Nov 06
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 10 with 55.4%.
- The most common response for “Confidence in future of franchise” was 10 with 32.8%.
Nov 06
One year ago on Rays Index, we were a little overwhelmed about news of a two-day celebration to announce the Rays name change and new uniforms.
Nov 06
Joe Resnick talked to Joe Maddon at the GM meetings about his upcoming honeymoon and about the Rays offseason plans. Joe Resnick didn’t do his homework.
A couple of the idiotic things written by Resnick:
- “The Rays’ top priorities are to settle their bullpen, find a regular right fielder and add a starting pitcher.“…A starting pitcher? The Rays have at least 8 guys in the organization that could be a major league starting pitcher in 2009. We are not saying the Rays won’t add one from outside the organization, but it is not one of their top priorities.
- “Maddon is hopeful of keeping his young core of talent together, but he knows it will be difficult holding onto Evan Longoria and B.J. Upton in a few years when they become eligible for free agency.” Evan Longoria? Will somebody please inform Mr. Resnick that Longoria is signed through 2016.
Tomorrow, look for the column in which Resnick tells us how John McCain can win the election.
Just when we were starting to hope that a trip to the World Series would end this type of nonsense, Joe Resnick goes and totally redeems our lack of faith in baseball writers.
DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…
- In case you missed it yesterday, we updated our 25-man and 40-man roster projections for 2009. Those can be found in the sidebar.
- Outs Per Swing takes a look at the Rays “wants and needs” for the offseason. Part 2 focuses on the pitching staff…We are warming to the idea of seeing if Jeff Niemann can be a future closer. [Outs Per Swing]
- Peter Abraham ran into Joe Maddon at the GM meetings in California. Maddon stated that the team will address right field and the bullpen but “aren’t planning much beyond that.” Maddon reiterated that David Price will be a starting pitcher and that nobody knows how much Rocco Baldelli can be expected to contribute “down the road”. Abraham also noted that Maddon still has his Rayhawk but is planning on trimming it prior to his wedding on Saturday. [The LoHud Yankees Blog]
- Did MLB make a rule that says the Mets are only allowed to go after one pitcher this winter? Just because Derek Lowe and Oliver Perez are the Mets priorities doesn’t mean they can’t also have their eyes on other pitchers. [Drays Bay]
- Metsmerized likes the idea of trading Aaron Heilman “and another player” to the Rays for Edwin Jackson. They even wonder if the “other player” could be somebody to help the Rays land Matt Holliday. [Metsmerized]
- Dan O’Dowd (Rockies GM) now says that the Rockies don’t necessarily have to receive pitching in return for Matt Holliday. Troy Renck of the Denver Post brings up the Rays and suggests Edwin Jackson and Carl Crawford. This is intriguing in that Crawford will make $8.25 million in ’09 and $18.25 million over the next 2 seasons, and Jackson is arbitration-eligible and will command $1.5-2 million. Adding Holliday’s $13.5 million does not seem like such a stretch if those two players are taken off the payroll, and the Rays can hold on to all of their top pitching prospects. [Denver Post]
- Purple Row wonders if the Rockies should be interested in Carl Crawford as part of a package to send Matt Holliday to the Rays. [Purple Row]
- Several teams have apparently approached Andrew Friedman at the GM meetings about BJ Upton…This is wishful thinking on their part. Upton isn’t even arbitration-eligible until after the ’09 season. Maybe the Rays start to consider a move then, but not now while the Rays have one of the top talents in the game playing for about $500K. [MLB Trade Rumors]
- David Price will perform the coin-toss prior to this weekend’s Vanderbilt-Florida game. [Nashville City Paper]
- As a result of the election, free agents may be in a hurry to sign prior to January 1, or else have their signing bonuses taxed at a higher rate. [Big League Stew]
- We laugh because it is funny, we laugh because it is true (at least for a few of the Red Sox fans that were trolling this site during the ALCS). [Kissing Suzy Kolber]
- Examiner.com takes a look at the Rays roster and potential off-season changes…They lost us when discussing arbitration-eligible players. For some reason they list Grant Balfour as a “maybe” while predicting which arbitration-eligible players will return to the Rays next season. [Examiner]
