Archive for February, 2008

Feb 27

[THE HANGOVER] Scott Kazmir’s Set-back Increases Chance Of Jeff Niemann Making Opening Day Roster

Charlie Crist, Jason Hammel, Jeff Niemann, Joe Maddon, Joel Guzman, Jonny Gomes, JP Howell, Scott Kazmir, Stuart Sternberg, Willy Aybar 3 Comments »

Tampa Bay Rays (33 days until Opening Day)

Even though the MRI results are not due until today, the St. Pete Times this morning is reporting that Scott Kazmir will be sidelined for approximately two weeks.

The news on Rays ace Scott Kazmir’s left elbow appeared relatively good Tuesday night – no serious injury, but he’s expected to be sidelined about two weeks, which makes it unlikely he’d be ready for the opening day start.

Kazmir, 24, walked off the mound Tuesday after feeling “a little discomfort” while warming up for an intrasquad game and ended up in an MRI machine at Dr. Koco Eaton’s office. Kazmir said “it felt like it just jammed a little bit, kind of like a hyperextension.”

Of course the immediate concern is the status of Kid K’s elbow. In relation to the Rays opening day roster…this set-back for Kazmir may be an opportunity for another starting pitcher.

Joe Maddon has stated the five are fighting for the final two spots in the rotation, with incumbants Edwin Jackson and Andy Sonnanstine the early favorites. If Kazmir does indeed miss two or three starts in April, One of Jason Hammel, JP Howell and Jeff Niemann may get a shot to extend their audition into the regular season.

If one of those pitchers is slated to become a long reliever, Maddon may be more inclined to start that pitcher in the role immediately and fill the hole in the rotation with one of the other two. For example, if Hammel is to be the long reliever, he may not be considered to fill Kazmir’s spot in the rotation.

This set-back for Kazmir now means that we have a significantly better chance of seeing Niemann on the opening day roster.

Rays concerned for Kazmir [Bradenton Herald]
Kazmir checks out [St. Pete Times]

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…

  • If you missed it yesterday, we included a “Webtopia” in the “Happy Hour” segment yesterday afternoon. So you will find a number of links there. This may become more common during Spring Training when the media coverage is at it’s highest. [Rays Index]
  • The Rays held their first intrasquad game yesterday. Not a lot of action, outside of Jonny Gomes making a falling down diving catch. [Herald-Tribune]
  • Joel Guzman finally resolved his Visa issues and arrived at camp yesterday. Willy Aybar is expected to arrive today. We finally get to see exactly how good the super-platoon, Jolly Guzbar, can be. [Tampa Bay Rays]
  • Stuart Sternberg said he would be open to adding payroll to the team in-season if it meant strengthening the team. [St. Pete Times]

“Obviously our payroll has been at or near the bottom. But it’s a big business, and with a business like that you need to have some flexibility,” Sternberg said during his first appearance of the spring at training camp…”So we will always be in a position to add. The question is, at what cost and not just at the cost, but how does that affect us 2009, 2010? The money isn’t endless. It will just have to come from another year.”

  • Florida Governor Charlie Crist supports the Rays proposal for a new stadium, stating that he believes the new park and the redevelopment of Tropicana Field would be an economic boost for the city. [Rays Report]

The new stadium “means a lot. I want to do everything we can,” Crist said, “That is why I wanted to reinstitute the [Governor’s Baseball Dinner], to show how much Florida appreciates what baseball does for the whole Sunshine State. Anything we can do in order to support baseball – and all sports being in Florida – is important…Annually, sports means $32 billion a year for the Sunshine State. That’s a huge economic driver and makes an enormous impact in the production of jobs…[A new Rays stadium is] not just for owners and players but for an awful lot of people that work at the stadium that park the cars and provide the food. It’s very important for all of us and I want to do whatever I can to help.”

  • Fire Jay Mariotti rips apart a piece from The Sporting News that thinks the Rays should sign Barry Bonds. [Fire Jay Mariotti]
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 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 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 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? 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 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]
Feb 25

[MEDIA COVERAGE] 10 Questions We Wish The Media Would Ask The Rays

10 Questions 7 Comments »

Journalists are afraid to ask a “yes or no” question. This is not meant as a knock on the media. They are trained to only ever ask open-ended questions (questions that require more than a one-word answer), as it is difficult to generate quotes for a story if all the questions are answered with one word.

Unfortunately open-ended questions are flawed. Today’s sports personalities are conditioned to respond with evasive, cliche-filled, non-answers. The only way to pin these athletes/coaches/personnel down to a solid answer is to ask the close-ended question and demand an answer.

