In an interview last week Matt Silverman said the following…

“If you took us out of the American League East, I think we’d be the favorite in any other division.”

He might be right, but what is interesting about this quote, is that on several occasions in the past the Rays have been adamant about how they prefer competing against the best in the AL East.

So why would the Rays prefer the AL East where they are almost guaranteed to win less often over playing in the NL East or a mythical NL Southeast (Braves, Marlins, Astros, Rangers)?

Two reasons.

The first is reduced expectations. What if the Rays won 84 games last year in another division? There would have been a  lot more talk from the national media about how poorly the Rays played and what a disappointing season 2009 was. Instead, the Rays get a pass in the AL East because nobody expects them to win every year or even very often.

The second, and most important reason is simply money. The Rays are a cash-strapped team. And in the AL East, the Rays get 18 or 19 games every year at home against the two biggest road draws in baseball. There is no chance that Stuart Sternberg would trade in 18 near-sellouts against the Yankees and Red Sox for 18 games against the Braves and Marlins.

Also consider the exposure the Rays get in the New York television market. The Rays are on TV approximately 60 hours a year in New York City. And the Rays receive even more exposure during discussions as one of the Yankees rivals. For a team trying to build a brand, that is exposure they cannot put a dollar value on.

Actually, knowing Sternberg, he probably has put a dollar value on it, and it is certainly a large one.

DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…

• Roger Mooney looks at three of the Rays top prospects and when they might make an impact for the Rays. Mooney also has a money-quote from Matt Silverman on this year’s payroll: “We extended last year, we’re over-extended heading into this year…We’ll see the effect of this in the future. But for now we’re focused on what Rafael can add to us in 2010.” [Tampa Tribune]
• Marc Topkin has all the spring training details including the five biggest story lines to pay watch for. [St. Pete Times]
• Roger Mooney says the Rays have some questions this spring, but the Rays already have the answers. It is just a matter of deciding which answers they prefer. [Tampa Tribune]
• 5 Rays to watch this spring. [Tampa Tribune]
• Joe Dillon will get some reps this spring behind the plate. [St. Pete Times]
• Wade Davis and his new bride “The Marlboro Girl” (which apparently has nothing to do with cigarettes) spent some time with some school kids from his hometown. [The Lake Wales News]

My dad (Prof’s Pop) is a graduate of the Naval Academy (Class of ’68). He passed along this note for any other Navy alum in the Bay Area…

NAVY ALUMNI: Join us FRIDAY evening MAY 14th VS Seattle Mariners. Last year we witnessed the largest comeback in Rays history vs the Cleveland Indians. Need minimum of forty (40) attendees to get the group rate ($40 last yr).

Don Coughlin action guy – please email him (DTCZ@msn.com) if you plan to attend. Need early probable head count before we commit to forty. Not binding as we know plans change.

And of course, if any Marines want to go and need a ride, we’re sure the Navy guys would be happy to help.

DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…

• Andrew Friedman was on AM620 last night with Andy Freed and Dave Wills. Marc Topkin provides the highlights. [The Heater]
• Later in the same show, Wills and Freed spoke with Matt Silverman. [The Heater]
• Another “Matt Joyce has a chance to be a starter” story. [Lakeland Ledger]
• Joe Stiglich spoke with Gabe Gross, who compared his new A’s club to the 2008 Rays. [Chin Music]
• Steve Henson writes about what the addition of Rafael Soriano means for the Rays. [Yahoo! Sports]

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]
• Here is Marc Topkin’s AL MVP ballot. [The Heater]
• 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]

[UPDATE: 11:32] The Red Sox beat the Indians, but the Rays overcame a first inning that saw the O’s score 5 runs before an out, to get the win. With the victory, the Rays magic number to win the division is now 1. The Angels are currently losing in the 5th inning, 4-2. An Angels loss and the Rays be 1 game behind for the best record in the AL. The Rays won the season-series with the Angels 6-3.

