Photo by Ryane Shields

Let me be perfectly honest: If someone told me back in March that come sometime in May, Baltimore would boast the best record in baseball, I would have smiled and nodded before trying to change the topic to something a bit more sane.

And yet, here we are. The Orioles are 19-9. The best of the bigs. Our Rays are 19-10 and second-best.

Yesterday, when the Rays were down 8-5, I chose to escape to poolside with a drink in my hand. You see, I was in the middle of my laundry day. The combination of that and Tampa Bay giving up a four run lead could have ruined my good mood, so after the fifth inning, I decided to check in on the game only when I had to move a load from the washer to the dryer. The Rays lost 9-5. Personally, I made the right choice.

But it’s Monday. This days tends to stink all on its own so that’s enough about losses. Keep reading for some happier Rays related things.

» Continue reading “Daily Rays: An Interesting Suggestion, Players And Pooches, And More”

It’s an off-day. Womp, womp.

The Rays need their rest and all but now I’m going to have to hope that there are some new TV shows on tonight.

So what can you do with your spare time?

1. Sign your outgoing child up for WTSP’s Kid Reporter Sweepstakes. Three kids between the ages of 5 and 17 will be selected to be the reporter for one of three different Sunday games during the season.

2. Check out “This Week In Sun Sports” on DRaysBay. Yes, you can re-watch the clip of Todd Kalas pushing Katherine, the PR Manager for the Florida Aquarium, over in the Rays Tank. Never change, TK. Never change.

3. Fill out an All-Star ballot. Yep, it’s still April but apparently it’s not too early to judge who deserves to take part in the mid-summer classic.

They’ve taken us on an emotional rollercoaster, but the Rays took their first series of the season with wins on Friday and Saturday. Today, they’ll go for the sweep against the Yankees.

At 1:40 this afternoon Jeremy Hellickson, the 2011 AL Rookie of the Year, will take the hill for the first time in 2012.

Fingers crossed Helly won’t suffer a sophomore slump.

[I do get a little kick out of the fact that a guy sometimes referred to as Hellboy not only gets the first Sunday start of the season, he gets the Easter Sunday start.]
-Rays Index broke down last night’s game in their morning hangover post.

-The Minor League season is underway and you can catch up with what went down on the farm on Saturday at DRaysBay.

-Dad (Cowbell Clankers contributor Wayne to the rest of you) sent me a text yesterday after visiting the zoo. While looking at bats hanging upside down, he couldn’t help but think of the Rays offense.

Bats just hanging around, not being productive. The offense is the biggest question for the Rays heading into the 2012 regular season. » Continue reading “Rays: Missing Bats, Farnsy, And Minor League Decisions”

Nope, it’s not one of the Rays’ players. Yet…

It’s me. I just moved from one bay area residence to another.

Other teams are making moves. The Rangers have won the bidding rights to Yu Darvish which means, as Steve Slowinski points out, that we won’t have to deal with Yu in the AL East. Of course, now we may have to see him in the postseason.

The Reds added a starting pitcher to their rotation in Mat Latos. Cork Gaines of Rays Index talks about the impact of that trade (it sent Yonder Alonso, Yasmani Grandal, Edinson Volquez, and Brad Boxberger to the Padres) on the Rays. Cincinnati was one of the only teams truly looking for a starting pitcher and now that they have one, will the Rays be able to find a market for one of theirs?

Rays Digest has part two of an interview with Rick Brogna, who was recently hired by the Rays as a scout, posted. You can still access part one.

By Kelvin Kay, en:user:kkmd GFDL (www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) via Wikimedia Commons

Life’s all about the give and take, right? There are some things that I want from, and for, the Rays going in to 2012 but there are also things that the Rays have already given me this offseason.

After reading John Romano’s latest column, I have to say that I’m on board with him. Romano posits that the Rays are just one bat away from the 2012 World Series.

It seems that we have the pitching in place (knock on wood). But we need a serious bat.

Santa, if you’re a baseball fan, a player with a great bat is on the top of my list.

A new stadium is also on my list, but right now, that seems a little too greedy and I don’t want to come off like a six-year-old asking for an iPad.

