Eat, Drink and Sleep Baseball

Desmond Jennings hits three HRs Sunday

2012-04-01T17:13:00.000-04:00

Tampa Bay outfielder Desmond Jennings hit three homers including a grand slam and drove in six runs in an 8-5 victory over the Orioles today.

"I felt good from the first at-bat, I felt like I was seeing the ball good and I was swinging at good pitches today," Jennings said. "I felt like I was swinging the bat good. I was swinging at pitches in the zone. Hitting them on the barrel and getting to pitches inside, that's a good sign for me."

Before today's game, Jennings had no home runs and only one run batted in this spring.

Jennings is now hitting .348 and has three home runs, four stolen bases and seven runs batted in this spring.

The Rays open up the regular season against the Yankees on Friday, April 6th.

In our fantasy rankings, Jennings is our 13th-ranked outfielder.

B.J. Upton suspended for two games

2011-05-07T19:15:00.002-04:00

Earlier in the week, Tampa Bay outfielder B.J. Upton was ejected for arguing a called strike three on a pitch that looked to be a ball.

"I just kind of lost it a little bit," said Upton after the game, per MLB.com's Spencer Fordin. "I guess you could say ... I just didn't feel like that pitch in that particular moment was a strike. ... I'm a pretty laid back guy, I think. Obviously, you could tell I didn't like the call. ... It is what it is. It's done with now."

Well, it wasn't exactly over.

Upton was suspended for two games by Major League Baseball. Although he appealed, he will serve the suspension in Cleveland next week.

In his last ten games including today's win over the Orioles, Upton is hitting .244 with three home runs, ten runs batted in and three stolen bases.

James Shields hurls four-hit shutout, second straight complete game

2011-04-24T17:14:00.001-04:00

Facing the Toronto Blue Jays today, Tampa Bay starter James Shields hurled a four-hit shutout while striking out seven batters.

Shields has now thrown back-to-back complete games after allowing only one run and four hits versus the White Sox on April 19th.

With the exception of his second start of the season, Shields has pitched seven-plus innings and allowed two or fewer runs in his other four starts.

On the season, Shields has improved his record to 2-1 and has lowered his ERA and WHIP to 2.35 and 0.97, respectively.

Manny Ramirez retires due to drug 'issue'

2011-04-08T19:21:00.003-04:00

After failing a second drug test, Rays designated hitter Manny Ramirez has decided to retire rather than appeal or face a 100-game suspension as a repeat offender.

Ramirez would have been the first player suspended 100 games.

Instead of notifying the Rays directly, Ramirez, who wasn't with the team today, notified the league, who issued the following statement (via MLB.com's Alden Gonzalez):

"Major League Baseball recently notified Manny Ramirez of an issue under Major League Baseball's Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment program. Rather than continue with the process under the program, Ramirez has informed MLB that he is retiring as an active player. If Ramirez seeks reinstatement in the future, the process under the drug program will be completed. MLB will not have any further comment on this matter."

To take the roster spot vacated by Ramirez, the Rays have called up first baseman Casey Kotchman.

On the season, Ramirez was off to a rough start (like most of the Rays, who scored a league-worse eight runs in their first six games): one hit in 17 at-bats.

But as ESPN's Stats & Info blog points out via Twitter, Ramirez is one of only five players in Major League history to have hit .300-plus and 550-plus home runs for his career. The other four are Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, Willie Mays and Alex Rodriguez.

Is Manny a Hall of Famer? Let the debate start now ...

Edwin Jackson: 2-0 and 20 K's in two starts this year

2011-04-07T21:50:00.001-04:00

With today's victory over the Rays, White Sox starter Edwin Jackson allowed only one run while striking out 13 batters as he improved to 2-0 on the season.

The Rays have lost all six of their games and scored a league-low eight runs to start the season.

Jackson, who is owned in 58 percent of Yahoo! leagues, has struck out 20 batters in only 14 innings and has an ERA of 1.93 in his two starts.

In his 13 starts since being traded from Arizona to Chicago, Jackson has struck out 97 batters in 89 innings.

