Tampa Bay Sports Blog

Over the last couple years the Rays have made tremendous strides. They have gone from the perrenial loser to a contender. They have gone from a laughing stock to a respected organization. They are looked upon to contend against the big boys in the AL East. They have been praised for smart trades and drafting. I get all of this. Some of us disagree with some of the decisions (Kapler,Burell), but these are things that could be proven wrong still. I have now been completely lost by one decision and need an explanation.

What was the thought process behind the Adam Kennedy/Joe Dillon deal? What the hell happened here? It’s easy to question a move like this after Iwamura got hurt, I know, but how does this happen? What about this deal was so appealing to the Rays? Follow what I see and tell me what I see wrong.

Adam Kennedy is in the minor leagues under team control with no pressure to move him. He is a 32 year old proven 10 year major league second baseman that could provide quality depth and experience at both the minor and major league level. He is traded. A player of this caliber would bring back at least one decent lower level prospect, right?

He gets traded for the infamous player to be named later. That player becomes Joe Dillon. Dillon is a player who is older, less experienced, a worse fielder and goes against what the Rays supposedly are. I thought the Rays were a team that played good defense, manufactured runs and didn’t live by the long-ball. Not according to this move. I don’t get it.

How do you move a guy with proven major league ability for an older guy with none? In what universe is Adam Kennedy worth Joe Dillon? I have to question management’s moves still because of these things. I know that Friedman, Maddon and company go by the new stat crap, but how does this make sense even by those standards? We all know that I hate the new stat wave of scouting and what not, but I don’t get this at all. Can someone help me find what I’m missing here?

Technorati Tags: Adam Kennedy, Akinori Iwamura, AL, Andrew Friedman, Gabe Kapler, Joe Dillon, Joe Maddon, Tampa Bay Rays

In my confusion of wondering why Ben Zobrist hasn’t been handed the RF position I must critique Joe Maddon and Gabe Kapler. The charade should’ve already ended by now and Ben Zobrist should be the everyday rightfielder and beyond that I continue to wonder what the hell is keeping him from being out there. The original plan was to platoon Kapler and Gross in RF until Matt Joyce was ready to take over and Zorilla (Rays Index) was to be the super sub. In the process it appears that Zobrist has done enough to win the job in RF, but no dice.

This is the most aggravating thing to me about Joe Maddon. I don’t agree with a lot of what he does, but he’s the man and I’m not so who really cares. I just keep getting frustrated by his refusal to alter anything, even when it is completely sensible to do it.

Just to review some of this in bullets…

• Refused to move Upton from the three hole for the first part of last season.
• Has refused to move Upton from the leadoff spot this season despite Bartlett clearly being the better candidate at this point.
• Refuses to play Michel Hernandez more despite his superior play over Navarro this season.
• Refused to remove the closer tag from Troy Percival despite him blowing up in the second half of last season.
• Refuses to acknowledge that there is something wrong with Kazmir and continues to leave him in games too long.

There is a lot more, but these are just examples of his stubborn behavior. I could go on and on ( i usually do anyway) about these moves, but I’ll just focus on Kapler right now. Why does this guy continue to get so much playing time? I don’t understand the need Maddon has to stick this guy out there when Zobrist is playing so well. I was never impressed with what little I saw of Kapler before he got here (I’m sure the DRaysBay readers remember and will somehow bitch about me again) and I’m even less impressed now. He is one of the most mechanical athletes I’ve ever laid eyes on. His hitting mechanics are awful and his defense is average at best. Can he get some new cleats by the way, how many plays has he slid and nearly fell on so far this year?

I’m not going to reference any stats or charts or anything because there is no need. Zobrist alone is better than Kapler/Gross. I do realize that because of the makeup of the roster that you can’t run Zobrist out there 7 days a week, he is needed to backup at short when Bartlett needs one of his many Maddon off days, but there is no reason for him not to be starting out there in right 4 days a week at least.

Looking at the way Papa Joe is playing these guys it appears that he is trying to be slick by starting Gross/Kapler and slotting Zobrist in later. I would assume he is doing this in the hope that these guys will start hitting and if they (when) they don’t he tosses Zobrist out there. Common sense tells me that you run the guy who’s hitting better out there first and if you’re running away with the game you toss the guys that are struggling out there then, but Maddon didn’t go to the same school of common sense that I did so we disagree.

I will wrap this post up by saying this. Kapler sucks. He is a below average baseball player who deserves to ride the pine pony express until it’s absolutely necessary to use him. Now I know it’s time for me to get ripped by the stat freaks who blasted me before when I questioned the Kapler signing, but if they still want to defend the phenominal Gabe Kapler then maybe they are the ones who shouldn’t be writing about baseball anymore.

The Rays looked awful last night and it really came as no surprise after we saw the first pitched. Kaz sailed one and it just wasn’t pretty from there. I do believe it’s time that we start worrying about Kazmir and his erratic pitching. He hasn’t looked right for a while now and he doesn’t seem to be turning the corner at all. More concerning to me than the lack of fastball control is the lack of bite that the slider has these days. It just doesn’t move like it used to. Hope Kaz can get himself correct, but I’m not very optimistic at this point.

BJ still looks like crap and there is no excuse good enough for how horrible he looks. What I can’t understand is how he can look so nonchalant about being so bad. I keep laughing at all the so called experts out there that continue to defend this guy saying that he will shake this and have a good season. What is it that you’re seeing? Melvin looks terrible and even worse he looks like he doesn’t care. Even worse than that is the fact that Maddon looks like he doesn’t care either.

Joe Maddon is the most optimistic person I’ve ever heard speak. This is good I suppose to a point, but I can only hope that he does see a problem with his team and stops blowing smoke up everyone’s ass at some point. Maddon said Kaz pitched well after the first. What?! Were you watching the same game we were? He also made a point of saying that the fat catcher would start on Tuesday and not Hernandez. Why would you put that out there so early? Why are you defending your decision before it’s even questioned unless you know there is a problem?

I realize that I’m a cynical fan, but how can you not question what is going on out there right now?

Technorati Tags: BJ Upton, Dioner Navarro, Joe Maddon, Matt Garza, Scott Kazmir, Tampa Bay Rays

Carl Crawford’s legs are back. CC has looked like the Carl of old so far this season and yesterday he put an exclamation point on it. It was nice to see the singles turning into doubles and triples yesterday as he pretended he was back in High School or something. Six steals in a game is impressive and it was icing on the cake that he blew by Ellsbury for the league lead in the process. My only problem with all the steals was seeing how many fastballs Evan looked at in allowing CC to do it.

