Although the Rays dropped Al Lang's final game 6-3, that wasn't really important to me.  I was obviously there to see the game and root for the Rays, but like most people there, it was really just to see a game at Al Lang one last time.

I suppose the best thing you could call the game today is bittersweet, as it's great the Rays are expanding their fan base south and possibly building a beautiful waterfront park on Al Lang's current property, but it's just hard for me to imagine that they won't be playing baseball on First Street anymore come springtime.  

The place was packed, 30 minute lines for beers and hardly a slice of grass available on the berms, it was electric and a great send off for old Al Lang Field, and I hope that all of you that wanted to go were able to.  Hit the jump for a couple pictures of the post-game barbeque.

Continue reading this post »

As you all know, tomorrow truly marks the end of an era with what will be the final game at legendary Al Lang Field.  Named after St. Petersburg baseball grandfather Al Lang who helped begin the tradition of spring training baseball in St. Pete, countless teams have called Al Lang home, from the Philadelphia Nationals in 1916-1921, Boston Braves from 1922-1924, St. Louis Cardinals from 1938-1997, to Babe Ruth and the Yankees from 1925-1937 and finally the Rays from their inaugural 1998 year.

It's genuinely depressing to me to see this staple of Florida baseball come to an end, and I know some of you must have some great memories about the place I'd love to hear.  I'll be attending tomorrow, so I'll probably make a post and possibly have some pictures to share.  

See you at the game.

Credit to Stacy Long

Injury-troubled pitcher Wade Townsend is moving to the bullpen, following an outing Wednesday where he was shelled for 6 runs in the eighth inning of a Double-A exhibition with the Yankees.

Townsend, the former 8th overall pick by the Rays in 2005 struggled through 21 starts at Single-A Columbus last year before he was sidelined by injuries a year after recovering from Tommy John surgery.

Per the Chicago Sun-Times, Matt Murton is officially not a part of the Cubs' plans.  Today Lou Piniella named Mike Fontenot as the final player on the five man bench, ruling out the possibility of Murton making the roster and going on to say that the Cubs will try to get him a spot on a major league team.

The Rays, being in the market for an outfielder, would be doing themselves a big favor by acquiring Murton. He flat out hits and gets on base, with a career line of .296/.365/.455, developing power and good speed on the bases.  Matt was originally drafted in 2003 in the first round by the Red Sox, and saw himself dealt to the Cubs during the four-team blockbuster in 2003 which sent Nomar Garciaparra to the Cubs and Orlando Cabrera to the Red Sox, among others.

Granted, the Rays were specifically looking for a switch-hitting center fielder, but I can't imagine that they could land one nearly as valuable as Murton.

 Jonny Gomes, from Baseball America:

I don't necessarily disagree with Longoria's demotion, and I think the writing has been on the wall since before spring training started that he wasn't going to make the team -- remember when it was said that Longoria could bat .500 and still not make the squad?  Yeah.  Well, as you saw, Jonny Gomes isn't happy.  I'd be interested to find out how many players on the club feel this way, as Gomes isn't the type to beat around the bush.

From tampabay.com

First Kazmir, now Price with arm trouble?  Shitske.

Also worth noting, ESPN reports the Blue Jays released Reed Johnson. He's been noted in the fishwraps as an option for the vacancy of Rocco's spot, we'll see.

Threw together this wallpaper for R.J., thought I'd post it here too.  Enjoy.

Jonny Gomes was hit with a two-game suspension and $2,000 fine today for charging Shelley Duncan from the outfield after Duncan went spikes up on Akinori Iwamura this past Wednesday, to be effective from the March 31 regular season opener.  Duncan was given a three-game suspension as well as a fine of an undisclosed amount.  Also handed a three-game suspension and fine was Melky Cabrera for punching Evan Longoria in the head after the benches cleared.   

Also of note, Elliot Johnson, Jonny Gomes and Evan Longoria will make the trip to Lake Buena Vista to play the Braves on Saturday in lieu of the Yankees game, an effort by Maddon to cool things off between the clubs.

Per 620 WDAE, Rocco Baldelli has an unknown muscle disorder and will be placed on the DL indefinitely.  Rocco visited doctors all over the country who performed a slew of "invasive" tests on him but couldn't trace the cause of his muscle fatigue, which is what is limiting his play -- according to Rocco, doing simple workouts would leave him exhausted.  Ruled out with the tests were some very serious conditions such as cancer, multiple sclerosis, Lou Gherig's disease.

When asked about Rocco's upcoming option, Andrew Friedman said that as of now it looks like they won't pick it up unless something happens between now and that day.

Update(12:20):(Kevin Gengler) Per Lancaster:

Shortstop and potential utility man Ben Zobrist suffered a fractured left thumb in Sunday afternoon's game against the Reds, as it says in the post title he'll be back in a month.  This improves former Yankees farmhand Andy Cannizaro's chances of making the club considerably to back up the middle infield.

Additionally, RHP Wade Davis, LHP Jake McGee and C Matt Spring were optioned to minor league camp with OF Fernando Perez, LHP James Houser and C John Jaso being optioned out.

Just a reminder, draft tomorrow at 7:15 PM EST. Couple things to note: the league was changed from AL only to all baseball, also, make sure your computer can handle the Javascript draft applet. Test here.

http://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/b1/159288
pw: cheese

First come, first serve. AL only (blame R.J. for that)

Kind of strange seeing him in the uniform.

Jackson vs. Bailey

Hooray, spring exhibition is finally here!  No radio for this one.