Evan Longoria lands on 15-day DL

2011-04-03T14:17:00.003-04:00

Earlier today, we noted that Rays third baseman Evan Longoria did not expect to miss more than a week due to his strained oblique.

He was wrong.

The Rays have placed Longoria on the 15-day disabled list and infielder Felipe Lopez will join the Rays from Triple-A Durham, per Marc Topkin of the St. Petersburg Times.

"It's just unfortunate," [manager Joe] Maddon said. "We're having a hard time scoring runs out of the chute. He's probably our best run producer and now we don't have him. We're just going to have to make some adjustments and keep playing.''

In today's game against the Orioles, Ben Zobrist is hitting in Longoria's No. 3 spot and Sean Rodriguez is playing third base, as expected.

Evan Longoria to miss a week (or more?)

2011-04-03T07:32:00.005-04:00

If you were fortunate enough to land the consensus top third baseman in fantasy baseball, that was the good news.

The bad news is he's expected to miss a week and there's a chance he'll land on the disabled list (DL).

Rays third baseman Evan Longoria left Saturday night's game with a sore left oblique and he will be evaluated further on Sunday.

That said, Longoria doesn't expect to miss more than a week.

"It doesn't feel like something that's going to keep me off the field for a long time," Longoria said, per Tony Fabrizio of The Tampa Tribune. "I've never had an oblique (injury), so I don't know what a real serious one is supposed to (feel like)."

Manager Joe Maddon has not ruled out Longoria landing on the disabled list by saying "we have to get him evaluated and then make a determination."

With Longoria out, Sean Rodriguez will start at third base.

Fantasy Baseball: 2011 Third Basemen Rankings

2011-03-29T19:17:00.010-04:00

Third base isn't exceptionally deep, but a couple of solid options (Boston's Kevin Youkilis and Seattle's Chone Figgins) will earn eligibility at the position in April.

Here are our top 15 fantasy third basemen for 2011:

1. Evan Longoria, Rays: Everywhere you look, Longoria will likely be the top-ranked fantasy third baseman and you'll likely need a top-five to have the chance to draft him. As the third-overall pick in the 2006 draft, Longoria is still only 25 years old with plenty of upside. In other words, a season of .294-100-33-113-15, which are his career highs, (or better) is certainly possible in 2011. (And hopefully there won't be any more stolen AK-47 stories this year.)

2. David Wright, Mets: After a disappointing 2009 season, Wright was shy of a 30-20 season by exactly one home run and one stolen base. By hitting a career-low .283 last year, Wright ended a streak of five consecutive seasons of hitting .300-plus. In other words, if things fall into place, Wright has as good of a chance as any third basemen to finish with a line of .300-100-30-100-20.

3. Ryan Zimmerman, Nationals: Zimmerman missed 20 games last season, but he set career highs in home runs (33), runs scored (110) and runs batted in (106) while playing 157 games in 2009. Although he won't steal many bases, he will provide a boost in all of the other four categories.

4. Alex Rodriguez, Yankees: A year older? Who isn't, right? Granted, A-Rod is nowhere near the all-around fantasy stud he once was and he hasn't played more than 138 games in any of the past three seasons. That said, Rodriguez has posted 30-plus homers and 100-plus runs batted in every season since 1998 including in the past three seasons. In my opinion, he's sliding to a point where he could out to be a bargain in most drafts.

5. Kevin Youkilis, Red Sox: Although he's not yet eligible at third base, he will be at some point in April depending on your league's eligibility requirements. Here's what I wrote about Youkilis in our first base rankings, where he's No. 7: "Over the past five seasons, Youkilis has not played more than 147 games in any year. Provided he stays healthy for a full season, Youkilis could/should put up around or more than 100 runs, 100 runs batted in, 30 homers while hitting .300."

6. Adrian Beltre, Rangers: Beltre, who turns 32 years old in April, is now entering his 14th season in the big leagues. Only twice in his 13 years has he hit over .300 with 28-plus home runs and 100-plus runs batted in. Coincidentally, both of those seasons happened before getting a big contract. While he has the skills to do it a third time in his career in 2011, I'd like to see back-to-back strong seasons from Beltre before I'm a buyer at these prices.

