There were two main news stories around baseball yesterday that caught my eye, so let's delve on in.

First of all, screw the Rangers. I dislike them with a passion after the way they've eliminated the Rays from the playoffs each of the past few years, and it doesn't help that their star player, Josh Hamilton, has a bit of a history with TB. I've hated the Phillies every since 2008 as well, and it's been glorious to watch them fall to pieces this season and watch their fans slowly realize that their team is a mess -- but with the Rangers? They're far too good, and it's annoying.

Sadly, things only go worse yesterday. The Rangers signed Roy Oswalt to a one year, $5 million deal to play with them through the rest of the season, and he'll be filling in the rotation spot vacated by Neftali Feliz. Oswalt is far from the ace that he used to be -- and he'll need some time to get into game shape -- but still, he's about the exact last team I'd hoped would sign him. The Rangers are en route to cruise into the postseason, and they have a strong enough team that the World Series doesn't seem that far out of reach. Why couldn't it have been the Orioles or Dodgers that signed Oswalt? Sigh...

Second, it looks as though MLB isn't quite as clueless as they appear at times. Apparently, MLB is ready to roll out expanded replay in 2013 (albeit, only for a limited number of scenarios) and the replay decisions will be made by an umpire not on the field, but in a booth somewhere. It's unclear if the replay ump will be at the game itself or in "a central location" (which is what MLB is hinting at), but either way, they have the right idea. You don't want to drag the game on any longer than you need to, and if baseball instituted a replay rule like football, it'd be painful as heck. This sounds a lot more like what hockey uses, and I'm excited to see it in action. We'll have to be patient, as it's still going to be some time before MLB is using replay on every play, but this is a step in the right direction.

• Bradley Woodrum wrote up a bit at FanGraphs about the Return of Godzilla. And although the Rays lost, it was quite a jolt to see Hideki Matsui blast a home run last night in only his second at bat with the Rays.
• If you were mesmerized by Chris Sale on Monday and want to know exactly how he made domination look so easy, Michael Barr has the story for you (also over at FanGraphs). I knew I should have been frustrated watching that game, but I simply couldn't -- Sale was too much fun to watch, and I almost expected it with that lineup. Oy.
• Mike Trout is really good at baseball. Bryce Harper is really, really good at baseball. I'm honestly not sure which to be more impressed with these days.
• Shane Victorino playing defense makes for the best gifs, and there was a beautiful one added to the collection last night.

There's a mystery going on in Tampa Bay -- a four-year-old mystery that is still without an answer. New cases pop up every year, and it's gotten to the point where we don't even question it any more. The Rays are simply good at turning wild pitchers into relief aces. It's a fact of life, bet against it at your own peril.

But why? How? Fernando Rodney has been incredible this season -- posting a BB/9 rate under 2.0 for the first time in his career -- and he's following in the footsteps of Grant Balfour, Joaquin Benoit, Rafael Soriano, and (to a lesser extent) Kyle Farnsworth. One case could be luck or happenstance. Two could be a coincidence. But four? Five? This is definitely pattern, but goodness knows how or why the Rays have had this sort of success.

I've been pondering on this question of late, and I've come up with a theory. It's not something we can prove using stats or numbers, though, so let's work through this step by logical step.

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Let's jump on into the links today...

• I found this article about Luke Scott's success rather interesting. It's no real surprise that Scott is much better against right-handed pitchers, but I didn't realize exactly how much he crushes pitches on the outside half of the plate. That seems to be his sweet spot, so here's hoping righties don't catch on and try to bust him inside.
• Waitwaitwaitwait, the Steinbrenners might be willing to sell the Yankees? It looks like rumors are starting to circulate that the Yanks could be put on the block soon, and after the Dodgers sold for $2+ billion, the Yankees would surely bring in one helluva lot of cash. If this actually goes down, it'll be really interesting to see A) who buys them, and B) what the most valuable franchise in baseball (if not sports) goes for.
• Here's a Pirates beat writer's take on the Drew Sutton trade. That minor deal is working out rather well for the Rays so far, yes? I still find it ridiculous that the Rays have had to resort to hitting him cleanup, but I guess that's how it goes; please hurry back, Longo.
• There's a successful team in the majors having attendance trouble...and it's not the Rays? Progress!
• Also, be sure to enter our Pick Six contest! Play the game for a day and give yourself a chance to win a free Pick Six t-shirt. We'll give out another two free t-shirts at the end of this week, so keep trying!

For the longest time now, we've had it drilled into our heads that Matt Joyce is a platoon player. Or, to be more accurate, that he has a large platoon split and should not be used against left-handed pitchers. Joe Maddon loves to optimize his lineup and place hitters in a position to succeed, so for the past few years, Joyce has never seen more than 100 plate appearances against left-handed pitchers.

This year, though? Due to part to the rash of injuries -- and, I think, in part to Maddon wanting to play Joyce against more lefties -- Joyce has seen his playing time against lefties explode. He already has 40 plate appearances against left-handed pitchers, putting him on pace for around 160 PAs on the season -- or in other words, close to a full-season load for a regular starter.

Since we're dealing with a split, it's still way too early to begin to draw any definitive conclusions about whether the experiment has been a success or flop. But we can begin to get some idea of if Joyce is thriving in that sort of a role, or if he truly is out of his depth against lefties. It's not exactly like Maddon has a choice right now, but once players start returning from injuries, the question is going to loom large: should Joyce continue to start against both hands, or should Maddon turn him back into a platoon player?

