Rays Trying New Look To Draw Fans?

I have a feeling that the new uniforms might be counterproductive to onfield success. I mean really, are the lab coats necessary? This was actually the scene of the Rays' rookies (Jeremy Hellickson, Jake McGee and Desmond Jennings ) leaving the Trop after losing 2-0 to the Orioles and I assume heading to a lavish party in West Hollywood. Or it's just good old fashioned rookie hazing, I never know with these youngsters nowadays.

The Rays clinched a playoff spot despite being just 5-5 over their last 10 and Evan Longoria, David Price and Mitch Williams all complained about the attendance in Tampa Bay. Longoria and Price have since apologized and I'm awaiting Mitch Williams' apology for having a job on the MLB Network any day now. Attendance has always been an issue because of that damn bridge or so I hear, what am I, a city planner?. But the fans will show up for the playoffs, maybe, and so why not have a little fun as the long regular season winds down?

As for the rookies themselves, only Jeremy Hellickson has a decent amount of playing time. And 35.1 innings might be stretching the definition of "decent." But in those 35.1 innings, Hellickson has looked good posting an 8.41 K/9 and a 3.57/3.82/3.95 line. That's ERA/FIP/xFIP and I don't know if anybody uses that line or not but get used to it around these parts. McGee has tossed 3.2 innings of 2.45/2.82/3.56 ball so we don't know anything about him. Likewise, Jennings has only 24 plate appearances and a .190/.292/.333 line but really pulls off the knee-highs with sandals look. I am getting old, I'm still just wearing pants.

[image via TampaBay.com]

Strasburg Speaks

I somewhat blame myself for Stephen Strasburg's seemingly inevitable Tommy John surgery. My unhealthy man crush and unrealistic expectations must have put an ufair amount of pressure on him. Of course I assume he reads my little blog and read many of my dedicated posts to him. I should also point out that my ego is only two notches below Lex Luther on the Super Villain scale. Anyway, Strasburg had his cast removed about two weeks ago and had a little chit-chat with real media types on a conference call that I assume included an iPhone...

"I'm chalking this year up as a great success," Strasburg, 22, said in a 15-minute conference call with media members Tuesday afternoon from his San Diego home. "It's unfortunate for this to happen. But . . . I stirred up the baseball world well enough to have more people become Nats fans. And I know they're going to be there when I come back in a year."

He's right to some extent. I did hop on the Nats' bandwagon hoping to catch a National League version of the Rays in enough time to seem cool. I tried the same thing with the Brewers a few years ago but it didn't work out so well. Strasburg should bounce back just fine but let's keep in mind that it took Francisco Liriano two years to get close to his former self and the Nats' second best starter, Jordan Zimmermann, is just a year removed from his own TJ. But Strasburg remains optimistic about a speedy recovery...

"If I'm doing well, things could get sped up," he said. "There is a target date, but right now it's way too early [to talk about it]. It is a tough process, but I keep telling myself as each day goes by, I'm getting closer to being back out there battling and winning games."

I can't wait for his return. He was almost better than advertised in his first 12 professional starts. His 2.91 ERA was a little bloated according to his 2.10 FIP and the 12.18 K/9 is must see baseball. He's good for the game and great for Nationals' attendance. Godspeed young Jedi. Oh and Stras, I'd also appreciate if you left your over/under on Aroldis Chapman starts before his Tommy John in the comments. Thanks Stephen!

Curveballs for Jobu

Curveballs for Jobu is Offbasepercentage's daily trip around the ballparks.

Today's honorary bay boy is Adam Hyzdu and he's here because he was a member of the last 100 loss Pirates team in 2001.

We are officially in the home stretch of the regular season and I badly need this Jobu because I spent the weekend watching football and the UFC. Well, the second half of yesterday I was pretty much just drinking and cursing Garrett Hartley. Let's take that quick spin around some of yesterday's games...

Giants 4, Rockies 2. Matt Cain took a no-hitter into the 8th and finished with a 9 IP, 3 H, 2R, 8K line. That ladies and gentleman will pretty much wrap up the 2010 season for the Rox. The Giants stay .5 game up on the Padres but if they somehow miss the playoffs, which is possible since the Pads and Giants play each other to end the season, I'm switching my playoff team for the third and final time to the Phillies. Blog favorite Buster Posey: 1-3 with a walk.

Reds 12, Padres 2. The Pads and specifically Clayton Richard couldn't help themselves yesterday. Richard got shelled over 5 innings of 5 hit, 6 run ball adding in 4 walks for good measure. Joey Votto hit his 37th home run of the season. Maybe I'll switch my playoff allegiance to the Reds, they seem like a fun team. By the end of the season, I'll be rooting for everybody but the Yankees.

Yankees 4, Red Sox 3 (10). Speaking of the Yankees, Marino Rivera blew another save but so did Papelbon. The game winner in the 10th was the dramatic walk-off walk by Juan Miranda. Edge of your seat action right there folks. Derek Jeter went 0-4 with 2 strikeouts. Jeter's .266/.336/.369 line should fetch him a fresh 4-year, $80 million contract next year. Between that and Minka Kelly, my heart is filled with murderous jealousy.

