BBA 2009 AL MVP Ballot
Image by Getty Images via Daylife Warning: most of this ballot is going to surprise you. How do I know, because it surprised me! You see, I didn’t just use my eyes or even the traditional method/statistics to make up this ballot. I used 11 statistical categories including defensive metrics & added some objective weight […]
Many Yankee moments to remember in September
The last month of the New York Yankees‘ season could have been anticlimactic – they essentially clinched the AL East when they swept the Boston Red Sox in four games in August. But the Bombers still ended up turning it on throughout the stretch, even when they rested players to tune up for October. Here […]
Friday Night Links: Contest
Image by Keith Allison via Flickr Tonight’s version of Friday Night Links will focus on a contest being run by our friends over at RAYS THE STAKES, a Tampa Bay Rays blog. The winner of this contest will get an autographed JASON BARTLETT (Rays SS) Upper Deck baseball card. This contest is being provided by […]
Breaking News: The Rays Are Sellers, and Looking Towards 2010
They’ve done it. I asked them to. I suggested it. But I didn’t expect them to do it. But they did it. I can’t believe they actually did it. Image via Wikipedia The Tampa Bay Rays have traded Scott Kazmir. My logic at the beginning of the season was as sound then as it is […]
The Current Mindset of the Rays
It’s hard to believe that in this decade, Tampa Bay major sports franchises have been to the Super Bowl, the World Series, and the Stanley Cup Finals. Not bad for a city that has, at other times, been synonymous with horrendous teams (the Buccaneers before this decade, and the Rays before last season). What have […]
How Josh Hamilton Defeated His Demons
The nice people at Guideposts.com have been kind enough to allow us to bring these stories of current Major League players in their entirety while I’m away on vacation. So without further ado…The Natural by Josh Hamilton (himself): How faith and family helped big leaguer Josh Hamilton beat his demons The scene was so familiar […]
Tracking the Top Prospects: 11-20
No lengthy introduction needed here as we continue with the second half of the top 20 prospects in baseball thanks again to Keith Law of Scouts, Inc. We will start now with No. 11. 11. Tim Beckham, SS, Tampa Bay Rays organization Last year’s number one overall pick in the MLB first-year player draft went […]
The Rays After 40 Games
The 2009 Tampa Bay Rays played their fortieth game of the season on Monday, May 18th and in so doing got themselves back to the .500 mark at 20-20. But at this point, things that went right in 2008 so far have not in 2009, and the Rays find themselves in fourth place in their […]
Tracking the Top Prospects: Players 1-10
Image via Wikipedia Back on Jan. 22, Keith Law of Scouts, Inc. wrote a column for ESPN.com that ranked the top 100 prospects in the major leagues for the 2009 regular season. Well, since the most of us do not pay whatever fee that is charged to get ESPNinsider, we only have access to the […]
America’s Pastime: The Last 4 Innings
Sixth Inning The culmination of a week long bike trip with my Boy Scout troop that encompassed 150 miles was a baseball game on the fourth of July at PNC Park, home of the Pittsburgh Pirates. My dad was not able to accompany us on the biking journey, although he would have loved to, because […]
World Champions Reload, Reorganize, for Repeat
The start of this offseason brought about a bevy of unwelcomed, albeit unsurprising news to the 2008 World Champions. Left-handed reliever J.C. Romero, who had a 0.00 ERA in four World Series appearances, finally learned the fate of his appeal for violating the league’s steroid-abuse policy. Romero was sentenced to a 50-game suspension to begin […]
Rays Reflections
David Price and Andy Sonnanstine are exhibits A and B in a lesson about how valuable experience can be when making a major league roster or, more importantly, a starting rotation. Though I am a big fan of Andy’s, anyone can see that Price is likely a far more talented pitcher in every aspect of […]
Reflections on the Mariners
Last October, Jack Zduriencik was anointed Seattle’s next GM after a ton of success in Milwaukee as Special Assistant to the GM for Player Personnel and Director of Amateur Scouting (and you thought his name was a mouthful, whew!). He may come in with a scouting background to bolster Seattle’s already-strong scouting department, but his […]
Indians Acquire Salas in Trade with Rays, Designate Marte for Assignment
On Thursday, the Indians made a few roster moves, one in particular which raised some eyebrows in Northeast Ohio. To start things off, the Tribe traded with the Tampa Bay Rays and acquired reliever Juan Salas for minor league infielder Isaias Velasquez. Salas has seen action with the Rays during the past three seasons, but […]
Reflections on the Rays
In pre-season of 2008, I picked the Tampa Bay Rays to make some noise in the American League, to win 25 more games than they had the year before, to top the Seattle Mariners by 18 games, and to make a run at the wild card in the American League. And if you managed to […]