Speaking of Evan, was anyone else as happy as I was when Evan gave the fans hell for screwing with that foul ball? When that fat idiot realized what he did he looked so pathetic and stupid that I almost felt bad for him. You can’t be that ignorant and Longoria had no problem letting him (and the other moron that tried to get the ball) know what jackasses they were. It got even more scary when Ellsbury sent that ball to the warning track. I thought he got it.

Finally I will get on Upton. I have decided that I will not let go of this. Upton is pissing me off to no end and it’s time for all the fans to let him and the team know. Someone needs to kick his ass and let him know that these games count also. He looks worse than ever right now and there shouldn’t be any more excuses made for him. He rarely swings and when he does he looks like he’s swinging a broomstick at a golf ball. It is ugly. I’m sure the Upton apologists and ass kissers will put some stupid graph or chart up to show that he is smart and only swinging at certain pitches and he’s still drawing walks, blah, blah blah. He is too talented to be this useless. He is batting .162 with 14 walks and 26 strikeouts so far. Outstanding!

Technorati Tags: BJ Upton, Boston Red Sox, Carl Crawford, Evan Longoria, Jacoby Ellsbury, Tampa Bay Rays

It’s been a while, but who cares. As I sit and watch my favorite teams in the time that I get in the middle of my hectic weeks, I have decided to finally post something and it will be directed at Joe Maddon. The Rays are struggling in the early part of the season and that’s not really shocking, but I find something about the lineups that get run out everyday extremely troubling. What does it take to lose or win a job on this team? Seriously, what does it take?

The constant days off for regulars has always troubled me, but I get it. What puzzles me is constantly running guys out who are clearly struggling. Let’s start with the fat catcher. Navarro looks bad in every sense of the word right now. He is not the same guy we saw last year, this is the mope we saw the year before. Weak stick, bad at bats and lazy catching. There is a problem with Navarro and we don’t know what it is. Now I’m not saying TFC needs to lose his job to Michel Hernandez, but wouldn’t it send a nice message to TFC and the rest of the team if you gave Hernandez another start after his performance on Thursday? It would be a nice reward for a guy that has clearly busted his butt for a long time and may be the wake up call that Navarro needs. Leave him in til TFC proves he wants it back.

This same thing goes for Upton. Why do we need to watch these at bats that look as if he’s allergic to swinging? Why do we need to see him argue over CALLED third stikes at least once a night? Why not toss Zobrist out there for a couple days and let Upton prove he wants to be out there? Again, I’m not saying he loses his job, just let him know that this crap won’t be tolerated.

Speaking of Zobrist, what does this guy have to do to prove that he should be manning RF on a daily basis before you take action? The Gabe platoon has looked as bad as I anticipated and Zobrist continues to go out and hit. He is no worse in right than Gross or Kapler (especially with the genius defensive alignments) and continues to prove he belongs with the stick.

Look Joe, I’m trying to be objective and I’m trying to be more patient with you than I have been in the past, but please help me figure this out. What kind of message does this send to the young guys trying to fight and claw their way to the show? On a team that is relying on developing youth to remain competitive wouldn’t it send a great message to guys like Matt Joyce, John Jaso, Fernando Perez, Desmond Jennings, Tim Beckham and so on that you have to show and prove to get and KEEP a job?! If there is something that I’m missing here I need to know. I realize that you think you are the smartest person to ever be around baseball now so it should be pretty easy to explain.

I’m waiting.

Technorati Tags: Ben Zobrist, BJ Upton, Dioner Navarro, Fernando Perez, Joe Maddon, John Jaso, Matt Joyce, Michel Hernandez, Tampa Bay Rays, Tim Beckham

Just to give everyone a heads up, I have written a guest “shit talking” post for David Chalk over at Bugs and Cranks. It was fun to rip on the Pirates and I may jump in on some others if time permits. Thanks to David for reaching out and letting me do a little trash talking. If you aren’t familiar with David’s work, I encourage you to check it out. It’s extremely entertaining stuff. I’ll have more Rays posts up soon by the way and I may be adding a new blogger to the mix who will  help take care of the Lightning. Expect a post from her later in the week. I’ll get on the Rays stuff through the week and I am currently working on the player cards for the Rays only. I’m putting the Bucs on hold for a while. Thanks everyone and let me know what you think of the post over at Bugs and Cranks and be ready to comment on the new blogger when she’s ready.

Technorati Tags: Bugs and Cranks, David Chalk, Scott Brannelly, Tampa Bay Lightning, Tampa Bay Rays

The Rays have had a fairly busy offseason and now look pretty well set for the upcoming 2009 season. They have signed a few minor league free agents over the last few weeks to fill things out, including Morgan Ensberg. Ensberg wil most likely end up playing 3B in Durham but is a very nice low risk acquisition. He looked like an up and coming power hitter 6 years ago and hit 94 homeruns from ‘03 to ‘06. He fell off after that and has hit 13 homeruns since with Houston, San Diego and the Yankees. He could win a bench job and could  be needed if injuries hit either Evan Longoria or Carlos Pena. I like the move with Ensberg.

All in all, it was a pretty good offseason for the Rays. I love the Matt Joyce/Edwin Jackson swap and I really think the Rays stole one there. Joyce will most likely start the season in the minors also as the Gabe platoon (Kapler/Gross) will hold down RF until the Rays feel he’s ready. When you look at how the Rays handle their organization they have seemingly set themselves up pretty nice. Joyce can stay in Durham and develop until either he’s ready or Gross/Kapler can’t handle the job. King David can also start in the minors and develop a little more while Jeff Niemann and Jason Hammel fight it out for the fifth starter/long reliever role. Make no mistake here as Price will take over for whoever wins this starter job, but it could work out to be a nice showcase for these guys. If someone goes down in the rotation these guys could be valuable, if not they could maybe bring a couple decent prospects back in a deal and stack up the farm system a little more. A nice situation here on the surface.

All the moves the Rays have made this offseason make sense and have seemingly improved an already good team. I also like the Brian Shouse move and think he’ll be an improvement over Trever Miller. There’s a lot of ex-Brewers on the roster, aren’t there? The Rays couldn’t be more lucky with the Bradford injury coming now either could they? Not that injuries are lucky, but it narrows down the bullpen battles in the short term and gives them another arm coming back in May or June that could step right in and be productive as we have already seen from him. I may pick on the Rays here and there for some moves, as any fan will, but it’s hard to argue with what they’ve done here and I have never gone into any prior season with more confidence and so little to bitch about as this one. It should be another great season and I am looking forward to seeing how the Sox and Yanks match up to our AL Champs.