7. Jose Bautista, Blue Jays: Bautista led all of baseball in home runs last year with 54, which is nearly equal to his home run output from 2004 to 2009 (59 home runs total). While a repeat performance is highly unlikely, there's a good chance that he can follow up last year's league-leading performance with 35-40 homers in 2011.

8. Casey McGehee, Brewers: Only two other third basemen -- Longoria and A-Rod -- have more runs batted in than McGehee (149) since July 1, 2010. While he won't steal bases, like most third basemen won't, McGehee will help in the other four statistical categories in standard 5x5 categories at a very reasonable cost.

9. Aramis Ramirez, Cubs: Last year, Ramirez hit only .241, which was lowest batting average since 2002. From 2004 to 2009, Ramirez hit .289 or higher every season including .300-plus in four out of six seasons. Although Ramirez only played 124 games last year, he drove in 100-plus runs in all five seasons in which he has played 125-plus games since 2003. Provided he can stay healthy, a bounce-back season seems reasonable.

10. Pablo Sandoval, Giants: Sandoval broke out in 2009 -- hitting .330 with 25 home runs and 90 runs batted in. Although he had a disappointing season in 2010, Sandoval is only 24 years old, lost a substantial amount of weight in the off-season and shortened his swing. Based on his average draft position of 127 from Mock Draft Central, Sandoval seems to offer more reward than risk this season.

11. Pedro Alvarez, Pirates: There's no doubt that Alvarez has tremendous upside and potential. Although Alvarez struck out in 34.3 percent of his major league at bats last year, he combined for 29 home runs and 117 runs batted in between Triple-A and the big leagues.

12. Martin Prado, Braves: Prado, who played mostly second base and some third base last year, is moving to left field for the Braves and soon will be eligible at three fantasy positions. In a career-high 140 games last season, Prado hit .307 and 15 home runs with 100 runs scored.

13. Michael Young, Rangers: Young, who is a career .300 hitter, hit 20 home runs in back-to-back seasons for the first time since the 2004 and 2005 seasons. While he may or may not hit 20-plus homers in three straight seasons for the first time in his career, Young is one of the more consistent hitters in the game.

14. Mark Reynolds, Orioles: The good news? Reynolds is the only player in baseball to hit 100-plus home runs and steal 40-plus bases during the past three seasons. The bad news? He's hit .234 during that span while striking out an average of 213 times per season.

15. Ian Stewart, Rockies: Stewart isn't going to win a batting title any time soon and missed about a quarter of the 2010 season. But with good health, Stewart has the power to hit 25-30 home runs in an offense that features two of baseball's elite hitters: Carlos Gonzalez and Troy Tulowitzki.

Feel free to send fantasy baseball questions to me via Twitter at @EDSBaseball or post them in our fantasy baseball forum.

See our other fantasy rankings for infielders: C - 1B - 2B - SS

Who stole Evan Longoria's AK-47?

2011-03-28T19:12:00.000-04:00

With the departure of Carl Crawford, Carlos Pena and Jason Bartlett in the off-season, the Tampa Bay Rays lost a lot of (proverbial) firepower.

Apparently, Evan Longoria, the team's biggest star, lost some firepower, literally. Well, technically, he didn't lose it.

It was stolen.

When the house that Longoria, David Price and Reid Brignac were renting was robbed over the weekend, one of the items stolen was Longoria's AK-47.

"It's a personal item," Longoria said, per Marc Topkin of the St. Petersburg Times. "Obviously they're going to say things that are taken. I think everything within the house is personal and we'll just leave it at that."

According to Topkin, the sheriff's department says the rifle is "perfectly legal" so it doesn't appear that Longoria will be in any legal trouble.

Longoria, who is the consensus top third baseman in fantasy baseball, hit .294 with 22 homers, 104 runs batted in and 15 steals in 2010.

Fantasy Baseball: 2011 Second Basemen Rankings

2011-03-27T14:29:00.006-04:00

The biggest question at second base heading into the 2011 season is what will fantasy owners get from Phillies second baseman Chase Utley.

