The basic outline is this:

Every week, bloggers will rank the MVP, CY Young, and Rookie of Year of the rotating league candidates 1-3, with 1 being the best and 3 being the worst.

Please do your best to make sure your e-mails arrive in my inbox by 11:59 P.M. Monday each week. The first voting deadline is April 7 for the American League, April 14th for first National League vote. The Blog Poll will be limited to once I have 25-30, results will be posted each Tuesday.

MLBPoll voters list is finalized

Baseball Happenings
Baseball Musings
Seth Speaks
Fire Brand of American League
Brock For Broglio
Brew Crew Ball
Beyond The Boxscore
Greener On Other Side
DRays Bay
RotoRob
Over the Monster
Bucs Dugout
No Bias Baseball
Outs Per Swing
Bugs & Cranks
Talking Chop
Roto Junkie
Oriole Post
Baseball Time In Arlington
Warning Track Power
CardinalsDiaspora
Statistically Speaking
Tiger Tales
Kranepool Society
Cubs F/X
Roto Advice
Chicago Cubs Online
Baseball Legends

I'll be posting the results both here, and on Baseball Happenings

I put the DRB preview on the sidebar. I plan on placing the logo on my two sites.

Btw, RotRob gave props to the preview. So check it out.

Fantasy junkies and such, I did a blog exchange with Greener On the Other side (a Sabermetrics Roto blog). Here are the two q&a's :Greener, BBH

I have created one of those rss feeds with strictly Rays blogs and news outlets.

http://trophyleague.com/planetrss?group=rayosphere

If you have a little known blog or know of a nice feed to add to the feed, email me at david@draysbay.com

I've got most major Rays blogs sites and local news so far

Live on ESPNNews. Seems they are gonna start creating some legislation for control of steroids in sports, taking it away from individual sports.

Chone Hitting Projections 2008 visualization:

Chone Pitching Projections 2008 visualization:

More to come at Trophy League Visualizations

http://gothambaseballmagazine.com/news/gsr--qa-with-tampa-gm-andrew-friedman.html

FT. Ol Jake, 98MPH

Knowing what you know today. Lets journey back to 2003. Southern University's hot hitting 2B prospect Rickie Weeks is the highly coveted player expected to be the top overall pick in the 2003 draft. The Devil Rays are on the clock. Everyone expects the Devil Rays to pick Weeks with their strength in the outfield ranks.

The Rays with the projected middle infield of Weeks and Upton are sure to be cornerstones for this franchise for a long long time. But, in recent weeks a high schooler, brother of Dimitri Young has been making the news headlines. Bud Selig walks to the podium to announce the pick.

What would the best pick for the organization been? Did the LaMar regime make the right pick? You decide.

One site that is one everybody's blogroll (including Peter Gammons) is Baseball Musings by David Pinto. His claim to fame is that during the 2001 season he was part of ESPN's Baseball Tonight Online. He was a moderator on the chat room that featured either Rob Dibble or Tom Candiotti answering question. Third Baseball Blog Blast

This is the second in the series of the baseball bloggers who had great impact in the vibrant baseball blogosphere  you see today on the web. In the first installment , Aaron Gleeman was profiled.

Here I write about another great blogger

My feed aggregator at Trophy League alerted me of the Cliff Floyd recent interview. Interesting how up he was to do the interview with a blogger.

A feature about early days of baseball blogging and who may have started alot of what you see on the web today.

At one time,  the sports radio the brain trust of Mike Francesa and Christopher "Mad Dog" Russo of sportsradio66 WFAN were considered some kind of sports experts. That time was the early days of sports radio in mid 1980s, and the stuff they spew out now on the air now is almost un-listenable - Its about time.   Maybe its just that the their time has come and gone, and the fans are simply just more knowledgeable.

Well, on the airwaves yesterday they were talking about the Hall of Fame Results, and who was or was not deserving of being enshrined in Cooperstown. A little different, than the Keltner list, their  criteria is as follows:

1. You need to be a dominant player in the years you played
2.  You need to read the back of their baseball card and see at least 10 Hall of Fame like Years offensively
3. Number of times the player made the All-star game is huge.
4. Defense does not matter
5. There are no corrections or equivalences if you play on a good or bad team.

Based on this criteria ,  Mark McGwire  is in. Here are the results on who they said are not HOF caliber players:

Tim Raines.  Just 7 Hall of Fame years. He was a speedster, but agreed injuries did not get him enough career numbers.
Bert Blyleven.  3.30 ERA , 3700 Ks , 287 W not good enough for Mike and MadDog. I think Sutton in,  Bert out. Crazy!

Andre Dawson.  Career 400 Hrs but less than 10 dominant years. This guy would hit 600 on what was in McGwire's locker.

Dale Murphy.  Career 398 Hrs. His 1982-1987 were amazing. Played on some bad teams. Murphy out, but Kirby Pucket in?

Related Sites:

"Mike and Mad Dog" Blog

Its almost every season you have that player that come out of nowhere to surprise the critics and put up those outstanding numbers. In pro football, it was last years draft that some of the critics were questioning the pickup of Randy Moss and what he would mean to the Patriots. Well,picking the breakout players can be a guessing game at times.