Here are 10 ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ questions that the local media are afraid to ask but we as Rays fans want answered…

  • For Andrew Friedman:
    1. If the Tampa Bay Rays could fit Barry Bonds within the financial framework of the organization, is he a player the Rays would consider signing?
    2. Will David Price pitch in Spring Training games?
    3. Will David Price start any Spring Training games?
    4. Are you concerned that Juan Salas‘ 2007 suspension will keep him from obtaining a visa to come to the U.S.?
    5. Have teams contacted you recently about the availability of Joel Guzman or Willy Aybar, in anticipation of Evan Longoria making the squad?
  • For Joe Maddon:
    1. You recently made comments about not giving the players as much rope in 2008. You made similar comments prior to last season. Do you feel you were too easy on the players in 2007?
    2. Will one of the final two spots in the bullpen come from the five pitchers competing for the final two spots in the rotation?
    3. If the season opened tomorrow, would Scott Dohmann have a spot in the bullpen?
    4. Will BJ Upton get work at any position other than center field this Spring?
    5. Do you consider Rocco Baldelli to be the backup center fielder?
Feb 25

[PAPA JOE MADDON] Joe Maddon Keeps Promising To Tighten The Leash On His Players

Joe Maddon, Joe Maddon hates my liver 2 Comments »

Marc Topkin of the St. Pete Times recently wrote a piece entitled “Maddon shortens his leash” discussing how Joe Maddon would hold players more accountable in 2008.

Accountability is already manager Joe Maddon’s favorite word of the spring…And it’s going to become more prevalent, and more apparent, Maddon says, in how he manages the team in his third season.

“We’re at the point now where we think we’ve moved this along a bit, so you’re not going to give somebody as much rope. You still want to develop, and you still want to see people. But they may not get the same opportunities to fail as much as we’ve given people to fail in the past.”

That sounded nice. But it also sounded familiar. Where had we heard this before? Hmmm?

Oh yeah! Maddon said the same thing in Spring Training last year...

When Maddon admitted the other day that some of his players were unprofessional at times last year, it rekindled concerns that he might be too much of a players’ buddy to be a taskmaster.

“I probably made a mistake in regard to giving the younger players too much leeway early on. When you are dealing with young players, it is probably wiser to use a tighter rein with them. I want to treat them like men, but I want to make sure they’re ready for it.”

So what happens this year if the unprofessionalism continues? What happens if players continue ask questions that were covered in a meeting a few minutes earlier?

“That won’t happen this year,” Maddon said. “If it does, I’ll deal with it.”

Maddon in February, 2007: “it is probably wiser to use a tighter rein”
Maddon in February, 2008: “so you’re not going to give somebody as much rope”

So is Maddon saying he did not “tighten the reins” in 2007? Or did he not tighten them enough?

If he keeps this up, there won’t be much rope left in 2009.

Maddon shortens his leash [St. Pete Times]
Is Maddon the man? Maybe [St. Pete Times]

Feb 25

[RAYS MEDIA] Why The Rays Columnists Suck: David Whitley

David Whitley 1 Comment »

Not really a Rays columnist, but we haven’t done one of these in a while so let’s fire up the burner…

David Whitley writes for the Orlando Sentinel. Apparently Mr. Whitley’s idea of journalism is to send emails to The Church of Satan, asking Satan himself how he feels about the Tampa Bay Devil Rays changing their name to the ‘Tampa Bay Rays’. Seriously.

After much research, I finally found a Web site for The Church of Satan.

I wanted to call for a comment, but there was a stern notice that the church doesn’t take or return phone calls. It does accept e-mails, so I sent one asking if somebody could give us the Devil’s perspective on being dissed by Tampa Bay.

“Hey, it’s not my fault Vince Naimoli thought he could take on the Yankees with a Wal-Mart payroll,” Satan said. “And whose idea was it to play home games inside the world’s largest dumpster?”

Actually, the Devil didn’t really say that. I never heard back from the Church of Satan, not that I was surprised. It’s hard to use a keyboard with cloven hooves.

Is this supposed to be funny? Is this supposed to have any point whatsoever? Did David Whitley email random gun websites as ask if they were offended when the Washington Bullets changed their name to the Wizards? And then make up fake quotes when they failed to respond? Did he email his in-laws and ask if they were offended when his wife changed her last name?

I don’t know. Maybe Mr. Whitley would have had more luck if he tried to email some actual Devil Rays…you know, the fish? and asked if they were offended. At least then this would have made a modicum of sense.

Who cursed the Rays? Could it be…Satan?! [Orlando Sentinel]

Feb 25

[RI CONFIDENCE GRAPH] The Tampa Bay Rays Confidence Survey

Confidence graph No Comments »

Last week’s Rays Confidence Graph results.

Below you will see two polls that ask about your confidence in the Tampa Bay Rays. Please take a moment to answer each question. We will present these same polls every Monday. The results will be presented in graphical form on Wednesday, and will be displayed permanently in the sidebar. The goal of the Confidence Graph is to get a feeling of how Rays fans feel about the team and the franchise and track how that level of confidence changes through time. Thanks!

Raysiverse events of the past week that could impact confidence levels…


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