[Update: 11:29pm] Marc Lancaster is reporting that the Rays will recall Salas in time for Tuesday’s game. At this point, Salas will not be eligible for the post-season roster, since he will not be on the active roster at midnight tonight. However, the Rays also put the injured JK Ryu on the major league DL. With Ryu and Chad Orvella on the DL, the Rays will have the option to add two players to a potential playoff roster, even after tonight’s midnight deadline, to replace the injured players.

Lancaster says Perez was chosen over Jonny Gomes due to his defensive abilities and Jaso was chosen over DiFelice because the Rays do not expect to use their third catcher much, except as an occasional late-inning pinch-hitter.

Lancaster also indicates that this will be the only promotions until the Bulls complete their post-season run, which begins next week.

[10:56] Marc Topkin is reporting that the Rays promoted Fernando Perez following this afternoon’s game. To make room, Juan Salas was optioned back to Durham. Andrew Friedman also announced that John Jaso, and not Mike DiFelice, will be promoted prior to Tuesday’s game.

With the Rays deciding to use Jaso as the third catcher for the final month, DiFelice was released so that he may have a chance to catch on with another club for the final month.

Perez, a center fielder, was hitting .288/.361/.393 with 5 home runs and 43 stolen bases for the Bulls. Jaso, a catcher, spent the first half of the season with the Montgomery Biscuits in double-A and was hitting .278/.339/.481 in 31 games since being promoted to Durham. Jaso, a left-handed batter, had 72 walks to only 47 strike outs this season. He is generally considered a work-in-progress defensively, but a source close to the Montgomery team told us he has shown improvement behind the plate.

To fill the void left by the loss of two catchers from the Durham roster, the Rays also acquired Michel Hernandez from the Pirates organization for cash. The Bulls won the Southern Division of the IL and has qualified for the playoffs. Hernandez is a veteran of 11 minor league seasons, spending half of the 2007 in the Rays organization, playing 51 games for the Bulls. He made a brief 5-game appearance for the Yankees in 2003.

OF Fernando Perez called up; C John Jaso likely, too [The Heater]
Maddon convinced Orioles intentionally plunked Bartlett [St. Pete Times]

With the win today and the Red Sox loss, the Rays magic number to win the division is now 22. But more importantly, with the Twins 8 games back (9 in the loss column), the magic number to clinch at least a Wild Card spot is 19. With the Red Sox leading the Wild Card race, all three teams, the Red Sox, White Sox and Twins, would have to pass the Rays in the standings in order for the Rays to miss the playoffs.

We will update this number daily in the sidebar.

Marc Lancaster is reporting that the Rays have traded cash to the Cleveland Indians for Jorge Velandia.

Despite what MLB.com might have you believe, though, Velandia is NOT being added to the Rays’ 40-man roster. Not to say he might not end up here eventually in case of an injury, but it’s not happening now.

The Rays do have an opening on their 40-man roster, but we expect Mike DiFelice to take that slot tomorrow or Tuesday and be added to the 25-man roster with Dioner Navarro expected to miss the opening game of the Yankees series.

Velandia will join the Durham Bulls during their playoff run. In 14 games for the Rays last season, Velandia was 16-50 (.320) with 2 home runs.

Rays bring Velandia back to Durham [Rays Report]

FIRST INNING
A look back…
Last night Edwin Jackson improved to 7-2 with a 2.98 ERA in his last 10 starts…Has Jackson solidified his spot in the rotation for 2009?

It was pointed out in the comments this morning that Jackson’s strikeout to walk ratio over that span is not great and his WHIP is not so hot either, suggesting he has been very lucky. However, we think the promising stat is Jackson is not walking anybody. He has give 2 or fewer free passes in 7 of his last 10 starts. The problem is he is not striking anybody out. We wonder if that is by design, in which Jim Hickey is encouraging Jackson to “pitch to contact”. A little backwards from most power pitchers that strikeout a lot of batters when they are young until they learn to pitch. Jackson may be learning to pitch first and once he is more mound-savvy, he will start going for more strike outs. Just a hunch, but we have a feeling Jackson’s strikeout rate will skyrocket next season and we could see a very dominating pitcher…YES

SECOND INNING
Headlines…
On Wednesday night the Rays struck out 9 times in the first 4 innings against David Purcey and are 4th in the AL with 971 strikeouts, almost 100 more than the next team…Should this be a point of concern?

