Another ex-Indian:

The September call-ups have brought some much needed depth to the bench for the playoff run and on Monday afternoon, was a big part of the Rays’ win over the division leading Yankees.

Light-hitting catcher Chris Gimenez, who was batting just .203 coming into this game, went 2-3 with two RBI including the game winner in the bottom of the 8th inning off of Yankees reliever, David Robertson.

Chapman gets another save, and Reds beat the Philies, 2-1. Broxton in the 8th, and Aroldis in the 9th is a great bullpen combo!

Archer recalled to aid rotation for playoff push

By Bill Chastain / MLB.com | 09/06/12 3:00 PM ET
ST. PETERSBURG --

Chris Archer will rejoin the Rays, and it's likely the 23-year-old right-hander will be recalled to make a start for the team at some point during the coming week.

Archer made two starts in June for the Rays after Jeremy Hellickson went on the disabled list with a tired shoulder. Though he went 0-2 with a 3.86 ERA, he showed promise in those outings against the Nationals and Royals.

Archer returned to Triple-A Durham after making those starts and continued to pitch well, going 7-9 with a 3.66 ERA in 25 starts.

There are several different scenarios that will likely involve Archer, who could make a couple of starts during his September callup to help limit the number of innings pitched by Alex Cobb and Matt Moore.

Thoroughly enjoying watching the Orioles pile on the Skankees in the bottom of the 8th, after NY had come back to tie it in the top of the inning. 3 homers have made it 10-6 now.

J.R. wrote:Thoroughly enjoying watching the Orioles pile on the Skankees in the bottom of the 8th, after NY had come back to tie it in the top of the inning. 3 homers have made it 10-6 now.

Those six home runs by The Orioles was an impressive stat.

That might be the longest box score entry for home runs I have seen in awhile.


BATTING
HR: M Wieters (19, 1st inning off D Phelps 2 on, 1 Out); R Andino (6, 4th inning off D Phelps 0 on, 2 Out); M Reynolds 2 (20, 6th inning off J Chamberlain 0 on, 0 Out; 8th inning off D Robertson 1 on, 0 Out); A Jones (28, 8th inning off D Robertson 0 on, 0 Out); C Davis (24, 8th inning off B Logan 0 on, 0 Out)

ST. PETERSBURG --

David Price won't make his scheduled start on Saturday against the Rangers due to general soreness in his left shoulder.

The Rays left-hander felt unusually sore after his start last Sunday in Toronto, so Tampa Bay decided it was best to skip his turn in the rotation and plug in right-hander Chris Archer in Price's place against Texas.

Archer, who was recalled to join the Rays on Friday, has gone 0-2 in two Major League starts despite a 3.86 ERA and 14 strikeouts in 11 2/3 innings. He pitched most of the season for Triple-A Durham, putting together a 3.66 ERA with 139 strikeouts in 128 innings, and was originally expected to be used this month with the Rays in an effort to limit the number of innings thrown by young right-hander Alex Cobb.

"There were a lot of different scenarios, depending on what we did with different pitchers and how things shook out," Friedman said. "[Archer] wanted to get up here and help us as quickly as possible.

"From that standpoint, [Archer] was excited -- obviously not with why, but he's ready to go, and he's someone that we have a lot of confidence in."

Archer smiled easily when asked about starting on Saturday against the Rangers.

"Any time you get the opportunity to take the ball in the big leagues, it's super exciting," Archer said. "You try not to get to overwhelmed with everything. But it's always exciting."

Very atypical performance by Aroldis Chapman tonight. He has blown the save, and the Astros are having no trouble catching up to his pitches.

I might be good luck for Tampa Steve's Tampa Bay Rays, or whatever their official name is this season. I was out in the living room with my wife watching an episode of Monk incredibly that neither of us had seen before. She fell asleep, I put together a rolling laptop desk and a Shop Vac and vacuumed the lanai. I came back to the office and turned on the TV and found the Tampa team knotted at 1 in the home 11th. First pitch I saw was sent over the right field wall for a two run Tampa walk off win.

I really don't think I will ever adopt Tampa baseball from here in Southwest Florida. After all, few in Tampa ever do either.....at least judging from attendance.

Watching baseball for me in The San Francisco Bay Area was unique with Duane Kuiper doing the Giants games, and Ray Fosse providing color on the A's games. And both stadiums were easy access by train in either 28 minutes or 45 minutes, with no car required.

That said, if Tampa Steve can get any pleasure from Tampa Baseball, I can grab the bandwagon and maybe push a little.