When healthy and at his best, Utley is elite. He has posted career highs in the standard five rotisserie categories, as follows: .332-131-33-105-23.

The problem is the health, or lack thereof, of Utley's knee, which will likely land him on the disabled list to start the season. From a fantasy perspective, the bigger worry is that improvement in his knee seems to be moving a snail's pace. How soon will he be back? Will the injury linger and affect his performance when he's back on the field?

Here are our top 15 fantasy second basemen for 2011:

1. Robinson Cano, Yankees: With the exception of stolen bases, Cano puts up elite stats across the board at a relatively weak position. Cano, who set career highs in home runs (29) and runs batted in (109) in 2010, has the second-most hits in all of baseball over the past two seasons.

2. Dustin Pedroia, Red Sox: In addition to hitting over .300 for his career, Pedroia gives fantasy owners the potential for a 15-20 season. Despite missing half of last year, Pedroia ranks tenth in the majors in runs scored (286) from 2008 to 2010.

3. Dan Uggla, Braves: At a position where power hitters are less common, Uggla has a been a model of consistency when it comes to power. In each of the past four seasons, Uggla has hit 31-33 home runs and has driven in 90-plus runs including a career-high 105 last season. But will you get his career-low .243 (2009) or career-high .287 (2010) batting average? Although he's a career .354 hitter in his new home ballpark (Turner Field), the answer likely falls somewhere in between that range.

4. Ian Kinsler, Rangers: The biggest knock on Kinsler is playing time (123.6 games per season over past five years). If healthy, Kinsler has the potential to put up elite numbers. For example, when he played a career-high 144 games (2009), Kinsler hit 31 homers and stole 31 bases.

5. Brandon Phillips, Reds: For the first time in four seasons, Phillips failed to have a 20-20 season. In 2010, he finished with 18 home runs and 16 stolen bases. The majority of Phillips' at-bats in 2010 came at one of the top two spots of the lineup after mostly batting cleanup in 2009. The effect? His runs batted in dropped from 98 in 2009 to a five-year low of 59 in 2010.

6. Chase Utley, Phillies: Two seasons removed from a 30-20 season, Utley will most likely begin the 2011 season on the disabled list after missing a total of 47 games last year. If he were healthy, Utley would be second on this list.

7. Rickie Weeks, Brewers: Speaking of health, Weeks played an average of 95 games per season from 2005 through 2009 before playing a career-high 160 games last year. Naturally, he set career-highs in runs scored (112), hits (175), home runs (29) and runs batted in (83) in 2010. The only way he approaches those numbers again is if he can stay healthy for two seasons in a row. Before last year, he hadn't done that for one season in a row.

8. Martin Prado, Braves: Prado, who played mostly second base and some third base last year, is moving to left field for the Braves and soon will be eligible at three fantasy positions. In a career-high 140 games last season, Prado hit .307 and 15 home runs with 100 runs scored.

9. Gordon Beckham, White Sox: After hitting 14 homers with 63 runs batted in over 103 games in his rookie season, Beckham seemed poised for a breakout season last year. The eighth overall pick in the 2008 draft got off to an incredibly slow start in 2010, but he picked up the pace as he hit .310 after the All-Star break. Beckham, who will bat second for the White Sox this season, is a guy I've targeted in most of my drafts this year.

10. Ben Zobrist, Rays: Like Prado, Zobrist has multi-position eligibility as a second baseman and outfielder (and first baseman in Yahoo! leagues). After a breakout season in 2009 (.297-91-27-91-17), Zobrist really struggled down the stretch last season. After the All-Star break, Zobrist hit only .177 and hit .200 or lower per month from July to October. On a positive note, Zobrist stole a career-high 24 bases in 2010 and will likely have even more base-stealing opportunities as the team's leadoff hitter.

11. Aaron Hill, Blue Jays: Not only did Hill have the lowest BABIP (.196) of his career, it was the lowest in all of baseball. Even with the horrible BABIP and batting average (.205), Hill still managed to hit 26 home runs in 2010.

