Mar 04
The Mad Australian
We don’t need a ‘Nation’…We don’t need an ‘Empire’…All we need is a cold beverage, good music and better baseball. We are THE RAYSHEAD ARMY.
We have a day job, we have a wife and we have a dog. Which means if we are to justify the amount of time we spend in this here corner of the interwebs, it helps if we generate a little income, even if it is just enough to pay for our beer on the weekends. And thanks to everybody that bought t-shirts season, we bought a lot of beer. Thank you!
This season we have made a few changes to the Rays Index Store. We have pared down the inventory to the most popular models and even added a couple of new selections. We also switched to a standard-weight t-shirt (as opposed to the heavyweight T’s we used last season). This seemed to be the preference of many and it has the added bonus of being cheaper. This year the shirts are about $4 cheaper. Yay! Everybody wins!
So have a look at the different styles below (click on any image to be taken to the store) or click on the link to the store in the side panel. And as usual, we accept requests.
Dirtbag
Bossman Jr
King David
Rayshead Army
Rayshead
Buck Foston
Yuck the Fankees
Blue Rayshead Tank
White Rayshead Tank
White Rayshead
Mar 04
Time to bring back the GBT – The Good, The Bad and The Telling sandwich, where The Bad is nice and lean and the The Telling is ripe.
THE GOOD: Jeff Niemann. Another strong outing for Niemann, who struck out 5 in 3 innings, giving up 1 run on 2 hits and a walk. He now has 7 Ks and 1 walk in 5 spring innings…Reid Brignac. Brignac entered the game 0-11, but hit a home run on the first pitch he saw in the third. Of course he followed that up with his best Sammy Sosa impersonation, 2 straight K’s…Jason Bartlett had 2 singles in third inning after collecting a double in his first at bat, finishing 3-3.
THE BAD: Derek Rodriguez. Rodriguez recorded the final 4 outs against the scrubs in a blowout and gave up a run on a single and 2 walks. Rodriguez, the Rule 5 pick, has now allowed 5 runs (2 earned) on 4 hits and 2 walks in 2 innings. He does not have a strike out…Gabe Kapler. Kapler was 0-3 yesterday and 0-12 overall, but he did collect a walk and threw out a runner trying to go from first to third on a single.
THE TELLING: Ben Zobrist making good on his status as super-duper utility guy, started at first base. Adam Kennedy is trying to show that he too can be super-duper by starting at third and Reid Brignac started at second displaying some of his own flexibility.
DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…
- Tonight at 6pm et, the MLB Network’s “30 Clubs in 30 Days” will feature the Tampa Bay Rays.
- Joe Smith has a couple of injury updates…Matt Joyce had an MRI on his sore calf, and it revealed a strain. Joyce says that is puzzling as he has been treating the injury since January and it should be healed by now. Carlos Pena will debut on Friday and Troy Percival is on track to make his spring debut on March 12. [St. Pete Times]
- In the same piece, Joe Smith reports that Joe Maddon has been working with Jason Bartlett to cut back on the number of flyballs and Bartlett has responded to the tune of a .636 batting average early on. [St. Pete Times]
- Rays of Light argues for making a decision on pitching roles sooner, rather than later. [Rays of Light]
- We learned a little bit this off-season about what Joe Maddon and Andrew Friedman think of Shawn Riggans. Despite a so-so rookie season as a backup catcher, the team did not bring in a veteran catcher to compete for Diesel’s job. Joe Smith tells us about Riggans’ preparation and Maddon notes that he wants Riggans “to really relax a bit and understand: He belongs here now.” [St. Pete Times]
- Coach Tom Foley made it clear that despite Reid Brignac’s recent appearances at second base, he is a shortstop. stating that “it doesn’t hurt for him to go over [to second base]. We’ve got a pretty good shortstop up here in the big leagues in Bartlett. But it’s just like any other infielder. Let him see if he can play the other positions. You never know what’s going to happen. It just increases his value as a player.“[MLB]