Strikeouts are still only one out. More telling is the walks. You can tolerate the strikeouts as long as the team is drawing walks and getting on base. The Rays are 3rd in the AL in walks (486) but they are only 8th in OBP, due in large part to their next-to-last .258 batting average. Where the K’s and low batting average could get the Rays in trouble is with runners in scoring position in the post-season. A pitcher’s best friend with runners in scoring position and less than 2 outs is a strike out…YES

THIRD INNING
Headlines…
Andrew Friedman will add a 3rd catcher to the roster in September to give the team more flexibility and allow Dioner Navarro some more rest down the stretch…Will it be John Jaso or Mike DiFelice?

Jaso is on the 40-man roster, but is not considered ready for the big leagues, defensively. DiFelice has played in parts of 13 seasons, is dependable behind the plate and has post-season experience, albeit only 1 at bat with the Cardinals in ’02. All things being equal, DiFelice would be an easy choice. But the Rays would have to drop somebody from the 40-man roster. If the Rays don’t have a need for Jonny Gomes, he could be dropped. Kurt Birkins is another option, however we would be surprised if the Rays didn’t want to add another lefty to the bullpen down the stretch. JK Ryu, who has spent most of the season on the DL is another, maybe more realistic, possibility…DiFelice

FOURTH INNING
Headlines…
Dan Johnson continues to tear up the IL but he is not on the 40-man roster…Will he be in a Rays’ uniform in September and who would be dropped from the roster?

We already showed that moving somebody off the roster will not be easy, but there are a couple of options. JK Ryu could be DFA’d for Mike DiFelice. But would the Rays be willing to risk losing a player for one month of DiFelice? Same could be said about Jonny Gomes. Is Johnson so much better than Gomes, who is already on the 40-man roster? Johnson is a lefty-bat and the Rays already have several of those on the roster. We want to think the Rays will find a way, but we just don’t think he is a priority, and we don’t see a way for it to happen…NO

FIFTH INNING
Headlines…
Josh Beckett was supposed to return for the Red Sox tonight. Instead he will go see Dr. James Andrews…Does this kill any chance the Red Sox had at catching the Rays?

It certainly doesn’t help, and we sure do like the Rays chances in the 6 remaining head-to-head matchups. Beckett would have likely pitched in 2 of those games. What will be interesting is to see if Tito Francona adjusts his rotation between now and the first series with the Rays. As it stands now, if nobody is skipped it will be Jon Lester, Daisuke Matsuzaka and David Pauley. No Tim Wakefield, the Rays-Killer. They could skip Pauley on their off-day next Thursday, which make the rotation Dice-K, Pauley, Wakefield for the Rays…PROBABLY

SIXTH INNING
A look outside the box…
With the Rays facing the last place Orioles…what other series this weekend should RAYSHEADS watch closely?

Take your pick. The White Sox are in Boston and every Boston loss is one game closer to the division title. And the Twins are in Oakland and every Minnesota loss is another game closer to clinching a playoff spot. While the Twins are very much alive for the Central title and the Wild Card, they are now 7 games behind the Rays and the Twins would have to pass the Rays for the Rays to miss the playoffs…TWINS @ A’s

SEVENTH INNING
Oddsmakers…
What are the odds the Tampa Bay Rays will make the playoffs?

Baseball Prospectus says 98.8%. As we said, not only do the Red Sox and White Sox have to pass the Rays, but so would the Twins and they are not even in the same neighborhood right now. Start making post-season playoff plans RAYSHEADS…100%

What are the odds the Tampa Bay Rays will win the division?

A little more tricky here. Baseball Prospectus says 76.5%. For us the magic number is 3 in the loss column. As long as the Rays keep the lead in the loss column more than 3 we feel the Rays are safe. If the number is more than 3, then nothing that happens in any head-to-head series will change the standings. We feel pretty confident right now. Professor Pessimism? HA!…95%

Last night’s win guaranteed the Rays their first non-losing season…What are the odds the Rays will win at least 81 games in ’09?

The Rays are on pace to win 98 games and they have suffered a number of key injuries, nobody is having a career-year, and several key players are underperforming. Other than Eric Hinske, nobody is a free agent. The Rays are going nowhere…100%

What are the odds the Tampa Bay Rays will sweep the Orioles this weekend?

