Archive for the 'Gary Sheffield' Category

Dec 15

[THE HANGOVER] The One Where We Discuss Sheff, Ramos And Crawford’s Bookstore

Carl Crawford, Gary Sheffield, Jason Bartlett, Joe Maddon Cork Gaines 2 Comments »

It is no mystery that Gary Sheffield wants to play for the Rays. What we don’t know is how interested the Rays are in Sheffield. Now comes word that Joe Maddon had dinner with Sheff last Friday.

Maddon clarified that it was just “to get to know him better” and that Sheffield could help the Rays “down the road.”

We think the most telling quote from Sheffield is when he says he turned down a job last April because he didn’t get to play in Spring Training. Guess he didn’t want to play that bad after all.

THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…

  • So now it turns out that Cesar Ramos is only on the DL due to some roster shuffling. Maybe he is not the reason the Jason Bartlett trade hasn’t been officially announced yet. [Rays Report]
  • First Carl Crawford said his heart is in Boston. Now apparently his bookstore will be too. Maybe. [Over the Monster]
  • Which contract was the better deal, Carl Crawford or Jayson Werth? [Hardball Talk]
Dec 14

Are The Rays Crazy Enough To Give Jose Canseco A Shot?

Gary Sheffield, Jose Canseco Cork Gaines 18 Comments »

Jose Canseco hasn’t played in the big leagues since a 76-game stint with the White Sox in 2001. But Ozzie’s twin is not retired. In fact, he may get a chance to play winter ball in Puerto Rico.

This is after playing 11 games this past summer for an independent team in Laredo. Prior to that, Canseco, 46, hadn’t played organized ball since 2006, again in an independent league.

So if you are the Rays, a team that loves “under-the-radar” types, would you give Canseco a spring training invite? You could do worse with $400K. But there is also a lot of baggage.

Pop quiz hot shots: What if you had to choose between Canseco and Gary Sheffield as the Rays 2011 right-handed DH. Canseco will play for $400K. Sheffield wants $4 million. What do you do?

Dec 08

Time For Annual “Sheff Wants To Play For The Rays” Stories

Gary Sheffield Cork Gaines 5 Comments »

This is not a new story. In fact, we heard this same story during last year’s winter meetings. And we will probably hear the same story next year…

Despite not playing in 2010, Gary Sheffield wants to play in 2011 and he wants to play for the Rays.

Sheff, who recently turned 42, last played with the Mets in 2009 when he hit .276/.372/.451 with 10 home runs in 100 games.

The Rays do need a DH, something Sheffield has done in the past. So don’t be surprised if the Rays at least kick the tires. But one has to think that the front office is at least a little concerned about Sheffield’s potential influence on the young players.

Oct 11

Gary Sheffield Blames Rays And Rocco Baldelli For Being Unemployed

Gary Sheffield, Rocco Baldelli Cork Gaines 22 Comments »

Gary Sheffield appeared on ESPN 1040 AM following game 2 of the ALDS. And he had a lot to say about why he is unemployed and why the Rays gave Rocco Baldelli a job instead (You can listen to the entire interview below)..

On why he and other players that can contribute don’t have jobs:

“Because of that Good Ol’ Boy system like I’ve always said…you can’t even justify why a Rocco Baldelli is on [the Rays]. Period. He might be a great guy. Give him that. He might be a great teammate. I’ll give him that. But what is he doing to help your team win ballgames?”

And what is the “Good Ol’ Boy” system?

“A lot of players golf with their manager, general manager and ownership. And that’s that Good Ol’ Boy system. We get along. You like me. And regardless that you’re a terrible ballplayer, I’m gonna give you a job. We’ll hire you somewhere. And we’ll justify it at the same time…Absolutely [it's a buddy system], and if they deny it, they’re lying.

On what other members of the Rays feel about Rocco Baldelli:

Let’s keep it real here. I have no dislike for Rocco Baldelli. We are talking about other guys I’m speaking for and that will not say what I’m saying. Those other 24 guys on the roster…will bust their butts for six whole months to get to this point. And you just bring a guy who has never done nothing in the big leagues. Who has never proven himself. Has never shown he can be healthy, even when he was healthy. That’s what I’m angry about. That’s what I’m frustrated about.”

Two major points that Sheff missed Read the rest of this entry »

Dec 21

[THE HANGOVER] The One Where We Discuss Dillionaire, Bradley And Sheff

Carl Crawford, Gary Sheffield, Joe Dillon, Johnny Damon, Milton Bradley Cork Gaines 3 Comments »

Twins Rays Baseball59 days until pitchers and catchers report.

DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…

  • Joe Dillionaire is back! The Rays have re-signed Joe Dillon to a minor league deal. They have also added Ryan Shealy, a first baseman. Shealy has played 164 games with the Rockies and Royals in parts of 4 seasons. His last appearance was in 2008 with the Royals when he hit .301/.354/.603 in 20 games with 7 home runs.
  • We can finally stop with the “They will!” and “The won’t!” posts concerning the Rays and Milton Bradley. The Cubs have traded Bradley to the Mariners. [The Heater]
  • Marc Topkin says the “Player to be Named Later” in the Kelly Shoppach trade will be named today. Topkin says evidence indicates it could be Mitch Talbot, who is out of minor league options. [The Heater]
  • Marc Topkin looks at how some recent moves by other teams will affect the Rays…In the same piece, we learn that Gary Sheffield wants to play 2 more years and (of course) finish his career with the Rays… We could see the Rays making a run at Sheffield if they can find a taker for Burrell. Or they could wait until next year. The problem is, the Rays like players at below market value, but Sheffield is a player a team doesn’t want to underpay. There is always the fear that Sheff will play to his level of pay. That is, if he feels he is underpaid, he will underperform. [St. Pete Times]
  • Carl Crawford (91) is the only member of the Rays to make Rob Neyer’s list of the top 100 players of the past 10 years. [ESPN]
  • Ken Davidoff thinks the Rays and Johnny Damon would be a “marriage” with “real potential,” if the Rays can unload Pat Burrell. [Newsday]
Nov 23

[THE HANGOVER] The One Where We Discuss The Hot Stove, Crawford’s Future And Sheff’s Annual Flirtation With Rays

BJ Upton, Carl Crawford, Gary Sheffield Cork Gaines 1 Comment »

hangoverLet’s start today with several Hot Stove goodies from Joe Smith…

  • Andrew Friedman is looking at right-handed and left-handed relievers and has a target list of free agents and trade targets depending on how the market plays out.
  • Smith lists lefties Joe Beimel, Will Ohman and Darren Oliver and righties Kevin Gregg, J.J. Putz and John Smoltz as possibilities.
  • Smith says if the Rays want a starting catcher, they may have to acquire one via trade.
  • The Rangers and White Sox have called the Rays about the availability of BJ Upton.
  • The Mets and Braves have inquired about the availability of Carl Crawford.

DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…

  • Ken Rosenthal and John Paul Morosi of Fox Sports utters what we have openly worried about around here for a while. That the Yankees want to re-sign Johnny Damon with an eye towards Carl Crawford replacing him in 2011. Rosenthal and Morosi also name other teams that will likely be in the bidding should CC become a free agent after next season, including the White Sox, Angels and Astros. [Fox Sports]
  • The ABC group that was put together to help recommend a new home for the Rays may present their findings to Hillsborough County officials. [Tampa Tribune]
  • Guess who wants to play in 2010 and lists his hometown Rays as an option? In what is becoming an annual tradition, it is Gary Sheffield! Maybe Sheff is willing to eat the remainder of Pat Burrell’s contract. [MLB Trade Rumors]
Sep 22

[THE HANGOVER] The One Where We Discuss 2010 DH, The Rays Young Guns And Some Minor Awards

Darin Downs, Gary Sheffield, Jeff Niemann, Matt Moore, Nevin Ashley, Pat Burrell, Wade Davis Cork Gaines 9 Comments »

hangover

The GBT – The Good, The Bad and The Telling sandwich, where The Bad is nice and lean and the The Telling is ripe.

click above image for boxscore

DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…

  • With the Red Sox loss last night, the Rays tragic number is still 1, with one more Rays loss or Sox win and the Rays will be officially eliminated from postseason contention.
  • Wade Davis will start tomorrow on an extra day of rest. More importantly, this means Big Dub will likely start the final game of the season instead of James Shields, in essence shutting down Shields one start early.
  • Tony Fabrizio profiles Wade Davis. [Tampa Tribune]
  • Darin Downs and Matt Moore were named the MVPs for Charlotte and Bowling Green respectively. Also, catcher Nevin Ashley was named the organization’s best defensive player.
  • Triangle Offense previews the AAA championship game. [Triangle Offense]
  • It’s September, so let’s start the “Gary Sheffield would like to play for the Rays next year” stories. Of course, the Rays already have $9 million tied up in the DH spot for 2010, so unless the Rays can find a take for Pat Burrell’s contract and Sheff would sign for less than that amount, it ain’t gonna happen. [New York Post]
  • Is Pat Burrell done? Actually we think The Bat will have a very good year next season. We have nothing to base this on, but we get the impression that Burrell is the sort of player that doesn’t work very hard unless motivated. Most of his career that has been fine as he has been able to get by on natural ability. But his poor showing in 2009 may be a motivating factor and get him in better shape for the 2010 season. [UmpBump]
  • Joey Johnston looks at the bright future of the Rays “young, homegrown depth” in the pitching rotation…Interesting that he only focuses on the three rookies and glosses over James Shields who is also homegrown and only a year older than Jeff Niemann. [Tampa Tribune]
  • Jeff Niemann calls the AL Rookie of the Year award “a huge deal,” but says he is trying not to think about it. [St. Pete Times]
Apr 01

