Relief pitcher with some previous success? Check

Coming off an injury? Check

Willing to sign a minor league contract? Check

Welcome Juan Cruz to the Tampa Bay Rays bullpen! Cruz appeared in just 5 games in 2010 for the Royals before being released. He then underwent shoulder surgery.

Cruz has experienced some success in the big leagues, averaging more than a strikeout per inning.

Given the current state of the Rays bullpen, Cruz has an excellent shot at making the team.

Oh yeah, and 11 days until pitchers and catcher report! Suck it Winter. You can stop cars, but you can’t stop time. Or Spring Training.

• Andy Pettitte (that’s 4 Ts) has decided to retire. That leaves the Yankees with AJ Burnett as their #2 starter and without a #4 or #5 starter. Not Brian Cashman’s best off-season as a GM. [NY Times]
• A limited number of fans will be able to eat with Joe Maddon at FanFest. [Rays Report]
• The Rays quest for a new stadium Read the rest of this entry »

Roberto Alomar and Bert Blyleven were elected to the Hall of Fame yesterday. It is now just a footnote, but the last major league game Alomar played was during the 2005 Spring Training with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. He went 0-11 and called it a career before the season even started. During a conference call yesterday, Alomar reflected on his brief tenure with the Devil Rays. [TampaBay.com]

THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…

• Rays Prospects interviews prospect John Mollicone…Mollicone went to Fordham University the same time we were teaching there, but we don’t think he was ever in one of our classes. [Rays Prospects]
• David Kaplan of CSN Chicago reiterates that a deal is not imminent with the Cubs for Matt Garza. Kaplan says the Cubs and Rays have discussed a possible trade, but that “potential players that the Cubs could include in the deal have not yet been exchanged.” [CSN Chicago]
• Buster Olney says the Rays are Read the rest of this entry »

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: Hellboy Is The Real Deal. Oh mama. Jeremy Hellickson is fun to watch.  He only needed 86 pitches to get through 7 shutout innings. In only 2 of the 7 innings did he need more than 13 pitches. And in 3 innings, he needed 10 or fewer. 61 of his pitches were strikes and 10 of those were swing-and-misses. Seven of the swinging strikes came on his changeup which was a strike 25 of the 27 times he threw the pitch. Many will find this blasphemous, but he reminds us of Greg Maddux, if Maddux had a 91-92 mph fastball (actually Maddux did when he was younger). Jeremy Hellickson and David Price are going to be a fun 1-2 to watch for the next 5+ seasons.

THE BAD: Wade Davis. The Rays have a problem. We speculated earlier in the season that when the Rays decide to trade a pitcher, it would be either James Shields or Matt Garza. We also speculated that the Rays could wait until after 2011 season to move a pitcher. Why? They love depth. Why go into the 2011 season with 5 starting pitchers when they can do it with 6. This week has proven how important that is. Davis would appear to be the odd-man out. Do they move him to the bullpen (where he would be quite effective)? Or do they send Davis back to Durham next season to get regular work as a starter until he is needed at some point to fill in for the Rays? In other words, we hope Davis enjoyed his time in Durham last year, because he might be back in 2011.

THE TELLING: Jeremy Hellickson is just the third pitcher since 1920 that pitched at least 7 innings and held the opponent to 3 hits or less in each of his first 2 big league starts…Dan Johnson tied the franchise record with 4 walks…Carlos Pena could be ready to return on Monday, the first day he is eligible…According to CoolStandings.com the Rays have an 85.9% chance of making the playoffs. The Red Sox are at 16.5%…Matt Garza faces the Tigers tonight for the first time since beating them with a no-hitter.

WHERE THEY STAND: The Rays are 69-44, one-half game behind the Yankees (1 in the loss column) and 4.5 games ahead of the Red Sox (5 in the loss column) in the Wild Card.After 113 games in 2008, the Rays were 68-45.

THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…

• Jeremy Hellickson talks about his second big league start (VIDEO). [The Heater]
• Joe Maddon has some choices to face with the rotation Read the rest of this entry »

Things have been very quiet on the rumor-front for the Rays. The two biggest questions remaining are Pat Burrell and Dioner Navarro. Can the Rays find a taker for Burrell’s hefty contract and are the Rays willing to start the season with Navi and Kelly Shoppach as the two catchers?

Richard Durrett of ESPN Dallas mentions Navarro as a potential answer for the Rangers catching situation.

The Rangers have shown interest in Tampa Bay catcher Dioner Navarro, who agreed to a $2.1 million for next year with the Rays. Maybe there’s a trade that could be worked up to bring him to Arlington.

Several bloggers saw this report and thought it indicated that the Rangers are still interested in Navi. They may indeed still be interested, but there is nothing in Durrett’s report that suggests this is the case. Rather it seems as though he is just commenting on the same reports we all heard during the Winter Meetings.

DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…

• Joe Smith writes about Matt Joyce and the improvements he showed in 2009 and his thoughts on competing for a job with the Rays this spring. [St. Pete Times]
• Here is an important quote from Jake McGee that you don’t often hear from young pitchers. On moving to the bullpen and being a closer: “I’d like that role a lot,” McGee said. “I’d be able to better focus and put all my energy into one batter or one inning, and not have to pace myself.”
• David Price was named Middle Tennessee’s prep male athlete of the decade. [The Tennessean]
• And Carlos Pena was named one of the 9 Greatest Athletes of the ’00s by a source that is indeed biased. [NESW]
• Making a case for Fred McGriff in the Hall of Fame. [7th Inning Stache]
• Winston Abreu was named the best triple-A relief pitcher of 2009. [MLB]
• And Durham was named the triple-A team of the year. [MLB]
• If you are into decade lists, Roger Mooney has the Rays top 10 moments of the decade. [Tampa Tribune]
• And Roger Mooney has the Rays all-decade team, which some would call the “2008 Tampa Bay Rays.” [Tampa Tribune]
• Congrats to the St. Pete Times, who was named as having one of the top 10 best sports web sites by the AP.  [St. Pete Times]

THE GOOD: Carlos Pena had 2 home runs and 6 RBI. The second home run came with 1 out in 7th and the bases empty of a 5-2 game, the O’s brought in a lefty to face the Rays top of the order which is 3 straight lefties. 3 batters later, Pena tied the game 5-5…The Orioles bullpen entered the game with a 0.96 ERA. The Rays scored 8 runs in less than 2 innings off the bullpen…Good is being .500 after 10 games…Good is trailing 5-2 in the 7th inning and feeling like the Rays were not out of it…Good is winning a game when James Shields did not have his best stuff.

THE BAD: With 2 outs in the first and a 3-2 count, James Shields couldn’t get past Nick Markakis. Markakis fouled a couple of tough pitches off and evenatually walked. Later, a throwing error by Jason Bartlett would lead to 3 unearned runs…In the bottom of the 1st BJ Upton rounded 3rd too far with 2 outs and eventually was tagged out in a run down…Now we are going to nitpick Joe Maddon a bit which seems a bit unfair considering the Rays went on to win, but with the Rays trailing 4-2 in the bottom of the second and Bartlett on 1st with 2 outs, Bartlett did not try to steal second. Bartlett has to try to get to second base.If he is caught stealing, the Rays have the top of the order in the 3rd. If he gets to second, he is in scoring position and scores on a single. Without trying to steal, the only way to score is an extra-base hit by Aki Iwamura (~7% probability) OR you need back-to-back basehits by Aki and Carl Crawford (~9% probability). On the other hand, if Bartlett is a 70% base stealer there is a 21% chance of scoring if he tries to steal. And if he fails, Aki leads off the 3rd. Instead, the Rays had to have Carlos Pena leading off the 3rd…Will somebody please explain to us what in the world Shawn Riggans is wearing around his neck? It looks like a Mr. T starter kit. We have seen a lot of players wear gold chains in baseball, but we don’t ever remember one as long or as gaudy.