Maybe somebody slipped us some happy juice today, but we have a very good feeling about Scott Kazmir’s start tonight. It has been a while but 8 innings tonight would not surprise us. He will need it as Jeremy Guthrie has pitched well against the Rays, working into the 7th twice. Daniel Cabrera has struggled a bit and we can see lot of runs scored on Saturday as he goes against Andy Sonnanstine. And the Rays and James Shields get a wet-behind-the-ears lefty on Sunday…75%

EIGHTH INNING
On deck…
In this time of the year, matchups become very important…With 9 games to go before the all-important head-to-head matchup with the Red Sox should Joe Maddon look ahead and try to set up the rotation to have the ideal matchups in that series?

Joe Maddon does not like to skip pitchers, even on off-days, preferring to give a pitch an extra day of rest. The Rays do have an off-day on Monday. As it stands right now, the Rays will throw Edwin Jackson, Scott Kazmir and Andy Sonnanstine against the Sox. No James Shields. No Matt Garza. Amazingly Sonny has yet to face the Sox this season. Jackson and Kid K are a combined 0-3 with a 6.48 ERA in 5 starts. Not good. Not good at all. They will get to throw Shields in the second series with the Sox, but again no Garza. Not exactly the ideal way to go down the stretch, but Papa Joe really has no choice at this point…NO, IT IS TOO LATE

NINTH INNING
Putting out the fire…
David Price was named a Southern League post-season All-Star despite only making 9 appearances for the Biscuits…Got a problem with that?

Well, they aren’t going to be touring Japan in the off-season are they? He did go 7-0 with a 1.89 ERA. Guess we would be a little upset if we were the pitcher that just missed being honored. Seems like Price is going to receive plenty of honors in his career. Maybe they could have given this one to somebody else…SEEMS A BIT OVER THE TOP

Earlier this week Cal Ripken Jr threw out the first pitch for the Rays while wearing a Rays jersey…Is this better or worse than Brett Favre wearing a Jets jersey?

We understand the first pitch, but the jersey? Favre decided he wanted to prolong his career and it just wasn’t going to happen in Green Bay. Ripken was born an Oriole. Played as an Oriole and retired an Oriole. He is an Oriole for life and probably shouldn’t be wearing another team’s jersey, especially a divisional rival…WORSE

MLB admitted Doug Eddings blew the call that cost the Rays a chance to win their series-finale against the White Sox on Sunday…Have you recovered yet from the loss to Doug Eddings the White Sox?

Did you read the optimism in the “Oddsmakers” segment? If the Rays had lost Wednesday night, we might still be in a drunken-stupor mumbling incoherently while walking along Bayside Drive…SCREW AJ PIEHEAD…GO RAYS!

We want to know what you guys think of various members of the Rays media coverage. Here are the most recent results. Next up…Rays radio pre- and postgame host Rich Herrera…

As we have stated before, we rarely listen to the Rays’ radio broadcasts. Between the “Extra Innings” package, MLB.tv, and the Slingbox (world’s greatest invention), we always have the TV broadcast. So we are not sure we would even recognize Herrera’s voice.

The only opinion we could find on the interwebs was this piece from Ted Flemming.

From the Rays’ website:

Rich returns for his fourth season on the Rays Baseball Network as host of the pre- and postgame shows. He also serves as the Rays director of radio operations, running the Rays statewide radio network. Rich came to the Rays from Fox Sports, where he was a national talk show host for the Fox Sports Radio Network and later, a host and program director for Fox Sports Radio in Arizona. He previously worked with the Oakland A’s as their postgame show host from 1998-2000 and spent two years (1996-97) hosting the postgame talk shows for the San Francisco Giants and the NBA’s Golden State Warriors on KKRB. He has also been a member of the Sports USA Radio football crew working as a sideline reporter for their nationally syndicated NFL and NCAA broadcasts the past five seasons. Herrera graduated from California State University.

So: Do you like Rich Herrera? And let’s hear your reasons in the comments…

Online Surveys & Market Research

THE GOOD: Edwin Jackson. His biggest moment came in the 6th when the Jays got men on first and third with no outs. Jackson got the next 3 batters on a line drive to Jason Bartlett, an infield pop-up and a groundball to third to get out of the inning…In 8 of his last 10 starts Nuke has allowed 1 or 2 runs. Since the beginning of July, he is 7-2 with a 2.98 ERA. We hate to admit it, but in the second half of the season, Edwin Jackson has been the Rays’ most consistent pitcher…Joe Maddon. At one point or another we all wanted Jackson’s head on a platter. Maddon and Andrew Friedman had the guts to stick with Jackson. That is why they run a major league baseball team and we are but lowly ole Molecular Biologist.