[THE HANGOVER] The One Where We Discuss Joyce’s First Home Run, Izzy’s Deal And Sheff’s Square Peg

Chuck Tiffany, Gary Sheffield, Jason Isringhausen Cork Gaines 2 Comments »

Rays Red Sox Spring BaseballTime 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: Matt Joyce. We still aren’t buying the idea that Joyce has a shot at making the team, but he did hit his first home run with the Rays, finishing 2-4…Gabe Gross. The guy standing between Joyce and an everyday job also hit his first home run of the spring two batters later.

THE BAD: Andy Sonnanstine. The Duke did work 7 innings, but allowed 5 runs on 6 hits and 2 walks. He looked good until he gave up a 3-run home run to Jason Varitek in the 7th…Grant Balfour. The Mad Australian was the one relief pitcher who worried us with his workload in 2008 and he has yet to look good this spring. He gave 3 more runs (2 earned) and couldn’t get out of the 8th inning.

THE TELLING: The lineup yesterday was a B-squad, with not a single player that figures to be an everyday player during the season…Today’s game at home against the Twins will be the Rays final spring game in Florida. They will play a pair of exhibition games on Friday and Saturday in Philadelphia against the WFC*.

DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…

  • Both the Rays and Jason Isringhausen sound optimistic that they will come to an agreement on a way to keep Izzy but without him starting the season on the 25-man roster. Marc Topkin says the Rays may add Izzy to the 40-man roster, which will kick in his major league salary and then place him on the DL so that he can continue to work out in extended spring training. Izzy’s agent said the pitcher will not accept a minor league assignment. [St. Pete Times]
  • In the same piece, Marc Topkin reports that the Rays are discussing the possibility of adding Gary Sheffield, but notes that while Sheffield has the potential to provide a “menacing bat,” there isn’t likely a good fit between the two sides…And yes, if you polled 30 major league managers and asked them to pick one word to describe Sheff’s bat, 29 would pick “menacing.” And that is just because Joe Maddon would pick the word “loquacious.”  [St. Pete Times]
  • Marc Lancaster says the Rays would not rule out the possibility of adding Gary Sheffield, but Lancaster says that is standard with any player in that situation but “no matter which way you look at the Rays’ roster, though, there doesn’t appear to be a fit for Sheffield.” [Tampa Tribune]
  • Marc Lancaster says the roster should be close to being set when the team breaks camp today, with only a couple of decisions looming. Lancaster suggests that the team has yet to name a fifth starter because they may be hoping to work out a trade for either Jason Hammel or Jeff Niemann. [Tampa Tribune]
  • Baseball Musings provides their annual AL East preview, giving the Rays a 28% chance of winning the division. [Baseball Musings]
  • Stacy Long is reporting that the Rays have released 4 minor leaguers, including Chuck Tiffany, who was considered a key ingredient in the trade that brought the Rays Edwin Jackson. [Montgomery Advertiser]
  • The Rays Party takes a look at what the Rays could potentially receive in return for either Jason Hammel or Jeff Niemann. [The Rays Party]
  • The Rays Party previews the 2009 pitching staff. [The Rays Party]
  • David Chalk tells us know why the Red Sox “Ain’t S#!t” compared to the Rays. [Bugs and Cranks]

Mar 31

Sheffield Released By Tigers, Wants To Join Rays

Gary Sheffield Cork Gaines 18 Comments »

phpk5FZUjGary Sheffield, who was released earlier today by the Detroit Tigers, told Jon Paul Morosi of the Detroit Free Press (via MLB Trade Rumors), that his first choice would be to join the Tampa Bay Rays.

Once he clears waivers, Sheffield will be able to sign with another team. He said he’d give preference to the Tampa Bay Rays, who play close to his home.

If the Rays had not been able to sign Pat Burrell, this off-season, picking up Sheffield might be a no-brainer. As it stands now, the Rays just don’t have any room for Sheffield unless the team were suddenly find a way to move Gabe Gross, release Gabe Kapler and deem Matt Joyce not read to play at all in 2009. That, and take a significant step backwards defensively, which goes against just about everything the Rays have tried to accomplish in the last few years.

