The Tampa Bay Rays Confidence Survey

Last week’s Rays Confidence Graph results.

Below you will see two polls that ask about your confidence in the Tampa Bay Rays. We will present these same polls every Tuesday. The results will be presented in graphical form on Thursday, and will be displayed permanently in the sidebar. The goal of the Confidence Graph is to get a feeling of how Rays fans feel about the team and the franchise and track how that level of confidence changes through time.

Raysiverse events of the past week that could impact confidence levels…

• Even with the most recent arbitration contracts, the opening day payroll is now projecting to be approximately $61.7 million. That would be a 40.9% increase over the 2008 opening day payroll ($43.8MM) and a 156.0% increase over the 2007 opening day payroll ($24.1MM).
• The Rays failed to reach contract argreements with two of their arbitration-eligible players.
• Provisional rosters for the WBC include 8 Rays, although only 6 (at most) are expected to participate.
• BJ Upton may sit out the first week of the regular season to avoid the cold weather of the Northeast.
• The Rays unveiled a new alternate jersey.
• The Rays farm system is no longer the top-ranked organization in baseball.
• The Rays 25-man roster and starting lineup is nearly set and we are still a month away from spring games.
• The Rays signed Gabe Kapler to form the all-Gabes-all-the-time right field.
• The Rays signed reliever Lance Cormier leaving the bullpen with more arms than chairs whenever the music stops.