THE BAD: It is a moot point since the Rays won the game. But Carlos Pena’s long foul ball in the 3rd inning was a home run and we are not sure instant replay, which begins at the Trop tonight, would have picked it up. The ball does travel in front of the foul pole. But we watched it about 15 times in super slo-mo, HD. And as the ball passes the pole, the ball changes direction ever so slightly indicating that it just nicked the pole. It took several replays to convince everybody watching the game, but by the end, even the dog was convinced and that dog usually doesn’t agree with anything we say unless BBQ is involved. Did Dewayne Staats and Joe Magrane think it was a home run? We had the Blue Jays broadcast and their friggin‘ in-inning 15-second commercials. We fall for it everytime. We start screaming about how there are only 2 outs, and sure enough they just decided to blast us with a commercial in the middle of an inning. Really annoying.

THE TELLING: The Rays magic number for the Wild Card is 23…It has been a foregone conclusion for a while, but last night’s win guaranteed the Rays’ first-ever non-losing season…From time to time, we like to look at search terms that people use to find our little corner of the interwebs. For those that are not familiar, people that have websites can track not only the number of visitors but exactly how you got here. Well at some point yesterday somebody typed into their google search engine the terms “Tampa Bay Rays Lingerie” and they found our website. We were a little perplexed. So we did it ourselves and sure enough, there it is. The third link. And here is the relevant post. Who knew? Not even us. Still. We are not sure what is more disturbing, that somebody found our site looking for Rays lingerie or that somebody was looking for Tampa Bay Rays lingerie.

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…

• Dioner Navarro was out of the lineup again last night and may not return until Saturday. [The Heater]
• Troy Percival threw batting practice yesterday and is still on pace to be activated Saturday. [Rays Report]
• Bad news for the Red Sox…Josh Beckett was scheduled to return to the mound tonight, but has been scratched and is now off to have his elbow examined by Dr. James Andrews…A small part of us is happy about the April injury to Scott Kazmir, the several DL-stints by Troy Percival and the recent injuries to Carl Crawford and Evan Longoria. It would be very upsetting to have to listen to Yankees and Red Sox fans tell us that the only reason the Rays won the division this year was because of injuries. Of course, they still will, but at least we now have ammunition to fire back. [AP]
• John Romano answers emails after his critique of the Rays lack of attendance…Something we don’t recommend columnists do very often. That is a can of worms that is hard to close once opened. [St. Pete Times]
• Scott Kazmir was pretty hard on Rays fans on Jim Rome is Burning. [Larry Brown Sports]
• Her Rays breaks down Joe Maddon’s traffic laws. [Her Rays]
• Doug Eddings and Major League Baseball have admitted that Eddings was wrong to call obstruction on Willy Aybar during Sunday’s game with the White Sox…The Rays still have no recourse and Eddings will not be disciplined. All this means is we no longer want to kick Eddings in the groin…In that “you and I are cool, but you know I want to kick in the groin, even though we both know I won’t” sorta way. [The Heater]

Durham 11, Norfolk 9. David Price picked up his first triple-A win, throwin 5 innings, striking out 5, giving up 2 runs on 4 hits and 3 walks…Calvin Medlock gave up 5 runs in 1.1 innings…Jonny Gomes had 4 hits in 6 at bats, driving in 3…Chris Richard drove in 3 runs and Jon Weber was 3-6 and hit his 13th home run.

Jacksonville 10, Montgomery 3. Jason Cromer pitched well, holding Jacksonville to 1 run in 6 innings, but Ryan Reid blew the lead, giving up 5 runs (4 earned) in 1 inning…Rashad Eldridge was 4-5 with a double and a triple. He drove in 2 runs and is now hitting .295…

Daytona 6, Vero Beach 3. Ryan Morse dropped to 2-11 after giving up 6 runs in 7 innings.

Columbus 10, Savannah 5. Jesse Darcy struck out 7 and only walked 1 in 5 innings, but gave up 2 home runs and 3 runs total…Mike McCormick hit his 11th home run…Maiko Loyola stole his 45th base, going 1-4 with a walk and a RBI.

Hudson Valley 6, Lowell 2. Tim Beckham was not in the lineup.