As we get closer to the playoffs, the links are going to start coming fast and furious…On certain days we will provide a late afternoon “Happy Hour” to try and keep the pace…

DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…

• Marc Lancaster has a quote from Terry Francona that suggests the Red Sox will concede the division. [Rays Report]
• Carl Crawford is now ceding that he probably will not be ready for the first round of the playoffs…If there was any doubt, this should solidify Fernando Perez’ spot on the roster for the ALDS. [Rays Report]
• Curious as to who will throw out the first pitch in the Rays home playoff games? Well, it won’t be any former members of the organization according to Matt Silverman. “MLB asked us who it’d be. We realized nobody in the history of the franchise had done anything to be worthy of the honor.”…Ouch. The truth hurts. [Washington Post]
• Deadspin suggests Victor Zambrano. [Deadspin]
• Outs Per Swing has an exhaustive list of candidates. [Outs Per Swing]
• Bugs and Cranks offers 5 suggestions…We like the idea of Mr. T. [Bugs and Cranks]
• Jason Bartlett should hire Brittany Ghiroli as his publicist. Ghiroli breaks down exactly how valuable Bartlett has been to the Rays and she does it much better than we did. [MLB]
• MLB Trade Rumors breaks down all of playoff teams/contenders to see which teams have benefited the most from their own first-round picks. The Rays come in 4th behind the Mets, Brewers and Phillies. [MLB Trade Rumors]
• Tampa Bay Rays Prospects has compiled a nice list of the organization’s top strikeout-to-walk ratios from this past season. The top two players are from the Venezuelan and Dominican Summer Leagues which is even below rookie league, so don’t put too much weight in those numbers. The truly impressive numbers are from Jeremy Hellickson (8.1 at high-A and AA), Heath Rollins (4.2 at high-A and AA) and Mitch Talbot (4.0 at AAA). [Tampa Bay Rays Prospects]
• Joe Bucs Fan is not happy with Stu Sternberg for leaving the tarps on the upper deck for the first two rounds of the playoffs…For the record, MLB has final say in the World Series. If the Rays make it that far, MLB has already told the Rays to have the tarp removed. [Joe Bucs Fan]

Click on above images to be taken to full standings, boxscores or schedule…

THE GOOD: Even though the lead in the East is down to 1.5, the Rays are still very much in the driver’s seat. The lead in the loss column is 2 and the Rays hold the tie-breaker. In order for the Rays to lose the division, they need to lose 3 more games than the Red Sox this week and their last 3 games are at home against the Yankees. In other words, if the Rays go 4-4, the Red Sox have to go 6-1. And don’t think the Yankees won’t enjoy playing spoiler against the Sox…The odds of the Rays winning the Division according to Baseball Prospectus is now 72.3%…The Yankees Tragic number is 1.

THE BAD: We sure hope the Rays don’t lose the division by 1 game as the Rays just gave away a game yesterday. We thought the afternoon clinching game on Saturday would help a little. Let the Rays celebrate for a few hours and they could still get a decent night’s sleep prior to getaway day. After all, there is still a division to win with only a week to play. Every game is important. But apparently they went too far as the team played as if they were hungover yesterday, managing only 5 hits and committing 2 errors. And keep in mind the difference between winning the division and being the Wild Card. The Wild Card team starts on the road and likely has to beat both the Angels and the Red Sox without home field advatage in order to get to the World Series. Also, the Rays finish the season this week with 8 games in 7 days on the road. If they are the Wild Card, they will come home next Sunday and have to fly out to Anaheim the next morning…The Red Sox magic number to clinch at least a wild card is 1.

THE TELLING: The Rays finished the regular season with an attendance of 1,811,986, second only to the inaugural season in 1998 (2.5 million). Over the course of the season the Rays had 8 sellouts (including Sunday), matching the total number of sellouts from the first 10 years.

DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…

• Oops. We all know the Tampa Tribune is in bed with the Yankees and barely knew the Rays existed prior to this season. But if Joe Henderson is going to write a piece on how the success of the team starts with Andrew Friedman, then they probably should make sure that the picture running with the story is actually of Friedman, and not Matt Silverman (that is Silverman on the left in the photo, not Friedman). [Update: The picture has since been removed. Here is the picture] [Tampa Tribune]
• We are going to try and get in a Live Blog-A-Baloo for David Price’s first major league start tonight. No promises as the calendar is pretty full. But by 7:00 we will probably need a drink or 10 anyhow. So be sure to check back. [Rays Index Live Blog-A-Baloo Of The Week]
• Et tu, Chalk? Yes! David Chalk of Bugs and Cranks goes Mohawk, with video! We love that he does this while decked out in Devil Rays gear at a Supercuts. [Bugs and Cranks]
• David Price will make his first major league start on today in Baltimore and Mitch Talbot will make his first start tomorrow in the second game of the double-header. Matt Garza will be skipped in the rotation this time through to give his arm some extra rest. He will next pitch on Saturday. [Rays Report]
• Troy Percival will not be available tonight or tomorrow after receiving another shot for his back. [St. Pete Times]
• David Price hopes tonight’s start will convince the Rays to include him on the postseason roster. [Lakeland Ledger]
• Covering All The Bases isn’t ready to sing the Rays praises just yet, saying that “enough is enough.” Then again, she might just be taking out her frustration of losing Nomah to Mia. [Covering the Bases]
• The Big Lead, after poo-pooing the Rays all season, has finally decided that they will “officially exclude [himself] from the people that continue to doubt this team.” [The Big Lead]
• Joe Torre sent Joe Maddon a fax congratulating him on “winning a tough division.” [Tampa Tribune]
• The Sports Frappe gives their “Sports Douche of the Week” award to Tampa Bay Rays fans, slamming their lack of support, saying: “Their soft fans showed their excitement for this year’s Cinderella season by attending in lackluster numbers, somewhere around 13,000 per game.”…Of course the Rays actually drew more 22,000 per game. But hey, who wants to be bothered by actual facts. The only thing Douchy about that post is the background color on the The Sports Frappe. [The Sports Frappe]

THE GOOD: Finally, the Rays caught a couple of breaks. First was in the second inning after Matt Garza gave up a leadoff single. With the runner going on the pitch to stay out of a double-play, Lyle Overbay then hit a bouncer back up the middle that looked like a catcher trying to throw out a basestealer. The ball bounced chest-high right over the second base bag, right to a waiting Jason Bartlett, who caught it and threw to first for the double-play. Then in the 7th, after retiring the first 2 batters, Garza gave up back-to-back singles, the second of which went under the glove of Willy Aybar, essentially giving the Jays an extra out in the inning. Garza survived to get the next batter to pop out. Finally, in the 9th inning, with a 1-0 lead Joe Maddon brought in Dan Wheeler and looking like a genius, Papa Joe moves Justin Ruggiano from right to left field. With 2 outs, Rod Barajas hit a ball that if a foot farther is a home run. As it was, Ruggiano timed his jump perfectly and his glove and the ball reach the top of the fence at the same moment, and somehow the ball stuck in Ruggiano’s glove. Game over…We’ve been saying it for a while, but if there was any doubt, there shouldn’t be now. The Yankees are dead. The Yankees are roadkill.

THE BAD: Holes in the Rays’ bats. The 11 strikeouts isn’t terible. But when 9 of them come in the first 4 innings, that is terrible. It is hard to tell, how much of it was the Rays having a bad night or how much was just David Purcey pitching light’s out. He threw a complete game needing only 90 pitches. 72 of those pitches were strikes. A truly Madduxian performance. Just gotta tip the cap and be grateful for Carlos Pena’s latest home run, or else they might still be playing.

THE TELLING: The Rays magic number for the Wild Card is 25 over the Twins, with 31 games remaining.

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…

• Dioner Navarro had an MRI done on both of his hamstrings and no damage was detected. He is listed as day-to-day. [Rays Report]
• Evan Longoria hit off a tee and Joe Maddon said everything went well. [The Heater]
• We have been trying to defend the attendance for a while now. But after this week, we don’t know what to say anymore. John Romano is right: “And, in a remarkable display of grace under pressure, we continue to stay away from Tropicana Field in droves.” Matt Silverman has a couple of quotes that reveal the frustration of the team. [St. Pete Times]

“The TV ratings are high, and that’s a great sign, but it hasn’t translated to the number of people at Tropicana Field. It really takes the wind out of our sails,” Silverman said. “We’ve poured our hearts and souls into making this a great draw, and a great fan experience. And to come home after a great road trip and have … the smallest crowds in major-league baseball was discouraging.

