Chris Ray

Chris Ray ranks among my favorite Orioles; being a college teammate with someone tends to make your root for them, especially when they play on your favorite baseball team. Needless to say, his performance so far this year has been disappointing, if not wholly unexpected when considering his return from Tommy John surgery. Dave Trembley has been disappointed, too, and there is word today that Ray's role may be changing until he finds more consistency in his delivery. I have just one suggestion for our fearless manager: stop using him against the Yankees.

Chris Ray, career vs. Yankees: 1-4, 8.35 ERA, 5.89 BB/9, 2.95 HR/9 in 18.1 IP
Chris Ray, career vs. all other teams: 9-9, 3.01 ERA, 3.76 BB/9, 1.00 HR/9 in 143.2 IP

Chris Ray, 2009 vs. Yankees: 30.86 ERA, 7.71 HR/9 in 2.1 IP
Chris Ray, 2009 vs. all other teams: 3.48 ERA, 0.00 HR/9 in 10.1 IP

I'm not a big believer in micro-splits such as these, but they're interesting nonetheless. Am I cherry picking stats? Yes. But, when you look at Ray's performance against some individual batters, it's easy to see why he struggles against the Evil Empire:

Johnny Damon: .583/.583/.917, 1 homer in 12 plate appearances
Derek Jeter: .429/.636/.571, 6 RBI in 11 plate appearances
Alex Rodriguez: .500/.556/1.375, 2 homers in 9 plate appearances

Maybe Dave Trembley will keep those numbers in mind tonight if he needs someone to pitch in a high leverage 7th inning.
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