Rays Re-Joyce, It's Matt!

The February 8 edition of a paper known as The Ledger (out of that Florida town we Tiger fans revere so), has a nice little piece about our favorite friend of felines in distress and former Tiger Matt Joyce.  The article itself is quite interesting, but the little bio included is truly adorable.  Get your riveting facts about Matt Joyce's personal life--his favorite food is Italian, and he's an animal lover.  The bio actually uses his kitten-rescuing heroics from last summer to validate this very assertion!

Also listed in the bio is Matt's own web site, which you can find here, and be sure to check it out, because it's no amateurish thing.  It blares Dave Matthews' "Crash Into Me," and features a running slide show.  It's complete with stats, news articles, a bio, Q & A with Matt, and a web form via which fans can send Matt a personal message.  Slick--the modern prospect knows how to motivate his fan base early on.  I'm sorry to report this rather disturbing discrepancy, but in his Q & A when asked whether he's a dog or cat person, Matt replied that he is "all about dogs."   No, to be serious, I enjoyed reading about Matt, and I'm happy he got traded to the very place he'd want to be--his own back yard.   I'll try to control my pangs of regret each time he hits a home run for the Rays.

Friday Night Frights

To shine a spotlight on the pathetic nature of my life, I'm going to admit that at 8:30 on a Friday night, I was watching ESPN's Baseball Tonight special Hot Stove Roundtable.  Sadly, I had nothing better to do.  I could say that it was so early, my evening just hadn't begun yet, but that would be pure fiction.  I could claim that I recorded it for later viewing--another falsehood.  I watched it live.  Did I mention it's a Friday night?  Let's move on from this piercing exposé of my lackluster social life.

The panel included a bunch of ESPN baseball big-timers--Buster Olney, Tim Kurkjian, Peter Gammons, Steve Phillips--and was hosted by Carl Ravech.

One part of the discussion was particularly interesting to me.  Youth and talent over experience.  They pointed out the Rays' run from last year, and the trend that teams are getting younger, and prizing draft picks--reluctant to sign type A free agents.   Peter Gammons said that Kansas City has spent more money on the draft in the past year (or it may have been the past two years) than ANY OTHER TEAM in MLB.

Where does that leave the Tigers?  Let's take a quick look-see at the ages of our probable starting lineup (I'm listing the age they'll be on their birthday this year):

Laird - 29

Cabrera - 25

Polanco - 34

Everett - 32

Inge - 32

Guillen - 34

Granderson - 28

Ordóñez - 35

Sheffield - 41

That's a whopping average of 28.7 years.  Not exactly a fountain of youth, with only three of nine in their twenties.  We've certainly got some youngsters on the bench and within the pitching staff, where Nate Robertson and Fernando Rodney are the elders, both turning 32 this year.  Despite the youth of the pitching staff, several within that group are hopeful come-back stories in the making.

We've traded away one promising young talent in Matt Joyce this off-season.  By the way, one of the commentators specifically mentioned that trade as very good for the Rays.  Oh joy, another trade over which we may lament for years to come!

I think I'll leave off that topic now as it's beginning to be a bit nauseating, and youth alone does not a championship win.

One other note from the show, and something that I find to be annoying in no small degree:  the crazed video editing of montages.  A discussion of Manny Ramirez was being introduced, and a dizzying series of images flew past my eyes at a pace that led me to believe I was about to experience a seizure.  The editing was so choppy and the speed of the clips so frenetic, it was impossible to distinguish any one play from another.  Pointless, maddening stuff.  Or wait, maybe the editing was designed to be a commentary on Manny himself???  I fear not--that would be giving far too much credit--and for that reason I rail.

Flaking Out

I hate to bring anything personal into this blog, and I really hate to flake out at such a critical juncture in the off-season, but I'm hosting a Christmas party on Saturday.  I'm more than a little behind on such things as cooking, baking, cleaning and decorating.  So....I won't be posting much here until Sunday when the tinsel settles.

I must make a quick comment on the most recent of Tiger moves.

Aaaaahhhhh!

I'm not happy to lose the services of young Mr. Joyce.   I think we'll be regretting swapping him away.  I don't know, maybe Clete Thomas will be great this year, but.....

I don't know a lot about Edwin Jackson, but several other bloggers have put up some good info, so see the blog links over at the right.

Enjoy the last of the Winter Meetings, y'all, and here's hoping we sign that closer--Brian Fuentes???  Don't you feel comfortable with DD saying we do have Rodney who could close?   I don't hate on Rodney as badly as most people do, but he's been injury-plagued and then had some spectacular implosions last year, so....

I'll just trail off into the snowflakes until Sunday.

Bright Spots?

I've been wracking my brain today trying to think of some bright spots from our failed season to cheer myself up.  It's been a little tough.  Most of the things I come up with fall a little short.

For example, Magglio Ordoñez "almost" won a second consecutive batting title.  Don't get me wrong, he had another very good year, and was one of the few players who lived up to expectations, but almost doesn't quite qualify for this little rah rah list.

Gary Sheffield "almost" joined the 500 home run club.  It got exciting, because he served a four-game suspension right at the end of the season.  Everyone was like, "there go his chances at 500 this year."  Then he steps in and launches two in his first game back.  I really thought he'd get there then.  Again, no, he fell short.

Even Miguel Cabrera's home run title has to be qualified, because Carlos Quentin of the White Sox went down with a broken wrist on September 5.  He already had 36 at that point, and Cabrera ended with 37.  That being said, Cabrera really smoked some balls this year.  Two of his massive jacks were caught less than a row away from me in right field behind the 365 corner -- impressive opposite field knocks.

Marcus Thames went on a tear, and hit eight home runs in seven consecutive games in June, a club record.  There's a bright spot for you.

Matt Joyce came up, showed us what he's got, provided a lefty bat, and rescued a black kitten from the batting practice cage.  If that doesn't cheer you up, stop reading now.

Todd Jones got demoted as closer, but still retired with class, and the organization gave him a worthy send-off during the second-to-last home game.  Jones literally and symbolically took off his jersey and handed it to Mike Illich to signal the passing of the guard.

Small things, I know, but I'll take a little solace from them and hope for a whole lot more in 2009.