Oct 15
Here is a snippet from the “Dear John” letter we wrote for Yahoo! Sports. It is kinda like Rays Index on amphetamines…
In the end, you stayed a little longer than you were supposed to, Rays. We probably should have just listened to all the experts and their preseason predictions. We probably should have just called it off after the regular season. Then you got hot and played well. You were a first-place team almost wire-to-wire. But just when you were starting to get interesting you go and lose to a Texas Rangers team that had a smaller payroll than you.
Do you know how much that sucks? Now we can’t even play the “payroll card.”
Dear John letters: Your 2010 Tampa Bay Rays [Yahoo! Sports]
Jul 21
This weeks edition of the Tampa Bay Business Journal features a cover story on our new partner “Joe” from JoeBucsFan.com. The piece discusses the business-side of running a sports blog. A portion of the article is dedicated to the new partnership between JoeBucsFan.com and Raysindex.com and the emergence of JoeRaysFan.com. TBBJ is pay-per-read or subscription-based, but following this link will give you a short intro to the article. [Tampa Bay Business Journal]
Oct 25
Akinori Iwamura, Andy Sonnanstine, Carl Crawford, Carlos Pena, David Price, Fernando Perez, Jake McGee, Jamie Moyer, Joe Maddon, Love for the RI, Matt Garza, Matt Stairs, Scott Kazmir Cork Gaines
Click on above images to be taken to full standings, box scores or schedule…
THE GOOD: Tough lefty? Carl Crawford is 9-19 (.474) in his career against Jamie Moyer. Carlos Pena is 10-20 (.500) with 3 doubles and 2 home runs. Matt Stairs (1-10) is the only Phillie that has ever faced Matt Garza, but is unlikely to face him tonight.
THE BAD: Having to explain to people that we will be late to a Halloween party because of the World Series even though they promise to have the game on. Don’t care. We need to focus. This is too important.
THE TELLING: Forecast is now saying that the rain should have already passed by game time, with rain up until about 6pm and only 20% chance of rain during the game. You can get hourly updates here…The Rays were 6-3 in NL ballparks this season.
DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…
- The Delaware News-Journal (Phillies country) compares the long-suffering fans of the Rays and Phillies and what this World Series means to each. The story includes some quotes from some Rays fans including some bloke named Cork Gaines. Wonder where they found that guy? [Delaware News-Journal]
- Peter Gammons compares the Rays and Phillies bullpens. Joe Maddon says the key to building a bullpen without a top-notch closer is to find 4-5 guys that are not afraid of pitching in the 9th inning and 4-5 guys that are capable of coming into a game, finishing an inning and then going back out to at least start the next inning. Interestingly, Maddon says he can see Jake McGee filling those needs once he comes back from Tommy John surgery. [ESPN]
Price obviously is going into the Tampa Bay rotation next season, but look for the Rays to take a big, hard-throwing lefty like Jake McGee — who is coming off Tommy John surgery — to try that role. Maddon says McGee throws harder than Price, and he sees McGee being used in important roles out of the pen once he learns how to pitch, sit and pitch again.
- Ahhh Phillies Fans. [Big League Stew-Video]
- Joe Maddon admits that the game is more difficult to manage without a DH. Bill Chastain also mentions that while Andy Sonnanstine and Scott Kazmir can handle a bat well, Matt Garza is a very poor hitter. [MLB]
- Paul White of USA Today says the ballpark is not nearly as important as the pitching matchups and the Rays have the advantage. [USA Today]
- The Rays relievers are going to have to deal with a raucous crowd near the bullpen. [LA Times]
- Ronald Blum takes a look at the Rays bullpen and notes that unlike most teams, the Rays’ relievers do not have defined roles. [SI.com]
- Not a single Tampa Bay Ray was named to the Sporting News’ American League All-Star team. [Halos Happenings]
- Carlos Pena calls Akinori Iwamura “one of the best players we’ve ever seen.” High praise indeed. [Chicago Tribune]
- Piper Castillo takes a look at what is on Fernando Perez’ nightstand. [St. Pete Times]
- Dueling Couches is none too happy that the media are talking about David Price so much. We are assuming they were just as hard on the media with Joba Chamberlain last year and Francisco Rodriguez back in 2002. Because apparently it is not impressive to record the final 4 outs of an ALCS game 7 win against the Red Sox and then record the final 7 outs of a World Series win. All after having started the year in single-A. [Dueling Couches]
- Despite solid game 1 numbers, game 2 received the second-lowest ratings ever for a World Series game. [Awful Announcing]
- Bob Verdi of the Chicago Tribune says this World Series is worth watching and that nobody need feel sorry for the fat cats running the television industry. [Chicago Tribune]
- A tour of Joe Maddon’s office…Love the quote of about the wine and Joey Gathright. [VIDEO]
- Some pics of game 2 from a fan in the seats. [The Serious Tip]
- The success of the Rays has even boosted the local cigar industry. [Cigar Review]
Mar 27
You can imagine our surprise when we opened this weeks Baseball Preview issue of Sports Illustrated and we see the name of our little site right there amidst the Devil Rays preview. But don’t worry, we won’t let it go to our heads. In fact we won’t even write a post about it, nor would we ever permanently display the cover of the issue in the sidebar to the right, and we will definitely not push you to vote in the POLL from sportsillustrated.com that asks “Which blog or fan site has the best Devil Rays info?” in which we are getting our butts kicked by two sites that are clearly cheating. Hey, at least we have received more votes than DevilRaysNews. What? DevilRaysNews hasn’t updated in almost a year? They still have Mark Hendrickson listed on the Rays roster? OK, well at least we aren’t losing to THIS BLOG.
(editors note: we are just kidding about the “cheating”)