THE TELLING: The Orioles television crew are idiots. We *think* it was Gary Thorne and Buck Martinez. First of all, when Al Reyes came in to the game, they never mentioned his arrest. We are usually all for keeping the talk limited to the baseball game at hand, but in this case Reyes was arrested and tasered and basically a drunken idiot which led to being arrested, and all of that happened less than 20 hours before the start of the game. They should have mentioned how this was an incident that very well could have affected the outcome of the game. And they should have mentioned how Joe Maddon clearly wanted to get Reyes back on the mound as soon as possible. *Anything*. But they don’t say one word. Later on in the bottom of the 8th the O’s crew committed one of our biggest baseball announcer pet-pieves. With the bases loaded and Carlos Pena at the plate, a pitch came close to Pena and the crowd let out a grown. The announcers apparently needed to make it clear that the pitcher is not trying to hit Pena with the bases loaded and can’t seem to understand why the crowd is groaning. Well Sherlock…maybe it is just because the fans don’t like their star player getting hit by a pitch, whether it is intentional or not. Buck Martinez was basically saying the fans are stupid and we should not be bothered when a pitch comes prety darn close to injuring our best hitter. We wouldn’t hit Buck Martinez, but we really want to shake the shit out of him after saying that.

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…

• The Rays placed their 9th player on the Disabled List and we’ll be damned if this is not the first injury in the history of the franchise that we have been waiting for. Willy Aybar was placed on the 15-day DL and Evan Longoria was called up and will start tonight at third base…Willy? Meet Wally (Pipp)…Jeff Niemann was also called up and will make his major league debut tomorrow…Niemann and Longoria on back-to-back days. Holy Shit! It is like Christmas and our birthday and Hanukkah all wrapped in one, again! [Yahoo! Sports]
• Jason Hammel gets the ball tonight for the Rays and he will try to help the Rays win their 3rd straight. A win tonight and a Red Sox win and the Rays will be in first place. [MLB]
• Al Reyes met with the media for a whopping 30 seconds and did not answer any questions. Basically it was a 30 second apology and silent “Thank God, I play for the Rays or else there would 6,000 reporters here.” [Rays Report]
• Bugs & Cranks has a nice close up of Al Reyes. He looks amazingly good considering he got decked, tasered twice and spent some time in jail where he may or may not have been somebody’s bitch. [Bugs & Cranks]
• In Paul Harvey fashion Sports Indeed has “the rest of the story” concerning Al Reyes. [Sports Indeed]
• The must-read guys at “The Dugout” show that it was actually Troy Percival that tricked Al Reyes into getting drunk and tasered because Percy is worried that Reyes may try to take his closer’s job back. [Fanhouse]
• Dugout Central takes a look at Fred McGriff’s career and notes that his peak seasons came a few years too early and missed out on the offensive explosion enjoyed by many others. [Dugout Central]
• Carl Crawford got his 1,000th hit. [The Heater]

Tampa Bay Rays (42 days until Opening Day)

Joe Maddon stated that Shawn Riggans is the favorite to be the backup catcher on opening day. Papa Joe then commented on what his criteria is for a backup catcher.

“The backup guy should be pretty effective defensively,” Maddon said. “It’s not an easy position. The guys that do it well make it look easy, but it’s not easy. Part of their job really is to help the starting catcher. … It’s like a good backup quarterback in football.”

This only surprises us because Maddon actually commented on the situation, but it does not surprise us that he named Riggans even though we project Josh Paul to win the job. Keep in mind that Riggans is the only candidate that is actually on the 40-man roster at this point. Paul and Mike DiFelice are in essence getting “tryouts”. They are on minor league deals and have done nothing yet to earn a major league contract. If the team had absolute confidence in one or the other, they would not be on minor league deals.

