Editor's Note: Since Tommy and RJ returned for the playoffs, we figured it'd be fun to turn these playoffs into Old Home Days for our DRaysBay alumni. Sadly, the Rays got knocked out early on, but that won't stop us from welcoming back old friends.

I was talking to Steve the other day, and he pointed out to me how time has flown: I haven't posted here in over three years.

Wow, has it really been that long? Amazing, when you think about it. Also, amazing how DRB has taken off since then. Gotta hand it to the guys here.

It really puts things in perspective how things, people, and baseball can change -- both for the better and for the worse.

Continue reading this post »

Continue reading this post »

Guess who's back....

Hello RaysBayheads, your favorite displaced Rays fan has been a bit busy as of late. Moving into my own place, working insane amounts of hours and going to baseball games

It's great to see the Rays playing as well they have and setting a standard for small-payrolled teams.

Hopefully there will be more to come soon from me.

Have a great september, Rays fans! It's been awesome, thus far...hasn't it?

With my job, days off are few and far between. However, when I do get them...they're used to their full advantage. I'll usually have yesterday's game on MLB.tv on my computer while I have ESPN on my tv.

Well, I managed to wake up early enough to watch ESPN's First Take(Formerly "Cold Pizza") and the intelligence(or lack thereof) and bandwagon-ism showed me why it's put at such an early timeslot and on ESPN2.

Rob Parker(not sure what he's ever done in sports to deserve a radio show, let alone in New York) said that the Rays winning like they are "is not good for baseball because baseball thrives when teams like New York and Boston are winning."

Classy, Parker, classy.

We all know that baseball fans love arguing about ratings and money, forgetting everything about why we truly watch baseball. Not love of the game or following good stories, but cash and tv ratings.

While I carry alot of venom towards Skip Bayless, I agreed with him saying that it gets tiring to hear "Yankees, Red Sox, Yankees, Red Sox" all the time and the Rays playing fun and fundamental baseball is a good thing.

Why should we listen to a crummy Detroit Sportswriter? Why doesn't ESPN wake up and give Keith Law and some of the other Scouts Inc. guys their own 1 hour show, it'd be fun to watch scouting vids and get real perspective about athletes that sportswriters know nothing about. We all must remember that Bill Plaschke got Paul DePodesta canned in LA, so we know how bad sportswriters talking out loud can be a bad thing.

What does Rob Parker know about Tampa Bay sports? He's a Detroit sportswriter whose New York love ranges on the Buster Olney level. He thinks that the Rays are a small media market, yet he forgets that we have an NFL team(with a championship and some good players), a NHL team(with a championship and some good players, as well) and now our MLB team is starting to show that it's good as well. Think again, Parker, we're a middle-market run by smart people. Rather than overspend on name recognition, we rather depend on cohesiveness and building from within to win. When a 40 MIL payrolled team wins 50 games through 82 games, it shows alot more to baseball fans than 150+ MIL payrolled teams doing the same. Yet chuckleheads like you continue to show biased ideas and use the money issue as a reason why we won't and shouldn't win.

What have New York-based teams shown for themselves in the last decade, again?

Tonight's game was record-breaking, to say the least.

-This 43rd win surpasses the former record of most wins(42, in 2004 when we won 70 games) going into the All-Star Game. We didn't reach 43 wins last year until August.

-First time that we've ever been 14 games over .500, breaking the old record of most games over .500.

-With tonight's sweep of the Cubs, it's the most series sweeps of 3 or more games ever in Rays History.

-First time all season that the Cubs have lost 3 consecutive games(remember this, Cubs fans)

-2nd Career Grand Slam by Carl Crawford(1st was Vs. Mike Myers and the Yankees)

-Most facetime that the Rays have been featured on Baseball Tonight on ESPN(hahaha, I had to).

If you didn't already know this, I am a resident of IL. Not by choice, but that is where I've spent my entire 25 years of existence. When you're from IL, you're either a Cubs fan or a Sox fan. I was never a fan of either. I really don't sway towards either, to appease either fandom...both, to me, are run by idiots(Hendry, Williams, Guillen and LOU).

The Cubs/Rays series is a match-up of perennial losers, of sorts, who have become 2 of baseball's "hottest" teams. The Cubs haven't won a World Series in 99 years, longer than they've played in Wrigley Field. The Rays haven't reached the playoffs, let alone 71 wins, EVER in their 11 year existence.

Like every Cub fan that I run into daily, "THIS COULD BE THE YEAR!!!" which usually turns into "WAIT TIL NEXT YEAR" by September/October for most Cubs fans.

The Cubs fans are so confident with their team nowadays, I see most looking at schedules and starting to guarantee wins against teams to almost a sickening extent.

So, you'd think that Cubs fans would be kinda conservative in regards to playing the Rays?? Nah, I've heard just about every Cub fan guarantee a 3-game sweep on our home turf.

Why, I ask, why would one perennial losing teams' fan do that?

Well, it's simple....overconfidence, lack of intelligence and not knowing this team. White Sox fans that I know have correctly tried to try to walk these overconfident fans off the edge, stating that there's something to this Rays team that isn't like the old teams of the past.

Let them think what they think, like the teams that have come in Tropicana thinking they're going to sweep us....let them fall and get their necks stepped on by a team that plays the same "NL Style" of run-manufacturing, but know how to make it work in the AL.

Let them think that Lou is a good manager, when we already know that he's horrible with youngsters and a horrible strategist.

Let them overlook us, so we can knock the winds out of their sails....

**Warning: The statements in this post are those of Jacob Larsen and do not represent the thoughts and opinions of staff of DRays Bay. Viewer Discretion is advised. -Jake**

----

Josh Hamilton is in town, a former prodgical son who has found glory in the 2 years since we made a now-apparent 40-Man roster snafu and left him unprotected and eligible to be picked in the Rule 5 draft. "The Hammer," is a legitimate contender for baseball's near-impossible Triple Crown feat and isn't succombing to the demons the once almost ruined his career.

"What if we would've kept him? How many games would we be over .500 with his bat added to an already decent team?"

Questions like that, regretfully, make me angry. Yeah, it puts a bad taste in my mouth and makes me wonder if some fans can never see the brighter side of things or just are so screwed up by past humongous failures by the former ownership that they just find ways to not believe in the current product. That's another story for another day, so I'll just explain why Josh Hamilton may not exactly be what this team needs or wouldn't have turned out to be what he is today.

Putting his dominating stats aside, Josh Hamilton needed to be left off the 40-Man roster and become Rule 5-eligible. It's kinda like nature, where young animals are left to fend for themselves without a safety net. Andrew did the right thing for Josh, he got Hamilton back on track, getting him cleaned up and back into playing baseball again. Friedman basically could only get him from Point A-to-Point B, Josh had to put the rest of the work in to become successful.

However, I don't believe we gave up on Hamilton as much as people have been led to believe. We could've not spent all the money that we did, rehabbing him in various programs and pushing for his reinstatement as much as we did. We made a gamble, which turned out to be wrong, but when it happened...we didn't have any real worries. Hamilton was barely hitting close to as much power in short-season as he had shown in the past and he had to undergo knee surgery. We had Delmon Young too, who was believed to be our franchise RFer. We had solid outfielders all around, at the time.

Who were we to know that Delmon would be traded?

Who were we to know that Rocco would have a rare blood disorder?

Who were we to know that Dukes was a raving lunatic?

Outside of  Dukes,  nothing was really foreshadowed and we were alright with the risk that we may lose Hamilton.

Continue reading this post »

The following comments are that of Jacob Larsen and do not represent the thoughts and idea of the staff and management of DRays Bay. -Jake

---

When I read the anti-stadium rumblings of fans and their reasonings for being so against moving out of Tropicana Field, I kinda laugh to myself. Nothing is more ironic than a Floridian complaining about weather, seeing as Florida experiences some of the best weather in the US. It's not called the Sunshine State for giggles.