While I’m speaking about offense, Jason Collette of DRaysBay has an interesting article up based on a statistical analysis of the Rays’ patience at the plate.

Before I go asking for everything else I’d like next season, I’ll move on to something I’m thankful to have. I mean really, if a bat will get us to the World Series, I don’t need much else.

I love my team. I love my manager. I love my players. Matt Moore is now one of my players and he earned my love in just a few innings last season and it looks as though he will continue to earn it for many years to come.

Moore, who signed a contract with the Rays late last week, did an interview for Happy Hour with JP Peterson on 1010 AM CBS Sports on Wednesday.

You can catch the full interview here.

Moore said regarding his contract:

“In the end, I’d love for this to be a bad deal for me.”

Matt, I love to see people get a fair deal, but I have to agree with you on this one. I hope you outperform your 5-year, $14 million contract that could go up to an 8-year, $39.75 million contract. I also hope that after this initial contract is over, that you stick with the Rays. But I’ll talk more about that eight years from now.

On his pitching prowess:

“It’s probably more of a God-given gift thing…I can’t quite explain it. I feel like I’m trying to throw the ball hard, you know sometimes.”

The kid, who is just a year younger than me, is humble and seems genuinely grateful for the fact that he has a career in baseball.

Can’t wait to see you on the hill again, Double M!

Non-baseball note: JP (an FSU alumni) promised Moore field passes to a Florida State game earlier in the year and they spoke about getting that done next season. Since I am an alumna, you can bet on all that is garnet and gold that I’ll try my best to get up to Tallahassee to see Moore at Doak Campbell Stadium. I am all kinds of delighted by the fact that some of my Rays are meeting some of my Noles.

-Oh…the days of experiencing the Shoppacopter and the brief, but thrilling, Shoppachalypse that we witnessed during the 2011 ALDS are over. Catcher Kelly Shoppach has agreed to a one-year, $1.35 million contract with the Boston Red Sox, his original team.

Shoppach tweeted yesterday, “I’ve been saving tweet #1000 for this…I’m excited to be going back to Boston. Thanks #Rays twitfam. I hope we can still be friends.”

On the bright side, now at least there’s one Red Sox player who will give an interview I want to hear. Fare thee well, but not too well, especially when you plays the Rays, since you’ll be on the wrong team now, Kelly.

I’m sure Boston has plenty of Starbucks for ya.

-DRaysBay included a link to a piece about dirty baseball songs in The Rays Tank this morning. The article by Ben Lindbergh for Baseball Prospectus is called “Overthinking It” and it’s awesome. There’s apparently a slightly inappropriate baseball song for every adult occasion. Cleat chasers with standards might especially like, “If You Can’t Make A Hit In A Ball Game, You Can’t Make A Hit With Me.” » Continue reading “Tampa Bay Rays: Farewell, Shoppachalypse, Dirty Baseball Songs, David Price’s Tweets, And A Joe Maddon Interview”

The things that happened while I had no wifi were mostly happy.

Things that happened on a day I had no access to wifi:

-The Rays added Burke Badenhop to the bullpen. My, oh my, I love alliteration. This is going to be a fun season. Badenhop comes from the Marlins. In exchange, Miami picked up Rays’ minor league catcher Jake Jefferies. Matt Snyder of CBS Sports called the move “vintage Andrew Friedman.” I like the sound of that.

Snyder also states:

Badenhop, 28, had a 4.10 ERA and 1.40 WHIP in 63 2/3 innings last season for the Marlins. Sabermetric stats showed he pitched much better than those numbers and suffered from bad fortune. His FIP was 2.95 and BABIP allowed was a high .327. So if things regress to the norm, Badenhop’s numbers will come down.

Fingers crossed.

-In addition to Badenhop, the Rays tendered B.J. Upton, David Price, Jeff Niemann, Joel Peralta and dun…dun…dun….J.P. Howell. I’m going to have to keep my faith in Friedman who had this to say to the St. Pete Times regarding Howell:

“We’re big believers in who J.P. is and what he’s done to put himself in position to have a good 2012 season. J.P. is one of those guys you bet on.”