NOTES FROM DOWN ON THE FARM…

• Karma is a bitch…James Houser who avoided the final 2 weeks of his suspension entering the ’08 season due to a loophole after the Rays added him to the 40-man roster, will miss yet another start due to injury. This time it is a left forearm strain. Houser just recently returned from minor knee surgery. [Biscuits' Batter]
• He only played in 9 games for the Montgomery Biscuits, but David Price was named to the league’s post-season all-star team. [OurSports Central]
• Here is a video interview of Durham Bulls hitting coach Gary Gaetti, talking mostly about his days in college. [YouTube]

We have discussed this twice before within posts about other topics…We felt the topic needed its own stage…

It usually goes something like this:

The Rays are doing a great job this year…Of course they have been bad so long that they were able to capitalize on all those high draft picks.

Nothing irks us more than when somebody (mainstream media-types in particular) perpetuates a myth without actually doing any, you know, research. We heard it again from the Blue Jays TV announcers during game 1 of the current series.

Of the 28 players on the roster (including 3 on DL), only three were drafted by the Rays in the first round (BJ Upton, Evan Longoria, Rocco Baldelli) and Rocco has only been with the Rays since Aug. 10. Of the remaining players, Carl Crawford was drafted in the 2nd round, in which every other team passed on him at least once, and four were drafted in the 10th round or later, including two very important pieces of the starting rotation, James Shields (16th round) and Andy Sonnanstine (13). 13 players were acquired via trade and seven were signed as free agents including two players that were signed to minor league deals (Eric Hinske, Carlos Pena).

Not a whole lot of high draft picks in that group.

And in case anybody thinks that the 13 players acquired via trade were traded for a bunch of high draft picks, let’s breakdown each of those trades [Ed. note: in the right column, notes in parentheses indicate how the traded player was originally acquired by the Rays]…

And all those “high draft picks” that the Rays have been hording? Starting in 1999 (first season in which draft pick was based on previous season’s record) the Rays have selected 10 players in the first round. Let’s see how those picks have fared…

Only two players have been significant contributors to this year’s roster. The Red Sox have four players that have logged significant playing time this season, that were drafted in just the first round of the 2005 draft (Jacoby Ellsbury, Craig Hansen, Clay Buchholz, Jed Lowrie).

The Rays have the best record in baseball this season due to several factors, only one of which has to do with sucking for 10 years: 1) They are the master of the role-player trade. While most teams target stars or potential stars in trades, and think roles can be filled from within, the Rays have targeted players on other teams that would be more valuable to the Rays than to their original team; 2) [from commenter Robert] “Rays have also done a good job trolling the junkyard of discarded players and the free agent lists.” Similar to point 1 but on the free agent market (ie. Pena, Hinske, Percival, Reyes); 3) Using their most valuable asset to turn two negatives into positives. They traded Young for Garza and Bartlett, who solidified both the rotation and the defense, which in turn helped the pitchers. The Rays recognized that the number of runs created by Young was not nearly as many as the number of runs that could be prevented by adding a solid pitcher and a gold glove-caliber shortstop; 4) Joe Maddon. In only his 3rd season, Papa Joe is already in line for his first Manager of the Year award and arguably is one of the top 5 managers in baseball.

So next time you hear somebody say the Rays are only good because they have been drafting near the top of the draft for 10 years, slap them across the face and then make them read this post.

First Brett Favre, and now this? Even Cal Ripken, Jr., he of 21 seasons in only one jersey, knows a good thing when he sees it.

It has been our contention that the Rays season has to be more insulting to the Orioles and the Blue Jays, than to the Red Sox and Yankees. In a division where opportunities to break through are rare, the O’s and Jays have long hoped to be the team that would finally break the stranglehold that the two Evil Empires held over the AL East. Instead it was the Tampa Bay Friggin’ Devil Rays. That has to really sting.

And in the same season, the Orioles’ favored son is seen wearing a Rays jersey in Tropicana Field, throwing out the first pitch in the middle of a pennant race. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA….err, we mean, that’s awful.

We would love to use the “pulled the plug” analogy, but the Orioles’ season has been dead for a while now. All the above picture does is add insult to a franchise that hasn’t had a winning season since before the Rays were born.

Ripken was in town to finalize the purchase of the Vero Beach Devil Rays by The Ripken Group. The high-A, Florida State League franchise will be moved to Port Charlotte next season.

Rays, Ripken join to buy Class A team [MLB]

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 9 (They are a lock to make the playoffs) with 54.5%.
  
• The most common response for “Confidence in future of franchise” was 10 with 60.4%.
• 99.0% of respondents feel the Rays have a shot at the playoffs in 2008. That number is down from 100% a week ago.
• 99.0% of respondents feel the Rays should be at least a .500 team in 2008. Last week that number was 100%.