Archive for February 26th, 2008

Feb 26

[HAPPY HOUR] Scott Kazmir Just Made Us Throw Up A Little

David Price, Desmond Jennings, Evan Longoria, Jake McGee, Jeff Niemann, New Stadium, Prospects, Reid Brignac, Scott Kazmir, Stuart Sternberg, Wade Davis Cork Gaines 3 Comments »

Tampa Bay Rays (34 days until Opening Day)

What could possibly knock the Barry Bonds non-story from above-the-fold. Hmmmm? What could possibly be a bigger story than that? What is THIS?

Rays ace Scott Kazmir will have an MRI exam on his left elbow this afternoon after feeling discomfort while warming up on the mound during today’s intrasquad game.

WHAT THE [several explicatives deleted]!?!?!?!? Excuse us while we go curl up in the corner in fetal position mumbling incoherently…

But wait…It might not be so bad after all.

“We did all the strength tests and everything and he said I had great strength, and I didn’t feel one thing,” said Kazmir. “That’s always a good sign.”

And could this actually be a blessing in disguise…Scott?

“It was just a little scary because I’ve never felt it before,” he said. “But after I talked with Ron and we did some strength tests, I felt confident that we’ll be all right. Just got to check it out just to make sure.”

Little nervous are we? Maybe you want to reconsider that long-term extension after all.

Kazmir headed for MRI [Rays Report]

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…

  • Oh yeah. At the bottom of the same story, David Price experienced stiffness in his throwing shoulder, but it does not sound serious. [Rays Report]

He’ll be checked out again tomorrow to see if his work schedule needs to be pushed back, but Joe Maddon said there was nothing to worry about. “He’s fine,” said Maddon.

  • Stuart Sternberg acknowledged that the Rays may back off of their stadium proposal if the sale of Tropicana Field does not generate as much revenue as the team has projected. Sternberg also stated that he told Andrew Friedman not to consider the fate of the stadium when making trades and signings this off-season even though more wins will certainly help push the proposal through. [Bradenton Herald]

“What I try to do and what I’ve instilled in the organization . . . is remove as many variables as I can from any equation. I said to them immediately, just take the stadium out of it because If you don’t, you’re just going to end up driving yourself crazy and what you start to do is to say, ‘Were only trying to win for that reason’ or, ‘Lets try to win a few extra games to get some votes.’ We just removed that immediately and we don’t have to think about it…There are a lot of factors we can’t control. Yes, we can help control the wins a little bit, but quite frankly is there a lot we can do to help us win a ton more games? If you win three or five more games is that going to make the difference at the voting booth? I doubt it. I would hope and I think that people see past that a little bit. I think if you win 53 games and were shedding payroll and were doing some bad things, that’s a bad thing. But the economy is certainly an issue. How do people look at it? There’s so many variables that I just try to remove as many as possible whenever I make a decision.”

  • Stuart Sternberg also rekindled his 2007 goal of 50 home wins (The Rays went 37-44 at home in 2007). Seven teams won 50 home games in 2007. Six of those teams went to the playoffs. He also stated that he thinks this team could make the playoffs if they stay healthy and everybody plays to their potential. [Rays Report]

“What I would love to have happen, you don’t know October is going to look like, but you’d like to get well into the summer, into August and see that the guys are performing real well and that you’re within at least shouting distance and that you’re making some noise, making some trouble. If we can stay out of a bad stretch like we did last year, we had a real rough spot in July, I think that’s very possible.”

  • We already got a look at how Baseball America ranked the Rays top prospects. Now we get to see how those guys stack-up against the rest of the prospects in baseball with BA’s “Top 100 Prospects”. Four Rays are in the Top 20, including Evan Longoria (2), David Price (10), Jake McGee (15) and Wade Davis (17). Reid Brignac (39), Desmond Jennings (59) and Jeff Niemann (99) also made the list. [Baseball America]
Feb 26

[POWER RANKINGS] The Tampa Bay Rays Power Rankings

Rays Power Rankings Cork Gaines No Comments »

It’s Tuesday so it is time to update the Tampa Bay Rays Power Rankings. These rankings are a combination of overall importance to the team and a general “who’s hot and who’s not”, mixed with how we currently feel about and perceive each member of the team. It is by far, the least scientific thing we do on this site…

Feb 26

[RAYS MEDIA] Why The Rays Columnists Suck: Marc Topkin

Barry Bonds, Marc Topkin Cork Gaines 17 Comments »

Two in two days? It just wouldn’t be fair if we didn’t honor Marc Topkin after his performance yesterday…

Marc Topkin sucks because of THIS GOOGLE WEB SEARCH…THIS GOOGLE BLOG SEARCH…and THIS GOOGLE NEWS SEARCH.

And he especially sucks for those “Barry Bonds Ringtone” ads that now litter this site. What the hell would a “Barry Bonds Ringtone sound like anyway?

For the record. Marc Topkin did not write anything that wasn’t true. The Tampa Bay Rays did discuss Barry Bonds.

Hey! This just in…SO DID EVERY OTHER TEAM IN BASEBALL.

It was a non-story and either Marc Topkin knew that and he worded his story just right in order to get the national media juices flowing OR Marc Topkin is an idiot. Last week everybody was talking about how good the Rays could be in 2008. This week we have 6,432 headlines that are all of the variety “The Rays Look To Put The Devil Back In Tampa Bay”.

