Mar 19
We don’t need a ‘Nation’…We don’t need an ‘Empire’…All we need is a cold beverage, good music and better baseball. We are RAYSHEADS.
When the Tampa Bay Devil Rays first announced that they were changing their name, many fans, ourselves included, felt betrayed. It was one thing to change the name and the colors. It was something else entirely to change the mascot to sunshine, forcing our beloved fish out of the Trop.
While we have not been as adamant about holding on to the old moniker as some others have been, we still prefer to think of the mascot in terms of the shark’s cousin.
In an effort to reconcile our love of the past and move forward with the team, today we are declaring ourselves RAYSHEADS and ask you to join us.
We have designed a number of T-shirts and opened the Rays Index Store. This is your chance to pledge your allegiance and let everybody know that you are a RAYSHEAD and at the same time support our site (this latter point is important as we try to justify to Mrs. Professor the amount of time we spend working here).
Below are a few examples of the shirts we have to offer. We have included a number of styles for men, women and even one for the new RAYHEADS in your lives.
We also strongly encourage anybody that purchases a T-shirt to send us picture(s) of the shirts in the wild, preferably at The Trop while the Rays are pounding the crap out of the Yankees or the Red Sox. We will post all pictures here on the site and if we get enough we will include a permanent gallery in the sidebar.
Click on any image to be taken directly to the Rays Index store.
RAYSHEAD by
C. A. Gaines is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.
Mar 19
The Rays Confidence Graph will appear every Wednesday and is a look at how much confidence Rays fans have in the Tampa Bay Rays. The graph is designed to give us a look at how our emotional bias as Rays fans fluctuates through time. The “confidence” in the team is an inexact measure of how fans feel about the team’s current strength as well as how much confidence fans have in the franchise for the next 3-4 years. Notes on this weeks agida-level can be found after the graph..
Notes on the RI Confidence Graph…
- The most common response for “Confidence in 2008 Rays” was 7 (If things break right, they could be in race for playoffs) with 54.2%
- The most common response for “Confidence in future of franchise” was 9 with 44.9%.
- Confidence in the 2008 Rays ranged from 1 (The Rays will lose 120 games) to 10 (The Rays are built/playing like a World Series contender), while 95.4% answered between 4 (Will fall short of 81 wins, but won’t finish in cellar) and 8 (They will be in playoff contention all season).
- Confidence in the future ranged from 1-10, while 98.0% of respondents answered 7 or greater.
- 74.7% of respondents feel the Rays have a shot at the playoffs in 2008. This is up from 69.3% last week.
- 95.4% of respondents feel the Rays should be at least a .500 team in 2008. This is down from 96.6% last week.
Mar 19
We call him The Dirtbag because of how he plays and because he played college ball at Long Beach State whose baseball team has the coolest mascot in sports…The Dirtbags.
The biggest question mark for the Tampa Bay Rays in Spring Training is whether or not Evan Longoria will be named the opening day third baseman. Manager Joe Maddon has repeatedly stated that the decision will be based less on his stats, and more on how the 22-year old handles himself on a day-to-day basis and how well The Dirtbag adjusts to everyday life as a major leaguer. From now until the Rays announce a decision on Longoria’s fate, we will track The Dirtbag’s progress through his numbers, our own observations and quotes from Maddon and Andrew Friedman…
Notes on the Dirtbag-O-Meter…
Yesterday: Evan Longoria started at third base going 1-2 with his third home run and a walk. He grounded out to end the third. In the 5th, he homered with 2 outs and the bases empty. In the 7th, Longoria drew a walk with men on second and third and nobody out. In the field he handled one ground ball to end the fifth and started a double play that ended the 6th.
Quotes: “Right now” is Upton’s assessment of when Longoria will be ready. [USA Today]
Summary: Yesterday’s home run was particularly impressive because it was the first base runner allowed by Cole Hamels after being perfect for 4.2 innings in what by most accounts was a Cole Hamels in mid-season form, tossing a gem…. On the spring, The Dirtbag has 3 home runs. .488 OBP. 1.255 OPS. 9 walks, 5 strikeouts…More telling? Longoria has started three straight games. We have heard the rumors that Longoria is on his way down to the minors at the end of the week, but the team has said he will be on the opening day roster if he is ready…The Dirtbag is ready.
