High and Tight.

Thursday, July 09, 2009

Where is the Uproar for "Price to the 'Pen"?

The constant yammering of talking heads on TV and sports talk radio about how Joba Chamberlain needs to be moved back to the bullpen brings up a question: why is everyone just focused on Joba? I have made it clear in this space a number of times that Chamberlain is best utilized as a starter. His numbers are great for a 22 year old in his second season in the rotation. He's not an ace yet, but if nobody had ever seen him pitch from the bullpen, the locals would be ecstatic about his progress. Unfortunately, idiots like Mike Francesa like to point out how "his ERA is better as a reliever." Well of course it is. When a pitcher only has to throw 20 pitches instead of 80-100, they can let it fly without fear of tiring. Look at Phil Hughes' splits between the rotation and the bullpen this year, and you'll see what I mean. Imagine Roy Halladay's numbers in the 8th inning! Bridge!

Aside from rehashing that old argument, one has to wonder why nobody seems to be making the same (flawed) rationale for David Price of the Rays.

Price was a phenom last season. He was brought up at the very end of 2008 and was used from the bullpen, eventually becoming the closer that brought the Rays to their first World Series. He had a .929 WHIP, a 1.93 ERA, and a 230 ERA+ in the regular season, lowering that to a 0.00 ERA and .857 WHIP in the post season. He was a stud, an unhittable Roy Hobbs type striking out every Whammer he saw.

Of course, the long-term plan for Price (as it should be with any good young pitcher with 3+ quality pitches) was for him to be a starter, so that's where the Rays had him slotted this season. He hasn't done well.

Price is 2-3 with a 5.21 ERA in 38 innings this year and is averaging less than 5 innings per start. Yet there is no outrage from pundits, nobody on Baseball Tonight is screaming about moving him to the bullpen. Steve Phillips, of all people, is advocating patience (Phillips, by the way, was firmly in the "Joba in the 'pen" camp).

Maybe it's just that Chamberlain plays in New York that he gets this kind of scrutiny. Maybe it's the "win now at all costs" mentality. However this is the same mentality that gutted the Yankees' farm system in the 1980s and early 90s, and again in the early 2000s.

Price needs time to develop. He's a huge talent and should be a star in the years to come. Maybe he will be sent down to the minors to work on his pitches and control, maybe not.

I'm just curious why there's no uproar to move a guy who is failing spectacularly as a starter back to the 'pen where he dominated, and there is for a guy who is doing a better than league average job in his role as a starter.

Labels: bullpen, david price, joba chamberlain, pitching rotation, steve phillips, they're still the devil rays

posted by Mr. Faded Glory @ 10:45 AM 5 comments

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Reason for Rays in Series? Spring Training Fight w/ Yankees.

More hackey journalism du jour from the Daily News and Yahoo!:

The New York Yankees may not be in the post-season for the first time in 13 years, but it seems the Bronx Bombers are taking some of the credit for the Tampa Bay Rays being there.

Who knew that back in spring training that when a Rays fringe player named Eliot Johnson crashed into a Yankee minor league catcher named Francisco Cervelli, infuriating Joe Girardi in the process, the AL East's perennial losers were sending a message that would resonate all the way to October?

Or as Johnny Gomes put it Tuesday: "It's one thing to send a message. It's another to back it up. I think that's what this organization, behind Joe Maddon, did this year. We backed it up. We rallied together and let people know that's how we were going to play. We played that way to the end and we're still playing that way."

You remember Gomes. He hasn't had much of a role in October, bumped off the postseason roster by the return of Rocco Baldelli, but it was Gomes who a few days later came flying in from right field to fight with Shelley Duncan. Duncan had taken it upon himself to retaliate for the Johnson slide by going into Akinori Iwamura at second base with his spikes high.

All these months later, Gomes thinks it was important for the Rays to establish the new, you-can't-push-us-around mentality against the Yankees that Maddon was preaching to a team loaded with young talent that also had a history of losing.

"Since I've been here that organization has been taking our lunch money," Gomes said of the Yankees, "on the field, off the field, spring training, everything. It took a little push to change things. I don't think that had to happen for us to start winning. We were just approaching spring training like it was the regular season, and we won the most games in the Grapefruit League because of it, and that carried over.''

You have to love that they're going to Johnny Gomes - who is not on the roster - for quotes on why the Rays made it, and that his example is... well, the only significant thing he's done all year, which is running out of right field to attack an opposing player.

A player injuring a minor leaguer for no reason by running him over and potentially ending his season and possibly his career "got the ball rolling."

Classy, Tampa.

Those reasons clearly outweigh the decade-plus of losing and drafting high and developing players.

As much as I want to see the city of Philadelphia and its fans continue to suffer.... go Phillies.

Labels: 2005 world series, 2008 world series, bad toupee wearing reality show host douchebags, johnny gomes, phillies, they're still the devil rays

posted by Mr. Faded Glory @ 9:40 AM 4 comments