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Tampa Bay Sports Blog

Blog dedicated to Tampa Bay area major sports news and opinions.

Entries Tagged ‘James Shields’

Five moves the Rays should make.

    In the spirit of trying to keep up with the goings on of the hot stove league I’ve decided to look at the possibilities and suggest five moves the Rays should make to improve their team. I will try to be as realistic as I can be while trying to view things from both [...]

Rays season over, sigh.

   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 [...]

The sh*t goes down in the second!

   All hell started to break loose now in Boston. After the incident with Crisp and Joe Maddon last night we all knew something would happen. Well here it is. James Shields hit Dustin Pedroia in the first which I thought would be it, but no! Shields came back in the second and hit Coco Crisp [...]

The Rays need a real hitter!

   The series in Boston is pretty much going the way I thought it would. I’m not silly enough to think the Rays can go to Boston and sneak out with another series win. I figured they would drop the first two and grab the third behind James Shields. This isn’t being brought up because [...]

Kazmir is the man, should get Cy Young!

   I might be jumping the gun here but Scott Kazmir is off to a ridiculously good start. Since the early part of last year I have been arguing that James Shields was the ace and not Kazmir. I argue this not because I think that Shields has better stuff, he doesn’t, but because he [...]

Rays win behind Floyd walkoff!

   Cliff Floyd has now made his mark. Floyd hit a shot to center that barely got over the wall for a walkoff 2-1 win. He’ll probably have to go on the DL now after running the bases and getting beat down by everyone when he got home. Some notes from the game.

   James Shields got [...]

Where are the fans?

   I’m confused by the lack of attendance at the Rays games. The Rays have yet to start hitting yet they win. You could go watch Shields, Kazmir and Sonnanstine. You don’t have to see the crap that was continuously rotated out of the bullpen last year. You can see one of the best defense’s [...]

Rays win behind Shields almost perfect game.

   One pitch, one swing and that’s the only thing keeping James Shields out of the history books tonight. James Shields looked outstanding tonight against the Angels. He mowed down man after man never slowing down to take a breath it seemed. You could not have asked for anything better from your ace after the [...]

Rays bad again in loss to Sox.

   James Shields took the hill and looked bad from the first pitch tonight. These things happen. Shields is a good pitcher and this is just something that happens to all pitchers from time to time. The bullpen is starting to come down to earth as Howell and Dohman both gave up runs. Anyone who [...]

Rays in first, Shields player of the week.

   Well in case you’ve been locked in a closet and hadn’t heard let me tell you, our hometown Tampa Bay Rays are in first place! Well tied for first actually but in first none the less. I know it’s early and I know I’m not supposed to get overly excited about it this early [...]

Rays sweep!

   What an outstanding week it has been for the Rays Nation. First, they sweep a very good Toronto team in the home away from home series in Orlando, only to follow it up with a sweep of the Boston Red Sox at home. There were big time crowds, big time plays and really big [...]

Rays in a big one with the Sox.

   What a huge night for the Rays and their fans. Rays Index wrote today about how big this series actually is for the Rays and I’m in complete agreement on this. This series with Boston is a show a prove opportunity for the Rays. This is huge not just for the fans, who finally get [...]

The Rays keep winning in Orlando.

   If the Rays keep this up the ownership group may look at a new ballpark in Orlando instead. Just kidding (hopefully). Shields pitched well, Longoria homered, Navarro made a nice return and Eric Hinske had a good time bashing his former team. I’m of course speaking literally here as Hinske darn near hit for the cycle [...]

Rays injuries pile up, announcement coming.

   The Rays have experienced a multitude of injuries so far yet the newest could hurt badly. In last nights game Carlos Pena left with what is being called ‘hamstring tightness’ and this scares all Rays fans. Pena is off to a good start power-wise and is a great defensive first baseman. If he goes [...]

Rays have more problems than we thought.

   Let’s do some catching up on a busy week where my family kept me busy.  I know it’s early in the season but it appears the Rays have more problems than expected. First off it’s quickly looking like swapping Brendan Harris for Jason Bartlett was a huge mistake. Harris was average defensively but made [...]

and the bad Rays.

   On Sunday and Monday the Devil Rays apparently showed up to play. James Shields didn’t pitch badly but the Rays couldn’t get anything going against Chen-Ming Wang. Not an unforgivable offense there. Just one of those pitching duels that the Yanks were not giving up as they quickly went to Joba to keep things [...]

Rays report-Crawford, Baldelli, Wheeler.

   The Rays didn’t play today but they still had some news courtesy of the St. Pete Times.

   The Rays picked up the option on Carl Crawford’s option for the 2009 season for $8.25 million. Today was the deadline for this and for Rocco’s option who’s obviously wasn’t picked up. No shocker on either here [...]

Rays open season strong.

   The Rays started their season nicely today with a 6-2 victory in Baltimore. Granted the Orioles aren’t going to make much noise this year but in a place where the Rays have struggled to win over the years, it all helps. James Shields got through an uncharacteristically wild first inning and got through seven [...]

Longoria sent down.

   The Rays officially sent top prospect Evan Longoria down to AAA Durham today according to Marc Topkin. As I’ve been harping on this issue alot recently this move really disappoints me. I understand what the Rays are trying to do but it still doesn’t make sense. In doing this they officially tell Longoria, and [...]

Rays report - Longoria, Price, Reed Johnson

   The Rays have a few things going on right now.

   The decision will be made this week on where Evan Longoria will start the season. I’ll be disappointed in the Rays if they send him to the minors. I’ll keep saying he’s done enough to be the opening day third baseman. The thing that [...]