The team has made it clear that they prefer a veteran backup catcher to help further the development of starter Dioner Navarro. Just don’t expect Papa Joe to admit that publicly because he would have to say that he prefers a player that is not on the team over a player that is on the team.

At the end of the day, we still feel Josh Paul will be the Rays backup catcher and it is Riggans that needs to “win” the job. Paul has the edge in experience, better defensive abilities and a strong familiarity with the pitching staff and Navarro. Riggans would have to outperform Paul defensively in Spring Training to make the roster and we are not convinced he can.

Notes: Iwamura ready for second base [Tampa Bay Rays]

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…

• Marc Topkin takes a look at the Rays trio of young talented starting pitchers. Jim Hickey feels that 26 teams in the league would prefer to have Scott Kazmir, James Shields and Matt Garza as their top 3 pitchers. [St. Pete Times]

As Rays officials went back over the last several decades, they came up with only a few teams that had three starters who were so young with the chance to be so good. There were the A’s of the early 2000s with Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder and Barry Zito. The Marlins of the same era with Josh Beckett, Brad Penny and Dontrelle Willis. The Braves of the early 1990s with Steve Avery, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz. And not too many others…”It’s certainly a rare commodity,” senior vice president Gerry Hunsicker said, “to have three young pitchers with the talent level that we’re going to run out there.”

• A quick video interview with David Price as well as a look at him throwing off a mound. (Link will open a video player) [Tampa Bays 10]
• Rays of Light begins a series in which they will spotlight certain Rays. First up is Akinori Iwamura. [Rays of Light]
• Beyond the Boxscore makes an argument for Fred McGriff to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. We think the Crime dog was a very good and very consistent player, but he was what Mike Francessa would call a “compiler”. His numbers look good because he played for a long time, not because he was a great player. We witnessed most of McGriff’s career and never once did we watch McGriff and think “There goes one of the greatest baseball player’s ever”. Sorry. Great guy, very good player, but when the voting comes, we would be surprised if he cracks 25%. [Beyond the Boxscore]
• We were in Austin this weekend. Apparently so was Matt Silverman. He was running in the Austin half-marathon. We were sitting in the front yard drinking Mimosas watching the half-marathoners and marathoners run by. [Rays Report]
• Baseball Prospectus projects the Rays to finish 82-80. The biggest change will be in the pitching. They project that the Rays will increase their scoring from 782 to 788 runs in 2008 and will decrease their runs allowed from 944 to 776. [Baseball Prospectus]
• Sean Deveney of The Sporting News feels the Rays and the Nationals have a special kinship because they have both sucked recently. The similarities are a stretch and include small fanbase (usually goes hand-in-hand with sucking), long odds to win the 2008 World Series (again, sucking), good young third basemen (1 spot out of 25 is similar), and both teams want to improve their image (as do most sucky teams). [The Sporting News]

Tampa Bay Devil Dogs (44 days until Opening Day)
DRG here again to get you through the weekend…

Joe Maddon regularly refers to the “right field triangle” of Cliff Floyd, Rocco Baldelli and Jonny Gomes. Maybe it should be the “right field square”.

Floyd has arrived at camp and says that he feels better physically than he has in years.

“In terms of health, in terms of my feet, in terms of my knees — everything — I feel great,” Floyd said.

He also speaks of his expectations for playing time.

“Whatever role I’m put into, I’m sure I can adapt to it, whether it’s going into the outfield and playing two, three days a week and DHing two,” Floyd said. “I know everybody has to play and to me, getting everybody involved keeps everyone fresh.

The coaching staff and trainers will also meet Monday to come up with a plan for how to use Baldelli n Spring Training with an eye towards gradually increasing his workload.

According to Maddon: “We’re going to take it very slowly.”

A “triangle”? Am I the only person that will not be surprised to see somebody else log significant playing time in right field this year? There is joust no way the Rays are getting a full season out of those three. At some point both Rocco and Floyd will be injured and AAAA-Justin Ruggiano will be manning right field.