However, it irks me that lack of on-site parking would become such a focal point and possible "deal-breaker" when it comes to the referendum needed to be passed to allow the demolishing of Al Lang Field and the building of what I dub "The Ark". Not sure what people have against walking, especially when basically the stadium is being bought and paid for without a single dime is coming from in-state taxpayers. I realize that people have grown accustom to the Trop, but it's pretty bad when our last series included us taking 3 out of 4 games versus the Yankees and barely drew over 50% capacity in any of the games, with half the series the Rays were playing the role of being the "best team in the AL"(winning percentage-wise) and "division leaders".

Why complain about the walks or the weather, when it's apparent that Tropicana isn't a place where fans want to be seen at either. "The Ark", however is at least innovative and asthetically pleasing?

Here's my gripe, from an out-of-state fans' point-of-view.

Continue reading this post »

I wonder if Stu knows that, somehow, "Chico's Bail Bonds" has appeared on the Rays' jerseys.

Not so long ago, when the Angels, Red Sox and Blue Jays came into town...It was bad news for the Rays. As a matter of fact, things in a good third of those games would probably get ugly and unwatchable.

However, it's starting to appear that fortune is starting to change in our favor and we're giving teams the fits that they used to give us.

While we're not completely perfect, however we're starting to get that killer instinct against teams and learning to put teams away rather than allow them to stay late in games. I don't remember how many games that I've watched in the previous 10 years in which we'd put decent amount of runs on the board, yet we'd get careless or lazy and just manage to lose games.

Gone are the days that we put a pitcher in from the 'pen and we groan and say "Ugh, (insert player's name) is in....we're toast!" I'm sure that I'm not the only one, but I'm sure some of the most loyal Rays fans have a smile on their face due to that.

5 Games over .500 is uncharted waters for the Rays, but why stop there? The earth isn't flat and we're not going to fall off if we surpass 5 games over. Let's hope that our team plays with chips on their shoulders, rather than listen to ESPN/Fox or any other fairweather media outlet who have started to toot Tampa Bay horns because the Rays have a better record than the Yankees. Last time out, when we had our 3-game sweep of the Red Sox, we had a day off and my only guess is that the team listened to all the BBTN positive remarks and they were quickly brought back down to earth on the Tuesday game.

I know a few posters here were alive when the original "Bad News Bears" movie was out in theatres, or was played on TV, and Walter Mathau's character was reading the schedule of the games up ahead.

Next up is the Yankees, what does it mean for the Yankees??

Bad news for the Yankees!!!

From Baseball Prospectus' Monday Morning Ten Pack

Jeremy Hellickson, RHP, High-A Vero Beach (Rays)
Hellickson’s full-season debut last year produced outstanding numbers, but many classified him as a good-not-great prospect because of his smallish stature and the sense that his command and pitchability allowed his admittedly above-average stuff to play that much better against less advanced hitters. The command and pitchability remains, but the stuff has improved this year, as the Iowa native is consistently touching the mid-90s with his fastball these days, including on Sunday, when he whiffed 11 over six innings but allowed one run, which raised his ERA to 0.93 in five starts. In 29 innings for the affiliate that still has the guts to put the ‘Devil’ in front of Rays, Hellickson has 41 strikeouts and two, count 'em two walks, and just like that, the Rays organization has another great prospect.

Montgomery is going to have a nice 1-2-3 punch in less-than-a-month,  hopefully(sure seems that way)

Want more, click for the "jump"

Continue reading this post »

Where it began, I can't begin to know when
But then I know it's growing strong
Oh, wasn't the spring, whooo
And spring became the summer
Who'd believe you'd come along

Hands, touching hands, reaching out
Touching me, touching you
Oh, sweet Caroline
Good times never seem so good
I've been inclined to believe it never would

And now I, I look at the night, whooo
And it don't seem so lonely
We fill it up with only two, oh
And when I hurt
Hurting runs off my shoulder
How can I hurt when holding you

Oh, one, touching one, reaching out
Touching me, touching you
Oh, sweet Caroline
Good times never seem so good
Oh I've been inclined to believe it never would

Ohhh, sweet Caroline, good times never seem so good

The Rays of 2008 are vastly different than any of the ther 10 variations of the "Devil Rays" that we've seen throughout the years. However, yesterday's duel versus Wang proved that we're not the young assassins of the AL East that some national media make us out to be. Yes, we've finally put together a lethal line-up that can score runs by the bunches and actually prevent them with decent fielding....we've yet to get that bully mentality to step on our opponents' throats and give them the idea that we're not going to let up on any pitcher.