Mariners 6, Rays 2. Isn't that cute? The M's still think baseball season is going on. They're actually screwing with real teams. Matt Mangini played third base for the M's. Did you know he's the cousin of Browns coach Eric Mangini? I have no idea is that's true or not, my research staff is comprised of hobos who sleep in the public library.

White Sox 4, Angels 3. Only 7 more games until the Hot Stove league!

The One Where I Gush About Buster Posey

It's no secret that we play favorites over here at Off Base and Buster Posey is easily one of our favorites. Derwood was turned on to Posey back when he was playing high school baseball in Georgia. I can't easily explain my fascination with him except he's really good at the baseball. He's so good in fact, I'm willing to overlook that his real first name is Gerald. Shame on you Posey parents, Gerald is a 60-year-old's name. The hot hitting catcher is on his way to taking the Giants to the playoffs whether the rest of the offense likes it or not. We'll have a vote for the BBA's regular season awards and, spoiler, our top pick will be Posey. The National League is loaded with potential superstar rookies but here's why we love San Fran's catcher...

1. He plays a premium position. Go look up how many franchise clean-up hitters were catchers. Go ahead, I'll wait. Also, I'm too lazy to do that research on my own. But I assume there aren't that many and Posey certainly looks like he's heading in the right direction.

2. Posey is hitting .323/.370/.524 with 16 home runs and gets very little help from the rest of his lineup as a 23-year-old. His main competition for NL ROY is Jason Heyward who, in 177 more plate appearances, is hitting .285/.400/.472 with 2 more homers while playing right field. That's basically a month worth of more service time. More on that later. Heyward probably deserves a little extra credit though because he's putting that line together as a 20-year-old.

3. Buster was temporarily and ludicrously blocked at catcher by Bengie Molina. The Giants eventually jettisoned Molina to clear the way for Posey behind the dish. I'd love to tell you that all of his receiving skills were vastly underrated but UZR doesn't work for catchers and I'm no scout. But it doesn't seem like the Giants will have to move him off of his position and he can't be any worse than Mike Piazza was, right?

4. What say you, nerdy stats? Heyward is out WAR-ing Posey 4.6-3.9 but, again, WAR is a counting stat so Heyward's extra playing time certain gives him a boost. Then there's the defense issue. UZR rates Heyward as an average right fielder while Posey takes a little hit from UZR for the time he played first base. So far, Posey appears to doing just fine in the catching categories that Fangraphs uses for WAR. Heyward is beating out Posey in wOBA too but just barely at .384 to .378. They're BABIPs are a wash, Posey .339 and Heyward .343. They're even deadlocked with 136 OPS+.

It's really close and both are going to be superstars along with Mike Stanton who might hit 40 home runs next year. There's plenty of time left to decide the ROY and both Posey and Hewyard are still in playoff races. I'm not sure how this evolved into a ROY post but at least all I'll have to do for my official ROY post is change around a few numbers. You're welcome, future me.

Curveballs for Jobu

Curveballs for Jobu is Offbasepercentage's daily trip around the ballparks.

Today's honorary bay boy is Keith Lockhart and he's here because his middle name is Virgil and that reminds me of the good old days of the WWF.

Hey kids, I'm still in charge of Jobu which means plenty of lowlights of relief pitching and tons of NL West coverage.

Padres 3, Dodgers 1. Miguel Tejada went 3-4 including his 300th career home run. The Padres reclaimed the West lead by .5 game. Aaron Cunningham lead off for the Pads and went 0-4. Potsy: DNP.

Diamondbacks 8, Rockies 4. My beloved Rox fell 3 games back in the West. Tulo is still struggling at the dish going 0-4 with a pair of strikeouts. Todd Helton hit his 7th home run of the season. Seven. In the year 2000, Helton won the National League Slash Line Triple Crown hitting .372/.463/.698 with 42 home runs. He finished 5th in MVP voting despite leading the league in WAR. His Hall of Fame case is debatable and likely the discussion for another post but it's worth noting his career OBP is .424. Hey, Mark Reynolds only struck out twice.

Cubs 2, Giants 0. The Giants surrendered first place and blog favorite Buster Posey didn't help by striking out thrice. Fukudome homered reminding me that he still plays for a major league team.

Rangers 2, Angels 1 (12). The Rangers trimmed their magic number to 4 because the Angels refuse to score any runs for Danny Haren. Haren pitched 7 innings allowing 1 unearned run. *sigh*

Clayton Richard's Golden Sombrero

A golden sombrero is awarded to a player who manages to strike out four times in a single game (real golden sombrero not included). It's quite the feat unless you're Ryan Howard or Mark Reynolds. Unfortunately, cycles and no-hitters are all the rage nowadays. Not for me, though. I will pour over the box scores to bring you the finest at swinging and missing.

