View From the Other Side: Tampa Bay Rays Series Preview

by Tom Dakers on Jun 29, 2009 9:46 AM EDT in Upcoming Series Preview Comment 13 comments

With the Jays starting a series tonight against the Tampa Bay Rays I sent a few questions to R.J. Anderson from DRaysBay, SB Nation's great Rays blog. Here are his answers:

Who has been the biggest surprise for the Rays this year?

Ben Zobrist. I didn't think the Rays could have the best second baseman in the league in April. Turns out they do, for now at least.

Jason Bartlett is hitting .366/.404/.566, how is this possible? He can't possibly keep this up can he?

Bartlett is a benefactor of balls in play luck. There's a non-zero chance it continues, but I wouldn't wager on it. In fact I'd wager against it.

What are manager Joe Maddon's strengths and weaknesses.

He's a very good people's person. Certainly this is advantageous when dealing with a team as mixed as the Rays. You have a few high-priced veterans and a bunch of youngsters working towards their first real payday. He also seems fairly adapt at getting guys who deserve at-bats playing time. Oh and he understands the nuances of a bullpen for the most part.

Weakness is loyalty to an extent. Continuing with Troy Percival in the ninth, for instance.

What is going on with Scott Kazmir? He's way too talented to have a 7.28 ERA.

An ‘injury' and lord knows what else. He went to Rick Peterson to work on his mechanics amongst other things and made his first start back Saturday. The stuff and command looked better. I think most of us are cautiously optimistic.

B.J. Upton was unbelievable during the playoffs last year, but his numbers this year aren't so great. What's happened with him?

Upton was still recovering from labrum surgery early in the season. He seems healthy now, and has a June OPS over .900. Plus he's silky smooth in centerfield, which is a big reason the Rays let him come back so quickly.

David Price was a lot of expert's choice for Rookie of the Year, before the start of the season. Could he still win it?

I suppose. Price has some aspects of his game that he definitely needs to improve on, but not many starters can strikeout 10 per nine in their first real exposure to the majors. Price was supposed to develop a third pitch in the minors, he didn't, and now he's learning on the job. The results could be a bit iffy, so that endangers his status, but still, the talent is there.

Almost half way through the season the and we haven't seen the Rays yet, what else should we know about the Rays?

They're better than the record suggests and they can still field like nobody's business.

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RedSox Preview?

I think you meant to say the Rays :-p

by Aquamelli on Jun 29, 2009 10:08 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

oh damn....fixed...

by Tom Dakers on Jun 29, 2009 10:35 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Im sorry...

But best 2nd basemen in the league…..

I think Hill stats seem to disagree with that.

Zobrist has been great this year for them especially since Aki went down but come on.

'But I don't want to go among mad people' Alice remarked.
'Oh, you can't help that' said the Cat 'we're all mad here'.

by JohnnyG on Jun 29, 2009 10:44 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Zobrist

has been unbelievable. Hill has played a lot more second base than Zobrist (he has 75 games there to Zobrist’s 30) so it’s tough to do a straight comparison.

But not only are Ben’s offensive stats way better than Hill’s (Zobrist has a 1.026 OPS to Hill’s .856, albeit in a better hitter’s park, but still Zobrist leads Hill in park adjusted OPS substantially as well (OPS+ for Zobrist=162, for Hill=123) wOBA also goes to Zobrist, .434 to .369.

As for defense, though sample size is limited (just 250 innings isn’t really enough), UZR loves Zobrist’s defense to an insane degree (30.9 UZR/150 to Aaron’s 3.9).

"Let us go forth awhile, and get better air in our lungs. Let us leave our closed rooms... The game of ball is glorious." - Walt Whitman

by hugo on Jun 29, 2009 11:19 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Im not doubting he has been really good this year, heck he is helping me keep up in one of my fantasy leagues. I just think that if you are gonna say he is the best 2B in the league then he needs to have a bigger sample size as well.

I never look at all of those stats like park adjusted OPS and wOBA (to be fair, I don’t even know what the hell that stands for or even means).

'But I don't want to go among mad people' Alice remarked.
'Oh, you can't help that' said the Cat 'we're all mad here'.

by JohnnyG on Jun 29, 2009 2:21 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

+1

Aaron Hill > Ben Zobrist.
Thats my only stat.

Happiness is a long walk with a putter in your hand.

by craig in calgary on Jun 29, 2009 2:28 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I very much agree with you

I wouldn’t say that Zobrist is the “best second baseman in the league” as the Rays’ blogger did. He hasn’t played second base for even close to as many as half of his team’s games! Rather, I’d say that he is currently one of the best hitters in the league and that at the moment he is playing a lot of second base.

Hill has a better career OPS+ than Zobrist and is younger, by the way. And of course he has a much longer track record as an effective everyday infielder. I didn’t mean to suggest that I’d rather have Zobrist than Hill going forward; quite the contrary.

We should do another post on wOBA going forward – it’s a great little stat. Dismissing a stat without knowing what it means is silly, in my opinion. We all use stats to judge and compare players (unless you have an infallible memory and watch every single game of every team) – it’s just that some stats are better than others.

"Let us go forth awhile, and get better air in our lungs. Let us leave our closed rooms... The game of ball is glorious." - Walt Whitman

by hugo on Jun 29, 2009 2:37 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Thats by biggest complaint about baseball

Too many stats and thats why football is my first love. The only stat that matters is Wins and Losses.
In baseball it seems like you can find a stat to prove or discount any argument.

Happiness is a long walk with a putter in your hand.

by craig in calgary on Jun 29, 2009 2:40 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Ok let me rephrase.

I have no idea what wOBA means, but that doesn’t mean I am going to discount it as useless. I just don’t know it so I couldn’t use it to do a comparison.

But if you want me to dismiss it outright, no worries.

I think wOBA is stupid and silly stat that only statheads that sit in a backroom with little propeller hat crunching numbers. And you smell. And you dress funny. ZING!

(if it wasn’t evident that was sarcasm :P)

'But I don't want to go among mad people' Alice remarked.
'Oh, you can't help that' said the Cat 'we're all mad here'.

by JohnnyG on Jun 29, 2009 2:54 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

ahh, I see. My mistake, then – that makes sense.

I think wOBA is stupid and silly stat that only statheads that sit in a backroom with little propeller hat crunching numbers. And you smell. And you dress funny. ZING!

Can’t deny the last part of that, as Mrs. Hugo will confirm. Although, I have to say, this propeller hat I’m wearing is pretty sharp.

"Let us go forth awhile, and get better air in our lungs. Let us leave our closed rooms... The game of ball is glorious." - Walt Whitman

by hugo on Jun 29, 2009 3:02 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I can understand your skepicism

Zobrist has been stupid good, and many of us still don’t understand it ourselves. I’m sure that there will be some balancing out as the season goes on, but he’s been making many Rays fans look outright foolish for doubting him since last year.

I can't wait until we trade him for a reliever.

by kericr on Jun 29, 2009 12:54 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs