Rays Diary 6/2/14
Tony Dungy’s offensive strategies seem to translate just as badly to baseball as they did to football. Clueless Joe and his batting “coach,” Peter Principle Shelton have officially taken Major League Baseball’s version of The Ted Mack Amateur Hour on the road to Miami. Obviously any pitcher with even a mediocre breaking pitch can look like Cy Young against the uncoached Rays hitters. Longoria will never be able to hit breaking balls as he retreats even further into the cowardly confines of the very back of the batter’s box as he did tonight. Left handed hitters will continue to wait for the right hander’s breaking ball to find the middle or inside of the plate where it is unhittable instead of driving the pitch the other way as it passes the very same outside part of the plate on almost every pitch! Right handed hitters will continue to take first pitch fastballs over the middle of the plate to mindlessly “work the count.” Zobrist will continue to disdain the first-pitch belt high fastball on the outside corner for a strike and swing at the inside breaking ball for the familiar 0-2 count. Then he’ll follow it up by the premature rolling over of his hands ensuring his trademark doubleplay. I wonder which batting “coach” helped him to perfect that brilliant batting technique? You can forget about advancing runners, because it has been so long since Joe has permitted the odious practice that everyone except the recent transfers from Triple A have forgotten how to do it. Ever since Joe chastised Keppinger a few years ago for bunting runners to second and third with no outs in a close game, of course, Rays hitting has been a sickening, inconsistent mess. Before that it was simply a “mess.” By the way, in that game, Clueless didn’t complain about the next hitter not even trying to drive the ball on the ground toward the right side of the infield for an easy run or the next “hitter” for trying to hit a homer when all that was needed was a base hit. Now that Rays pitching is half-way decent, Joe, what’s the newest excuse for the team’s performance? All “offensive” opinions aside, apologists and kiss asses, when was the last time Clueless Joe or Peter Principle Shelton ever took responsibility for the team’s loss???? Don’t hold your breath..........
Al Finkelstein (O’finky) 6/2/14