The Good News and the Bad

Today brings with it both happy and sad news for the authors of this blog. For Steve and his Rays, Evan Longoria was named to Team USA today to replace the injured Larry Jones. So along with David Wright, Steve and I now both have our man-crushes manning the hot corner for the Americans for the semis. On a much sadder note, the Mets re-assigned our beloved Casey Fossum to minor league camp today (along with Jon Niese and a few others), officially ending our dream that he would somehow secure a role on the big league staff as a long reliever. Damn.... On a happier note, my Casey Fossum Mets jersey should be arriving in the mail in a few days. I just have to keep hope alive!

I called it!

I said to the people around me that Wagner was going to blow the lead in the All-Star Game if he didn't come in for the save in the 9th. We Mets fans know there are two things Wagner always finds a way to blow: coming in in the 8th inning, and coming in in a non-save situation. Well, manager Clint Hurdle decided the Phillies' Brad Lidge was going to be the NL closer, and brought Billy in to pitch the last out of the 8th (that's right; only one out). And, well, Billy blew it. He allowed a single to Grady Sizemore. With Evan Longoria pinch-hitting for Milton Bradley, Sizemore then stole second base without a throw. Then, well, Longoria hit a ground-rule double to left to bring him in. So the Rays half of this blog-writing team got the better of the All-Star Game. But I blame Clint Hurdle. He's obviously never seen Wagner pitch in an 8th inning.


...by the way, the Yankee Stadium people did not play "Enter Sandman" when Wagner entered the game. As I write this, Mariano Rivera is jogging to the mound with the song blasting. So I blame the sound people for Wagner's failure, also. Clint Hurdle is on warning, but the Yankee Stadium sound people are dead to me.

Holy. Crap.

Wooohoo!! 3-game sweep of the Red Sox at home!! And now, if things keep going the way they're going and Baltimore loses to the White Sox tonight, we'll be tied for first place in the AL East with them. Plus, we're squaring off against Baltimore in our next series and Kaz is looking to come back on Thursday, so oh man....this is just too friggin' exciting. I just can't contain myself right now!

Oh, and by the way, that Longoria guy is pretty f-ing incredible. He made a couple amazing grabs at third today plus after striking out twice against Josh Beckett, he comes back in his third at bat and blasts a homerun against him. I love Longo more and more every day...

And Shields pitched a monster of a game tonight. Pitching a complete game, two-hit shutout against the Red Sox? That's just something else.

On a completely random subject, apparently the Rays are a great deal if you want to go see them at home. There's free carpool parking, plus college kids can get tickets for $5 on Friday nights along with $1 hot dogs. If only I lived in Tampa...

Longoria is back!!

I woke up this morning simply hoping that the Rays had managed to pull out a win last night against the Orioles (which they had, 10-4), but lo and behold, there was even more good news waiting for me. Doing my daily early morning check of DRaysBay, I happened to notice these three heavenly words gracing the top of the site..."EVAN. HAS. ARRIVED." Woohoo!!

Apparently, sending Longoria down in the first place was entirely an economic decision and the Rays management seems content to not pretend any differently. They're calling him up after only about 10 games, during which Evan has only 5 singles. Certainly doesn't seem like he's proved anything amazing while down there those few days. However, Longoria literally just passed the deadline so that his service time will extend an extra year. I'm perfectly fine with this decision since at this point, we'll have Longo for an extra year one way or the other, plus Longo didn't really miss much of this season.

For all of you out there that may have no idea who I'm talking about Evan (not Eva) Longoria is currently the top ranked prospect in the Rays organization and one of the highest rated in the game at the moment. He's basically the consensus pick to with the AL Rookie of the Year award, though obviously we've got to play the games first and see what happens. However, he is an excellent defensive third baseman that hits for average, power, and has a pretty good batting eye. In AA last year, he hit .307 with 21 homeruns in only 105 games. He was promoted to AAA at the end of the season and although his average dipped, his on base percentage increased and his power numbers remained steasy. In short, he's a hell of an upgrade over their current third baseman and should be a solid presence in the middle of the Rays' batting order for years to come (knock-on-wood...).

He's starting tonight vs. the Orioles! Don't miss it!

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PS - I don't feel that bad anymore about the Rays getting cleaned up by Wang earlier this week. The Red Sox just got owned by him last night to the tune of 9 IP, 1 ER, 2 H, 0 BB, and 3 K. Heck, the Rays got 4 hits and 2 walks off him over 6 IP - that's positively brilliant in comparison.

Damn...

Well, so much for 3 of 4 from the Yanks, though I have to say, I'm perfectly happy with a split (which is basically what this is going to be, seeing as Hammel pitches tomorrow). Our pitching staff game us another solid performance today and definitely gave our offense a chance to win this one, but Wang, Joba, and Mo out-shone us today. But hey, since when have the Rays ever been able to say that they've been in every game that they've played against the Yanks? This is certainly an encouraging thing.

On a negative note, though, Shields didn't have the best day out there. He did manage to limit the Yanks to 2 runs over 5 innings, which is always a good thing, but he let up a heck of a lot of baserunners. Not many walks at least, but the Yanks got a lot of hits off of him. This probably means nothing besides that the Yankee offense woke up a little bit today, but we've just come to expect better from Shields. In the end, though, he only let up 2 runs and that's what counts the most.

One slightly worrisome piece of news: Longoria has yet to get a hit or draw a walk in his first three AAA games this year. I know it's a small sample size and all, but come on man....we need you to destroy the league so you can be up in a month. Start mashing the ball already, geez.

I really want to try this sometime this season...

Also, add this book to my wishlist, for sure. Highly recommended by RJ Anderson from DRaysBay, probably the one blogger whose opinion I respect the most (well, minus anyone from this site, obviously).