Technorati Tags: Boston Red Sox, Brian Shouse, Carlos Pena, Chad Bradford, David Price, Durham Bulls, Evan Longoria, Gabe Gross, Gabe Kapler, Houston Astros, Jason Hammel, Jeff Niemann, Matt Joyce, Milwaukee Brewers, MLB, Morgan Ensberg, New York Yankees, San Diego Padres, Tampa Bay Rays

There were a few crazy things that went on over the last couple weeks that I wanted to touch on and didn’t have time, but nothing got my attention more than the A-Rod deal. There has already been a tremendous amount of backlash on this situation and some of it is just funny. The dumbest thing I’ve seen written so far is what Bill Madden of the New York Daily News wrote about releasing A-Rod (hat tip to Mets Police for that one). Madden wants the Yankees to cut A-Rod, no matter the cost, in order to make a statement. The Yankees have more money than any team in baseball and they show it consistently with their ridiculous spending sprees, but not even the Yankees can justify writing off $270 million. This has to be the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen a legitimate reporter write. The Yanks already looked like idiots for paying Rodriguez the amount of money they did before A-Rod was a known steroid user. If they get nothing out of him AND spend that money they would look worse, not better Bill. There is no statement they could make that is worth a quarter billion dollars.

I want to take this A-Rod thing in a different direction though. I’m not going to defend him, but the fact that the test that he popped on was supposed to be anonymous and got leaked is an atrocity and will do nothing but worsen the already rocky relationship between the players union and MLB. We haven’t heard A-Rod come out and say anything yet, but it’s coming soon as he has a ceremony in his honor upcoming at the University of Miami. In the aftermath of all of this I think Rodriguez could use this scenario as an opportunity to better his relationship with other players and actually boost himself in the eyes of others.

Follow me here. In my opinion this is what I think he should do. First off, he needs to come out and admit to doing steroids in the past in order to keep up with what he thought other players were doing. I could be wrong, but I don’t believe his contract can be voided if the test he was positive for was supposed to be anonymous. If he does this he can take some of the stink off of him in the eyes of the public and immediately turn the Government away from him. If he lies, the Government will want him to come in and testify under oath and go after him similar to Bonds, Clemens, etc. This has to be his first step toward redemption.

The next thing I would like to see Alex do is demand that the rest of the tests be destroyed and insist that no one else’s name be leaked and tarnished. If he falls on the sword and leads the charge against those who leaked this info he could become a much more popular figure within the players fraternity. Nearly every player would applaud and respect him for doing such a thing. It would also show some backbone and fortitude, which is something he gets knocked for lacking.

I would also like to see him lead the charge against Bud Selig and lobby to have him removed as the commissioner of Major League Baseball. What has gone on under Selig’s watch is atrocious and he needs to be held accountable for it. Rodriguez is the latest casualty under the mismanagement of Bud Selig.

I don’t feel sorry for Alex, the Yankees or anyone else in this, but the fact that the test he has popped for was supposed to be anonymous and just used “to measure the amount of users there were” is unacceptable. This is the same thing as police versus criminals. There are supposed to be rules limiting the cops to what they can do in order to catch a criminal and that’s why we call it justice. The smart criminals stay ahead of the cops and the good cops figure out how to catch them, legally! That’s the game and that’s how it’s played. There are always some cops and some criminals playing outside the lines, but the rules are in place to help maintain order. This situation with A-Rod is exactly the same. Alex will have to come to grips with the fact that his legacy is tainted and that it can’t be fixed on the field now. He can raise himself up in other ways now by not only holding himself accountable, but forcing those that caught him to be accountable also. Bud Selig gets too much credit for his newfound tough drug policy these days. Did everyone forget that MLB and Bud Selig had to be dragged in kicking and screaming by Congress in order to finally do something about it to begin with? Selig has done some stupid things as commissioner, as most any commissioner will, but this needs to be his final blunder.

You shouldn’t be the highest paid commissioner in sports if you’re going to allow crap like this. This was flat out wrong and shady. There is no argument for Selig either because this is his baby. He can’t play ignorant because he should have been monitoring this as close as possible. Alex Rodriguez’s life as he knows it is over. If he thought people were negative toward him before, just wait and see how he gets treated now. There is no excuse for what he did and he has created the attention himself by being the most greedy athlete we’ve seen to date, but he can still come out of this ok if he owns up to it and grows a pair (hard to do on roids, I know).

I’m going to get sick of this story pretty quick, but I do want to see how it plays out.

Technorati Tags: Alex Rodriguez, Barry Bonds, Bud Selig, New York Yankees, Roger Clemens, Tampa Bay Rays, University of Miami

The blog world is a wild place. I have learned a lot of things the hard way since I started doing this last year and it has humbled me like nothing else I’ve done. I have done a lot of things in my life that have molded me into the man that I have become. My mentality and my world has constantly changed in my life and I know it always will. There were so many seemingly harsher things that I’ve dealt with and learned from like street fighting, USMC boot camp, parenthood, etc., that I thought it would be easy to jump right in to the blog thing and roll along without a problem. It’s a totally different animal than anything else I’ve done.

I started this thing as a hobby site and it remains one and, for those of you that read already know, I’m still trying to find a direction to take this thing as it evolves. I’m not trying to be a journalist, become a writer or get credentialed in any way. That’s where I find such a huge difference between myself and most others out there. Rays Index brought something to my attention tonight that made me think about things and really made me laugh. Rays Renegade wrote a piece on how bloggers don’t get respect enough to get media credentials and it was really very funny to me.

This guy may be a true journalist and, if what he says he’s done is true, has some real stones in trying to work his way into the mainstream media. What was so funny and confusing to me was his statement about how he has been in the industry for four years and can’t understand why bloggers can’t get credentialed easier. If he was truly a journalist in the industry I would think he understands why bloggers don’t get that kind of respect.

Since I got involved in this world I have learned a few things that hold true. First is this. You have to earn your respect whether you’re a journalist or not. I have found that most other sites and blogs that cover the same teams you do don’t want to recognize that you even exist, especially if you don’t comment on their site. When they do recognize you it’s always a negative thing that starts it. When Rays Index first started throwing me links it was because of the Barry Bonds and Brendan Harris posts I wrote. Cork tore me apart on the Harris thing, but I stayed with what I was doing and he has gave me some encouragement and I thought that was extremely cool of him. I give him a lot of credit with this type of thing because he doesn’t care if I’m here or not. He acknowledges me and does his thing. I can’t say the same for most other sites I’ve tried to deal with like DRaysBay, BucEm, the other Tampa Bay Sports Blog and so on. I realize that there may be a sense of someone like me invading their territory or something like that, but if you read what I write and how often I write, these guys should know they have nothing to worry about. Greg Auman has also been very helpful with me. He first approached me when, as I tried to cover the USF Bulls, I forgot to put a link in a post about where I got my info from and he quickly let me know that was wrong. That was my ignorance in the blog thing and he recognized that and offered me a little guidance from that point on. Greg and Cork are the only positive people I have met on the net though and that makes the first point for this guy. The blog world is petty and competitive, so how much more so is it when you’re a blogger dealing with real journalists? Like them or not, journalists have already paid there dues in college, internships and what not. They have EARNED the right to get credentialed by major teams in sports. There are plenty of people out there that can put a thought, article or an interview better than journalists can, but you always have to pay your dues in life. Shouldn’t a journalist know this?

