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More to come. For reals this time.

7:10 Tuesday the 8th
Tallet vs Niemann

7:10 Wednesday the 9th
Marcum vs Price

7:10 Thursday the 10th
Cecil vs Davis.

We've been god awful at the Trop the last few years, so that being said, we probably won't sweep. 2 out of 3 perhaps?

If Marcum and Cecil come out pitching then we take 2 of 3. But the second game will be tough cuz we face Price.

They havent been called the Devil Rays for a few seasons, hopefully you did it on purpose

Well, we fought pretty hard the last time we face them. Hopefully our offense keeps up, our starters go deep and our pen doesn't $*** the bed. If that all happens, we might sweep. 2 of 3 would make me happy, though.

Tallet's smoke and mirror show won't last forever, but he may be able to keep the team in the game.

Smoke and mirror show?

tsherkin wrote:Smoke and mirror show?

Luck, though I sometimes like to call it intangibles.

OldNo7 wrote:They havent been called the Devil Rays for a few seasons, hopefully you did it on purpose

Yup. I think the new look/unis are awful, maybe the worst in the league, and wasn't the change partially motivated by religious groups protesting the promotion of the word devil? That's asinine.

Randle McMurphy wrote:Luck, though I sometimes like to call it intangibles.

I thought that's what you meant. His ERA isn't far from his xFIP, though it's well under his FIP. He's been a slightly negative WAR player, is a big negative WPA guy, I mean, he's having a bad season anyhow. He's posting an ERA+ of 90, lol. It's funny, you're not wrong; he's got a .217 baBIP that's going to come rocketing up eventually (especially because he's got a contact percentage of like 84%), but he's already crappy, so the idea that he's outperforming his peripherals is just scarily amusing.

I dislike so very much that he's in our rotation.

I hate that I fear the Rays, more than the Yanks and Red Sox. If we get swept, it wouldn't be surprising.

tsherkin wrote:I dislike so very much that he's in our rotation.

It hurts even more that they just could have skipped him entirely or put Litsch/Rzep there.

Can't we skip tallets start and give the ball to Marcum, we do have an off day anyways?

rapsfan1231 wrote:Can't we skip tallets start and give the ball to Marcum, we do have an off day anyways?

I think the plan is to minimize the innings of Marcum, Romero and Cecil, and Morrow, so they're in full form later in the season. Hard to argue. If we're going to stay in the race, we need to have those 5th starter games where we give up runs, but still win with offence.

It does seem like we are really pushing the use of SOME 5th starter to relieve the innings burden on the other guys, which I can't fault.

Randle McMurphy wrote:It hurts even more that they just could have skipped him entirely or put Litsch/Rzep there.

Litsch isn't all that much better, so that doesn't matter much. More importantly, though, neither of those two have been especially good in the minors this year. Litsch is getting smacked around a lot, but even he hasn't been as awful as Rzepczynski, who's been completely irredeemable so far. In any case, I wouldn't be more confident in either of those guys right now. Litsch is sporting an ERA of 8.83 at AAA right now, a 1.67 WHIP, a HR/9 of 2.1 and a 2.67 SO/BB ration. He's been absolutely terrible.

Zep has been even worse... ERA over 12, WHIP over 2.5, 18/9 H/9, 2.2 HR/9, 3.8 BB/9, 1.43 SO/BB...

The walks aren't out of place but his strikeout rate is HALF of what it has been historically and he's getting smacked around by literally everyone he faces. Both of them have only pitched 16, 17 innings or so at AAA this year but they've been terrible. I wouldn't want them up yet, I'd rather have Tallet. And that just hurts to say.

kiz5 wrote:I hate that I fear the Rays, more than the Yanks and Red Sox. If we get swept, it wouldn't be surprising.

I love it actually. They're so good and it gives me a ray of hope that with perfect management any team can compete with the big boys. Sure perfect is hard to accomplish, but still, there's a glimmer of hope.

And they've still got a decent crop of young arms and fielders. Certainly not as deep as it was, but graduating so many players and still having Jennings, Hellickson, Moore, Beckham, et al. is freaking ridiculous.

And beyond hope for the Jays, it's just nice to get a break from those two at the top. I really enjoy that there's a very good chance one of them doesn't make the playoffs and an outside shot that neither do (oh that would be sooo sweet).

One of the two teams will get swept or win two games.

terryoh wrote:One of the two teams will get swept or win two games.

There's a good chance your prediction will come to fruition. Anytime someone makes a prediction that has a 66% chance of happening, 66% of the time they will be 100% correct. Way to go out on a limb there, lmao.

chocolateSensi wrote:

terryoh wrote:One of the two teams will get swept or win two games.

There's a good chance your prediction will come to fruition. Anytime someone makes a prediction that has a 66% chance of happening, 66% of the time they will be 100% correct. Way to go out on a limb there, lmao.

Uh, pretty sure the odds on his prediction are better than 66%.

Haha, oh snap. So he was joking I guess? Total fail on my part.