In the 5 games played thus far, here's what I've noticed.

- While we marvel at our middle infield's vast improvement defensively, Aki & Barty have yet to get it going with the bats. Barty has been known for his decent patience in his short career in Minnesota, it's yet to appear in any game with the Rays. Aki, as long as he puts together 5-8 pitch ABs, is not going to get an harsh words with me yet.

- Dan Wheeler pitches well when he's given money... I've personally decided to give Dan the nickname of "Jukebox" because he seems to play the tune you want when you put in money. Looks like he's regain the great, unhittable slider that he once used to dominate with.

- For me to say that Jose Conseco and Andrew Friedman have something in common, people would give me funny looks just saying that. Jose is large and over-tanned, while Friedman seems to be not very physically imposing and almost "Conan O'Brien" pale. However, both seem to be cashing in on "Vindication." While many people believed Conseco was cashing in on the steroid era that he was a key part of, just throwing out names of his former teammates and trying to attract a wide scope of readers, he was right about alot of those people and now his 2nd book will probably be read in a better light. While Andrew's vindication has nothing to do with laws or steroid use, he's becoming vindicated in the terms of a non-baseball guy becoming a good/above-average GM(Executive VP) and one that can find talent out of small pick-ups and players who have lost past "luster" or aging veterans who people have questions about their longetivity.

To name a few, here's some nice "rise from the ashes" pick-ups that Andrew has made...

Carlos Pena(2007) , Greg Norton(yup, I'd list him too...remember his 2006?), Ruddy Lugo(2006), Al Reyes(2007), Cliff Floyd(2008), Eric Hinske(2008), Troy Percival(2008)

Can we add JP Howell and Eric Hinske to the list yet?

- Which Edwin Jackson will we see more of in 2008 before the cavalry arrives? Mr. Edwin(Level-headed good young pitcher) or Dr. Jack(Wild and hittable)?

- Evan Longoria is still hitless in Durham....did the guys tell him to not swing his bat once in Durham and he'll get his 1st hits of the year in St. Pete?

- Matt Garza is eerily similar to Carlos Zambrano, he's very "excitable" and his control fades when he loses his mental focus. However, that fastball and curveball are "killer"(both in real life and in MLB The Show 2008, where he broke Aubrey Huff's hand with a poorly aimed pitch by me). If GarZa can win 19 games like Big Z, I'll cope with the bouts of his "excitability"

With the decision on where Longoria starts in the majors or minors to come within the next few hours or days, Rays fans seem to be crowded around like a school of sharks. Either the Rays are going to please the majority of Rays fandom by choosing to keep Longoria up, giving them a reason to be excited for a team that has Jason Hammel in a rotation.

Or...

The Rays will send Longoria down to Durham, hope that he hits the ground running and get an extra year out of him in the long run. However, with him sharing the same agent as the newly extended SS Tulowitski...the 1 extra year should and probably won't matter at all.

This monumental decision puts the Rays in a bit of a state of flux. Longoria is that teetering domino, which could set off a number of chain-reactions in which the roster could shake up.

If Longoria makes the team, will Aybar be used as the Utility Infielder and take the spot that an inspired Ben Zobrist(if the decision on him comes soon, as well) or "Mr. Hustle" Elliot Johnson would've gotten? Ben & Elliot have played all over the field and actually have hit the ball, though Spring hitting stats should never be reason for excitement. Only records, and even the KC Royals have proven that good springs aren't locks for .500+ record regular seasons.

And if Longoria makes the team, it pretty much opens up a spot for one of the greatest rock drummers of all time....Eric "I've been around the world, statues crumble for me..."(or as I call him, Eric Awesome) Hinske! I've secretly had a high regard for the former ROY, so him making the roster on my favorite team would be picture perfect.