See you soon?

-As you’re reading that list of tendered players, you might notice that the name Andy Sonnanstine is missing. Sonny was non-tendered. Steve Slowinski of DRaysBay has put together a lovely ode to Andy, one of the last true Devil Rays.

-Rays Digest is still rolling out their list of the top prospects for Tampa Bay in 2012. Yesterday’s profile featured Lenny Linksy.

Linsky, a righty reliever out of the University of Hawaii, comes in at number 18 on Rays Digest’s list of the team’s top 50 prospects for next year.

Fun fact: I got to meet Linksy in St. Pete on the day he signed. Yes, he had seen the piece I wrote following the draft in which he was a co-recipient of the “Most Likely to Make Me Feel Like a Cougar” award. Our meeting was much less awkward than one might have guessed based on that tidbit of information. He was a nice guy who was genuinely excited to start his journey to the bigs.

I was talking to my daughter Sarah, the honcho of this site, an hour or so ago. I asked how the Joe’s Thanksmas fundraiser had gone at 717 South, and she asked if I had read her post from yesterday.

No, I hadn’t. Busy proctoring the A.C.T. – I hope that acronym didn’t make anyone cringe – and there was a family birthday.

The computer was never even booted up yesterday, and my old phone barely has text-ability, much less the ability to cruise the internet. Well, she went on to tell me about David Price’s car being given a urine bath. Must have been a disgruntled Red Sox fan. Someone is very lucky it was D.P.’s car. There are a lot of guys who might have given the clown the bionic elbow, but D.P. simply dodged a punch or two and let it be. Good decision.

The Rays need a big lefty more than they need a big lefty with a broken left hand. At any rate, it’s hard to believe there wasn’t a tree or lamppost for the guy to use. And Sarah said the fundraiser was a good time. Be sure to support a great cause, food for the needy, at www.joesthanksmas.com.

Andres Reiner, a special assistant for the Rays, retired at the tender age of 76. He had a great deal to do with the Rays scouting and player development in Venezuela and the Dominican Republic. Special Veep of Baseball Ops Gerry Hunsicker said:

“He is a true visionary and has left a tremendous legacy for our game.”

That comes from the Rays’ MLB site, courtesy of Bill Chastain. In the same post, Chastain wrote of the Rays’ efforts to add to the offensive side of their game, and quoted Andrew Friedman as saying

“There are different ways to score runs. Some ways are more expensive than others. We just have to get creative to find the optimal mix.”

Those two names, Reiner and Friedman, say a lot about the Rays. As I heard so often growing up, “There’s more than one way to skin a cat.” A-A, Andres and Andrew, epitomize what the root of baseball is about if you can’t wrap up superstar free agents for ten years and a quarter of a billion dollars. Thank you for what you brought to the Rays, Andres, and keep up the fantastic, creative work, Andrew.

» Continue reading “Daily Rays: Late Retirement, Top 10, Pre-Agency, And The Best Article Ever”

The Rays haven’t made waves during the Winter Meetings and for whatever reason, I don’t have the feeling that this is just the calm before a storm.

Thankfully, I have a lot more faith in Andrew Friedman and the front-office staff than I do in Elmer Fudd. I think they’ll hunt down the pieces the team needs going into 2012.

Here are a few pieces you might like to check out today:

DRaysBay: The Rays Tank: Marlins Continue To Go Nuts, Rays Riding The Waves

Tomorrow’s post might include that the Angels started going nuts. The deal they made with CJ Wilson (5 yrs, $77.5 million) is reasonable by pro sports standards, but 10 years, $250 million for Albert Pujols? No. That’s crazy talk, and yet it’s the truth. I would not offer that kind of cash and lengthy commitment to a guy who’s already over 30.

Rays Digest: Rays 2011 Rule 5 Wrap-Up

As far as today’s Rule 5 draft goes, I feel just fine where the Rays are concerned. Didn’t hurt at all when I heard that they had passed from the live audio feed that MLB had on their site. Also, kudos to MLB for putting video that was compatible with iOS. Team iPhone thanks you.