A quick glance at the Rays chronological rotation, varied in size by innings pitched.

Data compiled from Baseball-Reference, inspiration from Craig Robinson at FlipFlopFlyball.com

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Get used to this image, Rays fans and Bay Area residents, as the Tampa Bay Area Regional Transit Authority (TBARTA) unanimously approved this Master Plan Vision for the next 40 years last Friday. Should everything go as planned, the Bay Area will take on the image by 2050, with Bus Rapid Transit, the Long and Short Distance Rail, and the Water Transit funneling from the eight separate counties into the Tampa-St. Petersburg metropolitan area.

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For the Rays, the thunder began before the rain Friday night. On a night where Derek Lowe and Jaime Garcia each took a no-hitter into the 7^th, James Shields’ 7+ IP, 1 ER performance may look rather pedestrian. However, Shields has now pitched into at least the 7^th in five straight starts and allowed only 4 ER in that span. Shields found some run support early on from recently called up Brandon Guyer who sent a Zach Britton fastball into the left-center field seats for two runs after Evan Longoria and B.J. Upton laced back to back doubles to the right field corner. Guyer, making his debut in front of a dozen or so family and friends from nearby Virginia, would become the first Ray to ever hit a homerun in his first major league plate appearance.

Both Britton and Shields would go on cruise-control through four rain-soaked innings. Not until Baltimore’s Derek Lee homered off of Shields in the 6^th to almost the exact same seat as Guyer had in the 2^nd, did the O's make a sound offensively. Shields would shake that pitch off and continue his streak of dominance as he finished his one-run effort having given up 3 hits, 3 walks, and striking out 5 Oriole hitters.

Britton wouldn’t survive past the 6^th inning and the Baltimore bullpen would allow the Rays to cushion their lead to 6-1 at its highest.  After an Evan Longoria walk and a Kelly Shoppach walk, recently-hot Casey Kotchman singled off Clay Rapada on a ground ball to right field, allowing Longoria to score. Not to be outdone, Koji Uehara would give up a single to Ben Zobrist and a homerun to Johnny Damon in the top of the 9^th. Baltimore would add a gimme-run in the bottom of the 9^th when Vlad Guerrero and Luke Scott would hit back-to-back doubles off of Joel Peralta. Fellow new-Brandon, Brandon Gomes would come in to collect the last out of the game, pushing the Rays to an 18-14 record. The Orioles and Rays will face off tomorrow afternoon at 1:10pm.

Last night this was brought to my attention.

http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-rays-delmon-young-trade-2011-3

Look familiar? This is why.

http://www.draysbay.com/2011/2/5/1977370/the-updated-delmon-young-trade-string

Yeah. Same image. Why do people still hire this fraud? Reading his work is like listening to someone take a post-Chipotle super-shit through a megaphone.

Oh, and if he gets all a-flustered again, we'll know he's a lying sack of shit.

@Josh_Frank sorry, don't read DRB. But thanks for reading my stuff.

Your move, dickbag.

I need to post something about revisionist history or conservatism.
Go Rays!

Granted I’m pretty far left on the polical spectrum. But that’s because I’m very intelligent.

by DeadeyeRR on Feb 23, 2011 12:09 PM EST up reply actions  

I need to post something about revisionist history or conservatism.
Go Rays!

Granted I’m pretty far left on the polical spectrum. But that’s because I’m very intelligent.

by DeadeyeRR on Feb 23, 2011 12:09 PM EST up reply actions  

I need to post something about revisionist history or conservatism.
Go Rays!

Granted I’m pretty far left on the polical spectrum. But that’s because I’m very intelligent.

by DeadeyeRR on Feb 23, 2011 12:09 PM EST up reply actions  

via img146.imageshack.us

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A Powell father and one-time "Big Brother" reality show contestant whose name wound up on a mailing list for gay sex publications is trying this week to convince a jury to punish the publisher because his then-12-year-old daughter got an unwanted eyeful sent to his home.

Jurors in U.S. District Judge Tom Varlan's courtroom likely will begin deliberations today in a civil lawsuit filed by Kent Blackwelder against Specialty Publications Inc., a California-based firm that publishes sexually explicit material including the gay magazine "Freshmen."

Blackwelder was cast in the second season of "Big Brother" in 2001. The show forces contestants from disparate backgrounds to share a house. Blackwelder was the token conservative. He was voted out midway through the season.

At issue in his lawsuit is the five seconds his daughter perused a mailer featuring photographs of naked men in erotic poses in May 2007 and its impact. He also accuses the publisher of violating regulations on how sexually explicit material should be packaged.

Blackwelder's attorney, David Burkhalter II, insists Blackwelder did not solicit the mailer, which promised a free copy of the "Titan Men's Fresh Farm" DVD with a subscription to "Freshmen" magazine, and has no idea how his name and address wound up on the mailing list.

"Mr. Blackwelder didn't ask for this advertisement," Burkhalter told jurors Tuesday. "He didn't solicit this. He's not gay - not that there's anything wrong with that."

But the publisher's attorney, Richard Hollow, said it was no mystery how Blackwelder's name and address wound up on the mailing list.

"In 2005, Kent Blackwelder entered an online contest sponsored by the magazine known as 'The Out Traveler,'" Hollow said. "This is a gay publication."