Floyd feeling fine in twilight of career. [Rays Baseball]
Notes: Navarro excused from camp [Rays Baseball]

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…

• The players opened camp with a new-found optimism that may have been spurred in part by Joe Maddon’s opening speech. Both Scott Kazmir and BJ Upton expressed that making the playoffs is not out of the realm of possibilities for this ballclub and Troy Percival said that the chance for success was a major reason he signed with the Rays and turned down the Yankees, comparing this situation to the one in Detroit a few years ago. [St. Pete Times]

“What’s possible? Play in October, that’s possible,” ace Scott Kazmir said. “That is possible. That’s what I got out of Joe Maddon talking to us, and talking to all of my teammates, it’s not something that’s impossible. We have what it takes to win here.”

• Dioner Navarro has been excused from camp to be with his ailing mother in Venezuela after she suffered a brain aneurysm. She is in stable condition but remains in the intensive care unit. [St. Pete Times]
• Andrew Friedman says that we have seen this team play well, but the players need to believe in themselves in order to play well consistently over long stretches. [St. Pete Times]

“One of the biggest challenges coming in two years ago was changing the mind-set of the organization, changing the mentality, and the most important part of that was getting the players to start believing, and I think we’ve taken quantum leaps in that regard,” Friedman said.

“But it’s carrying it over, it’s going out and executing and playing consistently over an extended period of time. We’ve seen flashes of it, but it’s playing to a consistently high level over a period of time. And that comes with believing, with changing that mind-set so that when you go out on the field each and every night that you expect to win. Starting to believe that and getting it to the point where 25 guys are playing together toward a common goal is something I hope to see really start to take form this year.”

• Rays Digest takes a look at David Price and has some quotes from his first day in Rays camp. [Rays Digest]

“I haven’t played baseball in seven months,” said David Price. “There is definitely excitement, nervousness, there’s everything. I am looking forward to having a good time. It was fun (the first workout) and relaxed. You get your work in and get out of here. You wake up early get out early and get in a day of baseball.”

• Grant Balfour could be an odd-man out in the fight for jobs in the bullpen, but he welcomes the challenge. [Rays Baseball]
• John Heyman of SI says the Rays had the 7th best off-season giving them a grade of B+. [SI]

They got rid of the Devil in their name, and also traded Elijah Dukes, which may be no coincidence. Dealing Delmon Young was a risk, but they’re making a statement about the type of roster they want. And they’re locking up their valuable youngsters, though attempts to extend Scott Kazmir have failed so far.

• Ken Rosenthal calls the “Rising Rays” one of the 10 things to watch in Spring Training. [Fox Sports]

One American League GM says he views the Rays as an 80-win team; not bad for a franchise that, in its first 10 seasons, topped out at 70…Third baseman Evan Longoria could be this year’s Ryan Braun, and the Rays’ rotation might rank among the league’s best by the end of the decade…Questions remain about whether Al Reyes, Dan Wheeler and Troy Percival will provide quality late-inning relief, but some of the team’s young rotation candidates could prove valuable in the bullpen. The pitching also will benefit from improved defense: With Jason Bartlett at shortstop, the Rays’ defense should be average or above-average at every position when Rocco Baldelli is in right field.

• Using a new defensive statistic called SAFE which calculates the numbers of runs a player prevents or allows, a group of statisticians ranked current and former players. Both Carl Crawford and Jason Bartlett ranked among the best at their respective positions, while Fred McGriff was considered the worst first baseman. We assume they were just looking at McGriff’s final season, it is unclear. [Associated Press]
• Outs Per Swing actually Live Blogged the Rays’ first practice. Would that be a ‘Plog’? [Outs Per Swing]
• Following a Plog is like watching paint dry, but the pictures are worth the effort, if just to get the first glance at the Boys in Blue. [Outs Per Swing]
• One website thinks people should start jumping on the Rays bandwagon. Unfortunately, I don’t think naming your son Aubrey will endear you to most Rays fans, as a one Mr. Huff is no longer in our good graces. [Bert Flex]

Team USA 4, South Africa 2.
Evan Longoria went 1-4 with a triple and Justin Ruggiano went 0-4 as Team USA moved to 5-1 and clinched a spot in the World Cup quarterfinals. They have one final game in the preliminary round versus Taipei with the quarterfinals set to played on Friday with the opponent yet to be determined. Longoria was the team’s DH while Andy LaRoche played third base.