• Baseball Mastermind takes a look back at their preseason preview of the Rays to see what they got right…As a side-note, we have a few friends that got the Rays over-under for wins prior to the season at 77. They laughed at how “high” it was, bet the under, calling it the best line they had ever seen. Like a broken record, they all chimed in, “I don’t care how improved the Rays are, they will never win 78 games when they have to play the Red Sox and Yankees 18 or 19 times each.” We warned them that it was not as impossible as they thought. Does anybody listen to us? Suckers. [Baseball Mastermind]
• This should put to rest any lingering thoughts that the Rays should have drafted Pedro Alvarez with the top pick in June. Turns out Scott Boras refused to do any negotiating until just hours before the deadline and when Alvarez finally stepped up and pushed the negotiations just before the midnight deadline, a deal got done. Only, now Boras and Alvarez are contesting the deal, saying it was not submitted in time and of course they want more money. In other words, Alvarez and Boras are not happy that Buster Posey got more money. [MLB]

THE GOOD: Scott Kazmir was at his best and kept his pitch count in check. After needing 18 pitches in the first, he only needed 67 over the next 5 innings and was able to work 7 full innings with 103 pitches… BJ Upton. Upton was 2-3 with 2 walks. More importantly, both hits were singles to the opposite field which should go a long ways towards helping him regain his confidence at the plate. And one thing that is not slumping is his legs and the Rays’ first run was all Upton and his legs. After singling to right, Upton was picked off first, but never stopped on his way to second and slid in safely. He then moved to third on a fly ball to left-center. He would then score on a 2-out single by Evan Longoria…So much for any home run derby jinx. Evan Longoria homered for the 3rd straight game and is now only 4 off of the lead in the American League. If he could ever get his batting average above .300, the media will start jumping on the MVP bandwagon. And he is hitting .337 over the last month…Jonny Gomes. Yes he is a terrible fielder. And yes, he is not a very good hitter. But he is extremely aggressive and after singling in the 4th, he stole second with 2 outs to get into scoring position. He then scored on another 2-out basehit. This time by Akinori Iwamura…Grant Balfour is absolutely cooking right now. With 2 outs in the 8th and an 0-2 count on Kurt Suzuki, Balfour was so pumped up, he actually yelled at Dioner Navarro “FASTBALL!”, rather than shake him off. That folks, is confidence.

THE BAD: The Mariners had a chance to tie the game in Seattle late last night against the Red Sox. Down 2-0 in the 7th inning, the M’s got 2 runners on with only 1 out. Miguel Cairo struck out and Jose Vidro flew out. The Sox would then score 2 in the top of the 8th. Game Over.

THE TELLING: Andy Sonnanstine will start tonight for the first time in 12 days…Attendance for last night’s game was only 12,428. The small crowd is not unexpected for a Monday night game against the west coast A’s who don’t have any name-players.

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…

• Looks like Jason Bartlett will come off the DL on Thursday. He thinks he is about 80% right now. Marc Lancaster thinks that Ben Zobrist will be sent down to make room, but wonders if something different might happen if Bartlett is not ready to start at short everyday. [Rays Report]
• Matt Silverman and Andrew Friedman handed out programs and greeted fans before last night’s game. [St. Pete Times]
• Jim Molony says the Rays have a tough second-half schedule but that they should be one of the teams to fight through and make the playoffs. [MLB]
• TBSB feels that Jonny Gomes’ personality is not enough to keep him around on the roster. [Tampa Bay Sports Blog]
• Dayn Perry thinks the Rays might not have enough offense to win East…Perry is one of our least favorite baseball writers and we don’t have the enrgy to go through and give this it’s much deserved bashing. [Fox Sports]
• One Sporting News writer has the Rays #2 in his Power Poll, behind only the Angels. [Sporting News]

THE GOOD: The Bullpen in general and Gary Glover and Jason Hammel specifically. Yes Hammel gave up the walk-off home run, but we thought the game was over when both Glover entered the game in the 9th and when Hammel came on in the 12th. The two combined for 4.2 innings with only 1 run on 3 hits and no walks. At some point they were going to give up a run and they did a great job of holding the Pirates at bay as long as they could.

THE BAD: The offense. From the 9th inning on, the Rays were 1-14 with 4 strike outs and no walks. Only two batters reached base: Evan Longoria with a 2-out single in the 9th and James Shields who reached on an error while pinch-hitting with 2 outs in the 12th.

THE TELLING: With Aki Iwamura starting his 3-game suspension, BJ Upton batted leadoff, Evan Longoria moved up to the 3-hole and Willy Aybar started at second base for the first time since 2006. Upton finished 1-5 with a walk…The Rays missed an opportunity to move back into first place as the Red Sox lost to the Astros.