I skipped writing the last few Sombrero because they just happen so much more frequently than I thought they would. And I'm lazy. But occasionally one will spike my interest which brings us to today. Well, technically yesterday. Everything has to line up just right for a pitcher to record a Golden Sombrero. Clayton Richard threw a complete game and was responsible for 10 strikeouts. He struck out 6 Dodgers and tacked on 4 of his own at the dish. Let's go to the lowlight reel...

Top 2nd: Richard struck out looking against Chad Billingsley. Richard was dealt to the Padres with Aaron Poreda (and others) for Jake Peavy last year. The Padres are getting the better end of that deal and haven't gotten anything out of Poreda yet.

Top 4th: Richard struck out swinging against Billingsley. Okay, so maybe Richard isn't a wizard with the bat but neither are most of the other Padres.

Top 6th: Richard struck out swinging against Carlos Monasterios. Never heard of him.

Top 8th: Richard struck out swinging against Ramon Troncoso. I'd like to take this moment to thank Bud Black for resting his bullpen and the Padres' lineup for somehow scoring enough runs to put this game out of hand.

Fun fact: the last pitcher Golden Sombrero was Anibal Sanchez on 8/10.

Curveballs for Jobu

Curveballs for Jobu is Offbasepercentage's daily trip around the ballparks.

Today's honorary bay boy is Tony Perezchica and he's here because of his whopping 5 career RBI. But we all know RBI is kind of a BS stat.

Hey gang, Jobu is a little late today because I was trying to decide whether or not to devote the entire post to Buster Posey. While I ultimately decided against it, you're still getting a healthy does of my favorite rookie catcher in the history of baseball...

Giants 1, Cubs 0. Buster Posey. Posey won the game with his 15th home run of the season to keep the Giants .5 game up on the Padres. Posey is hitting .324/.373/.522 for the season and, spoiler alert, will get our Rookie of the Year vote when the time comes for the BBA.

Padres 6, Dodgers 0. The Fathers managed to keep close to the Giants riding a complete game shutout from Clayton Richard. I don't know how they scored 6 runs considering that not on of their 1-3 hitters has an OBP over .330. Allow me to present your Manager of the Year, Bud Black and his smoke and mirrors.

Diamondbacks 3, Rockies 1. Welcome back to the NL West edition of Jobu. My newly appointed second favorite team couldn't figure out Joe Saunders and fell back to 2.5 games out of first. Saunders struck out 7 hitters over 8 innings, the most since he struck out 8 on June 26th for the Angels. New blog favorite Troy Tulowitzki fell victim to Saunders' rare K ability once and remains homerless since Saturday.

Twins 6, Indians 4. We discussed it before but it needs to be mentioned more frequently. Jim Thome is a first ballot Hall of Famer. Thome hit his 25th home run of the season and 589th of his career, good for 8th all time. His OBP is .412 this season and .404 for his career.

Angels 2, Rangers 0. Only 8.5 out! Cool Standings has the Angels at 0.1% chance to make the playoffs. So you're saying there's a chance.

Curveballs for Jobu

Curveballs for Jobu is Offbasepercentage's daily trip around the ballparks.

Today's honorary bay boy is Robert Eenhoorn and he's here because his name is ridiculous and he always looks angry.

The Saints pulled out a win, I partook in a few adult beverages and an ex-girlfriend got engaged last night. Let's take a look at some of yesterday's games while I rethink what I'm doing with my life...

Yankees 8, Rays 6. The Yanks padded their lead in the East to 1.5 games based on Curtis Granderson's monster game. I give Granderson a lot of flak about being a platoon player simply because he can't hit lefties but I really do like him as a person. He occasionally blogs over at the Big League Stew and that's pretty much all it takes to get me to like you. Granderson hit home runs off of Matt Garza and Grant Balfour (both righties), walked twice and swiped a bag. Chad Gaudin gets mentioned here because my buddy went to high school with him.

Angels 7, Rangers 4. My beloved Halos moved to a more reasonable 9.5 games back, giving me a little playoff hope while I pretend this is June. Jered Weaver tossed an ugly 6.2 innings giving up 3 earned on 9 hits and only striking out a pair. Peter Bourjos went 2-4 raising his BA to .205 and Brandon Wood's .159 average drools with jealousy.

Phillies 3, Braves 1. Remember when I was gushing about the Rockies last week? Get ready for an obnoxious amount of Phillies love. Cole Hamels tossed 8 innings of 6-hit, 1-run ball and is now 4-0 with a 0.63 ERA in September. That Chase Utley fellow is also tearing up September with a .329/.442/.557 line and I now proclaim him healthy. This could easily be the most dangerous playoff team in baseball.

Twins 9, Indians 3. Danny Valencia hit his 5th homer of the year and is hitting .362/.396/.574 in September. Sure, he could walk a little bit more but he's been a pleasant surprise for the Twins at the hot corner.