Archive for January 24th, 2009

One Year Ago On Rays Index

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One year ago on Rays Index we learned that the Rays gave James Shields a seven-year contract extension.

Six Or Seven Years For James Shields Is A Risk Worth Taking [Rays Index]

[THE HANGOVER] Beef-K! Happy Birthday Scott Kazmir

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On this day 25 years ago, Scott Kazmir was born. Still the youngest pitcher in the Rays rotation during the 2008 season, Kazmir already has 124 career starts and 47 career wins.

After missing the first month of the season with a sore elbow and struggling with his mechanics most of the year, Kazmir has added nearly 20 pounds of muscle this off-season, leading to his new nickname…Beef K.

DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA

  • For most of the off-season we have speculated that the most likely position player to be traded is Willy Aybar. This is because many teams may see Aybar as an everyday player, even though he is only a utility player with the Rays. If so, it may be more valuable for the Rays to trade Aybar. Fangraphs corroborates this and speculates on why the Rays have not traded Aybar. [Fangraphs]

In many ways, Aybar is being punished for the fact that the Rays have done such a great job of building a roster around him. Not only do they not have a regular job for him, but they don’t have any glaring needs that they should be trying to fill via trade.