Rays Studs of July

Carlos Pena

Pena who has been struggling to put the bat on the ball all year other than dropping HR, actually brought his average up above .240 for the month of July (.241). While that seems pretty measly, and it is, Pena still is great at looking at pitches and taking BB (15 BB in July) and by doing so, always keeps his OBP above .350.  For the month of July he hit .241/.365/.506/.871 and hit his 2nd most HR of any month of the season with 7.

Matt Joyce

A lot of Rays fans have been clamoring for Joyce to get a real chance to show some of the power that he showed with the Tigers and the reason why the Rays moved Edwin Jackson to obtain him.  Just like Pena, he didn’t really hit the ball well (.235) but when you can slug at a .559 clip for the month, on a team where everyone has below average BA, you’ll more than likely end up on our studs of the month list. He hit 5 HR and 7 2b for the month, which explains the high .SLG even with the low BA.  Just like Pena, Joyce has a great eye, and knows how to get on base even when he isn’t hitting the ball (.342 OBP).

Joaquin Benoit

BEAST.  The heir apparent to closer Rafael Soriano, Benoit has pretty much been unhittable all year long.  In July, he pitched 15.1 IP, gave up 5 hits, and only 1 run, while striking out 21 guys and walking only 2.  The one run that he allowed was a HR.  You can’t get much more unhittable than facing 53 guys in a month and allowing 5 hits.  Benoit doesn’t allow hits, and doesn’t walk guys, he pretty much just strikes guys out.

Wade Davis

Amongst constant trade speculation, Wade Davis put up his best month of the year.  He went 4 and 0 wit ha 3.03 ERA in 5 starts.  Most importantly to me, he issued his fewest BB total of any month of the season.  He also allowed his fewest hit and run totals of any month of the season.  He ended the month with a 1.194 WHIP, by far his best WHIP numbers of the year.

I know everyone is going to ask how the hell I didn’t put Matt Garza on here when he pitched a no hitter in July, but Garza had a pretty subpar month other than that outing.