Something else I’ve learned is this. There are way more bloggers than journalists. Ok, I know that’s a dumb statement, but it’s relevant. Everyday a new blog pops up about the Rays, Bucs, or whatever team you follow. Knowing this, anyone should know that getting credentialed as a blogger is going to be that much tougher. Let’s try to relate it like this. If you’re an athlete in high school and you’re one of the rare superstars with silly talent, you’re going to get recognized and given tons of opportunities. If you’re not, than it’s going to take longer and some other things will have to come into play. You need to be in the right place at the right time, be exceptional in another way, know someone, etc. These are the stories everyone loves to hear. We love to hear how Kurt Warner bagged groceries before getting his shot or how a guy like Earnest Graham finally breaks through after years of being a special teams player. If a blogger breaks through into the mainstream media and earns his respect, which this guy could do, it would be one of those heartwarming stories. The problem right now is he is acting like he has earned it already by starting a blog. Anyone can do that, just look at me.

It is all strange and funny to me. The blog world is odd, yet interesting. It can be used as a platform to showcase one’s journalistic talents, but it’s a long road that way. It’s like a high school football player with bad grades going to junior college. They can make it, but it’s not the route someone ideally takes to get there. It’s all strange to me. I’ve been doing this for almost a year now and I still have much more to learn than most. I admit to being ignorant to the blog thing, really the whole internet thing in general, but I go on because I like to voice my opinion. I feel my writing is coherent enough, even though I may not always get the point across that I want to, that the people who read what I write enjoy it. I don’t expect anyone to follow my site to depend on current news of their favorite teams here, I think they come to hear my opinion and get a different perspective on it. That’s it. Obviously this guy is trying to be a journalist of some sort and that shows a completely different goal than mine, but what I’ve learned from my experience tells me he’s doing a bad job of it right now. From what I’ve read of his stuff, he’s a good enough writer, but was accused of plagiarism by a couple of commenter’s on Rays Index. That’s a big deal. I believe he has done it also, only because it was pointed out that a commenter noticed it, the post was modified. That shows there was something wrong with what he was doing. One thing I know about writing is this. If you write it, stick by it. I have written some things on this site that, when I go back and read them, I would like to change or delete. I don’t because I wrote it and I need to stand by it. You can’t change the past, writing or otherwise, so you shouldn’t mess with it. When you make mistakes you can’t remove them, you learn from them. That’s life. Writing is the same in this and it should be. If you want someone to take you seriously, you can’t backtrack and remove what is regrettable or wrong, you learn from it and live with the body of work you produce. Like what I write or not, agree with me or not, I live with what I write on this site. If I go away because I suck, that’s what it is and I learn from it and life goes on. If people like me and keep coming to the site, it all goes on and life is still the same. In this sense I can’t relate to this guy at Rays Renegade. He is striving for more than I am with what he’s doing and his life seems dependant on it. I feel that he wrote what he did in an attempt to gain attention to himself. If he didn’t, he’s an idiot. That may not stop him from getting where he wants to go, but he’s still an idiot if he thinks this.

The bottom line in all this is this. All journalists can be bloggers if they are required or choose to be, not all bloggers can be journalists. Blogging is great because it’s freedom of speech at it’s best, but it doesn’t make you a journalist. I’m a blogger, but I will never be confused for a journalist. It’s a comparison that can’t be made and that’s why bloggers don’t get credentials. If you need to actually think to figure that out than there is something wrong with you. There are bloggers out there that are better than the journalists that cover what they do, but it doesn’t mean they have earned anything more than the journalists they are better than. I know people in the marketing department with the Rays, Lightning and Magic. I can get tickets from them at will and my site has even been brought to ownership’s attention with these teams. I was offered credentials to a couple of Lightning and Rays games but, while taking the free tickets they offered me, I have no desire to go into the press box for these games. I found it laughable that I was offered this and I’m sure any of you reading this do as well, but it’s the point of knowing people here. I was offered these things because of me being the person I am, not the writer I am. If this guy is going to go about things the way he is, it’s going to be a very long road. I would bet that he’ll be writing about some other team and pulling the same crap before the Rays give him anything, but what do I know. I never ask for comments on anything, but I would really like to see some comments in this post. I want to hear your opinion on this post, so please take the time to let me know what you think.

Technorati Tags: Earnest Graham, Kurt Warner, Orlando Magic, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Tampa Bay Lightning, Tampa Bay Rays, United States Marine Corps, USF Bulls

The Rays have inked Gabe Kapler to a one year $1 million deal to be the fourth/fifth outfielder for 2009. They have been fairly active with minor leaguers too but I’ll leave that stuff to Rays Index. I’m as conflicted as a person be about this signing considering he’s a reserve outfielder. I like it in a sense because Kapler’s a decent outfielder and could platoon well with Gabe Gross if needed, but why do we need a platoon backup situation? I’ve never been in favor of platoons in general because I’ve always felt that if a guy can play, he can play, screw the other crap. Stats say otherwise and that’s the world we now live in so I’ll go with it. I don’t know much about Kapler other than he was once a highly touted prospect who turned into a journeyman type that was coaching before he decided to jump back into the player ranks. The problem I have with this signing is that Kapler got a mil and Rocco got less, granted there’s incentives, from the Red Sox.

Marc Topkin tried to justify by saying that the Baldelli deal “could be” worth more because of playing incentives, but how much more? Someone is either lying or just not getting it here. If you give Roc the same deal you give Kapler, he walks. If you offer Roc the same deal that Boston did, I think he stays. Putting this into perspective, how much does anybody think Rocco is actually going to play with the Sox? If he does play enough to earn the incentives in his contract wouldn’t that mean that someone got hurt and Rocco is healthy? All that being said, wouldn’t anyone rather pay a little more for a healthy Rocco than a Gabe Kapler if they are needed full time? I understand the Rays penny pinching, but this is stupid.