Another Joe favorite Matt McBride finally reaches the majors with a September callup by the Rockies. 1-7 in his first couple big league games. McBride hit 344 for Colorado Springs, with an OPS of 900. Drew merely 16 walks all season and never has had a real defensive position. But congrats Matt at age 27 you made it to the show.

CALI/FLA: Do you see a lot of people wearing Rays gear in your area? I would guess there would be more Marlins, Red Sox and Skankees stuff.

How do you all feel about the Nats' decision to shut down Strasburg? I can see resting him for the playoffs, but I would definitely want him then.

And how about our discarded one, Chris Archer against Texas this past Saturday...

Rays fall to Rangers in 10-inning duel

Farnsworth gives up go-ahead runs; Archer fans 11 over seven

By Bill Chastain / MLB.com | 9/9/2012 12:17 AM ET

Rays strike 'em out, throw 'em out in first

ST. PETERSBURG --

Three hits. That's all the Rays could muster, and, still, they nearly pulled it off Saturday night.

Unfortunately, after cashing in an unearned run to tie the game in the eighth, the Rays weren't able to come through in the ninth. The Rangers' bats then came alive in the 10th en route to a 4-2 win on Saturday night at Tropicana Field with 18,702 watching.

"We came back, we did all the right things," Rays manager Joe Maddon said. "Just a good baseball game, they just beat us."

David Price did not make his scheduled start Saturday night because of the soreness in his shoulder he experienced earlier in the week. With Price sitting, Chris Archer made his third career Major League start and his first at Tropicana Field.

The 23-year-old right-hander looked sharp while posting three scoreless innings. Hamilton finally ended the honeymoon in the fourth inning when he connected on an 0-1 pitch for a two-run homer to center field.

Hamilton's fifth home run in his last 10 games gave him a career-high 40 home runs, making him just the fifth Rangers player in team history to hit 40 home runs in a season.

In the sixth, Archer threw inside to Hamilton with two outs and hit the slugger, which drew a warning from Estabrook.

"I was pretty surprised [at the warning]," Archer said. "I guess the umpire felt like I had gone up and in on a couple guys. He made a reference to that whenever he came out. Not intentionally did I try to throw at anybody's head or hit anybody. I was just trying to execute pitches. One got away from me. A couple got away from me, and he thought that I was going after people. I definitely wasn't."

Estabrook's warning drew the ire of Rangers manager Ron Washington, who cleared the air with the umpire, ostensibly because the intent of any inside pitches from that point on would be in question.

"There was no intent on our part right there," Maddon said. "I think, honestly, the rest of the umpire crew saw that too. It was just a young umpire [who] did not want the game to get out of control."

Archer finished his outing by striking out the Rangers in order in the seventh, giving him 11 strikeouts on the evening. Despite notching his second quality start of the season while holding the Rangers to two runs on four hits, Archer received a no-decision.

"This kid's got a great fastball, he's got a good changeup," Soto said. "He's got a great arm. ... His fastball was jumping at you. His changeup went down. It was really impressive, I thought."

Rays Prospect Profile: #10 Chris Archer
We continue the Rays 2012 Top 50 Prospect Shuffle with a look at starting pitcher Chris Archer who comes in at #10 in our rankings. The right-hander was one of the centerpieces of the Matt Garza trade last Winter with the Chicago Cubs. Inside we have a full scouting report, analysis of his 2011 season at AA Montomery and a look at what his future may be in 2012 and beyond.
Christopher Archer

Position: Pitcher
Bats: Right
Throws: Right
Height: 6'3"
Weight: 185 lb.
Born: 9/26/1988 in Raleigh, NC
Age: 23
High School: Clayton H.S. (Clayton, NC)

Acquired: Acquired by the Tampa Bay Rays from the Chicago Cubs on 1/8/11 along with Hak-Ju Lee (minors), Brandon Guyer, Robinson Chirinos, and Sam Fuld for Matt

Player Background

Chris Archer came out of nowhere in 2005 while playing his Junior season at Clayton High School in North Carolina to become one the top prep pitching prospects in the country. He went 11-2 with a 1.09 earned run average that season and was given an invitation to the East Coast showcase. He made an oral commitment with North Carolina State but then eventually signed with the University of Miami during his Senior season. He was drafted by the Cleveland Indians in the 5th Round of the MLB June Amateur Draft in 2006 and decided to forgo college and start his professional career.