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…

• Don’t forget to VOTE for Carl Crawford to start the all-star game. If you haven’t voted yet today, go NOW! [MLB All-Star Voting]
• Aaron Sharockman spoke with Matthew Silverman about the Rays stadium proposal and the future of baseball in the bay area. [St. Pete Times]
• Marc Topkin writes about the Rays and all the trade rumors circulating recently. [St. Pete Times]

THE GOOD: A rare sac bunt from the Rays as Aki Iwamura moved Dioner Navarro to third base in the 3rd inning. Navi would score the Rays first run on a Carl Crawford ground out. How rare? That was the Rays second sac bunt this year. AL teams are averaging 5 sac bunts so far this season…The Rays drew 7 walks…With the bases loaded in the 5th, Rays down 3-2, Evan Longoria sac fly tied the game and then a would-be 4-6-3 double play ended with every body safe on two bad throws. BJ Upton scored and Dioner Navarro followed with one of his standard soft line drives for the third run of the inning…Willing to bet we will be able to count on one hand, how many times Gary Glover shows up under “Good”. With Dan Wheeler unavailable, Glover came on in the 7th with 1 out and a man on 2nd. He got the next 2 batters to end the 7th and retired the first 2 batters of the 8th before giving way to Trever Miller...Troy Percival pitched the third straight game and made things interesting but was able to get through the 9th for his 4th save. Percy’s velocity appeared to be back, hitting 92 several times, after only being in the upper-80s 2 nights ago.

THE BAD: The Rays struck out 5 times in the first 2 innings…1st run scored without a hard hit. Infield single off of Andy Sonnanstine’s glove/perfect hit-n-run/bloop to center…2nd run was the direct result of another Dioner Navarro brainfart. For the second time this series, Navi inexplicably left home plate with a runner on third and without calling time. Second time this season that the Rays forgot to call time and a runner advanced…In the 4th inning with 1 out and the score tied, Eric Hinske, was thrown out trying to steal second (definitely not a missed hit-and-run). That was bad but what made it worse is that Joe Magrane thought it was a good idea because it “keeps the pressure on”. Huh-wha? We could be mistaken here, but by being thrown out, that took the pressure off of the Jays. Just sayin’…Later on Dwayne Staats, during a conversation about Dan Wheeler and Troy Percival being unavailable, notes that “there are some good arms out there…Dohmann, Glover”. Really? Five pitchers in the bullpen and the best two names he could think of were Scott Dohmann and Gary Glover? We’re not saying Goose Gossage is out there, but geez…Shawn Bleepin’ Camp owed us and he had the perfect chance to pay up last night, coming on with runner on 3rd and for some strange reason, he did not allow the inherited runner to score, after allowing about 742 inherited runners to score last year.

THE TELLING: The Rays are 6-0 all-time in Orlando…The 3-game winning streak is the longest this season and the longest since the second week of September last season…In 2007, the Rays won 3 in a row, three times, and won 4 in a row twice. They did not have a winning streak longer than 4…The Rays have not been .500 this late in a season since 2004 when they were 42-42.

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…

• Mike DiFelice cleared waivers and will rejoin the Durham Bulls. [The Heater]
• Justin Ruggiano was demoted to Durham to make room for Matt Garza who will make the start tonight. [MLB]
• Matt Silverman said the Orlando series was a success, specifically noting that there were a lot more Rays fans in the stands this year. [Tampa Tribune]
• Still, this year’s 3-game set drew 119 fewer fans than the series last year and none of the games sold out. The Orlando Sentinel cites a number of reasons that attendance may have been down and Matt Silverman would not commit to another Orlando series in 2009. [Orlando Sentinel]
• We love this story…Having spent a few years in the midwest, we have a number of friends that are Twins fans. We warned them about Delmon Young. There were the obvious warnings about not standing within 50 feet of Young if he is holding a bat. But there were also the warnings that Young is not the best “team player” ever born and warnings that changing his free-swinging style would not be easy. Those Twins fans and a number of Twins fans on the internet shouted the same company-line. The Twins play baseball the right way…Just being around the rest of the guys will make Delmon want to change…He is going to be a perrenial MVP candidate…Well, we are now almost a month into the season and Young is hitting .262/.287/.321 with ZERO home runs and a 14-to-3 strikeout to walk ratio…And now Twins fans are starting to get antsy and blaming Ron Gardenhire for not only allowing the free-swinging, but encouraging it. [Fire Gardy]
• One website has BJ Upton third in the MVP race in the early going. Disturbing is that they have Josh Hamilton second…Also, Evan Longoria is third in the Rookie-of-the-Year race. [Roto Advice]
• There are few places we are not willing to go on this site. You need not worry though. David Chalk picks up the slack. Of course by linking to it, we could be accused of being “enablers”. We are OK with that. [Bugs & Cranks]
• Troy Percival is now 11th on the all-time saves list, only 2 away from the top 10. [MLB]
• Gabe Gross talks about making the transition to his new team. [MLB]