What we can do is take a look at who was very unlucky using a metric devised by J.C. Bradbury, the author of The Baseball Economist.  In the stat known as Predicted OPS (prOPS), it looks at types of batted balls players were hitting. It makes a call on how "good" players are actually playing by looking at this data. In other words, it says who were the players who were hitting the ball well, and do not have the numbers to back it up. Similarly, those with the huge numbers, its says how much of that was luck. Thus, this leads to say in the upcoming year that the players that were unlucky might be in store for a breakout season in the upcoming year.

If you look at the Actual OPS and subtract the predicted OPS, that will give you an idea of who overperformed. As expected, Carl Crawford, B.J. Upton, Aki, Delmon Young show up on the list of performers. However, what is interesting to me is seeing that Carlos Pena shows up on the under performing list. Meaning, even with his monster year, he was a little unlucky. Same thing applies to Gomes, Navarro and Baldelli. So, keep these guys on the radar as possible breakouts for 2008. Though, Baldelli had a small sample size.

If you are interested in projections, some of them already out. Marcel (the monkey) the most basic forecasting system you can have, that uses as little intelligence as possible is out. [Marcel 08 Batting]   [Marcel 08 Pitching]

As well, Chone Smith 's projections are out as well: [Chone 08] . Chone performed very well last year so you can take a look at last years projections[Chone 07 (fangraphs)].

As a side project, I have been working on a new site called Trophy League that aggregates posts from the Blogosphere, as well as a stats section. I'll be using this as a supplement to DRays Bay to easily pull up numbers as I have just added links for 2007 data.

One thing that alarmed me while looking over some of the numbers was that we wrapped up the title for worst team fielding as based on PMR which is a formula devised by David Pinto of Baseball Musings using data from Baseball Information solutions.

On my site you can browse the PMR by position. Brendan Harris shows up as almost dead last for up the middle at SS. Also, towards the bottom is Ty Wiggington. Surprisingly, Upton and Pena are in the middle of the pack. The model says the problem on defense is not in the outfield. So, with the addition of our new SS Bartlet who shows up near the top of the pack, our pitchers will definetaly be helped out.  I am guessing whoever we throw out there at third will be an upgrade over Wiggy.

With our improved pitching and defense we should see improvements in the win column.  Also, I noted that even with Cliff Floyd's down year, he had an RBI% of 14.94 % compared to Delmon's 16.84%. I think if Floyd can stay healthy which is a big IF, we won't be that bad there. Overall, there is truth about the optimism being thrown out there about the Rays.

While perusing the morning links I came across this   "Tune by Tuck" from THT that features the Rays work in progress :

Speaking of the process, the Rays cool-aid is served as Results Disoriented brings to our attention that Ron Shandler is very high on the Rays in 2008. He gives a best year ever with a record over 500.

Video

I started paying attention to Clemens in the year of 1986. In that time, we did not have the array of resources and online news outlets the way we do today. In that day, you first start hearing about people based on their performance on the field.

I say you take Clemens career up until the point his career ended with Boston and he is a Hall of Famer.  

I was floored by what he was able to do in Toronto,  Yankees, and even Astros.

But, we have heard the rumors of steroids in the past on Clemens. I honestly did not believe them. But, one thing is fishy. Its this practice of where he comes out of retirement and starts the season in June timeframe (with Astros and then Yankees) sure seems like a way to get out of doing what every other major league player must adhere to. It takes respect out of all those who players who prepare physically and mentally to compete in this game. Instead, he received this rock star treatment and am not sure what he was bypassing by the later start. He knew what he was going to do each year.

Sure, what he has done on the field has been exceptional. So, has what Bonds has done on the field.

But, when your name is splashed all over the Mitchell investigation, you have some explaining to do. Especially, when your buddy Andy who trains with you and looks up to you admits he experimented with HGH.  

I mistakenly believed Rose when he said he did not bet for 10 years. Should I believe Clemens denial?

In what appears to be the biggest winter Blockbuster deal in a long while, the Rays organization showed they were not bluffing when they said anyone on their roster could be available if the trade made sense for them.

The top headliners in this deal is the swap of #1 picks OF Delmon Young for SP Matt Garza.  We always knew this organization had a excess of Outfielders and eventually someone would have to go for some starting pitching, but never in my realization of this did I imagine they would pull the trigger on the player who was considered to be the cornerstone of the franchise for years to come.  I guess you could say with Delmon slotted in the lineup playing everyday for a complete season the Rays still ended up in the cellar.  

So, the Rays probably did think of this scenario for a long while. They knew they had to reshape the roster to make this team competitive in the AL East.  The Rays for years have not been able to find anyone to help them out in free agency that would help them significantly upgrade their starting pitching. Also, Rocco Baldelli's value was not going to bring them a pitcher in the quality of Matt Garza. They swapped for a pitcher that similar cost control over the next several seasons, for a player who has gone on the record before saying he would never sign with Rays once he reached free agency.

