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 2009 Rays” was 10 with 33.3%.
The most common response for “Confidence in future of franchise” was 10 with 54.9%.
Thayer is a bit of a surprise as the Rays left him unprotected last season and he went undrafted in the Rule 5 draft. However, a look at Rays Prospects’recent analysis of relief pitching in the Rays organization showed that Thayer had a very strong season with Durham.
Davis is considered one of the best pitching prospects in baseball. McGee was on a similar level to Davis, however, he will miss most of the 2008 season recovering from Tommy John surgery.
Rays add McGee, Davis and Thayer to 40-man roster [The Heater] A Look at Relief Pitching [Rays Prospects]
While looking around LMontro’s website, we came across another Rays-related item. On Montro99′s website is this photo of Carlos Pena wearing a “Montro 99″ wristband.
While Pena may consider the wristband lucky, we wonder if Major League Baseball might consider it illegal. Wouldn’t the wristband be considered a form of advertising for the stylist? Unless the teams are playing in Japan, advertising on baseball uniforms is forbidden.
Here is Manny Ramirez wearing a similar wristband.
According to the above Boston Globe article, this is why Manny wore #99 while playing for the Dodgers.
The Rays, not surprisingly, are off to a slow start in the Hot Stove. What do we do when things are slow? We of course turn to YouTube. As a wise man once said, if you can’t find anything interesting on YouTube, you just aren’t trying.
Here is a somewhat mesmerizing video of several Rays getting mohawks prior to game 5 of the World Series. The players include Carl Crawford, Aki Iwamura, Willy Aybar and Grant Balfour. The barber in question is apparently a “barber for the baseball stars”. He even has his own website!
A couple of notes…
Japanese for Mohawk is apparently “Mo-hee-can”, which we guess makes sense.
Aki’s English has gotten much better than we realized.
Well, apparently “Ed Hardy” makes more than t-shirts. The fashion clothier recently debuted their new line of lingerie with a fashion show (NSFW?).
Not sure if these are really our bag, but we do know that Matt Garza would have looked much better in this, than dressed as a chalupa, as he was during this year’s hazing. Then again, these outfits have Jeff Niemann written all over them. Do they come in “giraffe” size?
Today is the deadline for teams to add minor leaguers to the 40-man roster in order to protect them from being eligible for the Rule 5 draft. Wade Davis will be added, as will Jake McGee. Eddie Morlan is also likely to be added.
Other players that will be eligible for the Rule 5 draft, but are unlikely to be added, include Chris Mason, Ryan Royster and Mike Wlodarczyk.
DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…
Trever Miller has signed with the St. Louis Cardinals. [MLB Trade Rumors]
Rocco Baldelli’s name continues to swirl around the Red Sox. Amalie Benjamin of the Boston Globe says there is an even bigger need for Baldelli now that the Sox have traded Coco Crisp. [Boston Globe]
Thanksgiving came early to some in St. Pete as the Rays served a Thanksgiving dinner to about 300 people. [MLB]
David Chalk is back with his “Ain’t S#!t” series. This time he compares the nominees for Sports Illustrated’s “Sportsman of the Year” award to Joe Maddon. [Bugs and Cranks]
The Harvard Crimson profiles alum Matt Silverman, class of ’98. [Harvard Crimson]
Notes on the RI Confidence Graph…
