Ok, I wrote an article and said the Rays would not be able to finish in the playoffs. Well, they are now out of first place and if another team was playing half descent and they didn't come out of the box on fire, they would not be there either.
As I said, the Rays will get tired as they have never played this many games, pitched these many innings, been on the road these many days, you name it. The pressure is also a lot to handle and now, as they lost seven straight blowing a nice first place lead and not being able to get a win when they need one. It is easy to win with no pressure - not so easy when it counts.
I do not however want to repeat what I wrote in my first article.
My brain like many sports fanatics is always working and thinking about baseball and something other than what I already wrote will prove to be a reason that the Rays can't continue their hot start, but at the time I couldn't think what it was. Then it was like an epiphany: Scouting, video and replay.
It is not like when old timers used to play. Today there is video of every player in every possible situation. However, with so many rookies or players with such limited on field action, there is not much video or scouting reports to study. After all, these players are young and still figuring out what type of players they are - how are scouts supposed to know what type of players they are?.
What are their pitchers out pitch, what will they throw when behind in the count? How about when they are ahead in the count? When there is a 1-1 count, 2-2 count, 3-2 count, 0-1 count, 0-2 count, and every count in between. Do they establish their off speed pitches in the beginning of the game or their fastball?
Their hitters. What is their approach? Are they contact guys or power guys? What are their hot spots and what are their cold spots? What pitches do they often miss or not pick up? What pitches do they hammer? How does their approach change in different counts? Where do they hit the ball more often? Are they pull hitters or opposite field hitters? Does that change with the count? What do they look for in different counts?
These are just a handful of thoughts and statistics and videos that get compiles into scouting reports and into video packages for the players and coaches to all watch and study.
Now, as these youngsters get more and more on field time, the easier it becomes to figure them out. Players are going to have better approaches against them, whether from the pitching side or the hitting side.
Batters will have a better idea when facing them again, pitchers will know more about the hitters when pitching to them and thanks to these scouting reports where there are hit charts of every hit of every player, the defense will have a better idea where to play on the field to prevent them from getting more hits.
Now, with these better approaches that the opposition will have more and more of as the season continues, the Tampa kids are going to have to do the hardest thing in baseball and change their approach a bit and adapt to what the other teams have figured out about them - do it on the fly while they are still learning, and do it while trying to hang on to a playoff berth.
That is enough to sideline any young team and why teams compile with so many young talents don't often make these types of runs. Well, they did make a run and it will be a memorable one, however it is slowly coming to an end.
They have some great players for the future - many of whom they probably won't be able to afford for much longer and then a new round of prospects will come in. The it will be the same old story of the team that gets trampled but maybe every five or ten years the Rays can make a push for a playoff spot if they can hold on to enough of these young talents long enough, then maybe, just maybe, they actually will have a shot - but not this year and if they don't continue to build on what they have and spend more money and sign more Dan Wheeler types and Troy Percivals, otherwise this may just have been the best stretch the Rays ever had and ever will have.
You can't build a franchise on prospects alone. First off, you aren't going to "grow" 25 Scott Kazmir's and Evan Longoria's and even if you could, eventually you won't be able to afford them if you aren't willing to spend the money and then these same problems would arise such as not being conditioned for an entire season or know how to make mid-season adjustments- something that is easier for players as they mature, get more experience and understand the game better.
If you did not read my first article as of why the Rays won't win and are interested - and since they are a fascinating story and not to toot my own horn, but since I made some very good points, it is worth a read, so click on this link, enjoy and feel free to leave a comment... http://baseballis247.blogspot.com/2008/07/be-deviling-begining-wont-continue.html
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment