Let’s do some catching up on a busy week where my family kept me busy. I know it’s early in the season but it appears the Rays have more problems than expected. First off it’s quickly looking like swapping Brendan Harris for Jason Bartlett was a huge mistake. Harris was average defensively but made every play in front of him and Bartlett’s range was overrated and he’s botching easy plays. To compare these guys at the plate isn’t even a discussion, Harris is by far a better hitter so things are looking bleak there. The major part of the deal is debatable and isn’t worth arguing about as even if Delmon Young hits like he can and Garza doesn’t pan out it was more of a failed attempt to rid themselves of a malcontent so that’s that. The surprising things are these….
- James Shields has looked off. He’s not throwing strikes like we’re accustomed to seeing from him and when he does the hitters are seeing the ball very well. I think he’ll get turned around and let me point out that his being off is still not bad. He’s getting through the tough parts and we’ll see better from him.
- The defense is not improved, it’s possibly worse. We’ve already pointed out that Bartlett is not good (I’m actually looking forward to Ben Zobrist coming back) so we’ll leave that alone. Aki is transitioning to second base and he’s doing fine and will improve. Pena is Pena, no problems. With Longoria locked in now we fixed an early problem as Aybar was inconsistent, Hinske is slow and Elliot Johnson hasn’t looked good anywhere. The problem is the outfield. Crawford has looked below average as he’s not getting good jumps. Upton looks terrible in center right now. I know he’s learning the position still but there’s no excuse for most of what he’s doing. I’ve got a problem with Upton all around right now but I’ll get to that later, he needs to do a better job taking command in the outfield needs to take better routes to the ball. In right the only guy playing decent is Nathan Haynes, everyone else is a liability.
- Now onto the biggest problem. Everyone will have patience with Aki and Upton and other things defensively that will improve over time. I can’t forgive the approach I’ve seen at the plate from EVERYONE except Carlos Pena. Aki looks like a high school hitter. He can’t hit the outside pitch and he swinging and missing more than I saw at all from hm last year. He’s not a leadoff hitter and that’s a problem. No surprises from Gomes and Upton as they both continue to strike out looking at an alarming rate. The ball is not coming off the bat the same way it did last year for Upton and I can’t seem to see anything different in him to explain why so I’ll assume he’ll come around. The problem with everyone is there seems to be no plan at the plate what so ever! Let’s list this out so I can point out everyone.
- Iwamura: Too far off the plate while pulling off the ball. Not bunting at all. No plan at all in approach.
- Crawford (who is the most surprising): C.C.’s biggest problem still prevalent and getting worse t seems. There is no excuse anyone on the planet can give me to explain why a player with this sort of talent is slapping, yes slapping at a ball with one strike or less. He looks like he’s just trying to touch it. He needs to be driving the ball. No plan.
- Pena: He’s got a plan. See ball, murder ball. He’ll never hit for a high average but he will hit homeruns. Great plan.
- Upton: Looks at too many called third strikes. They teach in little league, protect the plate with two strikes. Bad plan.
- Gomes: I’ve never seen a so called “power hitter” take so many fastballs and swing at so many curveballs. He should be sitting on fastballs and killing them. Instead he’s trying to hit breaking pitches and it even looks like he’s trying to walk sometimes. Let me explain this too you Mr. Gomes, power hitters draw walks because the pitcher won’t throw them anything to hit, they don’t LOOK for them. Keep it simple stupid, see fastball hit fastball. No plan/Bad plan.
- Let’s shorten this up now,I know too late, the only guys left on the team that seem to have a plan to what they’re doing are Hinske, Longoria and Haynes. Everyone else simply looks bad. I only include Longoria in this because he’s had a plan in the minors. This could change but I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt for now.
There’s alot more to complain about but I’ll let you soak this up for now. The reason I’m bringing this up is not a knock on the players but the coaches, namely our hitting coach Steve Henderson. Henderson has been the hitting coach for three years now and all these trends I’m talking about have been consistently bad since he’s been here. If these trends continue, and there’s no reason to think they won’t, Mr Henderson should receive his walking papers. There is no excuse for this kind of talent to suffer from bad coaching.
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