Mar 19
Tampa Bay Rays (12 days until Opening Day)
Yesterday: Phillies 4, Tampa Bay Rays 2.
The Good: Matt Garza in the 2nd, 3rd and 6th innings. After a shaky first, he retired 9 of 10 and then the last 4 he faced. Evan Longoria hit his 3rd home run of the spring but more eye-opening was his 9th walk of the spring. Only 5 players in the majors have more and only one of those players (Willie Harris) has fewer than Longoria’s 5 strikeouts.
The Bad: Matt Garza in the first inning: 1 throwing error, 1 wild pitch, 1 walk, 1 run. Reid Brignac committed his 3rd error of the spring. He only had 3 errors in the final 43 games last season. As a team the Rays only managed 3 hits, without a baserunner until 2 outs in the 5th, and committed 2 errors.
The Telling: JP Howell once again came on in a relief role and pitched a perfect 9th with 2 strikeouts. Howell is going to make the roster…as a relief pitcher.
DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…
- USA Today takes a look at the importance, or lack thereof, of spring win-loss records. Andrew Friedman may have summed it best…“Generally, I think there’s very little correlation,” Friedman said, “but for us, and the collective mind-set of our organization, it sure can’t hurt.” [USA Today]
- Bad news for Elliot Johnson fans. Ben Zobrist had his cast removed a week earlier which gives the Rays newest utility guy a much better shot at being ready for opening day…Scott Kazmir is playing catch, and may be able to throw a bullpen session on Wednesday. [Rays Report]
- Joe Maddon is less optimistic about the chances of Ben Zobrist making the trip to Baltimore for opening day. If Zobrist is not on the field by the end of next week, we suspect Zobrist will start season on the DL with a stay in extended spring training. [Tampa Bay Rays]
“You have to take at-bats, all the other little things you have to do to get ready for the season,” Maddon said. “I’m not sure about that yet, we’ll see. He’s been playing catch. I know his arm is still in shape. He’s been doing anything he can possibly do to stay under the circumstances to stay ready, and that’s typical Zobrist right there. Again, he just has not been able to hit, which would be a big factor.”
- Scott Kazmir revealed that his recent switch to a cautionary tone with regards to his arm may have been fueled by the career-ending injury suffered by Brian Anderson. [Tampa Bay Rays]
“It kind of freaked me out a little bit, to be honest with you,” Kazmir said. “You see him come in and the next thing you know he’s talking about, ‘Oh, I ripped my whatever’ and what not. Then I’m like, maybe I should take a little more time…I see that going on. I’m thinking, ‘Oh, man, I don’t want to be in that boat.’ And, plus, I’ve got the time no just to make sure that everything is strong and I’m ready to go.”
- Yesterday Rays of Light rallied for the Rays to sign Todd Linden to be the 4th outfielder. Today DRays Bay tells us why he is not all his numbers are cracked up to be. [DRays Bay]
- Dayn Perry say the Rays are “capable of contending very soon”. Of course this is the same guy that said the Rays were one of “ten teams that could surprise” in 2007 and a week later wrote a column in which he said the 2007 Rays were one of the teams “with no hope for success”. [Fox Sports]
- USA Today interviews Joe Maddon. There is nothing here that we haven’t been hearing in the local media all spring. [USA Today]
- Yahoo! Sports projects the Rays lineup. They have Scott Dohmann and JP Howell in the bullpen, which is how DRays Bay projects it and the way we figure it will shake down. Of course there is a good chance they just read one or both sites. [Yahoo! Sports]
- The Tampa Tribune has details on the three proposals submitted for the redevelopment of Tropicana Field. Officials will recommend one of the proposals to the City Council by May 1st. [Tampa Tribune]