The contest, which the married Blackwelder denies entering, offered up an all-expenses paid trip for two to a "gay-friendly" destination.

Two years later, Madison Blackwelder plucked from a basket on the kitchen counter a plain white envelope addressed to her father and promising on its cover a "free new DVD offer."

She told jurors Tuesday she thought it might be a Disney movie offer so she opened the envelope.

The Heater presents!

Poll: Can Friedman rebuild Rays' pen?

Some -- He picked up Rafael Soriano and Joaquin Benoit just last offseason 21 votes - 32%

Little -- It took three to four years to build the current pen 18 votes - 27%

A lot -- He helped turn around the franchise's fortunes almost overnight 15 votes - 23%

None -- It's an impossible task given the payroll limitations 12 votes - 18%

 

It's still early. Let's see where this goes.....

You've forgotten something.

The SB Nation Editorial Robot noticed that your post contains no text. Bleep. Please add some words. Blorp!

Check back often for any breaking roster moves as we near the deadline for September call-ups.

**UPDATE**

r_j_anderson 08/27/10 Tampa Bay Rays transferred LHP J.P. Howell from the 15-Day disabled list to the 60-Day disabled list.

This should open up a spot on the 40 for someone (Hawpe?).

***UPDATE 3:57pm***

SPTimesRays #Rays to call up Baldelli, Navarro, Hellickson and Jennings on Sept. 1, plus Lobaton who's headed to DL.

This game needs to end....

Stupid catwalks.

The personal details of 100 million Facebook users have been collected and published online in a downloadable file, meaning they will now be unable to make their publicly available information private.

However, Facebook downplayed the issue, saying that no private data had been compromised.

The information was posted by Ron Bowes, an online security consultant, on the Internet site Pirate Bay.

Bowes used code to scan the 500 million Facebook profiles for information not hidden by privacy settings. The resulting file, which allows people to perform searches of various different types, has been downloaded by more than 2,400 people.

This means that if any of those on the list decide to change their privacy settings on Facebook, Bowes and those who have the file will still be able to access information that was public when it was compiled.

Bowes’ actions also mean people who had set their privacy settings so their names did not appear in Facebook’s search system can now be found if they were friends with anyone whose name was searchable.

"As I thought more about it and talked to other people, I realized that this is a scary privacy issue. I can find the name of pretty much every person on Facebook," he wrote.

"Facebook helpfully informs you that "[a]nyone can opt out of appearing here by changing their Search privacy settings" — but that doesn't help much anymore considering I already have them all (and you will too, when you download the torrent). Suckers!"

Potentially hazardous asteroid might collide with the Earth in 2182

The work has been published in Icarus journal

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		IMAGE: These are asteroids and comets visited by spacecraft. Click here for more information.

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"The total impact probability of asteroid '(101955) 1999 RQ36' can be estimated in 0.00092 –approximately one-in-a-thousand chance-, but what is most surprising is that over half of this chance (0.00054) corresponds to 2182," explains to SINC María Eugenia Sansaturio, co-author of the study and researcher of Universidad de Valladolid (UVA). The research also involved scientists from the University of Pisa (Italy), the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (USA) and INAF-IASF-Rome (Italy).

Scientists have estimated and monitored the potential impacts for this asteroid through 2200 by means of two mathematical models (Monte Carlo Method and line of variations sampling). Thus, the so called Virtual Impactors (VIs) have been searched. VIs are sets of statistical uncertainty leading to collisions with the Earth on different dates of the XXII century. Two VIs appear in 2182 with more than half the chance of impact.

Asteroid '(101955) 1999 RQ36' is part of the Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHA), which have the possibility of hitting the Earth due to the closeness of their orbits, and they may cause damages. This PHA was discovered in 1999 and has around 560 meters in diameter.

The Yarkovsky effect

In practice, its orbit is well determined thanks to 290 optical observations and 13 radar measurements, but there is a significant "orbital uncertainty" because, besides gravity, its path is influenced by the Yarkovsky effect. Such disturbance slightly modifies the orbits of the Solar System's small objects because, when rotating, they radiate from one side the radiation they take from the sun through the other side.

The research, which has been published in Icarus journal, predicts what could happen in the upcoming years considering this effect. Up to 2060, divergence of the impacting orbits is moderate; between 2060 and 2080 it increases 4 orders of magnitude because the asteroid will approach the Earth in those years; then, it increases again on a slight basis until another approach in 2162, it then decreases, and 2182 is the most likely year for the collision.

"The consequence of this complex dynamic is not just the likelihood of a comparatively large impact, but also that a realistic deflection procedure (path deviation) could only be made before the impact in 2080, and more easily, before 2060," stands out Sansaturio.

The scientist concludes: "If this object had been discovered after 2080, the deflection would require a technology that is not currently available. Therefore, this example suggests that impact monitoring, which up to date does not cover more than 80 or 100 years, may need to encompass more than one century. Thus, the efforts to deviate this type of objects could be conducted with moderate resources, from a technological and financial point of view."

Words.

Here's hoping for some Rafi Tafi time tonight.

Rafael Soriano

#29 / Pitcher / Tampa Bay Rays

Height: 6-1

Weight: 220

Bats: R

Throws: R

Born: Dec 19, 1979

Weeeee

You bit me