How many people are confused to read today's(3/24) line-up and startled to see Longoria starting at 3B than reading a press release that he's been reassigned to Minor League Camp?

Jake: First off, for those who don't know who you are, who is Keith Law?

Keith: I'm Batman.

Or, more accurately, I'm a senior baseball writer for ESPN.com and ESPN Scouts Inc. My mandate is to provide scouting-based analyses of players and teams, from the majors through the minors to the top amateur players. I spent four years in the front office of the Toronto Blue Jays, joining as the stats guy but learning the fundamentals of traditional evaluations from some of my co-workers while I was there. I'm also passionate about food - both cooking it and eating it - and an avid fiction reader, especially classic literature.

JL: If an owner of a baseball team called you up and offered you a GMing job or a senior advisor job, would you be interested in doing that again? Would it depend on the job or has the time away from being in the front offices make it harder?

KL: I don't like to rule anything out, since my last two job moves have been substantial changes for me, but I haven't pursued any front-office jobs since joining ESPN, nor do I expect to. If something comes to me, I'll explore it, and it will come down to the specific responsibilities of the role and, more importantly given my experience in Toronto, the people for whom I'd be working.

JL: The Rays had a very eventful offseason, how much did this close the gap between the Rays and Boston/New York or even the Jays and 3rd or 4th place?

KL: I could see them finishing in third, but I think the odds are against it. Toronto would be close to favorites to win the AL West and probably the favorites in the NL Central or West, because their run prevention is going to be among the best in baseball. Their offense will keep them out of the playoffs, but they're a good bet to win 85+; how likely is Tampa to get to that mark, given the thin nature of their pitching staff? It would require either outstanding pitcher health, or early arrivals from Price, Davis, etc. Possible, but not likely.

I noticed that PECOTA has the Rays preventing over 200 runs fewer than they did in 2007. CHONE doesn't provide projected RS and RA, but they have the Rays winning 89 games, which also implies a huge drop in run prevention. I'm finding it hard to justify that big of a decline in Tampa's runs allowed. A 200-run decline would have to sit at the right-most end of the distribution of possible outcomes for Tampa's pitching/defense in 2008, and Kazmir's injury and the imminent demotion of Evan Longoria don't help matters.

(By the way, what the hell are the Rays doing with Willy Aybar? He's not a good player to begin with. He missed 2007 with a substance-abuse problem. He was arrested less than two months ago for beating his wife, and only got out of jail because she didn't want to pursue the charges, not because he was acquitted or cleared. And this is the guy you're thinking of running out there instead of the best prospect in baseball? It's stupid, uncharacteristically so for that front office.)

JL: Is it me or do you think that it's pure cockiness that Boston basically did absolutely nothing in their offseason? David Aardsma is basically one of the few pick-ups that they made and he's nothing to be proud of.

KL: Did they need to make any changes? They're locked in at many positions anyway, and they've got help arriving right away in the outfield (Ellsbury) and the rotation (Buchholz), with a shortstop (Lowrie) and power reliever (Masterson) coming soon. I wouldn't have done much either.

JL: Buster Olney may disagree with here, but the Yankees look like a train-wreck waiting to happen. On one side, chugging steadily, is Joe "I don't care if you haven't pitched at all since the rain delay, you're still going to go back out" Girardi. On the other side is the trio of Joba/Hughes/Kennedy, who barely combined for over 100 innings last season. Should I be preparing the popcorn for what seems like the toilet-like decline of the Yankees partial stronghold for one of the 2 top spots of the AL East? Got an recipes for a snack that I should prepare?

KL: I'm predicting them to win around 90 games, so I guess we don't see this the same way. It's inaccurate to talk about Joba's and Kennedy's 2007 workloads as if their minor league innings don't count; Kennedy alone threw 165, so it's reasonable to think he'll be able to provide 170-175 innings to the Yankees this year.

