Monday, July 28, 2008

Rays Pride Parade

The Rayvolution Will Not Be Televised

Our friend David Chalk has been crowing about the coming Rayvolution, and with good reason. The young Rays have come of age, marrying explosive offense with effective pitching. But a few stumbles of late may have put the Rayvolution on hold.

They've benefited from a few breaks (+5 on their Pythag. this year) and sport a very similar run differential to the Jays. They struggle on the road, having just split a series with the Royals. Their manager has clearly lost his mind and the Yankees and Red Sox are nipping at their heels. The Rays offense has gone into the tank, as the Yahoo game preview machine tells us:
The Rays have averaged 2.7 runs in their last 16 games, finishing with a double-figure hit total only once in that span while batting .211 as a team.
The true catalyst of the Rays is slumping badly. You know what the ancient Chinese proverb says: however Shitske goes, so goes your offense. While Evan Longoria hasn't been through a true slump (only a slow month of May on his record), isn't he due to hit a rookie wall of some sort? Or can young Evan stay consistent and lead the Rays down the stretch run? Can Andy Tannenbaum? All these rhetorical questions make it seem like there will be an exciting finish to the season. An exciting finish that no one will see, the SEC futebawl season should see to that.

1 comment:

  1. Part of me wants to see the Rays make it to the playoffs for no reason other than to deny either the Yankees or Bosox a postseason berth, but then the other part of me wants to see Hinske stricken with cholera. There are no easy answers.

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