Tigers Release Gary Sheffield [MLB Trade Rumors]
Tigers release DH Gary Sheffield [Detroit Free Press]
Tigers release Gary Sheffield [Detroit News]

Aug 13

[THE HANGOVER] Rays Lose Throwback Game, Playing Like ’02 Devil Rays

Andrew Friedman, Andy Sonnanstine, Barry Bonds, Carl Crawford, Cliff Floyd, Eric Hinske, Evan Longoria, Gabe Gross, Gary Sheffield, Jason Bartlett, Joe Maddon, Justin Ruggiano, Rocco Baldelli Cork Gaines 2 Comments »

Oakland 2, Tampa Bay Rays 1. (Sorry. The standings/schedule widget called in sick today. Should be back tomorrow)

THE GOOD: Scott Kazmir. We really don’t want to put Kaz here, but we are trying to find something positive from last night. Anything. And Kid K has been so bad, that last night actually seemed pretty good. But SWEET FANCY MOSES! How in the H-E-DOUBLE HOCKEY STICKS does a “good” starting pitcher last only 5 innings when he only gave up 2 hits and 2 walks? He actually had three 1-2-3 innings, allowing only 5 baserunners, and yet he still needed 97 pitches. That doesn’t even make sense.

THE BAD: That was as pathetic a loss as we have seen all year. Did the Rays play a throwback game without telling anybody? Give those guys some green unis and we’d swear that was the ’02 Devil Rays. The Rays absolutely looked and played like a little league team last night. Exhibit A: Top of the 5th, the Rays have runners on first and second with no outs, down 2-1. Ben Zobrist makes the first out on what we assume was a safety squeeze. It was difficult to tell for sure. If it was a suicide squeeze, he took off too late. If it was a safety squeeze he took off too soon. If it was neither, Akinori Iwamura is an idiot. With Jason Bartlett now on second base, he was picked off for the second out. Mercilessly killing the rally. Exhibit B: Top of the 8th, 1 out, Willy Aybar on first base. Eric Hinske hits a lazy flyball to left field. Not good, but not terrible. Ahhh, but Aybar, who is now apparently so paranoid about not running hard, took off sprinting, rounding second and on his way to third. He was easily doubled-up, forgetting the number of outs. Exhibit C: The Rays were 2-11 with runners in scoring position, with 3 Ks.

THE TELLING: Gary Sheffield and Barry Bonds. Now that Carl Crawford will likely miss the rest of the regular season, we are more luke-warm to the idea of Bonds playing for the Rays, but we still put the chances of actually happening somewhere south of 1%. The other name making the circles now is Sheffield, who was placed on waivers by the Tigers. It would be very unlikely for the Rays to put in a claim on Sheffield, even if they would like to work out a trade. The risk for the Rays is for the Tigers to not pull Sheffield back from waivers. There is a good chance the Tigers would just let the Rays take Sheffield and his ’09 salary of $14MM without asking for anything in return. If we were still in July, the Rays could work a trade in which the Tigers pay a good chunk of that salary….The Red Sox traded for veteran Paul Byrd, adding to an already deep pitching staff…

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…

  • Carl Crawford has elected to have surgery on his finger and will be sidelined 6-8 weeks. There are 6.5 weeks remaining in the regular season. Andrew Friedman said if everything went well, he could play again in the regular season…It sounds like there is a good chance CC would be available should the Rays make the playoffs. [Tampa Tribune]
  • The Rays are now hoping that Jason Bartlett, one of the weakest hitting DH’s in baseball history, will be able to play SS this Friday. The Rays are also hoping that Evan Longoria, who did not have a broken wrist, but actually did, will be back in the lineup on Sept 1. [MLB]

When asked if Sept. 1 seemed like a reasonable projection for Longoria’s return, Friedman answered: “Yeah, that seems reasonable. We’ll re-X-ray it and go through that process again. I think it’s very reasonable as we’re sitting here today. But as everybody knows, bones heal at different paces, and it’s too hard to say definitively at this point.”

  • Joe Maddon plans to use Justin Ruggiano (LF) and Rocco Baldelli (RF) against lefties while Eric Hinske and Gabe Gross will play against righties. Papa Joe also said Willy Aybar will be at 3B most days, but we can also expect to see Ben Zobrist and/or Eric Hinske at the hot corner. [St. Pete Times]
  • Cliff Floyd says the biggest concern with all the injuries is the danger of the rest of the players trying to do too much. [Tampa Tribune]

“I just hope we don’t all try to jump on that ship and go, ‘It’s me – let me be the man to take over,’” said Floyd. “No. Let’s just stay within ourselves like we are and just keep it chill on the field…We all know how important those guys were. I mean, hell, you ain’t going to replace them, no matter who you bring up or who you get, unless you go out and get one of the best players of the game. And you’re still not replacing them because those guys are part of this team.”

  • Andy Sonnanstine, who grew a beard in support of Rocco Baldelli, is now clean-shaven, as is Rocco, now that Rocco has finally returned to the roster…While Rocco’s “Lumberjack” look will be missed, The Duke’s fuzz will not. [Bradenton Herald]
  • Marc Lancaster agrees that Gary Sheffield does not seem like a good fit for the Rays. [Rays Report]
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