I can make sense of it thinking that Fernando Perez needs another year in AAA, but how did we end up with an overrated Gabe Kapler over Rocco Baldelli. This is why Boston is the most well rounded organization in baseball right now and not the Yankees, Rays, Phillies, etc. The Rays may be the best at operating as a small market, but they aren’t there just yet. It’s a tough position for the Rays to be in here and it’s hard to pick on them for the moves that they make, since they’ve been so good under tough conditions, but this move I can’t rationalize at all. Kapler over Baldelli, really?

Technorati Tags: Boston Red Sox, Fernando Perez, Gabe Kapler, New York Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies, Rocco Baldelli, Tampa Bay Rays

The Heater has put out a post that Rocco Baldelli is all but gone. Rocco has basically become an afterthought now with the signing of Pat Burrell and the limited funds left that we assume will go toward the bullpen. That’s fine. The Rays owe nothing to Rocco and Rocco owes nothing to the Rays. I do find myself lost at the destinations that are being mentioned though. Here’s the list being reported.

• Pirates/Orioles:The Rays just got themselves out of the perennial losers club and Roc got to be a part of it, why go back to one? Either of these teams would be a horrible decision for Roc unless it was a one year deal just to prove he can play again, but he has even stated that he’s unsure if he can play the field everyday. Bad Choices here.
• Yankees: Why why why?! It’s bad enough that Roc has drawn comparisons to Joe DiMaggio, why go and put that type of pressure on yourself? Injuries, the Joe D comparison and the pressure to win would make Baldelli target practice for the firing range of reporters and fans in New York. Bad!
• Reds: Can’t DH there and they’re another non contender. The Reds could get better though and Rocco could be in a platoon situation there. This is puzzling only because of Rocco’s statements about playing the field, but if the money is right I could see it.
• Phillies: There is a combination of things I see wrong with this, though it’s not as bad a choice of the previously mentioned. First, don’t you think it would bother a guy playing for the team that just beat you in the World Series? It would bother me, but maybe I’m being a little juvenile about it. The same things about pressure and playing the field come into play here also, but the city bothers me most. Why would someone as laid back as Rocco want to go to that hellhole? The team seems classy, but the fans are the worst in sports. He might as well go play soccer in Germany!
• Red Sox: This would be the toughest for all of us Rays fans to swallow. How could Rocco do this?! I realize he’s from Rhode Island and it would basically be going home, but why? The Sox are generally a classy team and the city would embrace him like a long lost son, but why?! He could DH on occasion and be a fourth outfielder, but….never mind.

The most frustrating thing to me with all this is that all signs point to Boston. He’s a homer, a great guy and a great story. It would probably be a childhood dream come true for him, but damn, why Boston? Given the rivalry that the Rays have developed with the Sox over the years, even before the Rays were good, how could he switch sides like that? It’s just sickening to me.

I’ve heard people tell me they think Rocco should give the Rays a discount and come back for a year because they were so patient with him and his condition, but I don’t agree with that. He couldn’t help what happened and neither could the Rays. Giving guys money like the Rays gave Rocco are always a risk and that’s why. It’s not like Baldelli didn’t want to play, he couldn’t. Again, no one owes anyone anything here. My problem with this whole thing, and I think I speak for most fans, is the rivalry part of it.

The bottom line is this whole thing is this, Roc will most likely be in a Red Sox uniform next year and that will suck. It is a scenario I’m not used to as a fan. It’s not like Clemens going to the Yankees or anyting. It’s a guy going back to play for his hometown team and continuing his baseball career. As easy as that is to understand, I’d like to think that we mean as much to him here as he did to us and that would prevent him from going. It’s so hard to wrap my head around because I don’t think he’ll chase the money, I think he wants to go home. I understand it all, but it’s still hard for me to get.

For me it’s like this. I was a Marine. Marines are a department of the Navy. Anyone who’s been in the military knows there is a huge rivalry between branches and we all talk shit about each other. That being said, there is no Marine Corps football team. There’s an Army, Navy and an Air Force, but no Marine Corps. Being a department of the Navy, we root for Navy when these teams play each other, but I would never want to be in the Navy. Get it? I respect everyone, but I’m a Marine and I take pride in that and could never don another’s uniform. The problem with me relating it this way is because there isn’t big money involved. Every jarhead I know would tell you the same thing I just did, but if someone offered me a couple mil to put on the ice cream whites, well.

Capping this drawn out thing off, I wish Rocco well where ever he goes, I just hope it’s not Boston.

Technorati Tags: Air Force, Army, Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, Cincinatti Reds, Joe DiMaggio, Navy, New York Yankees, Pat Burrell, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburg Pirates, Rocco Baldelli, Roger Clemens, Tampa Bay Rays, United States Marine Corps

• Full Name:Carl Demonte Crawford
• Birthplace: Houston, TX
• Born: 08/05/1981
• Position: LF
• Bats/Throws: L/L
• Years Pro: 7
• How Acquired: 2nd round draft pick (52nd overall) in 1999

What we know: Crawford was a multi-sport star at Jefferson Davis High School in Houston where he played football, basketball and baseball. He was also a member of the swim team in high school. Crawford turned down a basketball scholarship to play point guard for UCLA and a football scholarship to play quarterback for Nebraska to play baseball for the Devil Rays.

Crawford is a two time All-Star (‘04 and ‘07) who has led the American League in stolen bases four times and is one of the best defensive left fielders in the game today due to his tremendous speed. Crawford is also the Rays all time leader in At Bats, Plate Appearances, Runs, Hits, Strikeouts, Stolen Bases, Triples and Singles. He has won many awards over the years with the organization and is the longest tenured player with the team now. Crawford is also one of only eight players in baseball history to accumulate 1,000 hits and 250 stolen bases before the age of 27.

What we think: Carl has essentially been the face of the franchise since he’s been here and will continue to be while sharing the spotlight with others. Crawford had a down year in 2008 as he had his lowest output in SB’s and batting average since his rookie campaign. Although ‘08 was a down year he made it back from injuries to help the Rays through their dramatic playoff run and into their first World Series. Crawford is a talented player but I don’t think we’re going to see the power output we all have thought we would see out of Carl until he learns some plate discipline, but it’s hard to pick on a guy who produces what he has over the years for this team.

Picture courtesy of Dennis Adair on Flickr.

For stats click here.