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…

• Baseball Musings took a look at the “Probabilistic Model of Range” for centerfielders in 2007 and the Devil Rays centerfielders finished next to last, ahead of only the Brewers. The number must be taken with a grain of salt. When we look at Range Factor, BJ Upton was above the league average of 2.71 with a 2.91. On the other hand, Elijah Dukes and Delmon Young, who had the next two most innings played in center field were both well below the league average with a 2.30, which likely brought the Rays overall Range value down. Rocco Baldelli only played 20 games in center, but came in with a 3.61 range factor. [Baseball Musings]
• Four of the 12 players named to the Topps Double-A All-Star team are Devil Rays farmhands. The list includes Evan Longoria, John Jaso, Chris Mason and Dale Thayer. [The Raw Feed]
• More hardware for Carlos Pena. This time it is the fictional 2007 Andre Dawson Award, presented to the best player on a last place team. No word on what exactly the trophy looks like, but we are guessing it is a hawk with bad knees. Pena is the second Devil Ray to win the award. Fred McGriff won the award in 1999. [Home Run Derby]
• The Cubs are trying to put together a package to land Carl Crawford. No word on whether or not discussions have already occurred. [Herald-News]
• According to team officials, there are no deals being worked on that involve Carl Crawford. The denial is interesting and possibly unnecessary as we haven’t actually heard any rumors involving CC. All we have seen and read is that other teams are targeting CC. But who wouldn’t want CC on their team? [Bradenton Herald]
• Al Reyes and Greg Norton both filed for free agency. The Rays still have until tomorrow to pick up options on both players. Reyes’ option will be picked up. Norton is likely to be granted free agency. [TBO]
• The Rays are one of 10 teams interested in signing Troy Percival. While Marc Lancaster sites Percival’s close relationship with Joe Maddon as a reason the Rays may have an edge, it didn’t seem to help last year when he ultimately signed with the Cardinals, so we are not sure why it would help this time around, except to add another team to the bidding process and ultimately raise the price. [TBO]
• In the end, we were a little high with the target dollar amount, but as we predicted, the Yankees went to four years on their contract offer to Jorge Posada and the catcher decided to not even test the free agent waters. The Yankees re-signed Posada for 4 years and $52.4 million. The Yankees will have to pay the devil on the back end of the deal, but that is the advantage they have. They will be able to swallow that cost when Posada is a 40-year old part-time DH. The Rays are in no financial position to assume such a cost. [TBO]
• Redeveloping Tropicana Field and the land on which it rests is key to the Rays moving to the St. Pete Waterfront in 2012. According to Aaron Sharockman this will not be a problem as land developers are already drooling over the prospect of building a residential and office space development on the 70 acre lot that is close to the interstate. [St. Pete Times]

Transforming the Tropicana site is “the kind of thing you dream about,” said Craig Sher, the chief executive of the Sembler Co., which developed BayWalk in St. Petersburg and Centro Ybor in Tampa.

“There’s a real potential to build a really neat mixed-use project, residential and office,” Sher said. “There’s just not a lot of land left in St. Pete. Any time you get a critical mass of land, you can get something spectacular. Hopefully, we’d be on somebody’s list of people to call.”

• Now that the Devil Rays have changed their name to “Rays”, has the team automatically eliminated itself as a potential destination for a small segment of players? Would Ray Durham have ever signed with the Tampa Bay Rays? Not likely. [Home Run Derby]