Even if the Yanks miss the playoffs in 2008, which could very well happen because there are two great teams and three crappy ones in the Central, they're setting themselves up for a resurgence in 2009+ around homegrown pitching. The division ain't getting any easier, kids.

JL: The Rays have the #1 pick in the upcoming draft, what are your thoughts on what they should do? Pedro Alvarez, in batting stance and swing, sure looks to be Albert Pujols-lite but the Rays have a guy named Evan Longoria manning 3B. Justin Smoak looks like a great 1B prospect, but we're not exactly looking for Carlos Pena's replacement just yet. Tim Beckham looks like he could hit and stick defensively at SS, but we're covered there as well with Reid Brignac. Brian Matusz and Aaron Crow both look like front-line pitchers, but we're not exactly in need of more Starting Pitchers.

KL: I don't think you draft for need; you take the best player available who fits your system. I think the obstacle with Alvarez is that he's a Boras advisee, and since he's hurt and going to miss half the season, do you really want to give $6-8 million for a guy who 1) swings and misses a lot and 2) may not play at full strength at all this spring? Crow's also a Boras advisee, although I don't know what the bonus demands there will be, and I think it's relevant that he sat 89-92 most of last summer. Matusz hasn't been his normal self so far this spring.

I have a feeling they'll end up with Tim Beckham, FWIW. Brignac's not as sure a thing as you make him out to be, not so much that you'd let it affect your choice at 1-1. And you can never, never have too many plus bats at up-the-middle positions.

JL: It was revealed last week in a radio interview with Andrew Friedman that the Rays were planning to pick and sign Tim Lincecum 2 years ago and it wasn't until the last minute that they learned Colorado was leaning towards Greg Reynolds over Longoria. Had we picked Lincecum with that #3 pick, do you think that we'd be in any better of a position now? Had we made the same transactions of this offseason, would the quartet of "Kazmir-Shields-Lincecum-Garza" be one of the best in baseball?

KL: I think the Rays' choice will be more than justified in the end. Lincecum had trouble going through the order twice last year, and I think his numbers would be dimmed a bit by a move from a huge park in the NL West to a neutral park in the AL East. And it's not as if the Rays don't have an absurd quantity of young pitching marching through their system.

JL: One of my favorite parts of yourblog is your Mailbag of Malcontent, though many of your commentors aren't entirely huge fans of it. I think that the sensitivity of people and the unwillingness to take a joke is one of the only bad things about being a blogger.

KL: I'm not going to stop doing it; I have some readers who like the food/restaurant entries but not the book commentaries, so they only read the former. Readers who don't like the Mailbag of Malcontent can just skip over it.

JL: When you do chats, do you get to pick the questions or does someone else? If it's you, what are some things that people can do to make it more likely for them to get a question answered by you?

KL: I pick the questions. The software we use presents the chatter with ten questions at a time, and we can store questions if we see several at once worth answering.

The #1 thing not to do is hitting SUBMIT twenty times in a row. If you fill up my screen with your question, you'll never get an answer. If a few minutes go by and you haven't gotten an answer, then submit it again, because there's always a chance I didn't see it. But the nitwits who hit SUBMIT twenty times in ten seconds make me want to reach through the monitor and slap them.

I prefer specific questions over broad ones. My two goals in chat sessions are to get to as many questions (and thus readers) as possible, and to keep it entertaining. Really broad questions - "who would make your 2010 All-Star team?" - slow me down. Even when I like a broad question and store it for later, I usually don't get to it because I don't want to break stride. And if you make me laugh, I'm more inclined to post it, even if the joke is at my expense.

JL: I (like/love) my job because ___ .

KL: I love to write, and I love to watch baseball. And I enjoy being on TV.

JL: Did you watch any of the Clemens/McNamee debacle? Was it as bad of a scandal as the 1919 Blackhawks Scandal? Should they get Rafael Pailmeri to take the stand again?

KL: Didn't watch. Don't care. Never did.

JL: For those of us college-age males who are mediocre cooks, do you have a recipe that we can impress our girlfriends/wives/lady friends with?