Technorati Tags: Carl Crawford, Jefferson Davis High School, Nebraska Cornhuskers, Tampa Bay Rays, UCLA Bruins, World Series

I’m currently working on some player cards for the site. These are going to be short bio type things with basic info and a short opinion of what we think of the players on our beloved teams that we cover. I’m not a fan of profiles or anything like that because I’m not a journalist, I’m just a guy writing about things I love. I’m having a hard time currently with trying to put stats to them so if I can’t figure it out I’ll just put a link to the players stats in the post. These will be done randomly and for teams in their off-season as they’re easier to track, so for now we’ll be working on Rays and Buc players and the Lightning and Magic players will be done when their seasons are over. Post any ideas you may have in the comments of this post and I’ll have the first one out this evening.

Technorati Tags: Orlando Magic, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Tampa Bay Lightning, Tampa Bay Rays

According to Ken Rosenthal, via MLB Trade Rumors, the Rays are close to signing former Phillie outfielder Pat Burrell to a two year $16 million deal. This move makes way too much sense for all parties involved to not happen. Burrell is the right handed bat that the Rays are looking for to slot at DH on a regular basis and he comes fairly cheap. The contract that’s speculated on above is a perfect fit for the Rays and their budget. I really like this move for a few reasons.

Burrell can still hit and we won’t have to watch him stumble around in the outfield too often. He comes with no baggage and seems like he would fit right in to the clubhouse the Rays currently have.This move also allows the Rays to hopefully leave Fernando Perez in AAA Durham for at least another year of seasoning.

It also would allow the Rays to put the Abreu/Giambi fiasco to bed and focus on upgrading the bullpen. I was no fan of Abreu or Giambi so it makes me pretty happy there. With Burrell coming fairly cheap as well this may put Brandon Lyon and/or Joe Beimel into the picture as I’ve so desired. It would be a lovely thing to see if the Rays jumped on one of those guys.

This move doesn’t necessarily kill the idea of Rocco returning either, even though it most likely did. If Roc wants to come back for another year as a fourth outfielder it could easily make Ben Zobrist or Gabe Gross expendable and that would be no real tragedy either.

Even without all my speculation on what this could all lead to, this is about the most sensible and logical move the Rays could’ve made at this point. All in all, a good day for the Rays.

Technorati Tags: Ben Zobrist, Bobby Abreu, Brandon Lyon, Fernando Perez, Gabe Gross, Jason Giambi, Joe Beimel, Pat Burrell, Philadelphia Phillies, Rocco Baldelli, Tampa Bay Rays

Sorry for the lack of posts everyone. My sister is in town and it’s a huge family thing that’s leaving little to no time to post. It doesn’t help that I have a 10 day stretch going with my job and won’t have a day off until Christmas. There’s a lot to catch up on with the Bucs essentially playing their way out of the playoffs, the Lightning still being awful (and St. Louis finally going off) and the Magic still playing great. I’ll try to get something out tonight and over the next couple days but we’re probably going to have to do some Christmas day catch up. I encourage everyone out there to check out the Magic game tonight. I know not everyone is into basketball, but they are an extremely fun team to watch and are the closest thing we’ve got to a home town team.

Technorati Tags: Orlando Magic, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Tampa Bay Lightning, Tampa Bay Rays

It was a busy week in the AL East and I had to sit down and look at it tonight. I’ve been listening to the radio and reading about the moves being made and I came up with this. The Rays are much smarter than the Yankees.  There are a few good things about being a small market team and they’re showing during the winter baseball season. Let’s break it down.

• The Yankees signed CC Sabathia to a $161 million deal and brought one of the best pitchers in baseball to New York. But how much did this improve them? I honestly don’t think it improved them much at all. Think about it like this. They signed a guy that won 17 games last year to replace a guy that won 20. Now I’ll say that Sabathia is better than Mussina and he would’ve probably won 22 or 23 games with the Yankees last year with the same run support Mussina got, but that’s still only a 3 game improvement. Not enough for that kind of money. They also signed AJ Burnett to fill in the rotation but they haven’t re-signed Andy Pettitte yet. That’s a 4 game improvement if Andy doesn’t come back. Not enough either. If Pettitte comes back and teams with Wang and Sabathia that should be a decent three man rotation. Then they’re counting on Joba Chamberlain and Phil Hughes to handle the rest of the load. I’ll take my chances. Burnett will get hurt, Wang and Sabathia will probably be ok, but I don’t think Chamberlain and Hughes will do what they’re expecting. The Yanks also are going to lose Bobby Abreu and Jason Giambi, Jeter is another year older and slower and A-Rod will be useless when needed as he always is. I’m not writing the Yankees off before the season starts, but how many of these store bought teams have done what they’re supposed to do? Even Sabathia realizes that the pressure in NY is so silly that he got an opt-out clause after three years. How much you wanna bet that that gets exercised?
• In comparison, the Rays traded their fifth starter for a young RF prospect who is already an upgrade over anything they put out there last year in Matt Joyce. Replacing Jackson will be the best pitching prospect in baseball who already proved himself at the Major League level at the end of last season, including the playoffs. This move also puts a guy on the bench, Gabe Gross, who contributed in a major way throughout a championship season.  
• If we look at who’s not coming back and who is it’s a big difference as well. The Yankees may not have lost all these guys yet but have Andy Pettitte, Bobby Abreu, Mike Mussina and Wilson Betemit. Kyle Farnsworth is gone and so is Carl Pavano (useless) . I personally think Abreu will end up in Chicago and Pettite with the Dodgers. Mussina is retired and that tells me something right there. This is a guy, who at the age of 40 and just came off his first 20 win season, has decided to retire rather than come back to NY or anywhere else. How big a toll did playing in NY take on him? I can’t think of any other reason that he wouldn’t come back to play somewhere for a couple years and try to get his 300th win other than the pressure of playing in NY completely beat him down. There’s no telling what the same pressure will do to Sabathia, who has an awful postseason record, and Burnett. Burnett comes in with an injury history similar to Carl Pavano’s and don’t think that the NY media won’t be harping on that either. The Rays lost Jonny Gomes (finally), who was phased out anyway, Trever Miller and possibly Rocco Baldelli. Miller can be replaced without damage and Baldelli wasn’t counted on anyway.