After thinking about it the past 24 hours, I think this trade will help the Rays more than it will hurt them with the loss of Delmon. With Jeff Niemann, Wade Davis and Jake McGee on the not too far horizon, the Rays might be defined by their starting pitching.

Also, checking in from the blogosphere, Twin blogger who defined the term "Free" Johan Santana,  has this to say about the deal from the Twins side:

From my old blog Pal Seth Stohs :

A radio talk with Bubba about Baltimore gets him in trouble. Not the first time his mouth got him in trouble.

"You've got four guys in there, including me, and we're talking about all sorts of stuff, including bars and restaurants, and how the two cities are different. I said Baltimore was horses - - for that. After games, places are closed down. There's no place to go."

RotoRob:   "What's gotten into Dioner Navarro lately? The dude has homered in two straight games and has four long balls in the past 14 games after managing just one in his first 66 contests. Urine test, please. His three-hit night Wednesday vaulted him over the Mendoza Line. Remember how highly touted this kid was and note that he is still just 23 years old. It's just a couple of weeks, but clearly, let's not give up on Navarro quite yet (even if this is his first taste of a plus .200 BA since May 15)."

video

Josh here on the WTVD interview shows the soft spoken guy guy he really is. Video is on righ wheer all the other videos are.

http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/index?section=sports&id=3243567

I happen to be a long time follower of Lou Piniella's antics as the founder of DRays Bay and have been following his team closely since spring training.

In Spring I saw Felix Pie playing exceptional ball and it was early in the Cactus league season that Lou said he was out of the mix for the start of the year.

I wondered why Soriano would be playing CF knowing that Soriano performed so well in LF last year.

I wanted to reach out to the Cubs community and see their take on where they see Pie with the recent move of Soriano to the position he should have started in and what they plan on doing with OF from here on out.

TAMPA BAY EVENT It's another Baseball Prospectus Ballpark Feed, and this time we're in sunny Tampa Bay on May 3rd. Come hear Will Carroll talk about the game with special guests from the Rays, local media, and our good friend Jenn Sterger. Seating is VERY LIMITED (~100), so act now. Tickets are $20 each, which includes: a lower level outfield seat in left field; a food voucher good for hot dog, snack, and Pepsi at Fan Favorite concession stands; and pre-game entry to the meeting room session with Rays front office personnel and Will Carroll. The pre-game meeting starts at 5:50pm (gates open at 5:40pm), and will go for about an hour. To order tickets, call David Baggs with the Rays at 727.825.3393, or email him at dbaggs@devilrays.com

Mr. Young tops the recently released 2007 young phenoms. I have to agree as Young is just getting started. It will be interesting who makes the all-star team. Gone are days of Lance Carter and in will be several deserving candidates.

Josh Hamilton in career start #1 launches a HR. What a thrill. This is a great story.

MATCHUP
Devil Rays face Ranger's at 8:05 at the Ballpark in Arlington
Jae Seo vs Jamey Wright.

Tale of The Tape

C. Crawford LF
B. Zobrist SS
R. Baldelli CF
T. Wigginton 1B
D. Young RF
A. Iwamura 3B
E. Dukes DH
D. Navarro C
B.J. Upton 2B

Follow along with the game online

Its been a long time coming, but people around baseball are really starting to take notice. It is sure a great feat when Kevin Goldstein is talking about the current youth and not so much the future. This is the real deal this time, not the Carl and Joey show that we were teased with prematurely a few years ago.  

It will be an interesting problem if Evan Longoria were to be a part of the mix here in Tampa. That would mark the beginning of the log jam of talent. I loved the gritty play Cantu brought to the team, but there is just not much room for him here. A trade for an impact reliever sure makes sense if one organization who just is maxed out with the relief corps.

link:
"This put the Devil Rays alone atop the AL East for the 6th day in their ten-year history.

Maybe all this Guinness and strawberry ice cream is just making me paranoid -- but maybe not. I'm going to go watch the game now, leaving you with this photo of winning run #6 courtesy of an RBI infield single by B. J. Upton off B-Jay B. J. "BS" Ryan (the "BS" stands for Blown Save, as in career Blown Save #21)."

One of the best writers out of NY has a nice feature article on Rays.

So why should you, the Yankees fan, care about this wretched crew? Why would I urge those among you who can swing it to leave the office at noon, catch the train up to the Stadium, and get the best tickets the city's finest scalpers have on offer? Simply this: For all the horrors that have beset the team's player development system, the Rays have as obscene a collection of young talent as has existed in my lifetime. Upton, Dukes, and Young are playing in the major leagues, and they're far too talented not to expect that everything that's gone wrong for them will, 10 years from now, be anything more than vaguely remembered urban legends attached to the early careers of a lot of swaggering superstars. They aren't even the best young players on the team. Carl Crawford hits and runs like Jose Reyes, and Rocco Baldelli crushed the ball into the gaps and ran like a horse last season after not having faced live pitching for a year.

I agree with what he is saying. Its about time some positive article out of NY. Marchman is the man!