Tribe Signs Graffanino to Minor League Deal
With a busy, yet slow off season still yet to end, even though pitchers and catchers have already reported to spring training, the Indians decided that they didn’t have enough veteran talent with minor league contracts and major league invites to spring training, so they signed Tony Graffanino to one. Graffanino was originally drafted in […]
Reflections on the Blue Jays’ Off Season
Hi everyone, and greetings from the great white north (metaphorically speaking, in my case– I actually live in Washington DC). I’m Hugo, and Rincewind and I (more on that later) run Bluebird Banter, a blog dedicated to discussions and ruminations on our favourite azure-tinged corvids. It’s a great site full of great folks and we’d […]
Reviewing the 2008 World Series Program
There is no doubt that the story lines for this year’s World Series were endless as the Phillies, a historic baseball franchise, were heading back to the Series to try to end a quarter century drought, and the Rays, who had never even had a winning season in their history, faced off. As one can […]
Philadelphia Phillies Off Season Report
Season Wrap Up The Phillies beat the Tampa Bay Rays, MLB‘s Cinderella story of 2008, to become the World Series Champs! What more needs to be said about 2008 except that Cole Hamels proved that he IS a # 1 starter with his performance in the playoffs. Just in case anyone was questioning his ability […]
Tampa Bay Rays Off Season Report
Season Wrap Up Who would have imagined that the newly renamed Rays would have made history in 2008? After finishing last in the AL East in 2007, they finished first in 2008, surpassing the mighty Yankees and Red Sox with their 97 wins. Not only did they win the AL East, but they also won […]
Who Had the Best Organization in the MLB in 2008?
According to Maury Brown and his staff at the Biz of Baseball, they picked the Tampa Bay Rays. We saw the Rays go from being one of the worst teams in baseball in 2007 to one of the best teams in 2008 as they hosted the Phillies in the first two games of the World […]
Philadelphia is One Win Away from Baseball Euphoria!
After this weekend the Phillies have taken a commanding 3 games to 1 lead over the Rays going into tonight’s game at home at Citizen’s Bank Park. In game 3, the Phillies 45 year old starter Jamie Moyer pitched better than anyone thought was possible against the Rays Matt Garza (MVP of the ALCS). He […]
My Thoughts on Game 1…
Phillies Take Game 1 with a Score of 3-2 First, I’ll toot my own horn. This was a must win for the Phillies. They needed to win at least 1 out of 2 in Tampa Bay in order to have any chance at winning the series. This was their best chance at doing that with […]
2008 World Series Preview
Tampa Bay Rays (97-65) Vs. Philadelphia Phillies (92-70) This first area of concern I have is how long the Phillies had to wait for the Rays to eliminate the Red Sox (95-67). It has been a week since the Phillies have played against an opponent as they eliminated the Dodgers (84-78) in 5 games while […]
The American League Rookie of the Year Prediction
The American League Rookie of the Year Award has some big names in the hunt. One played two months in the league before receiving a big contract extension, one was well known for his post season appearance last year and one even flew under the radar for most of the season even though he put […]
There’s A New Beast in the AL East
The Tampa Bay Rays Advance to the 2008 World Series After being beaten in game 6 by Josh Beckett and the Red Sox, a game the Rays should have won, the Rays beat Jon Lester in game 7, a game they should have lost. Bottom line: the Rays played better in 4 of the 7 […]
Boston Forces Game 7 in the ALCS Against the Rays
Josh Beckett out performed James “Big Game” Shields to get the win in game 6 and for the second year in a row, have come back from being down 3 games to 1 and force a deciding game 7. In tomorrow’s match up we have Boston’s new Ace of the staff, Jon Lester going up […]
Last Chance for the Rays…the Bottom of the 9th
In comes the Boston closer, Jonathan Papelbon with his patented stare. First up is the scary rookie 3B Evan Longoria. This is the biggest at bat of the inning in my opinion. Longoria grounds out to SS Jed Lowrie. 1 out! Boston is 2 outs away from forcing a 7th game once again! CF Carl […]
Boston Leads 4-2 Going into the Top of the 9th
RF Drew faces Bradford to lead off the 9th and hits a line drive to LF Crawford. 1 out. LF Bay is 5 for 8 against Bradford in his career. He grounds out to the SS. The Rays remove Bradford for Trevor Miller. I’m not sure about this move. It doesn’t make much sense as […]
Bottom of the 8th
New pitcher for Boston is rookie and former starting pitcher Justin Masterson. SS Jason Bartlett is leading off the 8th down 4-2. He was hit by a pitch again. No outs, man on first. 2B Iwamura is 0-3 tonight. Masterson looks a bit nervous up there right now, but Varitek, with a 1-0 count goes […]