Rays ponder Bonds pursuit [St. Pete Times]

Feb 26

[ROCCO BALDELLI] Separated At Birth?

Ethan Embry, Rocco Baldelli, Separated at Birth? Cork Gaines 7 Comments »

Rays’ Rocco Baldelli……..actor Ethan Embry

Feb 26

[THE HANGOVER] Signing Barry Bonds Would Go Against Everything The Rays Have Done In Past Two Years

Akinori Iwamura, Barry Bonds, Cliff Floyd, Evan Longoria, Jason Bartlett, Joel Guzman, Jonny Gomes, Reid Brignac, Rocco Baldelli, Tom Foley, Will Carroll, Willy Aybar Cork Gaines No Comments »

Tampa Bay Rays (34 days until Opening Day)

For those that do not follow the comments sections, let us clarify our point on Barry Bonds.

There are reasons to sign Bonds and there are reasons not to sign Bonds. We understand both sides of the argument. In fact, we believe the Rays would be a better baseball team with Bonds. And in all probability the Rays would sell more tickets and make more money with Bonds.

However, our argument has never been about “should they” or “shouldn’t they”. We are just saying the Rays won’t. Signing Bonds would go against everything the Rays front office has done in the past two-plus years. They traded last year’s headaches, Elijah Dukes and Delmon Young. They dropped the term ‘Devil’ because some people reacted negatively. Free agent signings have filled needs, not wants.

But most importantly, the Rays like to speak of their new ‘brand’ (new nickname, logos and colors). The team has gone to great lengths to promote the new brand in a positive light. It doesn’t seem very likely that they are going to want America’s first experience with that brand to be in the form of Barry Bonds.

The Rays have a plan. The plan is working. Now can we please get back to talking about the 2008 Tampa Bay Rays? Yes? Good.

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…

  • If you haven’t had a chance to vote in this week’s “Rays Confidence Survey”, you can do so right HERE. [Rays Index]
  • Buster Olney (behind the wall of “ESPN: Insider”) believes that Barry Bonds makes sense for the Rays. There are now 6,345,122 new stories on Bonds to the Rays, good or bad? We did not want to link to any of them, but Buster Olney is very well respected. [ESPN]
  • Of course “the players” would welcome Barry Bonds. That is because nobody thought to ask Cliff Floyd and Jonny Gomes, two players that would stand to lose consider playing time with the addition of Bonds. [Tampa Bay Rays]
  • ESPN takes a satirical look at the Pros and Cons of Barry Bonds playing for each of the 30 teams. [ESPN]
  • Willy Aybar and Joel Guzman had their visa issues resolved and will be in camp today and tomorrow. [St. Pete Times]
  • The Bradenton Herald interview Evan Longoria on how he is approaching this year’s Spring Training. [Bradenton Herald]
  • The Tampa Tribune interviews Reid Brignac and he discusses the key step that helped him turn the corner with regard to his defense at shortstop. [Tampa Tribune]

Beginning in spring training last year, the Rays set about to revamp Brignac’s throwing motion. A tall, rangy shortstop whose build recalls Cal Ripken Jr., Brignac was in the habit of delivering his throws straight over the top. That’s what you want from an outfielder, which Brignac was in high school until his senior season, but not ideal for an infielder.

“You can’t teach hands or anything like that, but they did a great job of getting me where I needed to be to be successful,” Brignac said. “You can either take that and run with it or you can try and do your own thing, and nine times out of 10, if you listen to the advice that has been given to you and the coaching that has gone on and run with it, you learn a lot. You get better.”

Brignac certainly did. He had committed 19 errors, most of them with his arm rather than his glove, in his first 90 games for the Biscuits. He committed only three more miscues in his final 43 games.

  • Joe Maddon will wait until after the first two intrasquad games before deciding how much Rocco Baldelli will play in the early portion of the Spring Training schedule. [Herald-Tribune]
  • Jason Bartlett and infielder coach Tom Foley think that Akinori Iwamura is making great strides in his adjustment to second base. [Tampa Bay Rays]

“He’s going to be fine,” said Jason Bartlett, the Rays’ new shortstop. “Everybody makes a big deal about it, but he’s an athlete. … I don’t think it’s going to be a problem at all.”

“He’s doing great,” Foley said. “There are some little things he has to do to help him out, but as far as fundamentals, he’s doing great.

“Aki’s a great athlete and seems to have a real good grip on second base already,” Foley said. “It’s just a matter of playing games. When you go from one side of the diamond to the other side, and all of a sudden, you get a ball in the gap: What are your responsibilities? Those things have to be reactionary once the season starts.”

  • One More Dying Quail compares the 2008 to the 1969 New York Mets. And as Red Sox fans they are scared. [One More Dying Quail]
  • Joe Maddon has enlisted one player every morning to tell the Joke-of-the-Day prior to workouts. [ESPN]
  • Will Carroll of Baseball Prospectus attended the Tampa Bay Rays’ FanFest. He even took a few pictures. [Baseball Prospectus]
  • One blogger thinks that a new-and-improved Rays could cause havoc in the AL East, which may lead to the AL Wild Card coming from the AL Central. [The Spot Starters]