He started pitching in the Cleveland system that Summer as a 17 year old with the GCL Indians where he struggled to an 0-3 record with a 7.71 earned run average in 7 appearances (6 starts). He was back there again to start the 2007 campaign and made 11 starts pitching to a 1-7 record with a 5.64 earned run average. Despite the poor record, Archer was able to strike out 48 batters in 52.2 innings and earned a brief promotion to the Class A Lake County Captains in the South Atlantic League where he made one start.

In 2008 he began to have some sustained success with Lake County and he made 27 starts and struck out 106 hitters in 115.1 innings. His 4.29 earned run average was the best of his young minor league career, but he also walked 84 hitters and posted 6.6 BB/9 ratio. This would turn out to be his last season in the Indian's system as he was traded that off-season on New Years Eve to the Chicago Cubs along with pitcher's Jeff Stevens and John Gaub in exchange for outfielder Mark DeRosa.

His Cub career started in the Spring of 2009 and it was also a coming out party for the now 20 year old. Pitching for the Low Class A Peoria Chiefs he had a 6-4 record in 26 starts and shaved almost a run and a half off of his earned run average which stood at 2.81 at the end of the season. In his 109 innings he struck 119 hitters while allowing only 78 hits and despite walking 66 hitters showed that he could be a dominant pitcher with his incredible stuff.

In 2010 he continued to turn heads and pitched at two levels in the Cubs system - The High A Daytona Cubs in the Florida State League and the AA Tennessee Smokies in the Southern League. Between the two levels Archer was an incredible 15-3 with a 2.34 earned run average while striking out 119 hitters in 109 innings. Perhaps more importantly his walk rate dropped from 5.4 BB/9 in 2009 to 4.1. He was particularly impressive at AA where he won 8 of his 13 starts and had a 1.80 earned run average

2011 Performance

Going into 2011 Archer was the #27 rated prospect by Baseball America and was ranked #47 by MLB.com. He was routinely ranked in the Top 5 on Rays' prospect lists and the hype and excitement among Rays' fans and bloggers was very clearly evident.

Given his overwhelming success with the Cubs though, 2011 was a bit of a disappointment. His earned run average rose over two and half runs to 4.42 at AA Montgomery in 2011 from 1.80 at AA Tennessee in 2010. Even more alarming was his command numbers, which had been improving in the Cub's system, that regressed significantly at Montgomery.

Archer walked 80 hitters in 134.1 innings for a BB/9 ratio of 5.4. His GO/AO ratio took a huge dip as well going from 1.58 to 1.02 and he also gave up a career high 11 home runs. In 2009 with Peoria he didn't allow a single long ball in 109 innings.

His performance in 2011 is puzzling because not only was he pitching at the same level, but he was even pitching in the same league and in the same ballparks against some of the same hitters as he had in 2010 when he had so much success. He did look good however after a brief promotion to AAA Durham late in the season, when he made two starts and allowed only a lone run in 13 innings.

To sum up Archer's command issues, it is interesting to see his performance against Matt Moore's at the AA level. Moore threw 1012 strikes and 527 balls out of 1539 total pitches for a strike percentage of 65.8 percent which led to a WHIP of 0.99. Conversely, Archer's 1.68 WHIP came after throwing strikes only 58.3 percent of the time. While Moore is clearly an elite pitcher, their percentage of strikes swinging was almost identical - Moore (78%) Archer (76%).

All of the above numbers indicate that Archer's struggles in 2011 were directly tied to his command. If he could improve his strike percentage even slightly then his numbers could improve dramatically, because as you will see in the upcoming scouting report - Archer has exceptional stuff.

Scouting Report

Archer has two very good pitches, a power fastball that sits regularly in the mid-90's and a plus slider. He also has a change-up that rates only average, but with his other two plus pitches he doesn't need it to be much more to be successful against elite hitters. Command as evidenced by his career 5.2 BB/9 ratio is Archer's biggest issue and it doesn't seem to be getting any better.

In an article published just two weeks ago on BaseballInstinct.com, George Utter offered the following current scouting report:

"Four-Seam Fastball - For the record, he does throw a two-seam fastball, but there isn’t much movement on it and he doesn’t throw it much. He generally tops out at 95 mph, though I’ve seen reports of hitting 97 mph on occasion. He generally gets his best results working in the 92-94 mph range with excellent movement on the ball. This is a plus-plus pitch for Archer."

"Slider – Archer throws a hard slider, and when his command allows it, he throws it with great success. If he attacks batters with his fastball and sets them up for his 85 mph slider, its a pretty deadly combo. I would like to call it a plus-plus pitch, but he still needs to show better command to get ahead of hitters."