12. Kelly Johnson, Diamondbacks: In his first season with the Diamondbacks, Johnson set career highs in runs (93), hits (166), home runs (26), runs batted in (71) and stolen bases (13) in 2010. Johnson hit .311 with 16 of his 26 home runs at Chase Field last year.

13. Howie Kendrick, Angels: The direction of his batting averages over the past four seasons isn't what you'd like to see: .322 (2007), .306 (2008), .291 (2009) and .279 (2010). That said, he set career highs in several counting statistics: runs scored (67), runs batted in (75), stolen bases (14) and tied his career high in home runs (ten).

14. Chone Figgins, Mariners: Since 2004, Figgins has stolen 30-plus bases every season. In five of the past six seasons, he has stolen 40-plus bases. Figgins is having a good spring (.349 average and four steals in 16 games).

15. Brian Roberts, Orioles: When healthy, Roberts has provided fantasy owners with lots of runs and stolen bases and a decent batting average. Before missing 100-plus games in 2010, Roberts stole 30-plus bases for four consecutive seasons although he went from 50 (2007) to 40 (2008) to 30 (2009).

Feel free to send fantasy baseball questions to me via Twitter at @EDSBaseball or post them in our fantasy baseball forum.

Carlos Pena to replace Dustin Pedroia on All-Star team

2009-07-12T15:09:00.003-04:00

Boston Red Sox second baseman is going to miss this year's All-Star game. A.L. manager Joe Madden named Carlos Pena as his replacement, per Joe Smith of the St. Petersburg Times.

"I have to believe who ever leads the league in home runs normally belongs in an All-Star game," Maddon said. "And the fact he hadn't been on the team yet bothered me just a little bit, so for whatever reason, it all worked out well."

Pena leads the A.L. in home runs (24) and was one of the five finalists for the final A.L. All-Star spot. Despite the Rays' "Vote 'Los" campaign, Detroit's Brandon Inge won that honor.

Rangers second baseman Ian Kinsler finished second to Inge in voting for the final spot. Pena finished fourth.

In addition to leading the A.L. in home runs, Pena is tenth in RBI (58) and is hitting .230.

Pena is one of the eight Home Run Derby contestants. He'll be competing against Nelson Cruz (Texas), Brandon Inge (Detroit), Joe Mauer (Minnesota), Albert Pujols (St. Louis), Adrian Gonzalez (San Diego), Prince Fielder (Milwaukee) and Ryan Howard (Philadelphia).

Other Rays' All-Stars include Evan Longoria, who will start at third base, and reserves Jason Bartlett, Ben Zobrist and Carl Crawford. See the full All-Star roster here.

Akinori Iwamura done for season

2009-05-25T19:08:00.003-04:00

Per Marc Lancaster of The Tampa Tribune, the Rays have lost second baseman Akinori Iwamura for the season.

An MRI revealed that Iwamura has a torn ACL, damage to his MCL and torn ankle ligaments after Chris Coghlan's slide in Sunday's game against the Marlins.

Iwamura will have surgery and the Rays hope to have him back for spring training, according to Lancaster.

"It's a tough loss, obviously," [Rays executive vice president Andrew] Friedman said. "Aki brings a lot to our team offensively, defensively and off the field. But this group has demonstrated how resilient they are last year and the beginning part of this year and I expect that we'll do more of the same here."

In addition to losing Aki for the season, the Rays placed relief pitcher Brian Shouse on the 15-day disabled list.

Rays gave Maddon three-year extension

2009-05-25T15:39:00.002-04:00

The Tampa Bay Rays have given a three-year extension to Joe Maddon, who won the A.L. Manager of the Year award in 2008.

The Rays' skipper is now under contract until 2012.

"This is where I belong,'' Maddon said. "This is where I want to be. I really have to use the word love when I talk about this organization. ... For me, it's a no-brainer. I really want to stay here and I'm really grateful that I get the opportunity.' "

In the Rays' first-ever winning season (97-65), the Rays made it to the World Series. This year, the Rays are 23-23 and four games out of first.