KL: Sausage and mushroom pasta with a sauce made from pecorino romano cheese and a bit of the pasta water. Very easy, and very good.

JL: Explain, how is David Eckstein still a Major League Starting SS? I thought his scrappiness only applied to 2B.

KL: I'm not a fan of Eckstein, but he's above replacement level, and scrappy white guys get more chances than comparable black or Latino players because MLB front offices are so white.

JL: How does one get a job with ESPN SCOUTS Inc.?

KL: My understanding is that they only hire people who have industry experience, such as working in a front office or coaching at the appropriate level. Scouts Inc. is just a brand name within ESPN - ESPN bought the company over two years ago, and they're using it to distinguish certain content as analysis from former insiders within that sport.

Per Amy K. Nelson's "Spring Blog"

I wish someone secretly You-Tubed this...

Jake's Takes are the ramblings of Jacob Larsen and may not represent the thoughts and ideas of DRays Bay and it's writers. Viewer Discretion is advised. -JL

Continue reading this post »

LINK

Well, his name isn't really Turd Ferguson...but he is actually named Burt Reynolds. He was a 30th Round Pick of the Washington Nationals in the 2006 Draft. Basically Draft & Follow, but we followed him instead.

Also, Anedi Cuevas was released. Looks like Juan Salas ruined Cueva's chances for being the 2nd IFer turned reliever.

It's that time of year again, it seems. DRays Bay, once again, gets the opportunity to ask Rays Principal Owner Stu Sternberg a few questions. This year, however, I opened up the floor to a couple other people (Cork Gaines from "Rays Index" and EricSanSan from "Rays Anatomy") and they both got a question in on it. I hope everyone enjoys it and hope the answers given solved a few burning questions for Rays fans.

-Jake

Continue reading this post »

TBO.com

Oh noes! Another Barry Bonds sighting in a Rays newspaper.... {/smacks head on desk)

But wait, there's more...

The most interesting part of this story was this...

You had me at hello, Troy. You had me at hello.

With less than 72 hours before Pitchers and Catchers officially report(many pitchers have been working out with teammates and others for more than a month), it's not a surprise to see some giddiness and excitement for Spring Training/Opening Day to get here.

Like a Rick James-like smack in the face, the Rays offseason plans were far from what many RAYS fans were used to. Stu, Andy, Matt, Gerry and all the other members of the Rays front office staff made it apparent that there's big changes in the Rays' future and it's going to all start in 2008.
We made earth-shattering trades(trading one of our future "franchise" players, Delmon Young, for more important and needed "pieces" key to future success), Free Agent signings (most thought we'd be outspent in any Free Agent we pursued), long-term contract extensions(Shields and Pena). We've made it apparent to players that we've pursued that we know we're close to being able to compete, while spending about a 10th of what other(napoleon complexed) teams spend, and they'd be used and be a part of "something special". Players are buying into it, it appears, too.

As a fan, who has seen some of the best and worst that the Rays have offered in the past, I've got ideas or things to keep an eye on or keep in mind for the 2008.

Continue reading this post »

In the days counting down to last season's P&C report, I remember saying that last year was a "make-or-break" season for BJ Upton. I thought his lack of position, lack of outright stunning numbers and the ugly USA Today comments pretty much made it clear that BJ Upton's star was possibly fading.

In many ways, this is happening again. People are questioning Joel Guzman. He's got the youth and glimpses of power, which BJ also showed, but he also lacks a solid position and his star is appearing to fade. You gotta remember, he was the highest-paid 16 year old for awhile. He just started growing, and growing and growing until he was basically too large to be a shortstop. Could he still play there, most likely, but you've gotta worry if he collided with his second baseman. Aki would probably be knocked out cold.

It isn't really a matter of raw talent with Joel, seeing as a number of his HRs at Durham were flat-out outrageous(he hit a building across the street from the park). For Joel, in my own honest opinion, it's a matter of applying those talents and being confident in himself.

Like I said in a DRB Mailbag vid, I think that Guzman could have 20-30 HR seasons...if he was given around 400-500 ABs. With Evan knocking on the door of the majors and the possibility of Aybar platooning with him, that many ABs may be hard to come by for Joel.