THE GOOD: James Shields showed us that he is a winner last night. He struggled early without his best stuff and with shoddy defense behind him, but fought through it and still managed to give Joe Maddon 7 innings. For all the changes to the bullpen, the biggest reason the relief corps is better this year is because the starters are working deeper. Any bullpen will be better if it only needs to throw 2 innings instead of 3-4…And last night wasn’t any different. Shields handed the ball off in the 8th to Dan Wheeler (a role we expect he will keep once Al Reyes comes off DL) and then Troy Percival in the 9th. The two combined for 2 perfect innings…Eric Hinske continues to swing a hot bat, only this time it was against his former team and went to the tune of a double, triple and home run…Dioner Navarro added 3 hits in his return. We still can’t get over Navi. Nobody hits more line drives. And nobody hits the ball softer than Navi…Jason Bartlett finally did something productive with the bat, executing a perfect hit-and-run with Dioner Navarro running from second base.

THE BAD: James Shields walking the first two batters of the second inning, followed by the play that led to the Jays first run. On the play the Rays were only charged with 2 errors, but there should have been three plus a couple of mental errors. A ground ball to Eric Hinske’s right was bobbled after the runner on first distracted Hinske. Hinske then tried to backhand the ball to Shields covering first and missed him by 10 feet with the ball rolling towards the plate. For some reason, with a runner now on 3rd, Dioner Navarro left home to retrieve the ball. Shields sprints home to cover the plate. Throw from Navi was in time, but Shields dropped it.

THE TELLING: The Rays are now 4-0 all-time in Orlando…The Rays are 2-1 this season during our Live Blog-A-Baloos and 7-10 in all other games. Just Sayin’…The Rays need to sweep the Jays to get out of the cellar of the AL East and reach .500.

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…

• We commented on this last night during the Blog-A-Baloo, but the Rays traded for Gabe Gross from the Brewers, giving up single-A pitcher Josh Butler. Butler was the Rays 2nd round pick in the 2006 draft. Gross is a left-swinging outfielder that can play all three outfield spots…While Justin Ruggiano will likely be the first player to go, this move probably marks the end of the Nathan Haynes-era. Andrew Friedman announced during the game last night that the Rays had been talking to the Brewers about Gross since Spring Training. [Tampa Tribune]
• Outs Per Swing sees the Rays crowded outfield and wonders if the Rays should trade Eric Hinske while the value is at its peak…We say yes. [Outs Per Swing]
• Through 19 games the Rays have the best bullpen in baseball. Trever Miller says that the biggest reason is they are not walking anybody. [Bradenton Herald]
• New Ray Dan Johnson suffered from an infection in the spring that caused him to lose 30 pounds. He has since gained most of it back. [Bradenton Herald]
• Marc Lancaster notes that Dan Johnson’s injury history is quite extensive. [San Francisco Chronicle via Rays Report]
• While the Orlando Magic playoff game may have affected attendance, the Rays could not have been happy with the non-sellout or that a large portion of the crowd was not Orlando residents. [Orlando Sentinel]
• Brittany Ghiroli takes a look at the “Green” practices of the Tampa Bay Rays and notes the team will continue to make a commitment to environmental sustainablity after Earth Day. [MLB]
• The Serious Tip thinks they have figured out why Andy Sonnanstine has struggled at times this season…He’s is jinxed. [The Serious Tip]
• A couple of new renderings of the proposed waterfront stadium, with one that apparently gives a reference to how big the new stadium will be compared to existing structures. [The Heater]
• Matt Silverman and Joe Maddon were set to attend the Bruce Springsteen concert in Tampa on Monday but missed it after the show was postponed until Tuesday. [Orlando Sentinel]