Kazmir, Percival to DL; Price to be called up

2009-05-22T21:58:00.004-04:00

The Tampa Bay Rays have placed both starter Scott Kazmir and closer Troy Percival on the 15-day disabled list, according to Marc Lancaster of The Tampa Tribune.

Percival has shoulder tendinitis and Kazmir has a quadriceps strain.

Manager Joe Maddon wonders if Percival, who's 39 and gone home to clear his mind, will be back.

"I wouldn't be surprised if he chooses not to come back," Maddon said. "There's only so much you can do when you get to that age, and he's tried everything possible to put himself back together to be, not just functional, but a very big contributor to us. He's just not feeling that he can be that right now."

Kazmir is leading (in a bad way) the majors in pitches per inning (19.2) and he has an ERA of 11.35 in his previous five starts.

Pitching phenom David Price will likely start on Monday in Kazmir's place.

Andy Sonnanstine, designated hitter?

2009-05-17T19:09:00.004-04:00

Tampa Bay Rays manager Joe Maddon meant for Evan Longoria to DH while Ben Zobrist plays third base.

However, on the official sheet provided to the umpire before the game, Maddon listed both Zobrist and Longoria at third base.

That meant that Longoria wouldn't be allowed to DH and Rays pitcher Andy Sonnanstine would hit instead. Not only would Sonnanstine hit, but he had to bat third (where Longoria was intended to hit).

Although Sonnanstine recorded his first career extra-base hit during his second at-bat, I'm sure Maddon will be more careful next time.

Six steals for Carl Crawford today

2009-05-03T17:45:00.004-04:00

Boston Red Sox catcher Jason Varitek should be ashamed of himself. It's as if he were giving bases away today.

Varitek allowed Tampa Bay Rays outfielder Carl Crawford to steal six bases in today's game.

In total, the Rays set a team record by stealing eight bases on Varitek.

Catcher Michel Hernandez got his first career steal and shortstop Jason Bartlett stole a base as well.

Evan Longoria to miss next two games

2009-04-15T18:38:00.003-04:00

Per ESPN, Tampa Bay Rays slugger Evan Longoria will miss the Rays' next two games to head to California for a death in the family.

The most important thing is that he's there for his family.

But the second-year player isn't suffering a sophomore jinx. In fact, he has hit safely in all eight of his games while leading baseball in HRs (5) and batting (.441 average).

Willie Aybar will start in his place until Longoria returns Friday for the White Sox game.

David Price sent to minors

2009-03-26T22:46:00.001-04:00

The Tampa Bay Rays did it last year with Evan Longoria. Although he was playing well in spring training, Longoria started the season in the minors.

Now, the franchise is sending David Price, the number one overall draft pick in 2007, down to the minors.

The main argument for the move is monitor his workload.

"We have obviously spent a lot of time talking about this,” Rays executive vice president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said. “When we came into camp, we came in with an open mind, knowing full well that there were certain developmental issues that we wanted him to focus on and also the workload. And just the increase and how we’re going to monitor that."

During the spring, Price has pitched 8 1/3 innings with an ERA of 1.08 and has struck out 10 batters.

BJ Upton to miss first week of season?

2009-03-23T07:38:00.001-04:00

Tampa Bay Rays CF B.J. Upton, who was recovering from off-season shoulder surgery, was hit by a pitch on his left hand on Saturday. While the X-rays were negative, Upton has a bruised bone and swelling near his pinkie finger.

Upton is expected to miss the first week of the season when the Rays head north to face division rivals Boston and Baltimore.

The Rays will use Gabe Kapler, Gabe Gross, Ben Zobrist and Justin Ruggiano in center and right field depending on whether the opposing pitcher is right- or left-handed.

"I like the fact we are that versatile," [Rays manager Joe] Maddon said. "We're versatile, but we don't make ourselves weaker."

In 2007, Upton hit 24 HRs in the regular season. But he only hit 9 HRs during the regular season in 2008.

With the post-season power surge that Upton had (7 HRs and 16 RBIs in 16 games), I expect him to have a huge season.

Maddon is doing the right thing by not rushing Upton back and jeopardize having him healthy later in the season.