Daily Archives: April 13, 2009

Tampa Bay Rays

2008 Record: 97-65 (.599), AL Champs
2008 Pythagorean Record: 92-70 (.568)

Manager: Joe Maddon
General Manager: Andrew Friedman

Home Ballpark (multi-year Park Factors): Tropicana Field (102/103)

Who’s Replaced Whom:

• Pat Burrell replaces Eric Hinske and Jonny Gomes
• Gabe Kapler replaces Cliff Floyd
• Jeff Niemann replaces Edwin Jackson (and is holding a spot for David Price)
• Brian Shouse replaces Trever Miller
• Joe Nelson replaces Jason Hammel
• Lance Cormier replaces Gary Glover and Chad Bradford (DL)

25-man Roster:

1B – Carlos Peña (L)
2B – Akinori Iwamura (L)
SS – Jason Bartlett (R)
3B – Evan Longoria (R)
C – Dioner Navarro (S)
RF – Gabe Gross (L)
CF – B.J. Upton (R)
LF – Carl Crawford (L)
DH – Pat Burrell (R)

Bench:

S – Willy Aybar (1B/3B)
S – Ben Zobrist (UT)
R – Gabe Kapler (OF)
R – Shawn Riggans (C)

Rotation:

R – James Shields
L – Scott Kazmir
R – Matt Garza
R – Andy Sonnanstine
R – Jeff Niemann

Bullpen:

R – Troy Percival
R – Grant Balfour
L – J.P. Howell
R – Dan Wheeler
L – Brian Shouse
R – Joe Nelson
R – Lance Cormier

15-day DL: RHP – Chad Bradford (elbow surgery), RHP – Jason Isringhausen (rehab from September elbow surgery), OF – Fernando Perez (broken wrist)

Projected Lineup:

R – B.J. Upton (CF)
L – Carl Crawford (LF)
R – Evan Longoria (3B)
L – Carlos Peña (1B)
R – Pat Burrell (DH)
L – Gabe Gross (RF)
S – Dioner Navarro (C)
L – Akinori Iwamura (2B)
R – Jason Bartlett (SS)

Notes: Gross will platoon with Gabe Kapler and Ben Zobrist in right field.

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Long-time Phillies broadcaster Harry Kalas collapsed and died this afternoon, in the midst of preparing for the airing of the Phils/Nats contest from Washington, D.C.  He was 73 years old.

“We lost Harry. I’ve been 39 years with the Phillies and 39 years with Harry and, as I said in this clubhouse, we lost our voice today,” said team president and CEO David Montgomery at about 1:50 p.m. outside the team’s clubhouse. “He has loved our game and made just a tremendous contribution to our sport and certainly to our organization.”

Besides being the voice of the Phillies for over 30 years, football fans know him for his voiceover work with NFL Films.  While no one could match the late John Facenda’s timbre, intonations and phrasing, Kalas came darn close.

I personally had Kalas in my top tier of active baseball announcers, along with Bob Uecker, Vin Scully, Jerry Coleman, Gary Cohen  and Tom Hamilton.

Rest in peace Harry.

Here’s a sampling of some old Coming Attractions to chew on.

My dad’s old friend Bill Tinker said this movie was “Heavy on the unbearable, light on the being.” I didn’t get the movie at all when I first saw it at 16 but later on, I got it. The two female leads are devastating and Daniel Day sports a hellacious head of hair.

I love the early New York City scenes in this movie.

My favorite Robin Williams’ perfomance.

I remember watching this one as a kid on a Sunday afternoon with my old man when he was living in Weehawken, New Jersey.

Dag, this movie still creeps the hell out of me. It has to be one of the most unsettling action movies ever made.

Today’s news is powered by new music from DEVO! (Yeah yeah, I know . . . they’re not cool like Stevie or Miles, but hey . . .)

“DON’T SHOOT” – DEVO from DEVO Channel on Vimeo.

• Tyler Kepner applies something akin to “six degrees of separation” to get us from having Ruben Rivera on the roster to acquiring Nick Swisher.
• Sticking with Swisher, MLB.com profiles the hot-hitting Yankee:

“I’m absolutely loving it,” Swisher said. “It’s like I almost don’t want to wake up. I don’t want to soak it in right now. I want to keep that fire, keep that passion and keep that attitude going right now.

“When I come to the ballpark, I feel confident. I know in this game, you’re going to go through ups and downs, but right now, things seem to be going pretty well.”. . .

“He’s playing well, he really is,” Girardi said. “He’s swinging the bat well, played a nice first base [Saturday] and had some tough throws that he had to dig out. Left-handed or right-handed, he’s always a tough at-bat.”

• The Times’ Vincent Mazzolli wonders how one could better spend the $10,600 it costs for four of the best seats at the new Stadium:

Autograph collectors like me can take $10,600 and buy a dozen baseballs signed by Alex Rodriguez (about $350 per ball), a dozen signed by Derek Jeter (about $300 a ball), and still have enough cash to get every other player on the 25-man roster to autograph an individual ball.

Last month, I really let the wrong pitch go by. Rather than invest $10,600 in three hours of baseball, I could have bought 10,600 shares of Citigroup stock on March 6. The share price has tripled.

There are a great many other ways to spend $10,600. You can spring for 14 Frederic Fekkai haircuts at $750 a pop, or treat yourself and 85 of your closest friends to orchestra tickets for “The Lion King” on Broadway ($121.50 per ticket on Broadway.com).

Maybe one day, someone will make a movie about the skyrocketing costs of raising a baseball family, especially in Ruth’s old neighborhood. They could call it “The Bronx Is Burning a Hole in Our Wallets.”

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