In wrapping this up I come up with this. The Rays got better already while making one move, the Yankees may or may not have depending on who comes back. The Yankees could still get Abreu, Giambi and Pettite back and that would make them a better team. The main component there would be Pettitte. Even if all these guys came back, who do the Yankees have to fill in if someone goes down? The rotation could end up being a high priced nightmare if one or more of their pitchers get hurt. Who do they have to replace any one of those guys if someone goes down, Darrell Rasner? Again, I’ll take my chances. Their bullpen has already been weakened as well with the loss of Farnsworth and Chamberlain. They could sign Derek Lowe, but I think he’ll end up in Boston. On the Rays end, they have replaced Jackson with Price, Gross with Joyce and still may sign some guys to fill out the DH and bullpen needs. If one or more of the Rays pitchers gets hurt there’s guys like Wade Davis, Jason Hammel, Mitch Talbot, Jeremy Hellickson and Jeff Niemann to fill in. It shows that being small market forces a team to think about the future. Remember when George Steinbrenner was forced out and the team finally had to develop players? They got Bernie Williams, Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera out of that deal, among others. They got role players then like Scott Brosius, Chuck Knoblauch and Jim Leyritz to fill out the roster and that’s how they won all those Series rings. That’s the path the Rays are on now with pieces like Longoria, Price and Upton as they sign guys like Iwamura, Pena and Percival to fill things out. It’s the smart baseball people that win, not the big money teams. We’ve seen it over and over again with teams that try to outspend everyone and don’t succeed and it amazes me that more teams don’t do it better. The Red Soxhave the best combination of both sides right now unfortunately as they have great development and lots of money. They can sign anyone if they want and are developing guys like Papelbon, Pedroia and Youklis. That’s a hard mix to beat but the Rays have the core to compete with them right now, maybe not forever, but right now. The entire perception of these things make me laugh because people are too caught up in the money aspect to see what’s real. The Yankees are supposed to win because they have the most money, they won’t because they don’t have good baseball people. The Red Soxwin because they have both money and good baseball people. They can afford to pay Ortiz, Beckett and Matsuzaka but they don’t win if they don’t develop Pedroia, Youklis and Papelbon. We all hope the Rays can spend the money to keep all these guys but the realistic fact is that, 2 or 3 years from now, they will have to trade a Kazmir, Crawford or Upton to help reload with younger, cheaper players. I hate the thought of that but it’s the reality we live in as a small market team. The great part of it though is that we don’t have distorted thoughts about our teams here and appreciate the winning much more because of it. I can’t wait to see what happens during the rest of this off-season and the regular season next year.

Technorati Tags: AJ Burnett, Akinori Iwamura, Alex Rodriguez, Andy Pettitte, Bernie Williams, BJ Upton, Bobby Abreu, Boston Red Sox, Carl Crawford, Carl Pavano, Carlos Pena, CC Sabathia, Chien-Min Wang, Chuck Knoblauch, Darrell Rasner, David Ortiz, David Price, Derek Jeter, Derek Lowe, Dustin Pedroia, Edwin Jackson, Evan Longoria, Gabe Gross, George Steinbrenner, Jason Giambi, Jason Hammel, Jeff Niemann, Jeremy Hellickson, Jim Leyritz, Joba Chamberlain, Johnathan Papelbon, Jonny Gomes, Kevin Youkilis, Kyle Farnsworth, Los Angeles Dodgers, Mariano Rivera, Matt Joyce, Mike Mussina, Mitch Talbot, New York Yankees, Phil Hughes, Rocco Baldelli, Scott Brosius, Scott Kazmir, Tampa Bay Rays, Trever Miller, Troy Percival, Wade Davis, Wilson Betemit

MLB Trade Rumors has a post up that the Rays have traded Edwin Jackson to the Detroit Tigers for OF Matt Joyce. I’ve been duped by these rumors before so I’m not reporting it as being true, but if it is I really like this move. I obviously wanted a different Tigers OF but this one really makes sense for the Rays. Joyce is a young player, 24, with a lot of upside and is a decent outfielder from my understanding. I only saw him play a couple times so it’s hard to judge, but by numbers alone I would think the 12 homers he hit in 242 at bats in Detroit would translate to around 17-19 in our stadium. This fits extremely well into the Rays plan in every way as Joyce is cheap, under team control for a few years and has tremendous upside. It doesn’t hurt that he’s a Tampa native as well either. He’s left handed, which goes against what the Rays were shopping for, but he’s young and should be able to play every day. It solves the RF problem for us in theory and opens a spot in the rotation for David Price. It looks good from a management standpoint too as the Marlins were asking for a lot more from basically the same type of player in Jeremy Hermida, but better by numbers. This move would also free up the Rays to focus on the bullpen and DH for the rest of the offseason, and that’s good considering most free agents haven’t signed yet. I like this for Edwin Jackson personally too as I think he could put up better numbers in the giant stadium in Detroit than he did here. I would like to see the Rays focus on guys like Joe Beimel, Rocco Baldelli and Pat Burrell now. I really think this creates the perfect scenario for Rocco as he could be the right handed DH as much as he could play, not be counted on too much to play the outfield and, on the nights he can’t play, Willy Aybar could handle things. On the note of Willy Aybar I would love to see him drop some weight, learn some outfield and him become the super utility player Maddon covets. I’m very excited over this move if it’s true. If not we can all just pretend this never happened, OK?

Technorati Tags: David Price, Detroit Tigers, Edwin Jackson, Florida Marlins, Jeremy Hermida, Joe Beimel, Joe Maddon, Matt Joyce, Pat Burrell, Rocco Baldelli, Tampa Bay Rays, Willy Aybar

   The Rays lost two key pieces to their off the field team today. Joe Magrane left our broadcast booth to head to MLB network to do broadcast analysis and studio work. I’m a little sad about this as Joe has grown on me a little over the last couple seasons. He’s not really witty or insightful but he was entertaining in his own way. I really didn’t care too much for Magrane early on as he really didn’t bring much to the broadcasts and sounded quite uninspired most of the time. He also had annoying tendencies with some of the things he said like scoring “points” and calling pop ups “poppers”. He got a lot more outspoken and entertaining after the new ownership took over which led me to believe there was some sort of gag order on him from the Naimoli group. Since that point I became fond of Magrane’s “everyman” type of style and I’m actually gonna miss him now. The real travesty today was finding out about Kelly Frank’s dismissal as the Rays beloved mascot Raymond. I just found out this year that Raymond was actually a woman. I’ve really enjoyed Raymond over the years. I’ve taken my son to at least 25 games in each of the last two seasons and, especially before the Rays success this year, Raymond was his primary focus. He’s a goofy looking critter who taunts the other players in the dugout, gives away prizes and just always seems to be having fun. Kelly seemed to perfect some of Raymond’s moves like the butt wiggle and some of the dances we routinely saw. She really did a great job as Raymond and I know I’ll never look at Raymond the same. I don’t like this move by the Rays but I’m not gonna throw a fit over a mascot. Maybe she asked for a little too much money or got a little too much attitude and that’s why she got fired, but I’m still gonna miss her.

