

Quite possibly the best example of why baseball needs replay was the perfect game that was lost by Armando Galarraga. Jim Joyce incorrectly ruled that John McDonald was safe on a play where Galarraga had to race over and take the throw for the out. 

Galarraga beat McDonald to first base, caught the ball, and stepped on first for the final out of the ninth inning, but Joyce ruled McDonald safe instead. Jim Leyland came out immediately from the dugout and argued. Joyce patiently let Leyland blow off his steam and didn’t eject him even though there are managers and players that have done far less to be ejected. 

After Joyce saw the replay, he knew that he had missed the call and in one of the best displays of sportsmanship, Galarraga forgave him for his mistake. If replay was available, all Leyland would have had to ask for is the replay, and the call would have been overturned, and Galarraga gets his perfect game. 

Yet, the biggest question that is going to need to be addressed for baseball is how to implement replay without slowing down the game even more? Should time even be a concern since baseball isn’t a game that is played with a time limit so how does a few minutes that fans are waiting for the ruling truly effect the time of the game? Would it be better to have the call made correct and have the game go 10 minutes longer than have a game that lasts for 10 minutes shorter, but the call clearly changes the outcome or momentum of the game? 

What baseball needs to do is grant managers the ability to look at the replay of a close play. There should be no limit of how many replays are used because a manager should not be punished for wanting the correct call to be made, so it’s not like football where if a challenge is lost there’s no more that can be used. 

The only question would be is where to keep the replay personnel unlike football there’s no headsets to radio down the call. Another question that should be asked is should an umpire on the field be the one looking at the replay or should there be a separate umpire in the dugout of the home team who’s role is to be ruling on the replay?

If a call isn’t even that close the umpire has the right to decline looking at the replay, so managers don’t take advantage of the little break to either have a pitcher get loose in the bullpen or to calm the pitcher on the mound down. 

Finally, obvious calls that need to be reviewed should be looked at before a manager even asks, such as on a ball that is down the line or is close at any of the bases. 

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The Tampa Bay Rays entered the playoffs as the American League East Champions, with the second-best record in baseball.

None of that mattered once Cliff Lee took the mound for the Texas Rangers, which defeated Tampa Bay 5-1 in Game 1 of the ALDS. David Price got off to a shaky start and didn’t receive much assistance.

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