Today was Day 1 of my days off and I wanted to put my 2 top projects that I'm working on aside and relax. By the way, I'm working on 3 interviews for the site and I believe that my cowriters may too.

Anyways, Baseball Prospectus has a chat going on almost everyday and usually it's good for opinions from people "in the know" and a few laughs. Sometimes I can send in 6 questions, get none answered, and other times(like today) I can get them all answered. Here's all the Rays-related question from Dave Laurlia's chat.

Enjoy!

Continue reading this post »

Jake Larsen: For those Rays fans who aren't familiar with you, who is DJ Jones?

DJ Jones: I was the Rays' 11th round pick in the 2007 Draft.

JL: You were the Playstation HS Player of the Year in 2007, did you get tons of video games and a PS3 or did you get a trophy?

DJ: Nah. They gave the playstation to my highschool, but I did get a pretty nice trophy.

JL: For those who didn't know much about you, you threw a no-hitter in HS and I believe it was in a playoff game. Why did you choose to be an outfielder over being a pitcher? Better chances of a longer career or did your "tools" profile better as a outfielder than anything else?

DJ: Yeah, I love being on the mound and being in control of the game but I knew outfield would be my ticket to the show.

JL: I've read alot of comparisons between you and Colby Rasmus(a definite Top 20 prospect in the minors), do you believe those comparisons to be true or do you think you have something he doesn't?

DJ: Colby and I are actually good friends, we used to play on the same summer team. It would be hard for me to say I have something that he doesn't because he has just about everything! It's a privilege to be compared to a player of that caliber.

JL: Have you been given any indication what they have planned for you for next season? Short-season/full-season league?

DJ:I have no idea, it just depends on how well I do in the spring.

JL: When you got picked by the Rays, did you have to get wooed to sign or did you think you were going to sign in the long run than go to college?

DJ: Well, They called me at 11:00pm on the first day and threw me an offer that I wasn't about to say no to.

JL: You are another in a long-line of Rays Outfielders who were good football players but decided to play baseball professionally. What made you choose baseball over football?

DJ: I love football, but there is no other sport like baseball

JL: Any "Welcome to professional baseball, kid" stories from Instructs?

DJ: HAHA kinda. I wasn't playing in one of the games and I knew that, so I thought it would be a good idea to go hit in the cage and then hit the showers. So, as I'm taking a shower, one of the trainers comes in and tells me I'm supposed to be the DH. So I ran out of the shower, got my uniform on and as O ran out to the field EVERYBODY was lookin' at me and the coaches were furious. It wasn't funny at the time, but I laugh now.

JL: Any words or quotes that you'd like to leave Rays fans, coaches and everyone else?

DJ: GO Rays, we got a bright future

Baseball is going to be a game of tough decisions, not just with it's in-game decisions. Whether it be in scouting or personnel decisions, you're more than likely going to have to sacrifice one thing for another.

I think I could list many circumstances with how this comes into play for the Rays, if all goes well in this discussion- I just may make this an ongoing series.

However, today, there's 2 situations that come to mind for me:

Positional Players Vs. Pitchers

Potential/Raw Talent Vs. Polish/Production

Continue reading this post »

About a week or so ago, Kevin Goldstein and Baseball Prospectus profiled the Rays system and did a Top 11 list. Within that hour, I sent Kevin a Q&A regarding it. -Jake

Continue reading this post »

Since Stu Sternberg hired Gerry Hunsicker a few years ago, I always had the goal of eventually getting the opportunity of asking him questions. Well that day has finally come and I feel that I asked him more informative questions than I've asked of our front office guys.

-More to come after the jump-

Continue reading this post »

If there's any book that a good majority of baseball fans have read, "Moneyball" has to be up there. One of the many featured baseball minds in that book was one Robert "Voros" McCracken. Voros, since leaving as a special consultant with the Boston Red Sox, has joined the blogging world and can be found here and today he can be found at DRays Bay for a good ol' fashioned Q&A session with me.

Continue reading this post »