Technorati Tags: Joe Magrane, Kelly Frank, Raymond, Tampa Bay Rays, Vince Naimoli

Technorati Tags: Akinori Iwamura, Andrew Friedman, Andy Sonnanstine, Ben Zobrist, BJ Upton, Boston Red Sox, Brandon Lyon, Brian Fuentes, Carl Crawford, Carlos Guillen, Carlos Pena, Chad Bradford, Dan Wheeler, David Price, Dioner Navarro, Edwin Jackson, Elijah Dukes, Evan Longoria, Francisco Rodriguez, Gabe Gross, Gary Sheffield, Grant Balfour, J.P. Howell, James Shields, Jason Bartlett, Jason Hammel, Jeff Niemann, Joe Beimel, Joe Maddon, Jonny Gomes, Los Angeles Dodgers, Magglio Ordonez, Matt Garza, Miguel Cabrera, Mitch Talbot, Pat Burrell, Philadelphia Phillies, Reid Brignac, Rocco Baldelli, Scott Kazmir, Shawn Riggans, Tampa Bay Rays, Trever Miller, Willy Aybar

   Time to wrap up the Rays season. What a season we had here, never saw this coming. I thought, the same as everyone else, the Rays would improve but not to this extent. Let’s wrap it up…

• The defense: The most dramatically improved thing on this team was the defense. The arrival of Jason Bartlett and Evan Longoria made this into the best left side defense in baseball. I was skeptical of Bartlett in the beginning (no need to bring my stupidity there again) as he had some unexplained throwing errors early but recovered to have a great season (should’ve got the gold glove over Young in my opinion). Longo was great defensively from day one and that’s that. Aki transitioned nicely over to second and Pena (won gold glove) was phenomenal. Having Pena at the corner saved Barty and Longo at least 5 errors a piece. Navarro’s improvement behind the plate was far and away the most amazing difference I saw. He was such a different player all around this year that I want to compare images from last season to see if this is the same guy. Unreal! Crawford and Upton were very good and have the speed to make up for other mistakes they might make. Right field was our problem child but Gabe Gross, Eric Hinske, Nathan Haynes (remember him?), Jonny Gomes (worst of all), Rocco and Fernando Perez did good enough to stay out of the conversation. Riggans did fine as a backup and Ben Zobrist was also good enough in learning new positions that he warranted to complaints. Willy Aybar was a godsend. He started the year at third and gave up his spot to Evan after getting injured. When he returned he helped fill the voids left by Pena and Longoria while they were injured (separately of course).
• The starting pitching: The pitchers improvement was made by maturation and the defense if you ask me. James Shields continued his development into an innings eating machine who we can count on every fifth day to give us a quality start. Kazmir started great after his injury and reverted back to the 5 inning 100 pitch nightmare we’ve gotten too used to. I still think he was pitching through injuries as his slider was gone and we saw hitters make better contact off of him than ever before. Matt Garza was better than advertised and he should improve as he gets his emotions under control. Sonny ate innings as we expected and showed the mental toughness of an ace. Edwin Jackson pitched better than anyone expected. I would like to see more strikeouts from a power arm like his, but it’s hard to complain about 14 wins. We also saw the arrival of David Price. Not much to say there except, hello king David! Now either Sonny or EJax has to give way to Price, one of those nice problems we’ve heard about but rarely seen here. We also saw Jeff Niemann, Mitch Talbot and Jason Hammel make starts. Hammel should be a starter, just not here. Niemann and Talbot could be swingmen or trade bait. We also were lucky here in that there were no major injuries and we basically saw the same five guys all year. That’s a great accomplishment for that reason and for the fact that all five guys performed well enough to stay in the rotation.
• The bullpen: The second most surprising turnaround to me. JP Howell went from prospect on the bubble to a dominating short inning reliever who has become invaluable to this team. I gotta admit, I didn’t see that one coming. Howell not only dominated lefty’s but he shut down righty’s as well. Dan Wheeler rebounded from his bad showing after getting him back from Houston last season and was very good at the setup and closer roles. Grant Balfour was unhittable after his early season demotion and Trevor Miller did enough to get by. Troy Percival was very good until his age and weight caught up with him and his career should be over now. Jason Hammel played the villain role as the mop up/long relief guy and was doing decent until the meltdown against the Yanks. Chad Braford was a nice late season acquisition who performed well in his first round with the team. We saw Juan Salas, Mitch Talbot, Scott Dohman and Kurt Birkins make appearances and we said goodbye to Gary Glover and Al Reyes (yay!). Again this historical improvement I attribute to maturing and the defense.
• The offense: The offense was average for the most part all year and did enough to win. Longoria should be rookie of the year, Pena performed as expected and Aki continued his transition into the leadoff role. We saw down seasons from Upton (until the playoffs) and Crawford, mostly due to injuries. We saw marked improvement from Navarro who finished with the highest batting average at .295 (not .300 though, sorry Cork) and Jason Bartlett. Both of these guys shut me up with authority and became two guys I really like having now. Aybar was awesome off the bench filling in when needed. Gross had some big hits that we didn’t count on out of him. Zobrist and Hinske were good for some bombs at the right times. Floyd was decent at the DH role. Gomes played his way back to the minors (hopefully out of town) and Riggans did what a backup catcher should do. This is the area of the team you could say disappointed and needs to be improved on in the off-season.

   Overall it was the best season we’ve had and looks to be the start of something very special here. These guys are young for the most part and are still learning. Much of the way Her Rays thinks now, maybe there’s something to the fact that this was my first year blogging, it was the first winning season in Rays history. I only hope that I can improve as much as these guys did. It was a season that was great for me as I said it was my first year doing this site, it was the first year my son really got into baseball and it has given us all a sense of excitement that we’ve never had here before. I’ve heard people telling me that they can’t wait for next year already, that’s never been said to me before! Thanks to everyone out there who supported me, especially Rays Index.  Great season guys!

Technorati Tags: Akinori Iwamura, Al Reyes, Andy Sonnanstine, Ben Zobrist, BJ Upton, Carl Crawford, Carlos Pena, Chad Bradford, Cliff Floyd, Dan Wheeler, David Price, Eric Hinske, Evan Longoria, Fernando Perez, Gabe Gross, Gary Glover, Grant Balfour, J.P. Howell, James Shields, Jason Bartlett, Jason Hammel, Jeff Niemann, Jonny Gomes, Juan Salas, Kurt Birkins, Matt Garza, Mitch Talbot, Nathan Haynes, Rocco Baldelli, Scott Dohman, Scott Kazmir, Shawn Riggans, Tampa Bay Rays, Trevor Miller, Troy Percival, Willy Aybar