A piece from the St. Pete Times details nicely from several different angles within the ball club whether Longoria could perhaps be ready to break Spring Training as the team's starting third baseman.

Longoria himself unquestionably feels ready -- he's rocketed through the Rays minor league system and trained hard during the off-season to be in top form entering camp.  His peers are also convinced he's prepared: "Hell, yes," B.J. Upton said. "Ready right d--- now."  Troy Tulowitzki, Evan's former teammate at Long Beach State has wondered what's took so long for his major league promotion.

Internally, however, it's a bit of a different story.  Andrew Friedman said in the article that Longoria's "development is king," and that while it would be nice to know he could undoubtedly hit the ground running for opening day it doesn't always quite work out that way, but fine tuning his game at Durham could in the end be helpful.

Andrew also goes on to say that contractual issues aren't playing into the decision, but depending on how soon Longoria hits the majors could possibly save the organization tens of millions over the next six years.  

Recently the Rays have said that Longoria could hit .500 in Spring Training and still not earn a promotion, so don't be too surprised if he doesn't make the team.  Evan, according to the article, would not be disappointed and just wants to make it to the show some time in 2008.

Well, I think it's safe to call the 2008 Rays Fan Fest was a success.  I don't know the official attendance numbers, but there was a veritable sea of people, especially in the autograph lines.  Some were so long you could get in over an hour early and still not reach the player you wanted in time. This happened with me twice, believe it or not.  But I digress.

Rich Herrera and Paul "Hoover" Hunt head-to-head in a hot dog eating contest (Hoover won, 13 dogs to Herrera's 1 3/4)
Baseball-related companies were there in force: Topps, Baseball America, and Baseball Prospectus just a few, along with countless other Rays sponsors.  Harold Reynolds was there in a Rays jersey, along with Jim Morris and other assorted former major leaguers.  There's not a whole lot else to say, it was just a lot of fun and I'd enjoy hearing what you guys did (and how many autographs you got) in the comments.   Also, there's a whole lot more photos of players signing after the jump.

Continue reading this post »

From TBO.com: After Delmon casually badmouthed the Rays yesterday, Carl Crawford had a few things to say about it. Okay, he had a lot to say about it.

"I think he just got it misconstrued," said Crawford. "Nobody said he was the reason for us losing the games. We said it was a more relaxed, more calm environment that could help us in the future. Nobody blamed him or Dukes for losing the games. For him to say we want to wait until he leaves to say something--who is he? Nobody's afraid of him. You know? We'll say it to his face. I'll be more than happy to say it to his face or any kind of other way that'll make him understand what we mean."

He went further, his animated response cluing Rays fans in at what was probably an even bigger problem in the clubhouse last year than what we could've known.  From The Heater:

"These are exactly the the kind of distractions we were talking about with the Rays, a young guy popping off at the mouth, talking too much,'' Crawford said. "He needs to just shut up and play baseball.''

"Tell them, this is exactly the kind of thing Crawford and the Rays were talking about. It hasn't happened much (in Minnesota yet), but at some point it will and they will see what we were talking about over here.''

So much for "The new Delmon."

Sporting News ran an article yesterday noting the fact that Human Growth Hormone has presented no scientific evidence showing increased strength or athletic endurance.  The doctors note that there is still more research to be done on the substance which is currently undetectable through a urine test.  Interestingly, Sylvester Stallone endorsed HGH, saying "Everyone over 40 years old would be wise to investigate it because it increases the quality of your life."

Rany Jazayerli, Baseball Prospectus co-founder and creator of Pitcher Abuse Points (PAP) has started his own blog: Rany on the Royals.  Since over nine years ago he has had over 400,000 words of correspondence on the Royals with Rob Neyer -- just since Rob and Rany on the Royals has began being archived beginning in 2001.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette details how Pirates GM Neal Huntington has put in place a meticulous scheme for getting the most out of scouting and player development, hoping to streamline these areas to look the same way at a player no matter his age. He also goes on to say  that the Pirates can't afford to make free agent splashes and must gather championship talent from trades, the draft, or Latin America.  There will also be a higher emphasis on players of pure baseball skills rather than athleticism, as well as a focus on offense over pitching, on-base ability and good defense up the middle.

Hey, as this is my first post on DRB I thought I'd take a moment to introduce myself.  My name is Joshua (friends call me Josh or JD), and I've been a Rays fan since about 2001 when I started getting into baseball. Aside from baseball I love playing video games, football, photography, poker (sup Wade Townsend), movies, reading, and seafood.  Also, I'd just like to say quickly thanks to Jake for taking a chance on me, and thanks to R.J. for not letting me give up on writing. You might have seen me around here before, I made the logo and have done a few other small things. Anyway, enough about me, enjoy the article.

During July of the 2005 season, while rehabbing an elbow inflammation at Triple-A Omaha Brian Anderson felt consistent pain from his first start there, beginning with minor soreness and escalating far enough to cause him to end his season. "It's tough. It's really hard to swallow. It's a terrible, terrible feeling to know that the one thing that you want to do, you can't do," Anderson said at the time.

Nine days later he paid a visit to Dr. Timothy Kremchek, who told him if during exploratory surgery he found a problem with the ulnar collateral ligament (or UCL) he would replace it. As it turns out, Brian's elbow was essentially FUBAR, with exceptionally large bone chips that had to be broken up before they were removed, as well as a tear in his flexor tendon. "After going into your elbow and seeing the damage, I have no idea how you were able to pitch. No idea at all," said Dr. Kremchek.

Continue reading this post »