"Change-up – As with the two-seam fastball, Archer does offer a curveball from time to time, but his 3rd pitch is a work-in-progress change-up. It’s not very deceptive at this point and is a below average pitch. Developing this will be vital to his success in the big leagues."

"Mechanics - Archer himself admits that it all starts for him with balance on the pitching rubber. ”Where it starts is balance over the rubber,” Archer answered. “That’s more of a baseball term. Normal people at home probably wouldn’t understand, but balance over the rubber is where everything starts for me.” Lacking that consistent balance this year, Archer said he’s rushing his delivery and “just getting going too soon.” This was evident with the 80 walks in 134 1/3 innings pitched. He has a pretty fluid over the top motion that causes his fastball to sink, but there’s really no deception in it. His mechanics are pretty clean and he’s even worked with Dr. Donn T. Dimond, PT OCS who specializes in Pathophysiology and Mechanics of the Shoulder with Labs to decrease the risk of incidents of injuries."

He goes on to compare him to Edwin Jackson, which is a comparison that I have read many times on a variety of scouting sites. Having seen Jackson extensively with the Devil Rays/Rays it seems like a very fair and accurate comparison, as Jackson also has a nice arsenal of pitches, but struggles with his command frequently. Who can forget the no-hitter he threw against the Rays where he walked 8 batters and threw 149 pitches?

It really boils down to this: If Archer can learn to harness his command more consistently then he has a very bright future as front-of-the-rotation pitcher. If he doesn't, then he may need to be converted to a reliever where his fastball/slider combo might play better. We also need to see his ground-ball percentage rebound as keeping the ball in the yard has long been one of his primary strengths.

Future Outlook

Other than improving his command, Archer really has very little left to prove in the minors. He will undoubtedly being taking the hill every fifth day in Durham next season, but a trade or two by the Rays and/or an injury in the rotation could find Archer in the Majors this season.

He is behind Matt Moore, Alex Cobb, and Alex Torres to get a shot in the rotation, but he really isn't that far behind them and I trust the Rays to help him figure out his command issues. At the very least he should be a September call-up, so Rays fans can certainly expect him to make his major League debut sooner rather than later.

An intriguing option with Archer would be to convert him to a reliever similarly to what the team did with Jake McGee. His stuff would play very well at the back-end of the bullpen. If his command doesn't improve or no rotation spots open up in the next season or two, that may be the career path that Archer must take to make it to Tropicana Field.

Ranking Philosophy

In a lot of systems Archer would be the top pitching prospect like he was with the Cubs. As other pitchers in the system graduate to the Majors, he could gain status as the organization's best pitching prospect. However at age 23 he appears to be a late-bloomer and although I absolutely love his stuff I am not entirely convinced that he will figure it all out. Putting him at this position feels a little safer to me, but I wouldn't be surprised in the least if he completely dominates AAA this season.

On RaysProspects.com the jury is split on Archer as well. Kevin Gengler has him ranked similarly at #8, while Burgi has him all the way up at #4 and Jake Larson has him ranked at #15

Scott Grauer has him placed at #10 and sites some of the same opinions and concerns that I have expressed here:

"Like Torres, Archer frequently displays command and control issues. His fastball and slider combination could make him a very good late inning reliever, but his changeup is improving too. His career BB/9 is 5.2, and like Torres, he needs to start throwing strikes consistently soon to fulfill his potential in the rotation. He finished 2011 with Durham, and he'll be back there to start 2012."

Given all that, a ranking at #10 seems about right, and it really all depends on whether or not one thinks he will solve the command issues and whether one thinks his ceiling is as a closer or as a front-line starter. I am greatly looking forward to getting a good look at him in 2012 to see if he does in fact take his game to the next level.

J.R. wrote:CALI/FLA: Do you see a lot of people wearing Rays gear in your area? I would guess there would be more Marlins, Red Sox and Skankees stuff.

Yes, but it's not as prevalent as one might expect with a team in the playoff hunt. The Rays play about 140 miles from here, and ironically the Marlins are nearly an identical distance away.

I started visiting Southwest Florida in the mid to late 1960's as a kid, and then visited extensively from the late 70's when I lived in Miami and South Carolina up until moving to California at the turn of the millennium.

When I was here in the 70's and 80's I saw no Red Sox paraphernalia, though Cleveland Browns support was pretty prevalent during football season.

Today there are regular sightings of Red Sox hats, and car decor.

Unfortunately the most common sports number I see worn is Miami Heat #6.