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Well, the first week of our Pick Six contest is in the bag, and we have two winners to announce. It was a hard fought battle, but ShawnTSA held on to his lead through the weekend and finished the week with a DRB leading 257 points. That's an average of 36.7 points per day, and he finished well ahead of the second and third place contestants (who had around 230 points). He didn't exactly dominate any particular day, but steady consistency will take you a long way with this game.

The other t-shirt will go the top single-day score for the week, and I believe that goes to MVPete1982 for his 74.0 points yesterday. It's difficult for me to look at this things in retrospect, but I tried to keep up with the scores throughout the week and keep track. If you think you had higher than that on one particular day, please speak up in the comments.

So congrats to Shawn and Pete! Oh, and don't forget that we'll be doing this whole contest again this week as well. Get your entries in for today, and let's see if we can crack 100 participants!

• There's no word on if Jeff Keppinger will miss time due to his freak foot injury (while in the dugout, he got hit in the foot with a foul ball), but he will be going in for evaluation. Considering he was walking around in a walking boot yesterday, that's not a good sign.
• Jeremy Hellickson is on Twitter now? Anyone have his handle?
• BPro fixed an error with their playoff odds calculator. The Rays currently have a 70% chance at making the playoffs? Repeat after me: It's still early, it's still early, it's still early. (Also, I must say, I really like the new menu bar at BPro. It makes navigating around so much easier.)

The week is winding down, but there's still plenty of time to join and take a crack at winning a free Pick Six t-shirt. Remember, we're giving out two shirts per week: one to the user that has the highest cumulative score for the week, and one that has the highest single-day score.

The week ends on Sunday, so there are still two more days to go. Here's the leaderboard thus far:

Technically, I tend to think that anyone as far down as 15th place still has a chance to make a run at this thing, as a couple big days could help you make up a large deficit. But Shawn does have a large lead built up, so assuming he doesn't tank these next couple days, he's looking good.

As for the highest single-day score, that's more difficult to check retrospectively. I've been trying to check every day to see, and I believe the current high score is SandalsNoPants with 68.7 points. But I may have missed a day or so in there, so if you think you had a higher one, speak up and I'll have someone check.

Pick Six locks for the day at 1pm EST today, so get those picks in soon!

The title of this piece is a question I've been pondering for a week or so: What's the point where we should stop looking at a team's hot start as merely lucky and chance, and start to think that hey, maybe these guys are for real? Because as it stands right now, the Rays and Orioles are duking it out for first place in the AL East, and as Grant Brisbee covered, the AL East is incredibly, incredibly strong right now.

The analyst in me can't help but take the cautious approach. Each game provides us with one more data point, but we're still not even a quarter of the way through the season (although we're close). With each game and each new bit of information, we should be revising our previous opinion on the Orioles and shifting their projection based on their crazy success...but I still don't think we have seen enough to dramatically overlook their preseason projections (which still had them in 5th place and sitting around 75 wins).

Then again, the fan in me remembers 2008. I remember how long it took the rest of the baseball world to acknowledge that the Rays had something real going on, while I had figured that out months before. And when you look at the O's roster, there are some signs of unsustainability, but nothing terribly dramatic. Adam Jones is breaking out. Jason Hammel and Wei-Yin Chen are (likely) playing over their heads. Jake Arrieta isn't walking the world anymore. And umm...that's all I have.

This might sound weird, but I'm completely and utterly rooting for the Orioles to keep this success going. Maybe it's the compassionate D-Ray fan in me that remembers how horrible losing was, and I can't help but root for the Orioles to stop being laughingstocks of the division. They'd be another franchise to challenge The Evil Duo, and for some reason I don't entirely understand, I like them a bit better than the Blue Jays.

And I don't think it's out of this world to think that the Orioles could remain in the race for most of the year, and finish with a mid-80s win total. I'm still not willing to go high-80s or low-90s, but hey, they certainly are banking some wins at the moment.

Sure, Jason Hammel will start pitching like Jason Hammel at some point. And Adam Jones likely won't keep this up all year. But for every bit of regression that's expected, who's to say that Brian Matusz couldn't piece things together again? Or that Jake Arrieta learns to solve his homerun problem? Or that, you know, Mark Reynolds actually starts hitting? There's room for regression in both directions.

Anyway, that's my morning ponderings. Links after the jump.

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Injuries are a handy excuse to point to when a team is struggling, but the hard truth is that all teams have to deal with unfortunate injuries over the course of a season. Some teams get hit worse than others, but if a team manages to get through a year mostly unscathed, they have a huge advantage over most other teams (and also, everyone will want to hire away their training staff).

In recent years, it's always felt like the Rays have had rather good luck when it comes to injuries. That hasn't always been entirely true -- they've had to deal with missing Longoria for extended periods of time before -- but it's felt that way because the Rays have built their team with extra depth so that injuries don't hurt quite so bad. Sure, luck has still had its role in helping the Rays when times are toughest (remember Super Sam Fuld?), but they have been very intentional about planning well to cope with injuries.

This season, though, the Rays probably have the least amount of depth that they've had in recent years. Their top options in the minors are a far cry from last season's replacements of Alex Cobb, Matt Moore, and Desmond Jennings. And of course, they're having to cope with an impressive amount of injuries at the moment.

Quick trivia question: How many players are currently on the DL for the Rays right now? Anyone able to guess? The answer (and more) after the jump.

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To all the mother's out there, Happy Mother's Day! To all the college students that graduated this past weekend, congrats! The Rays weren't terribly impressive this weekend, but at least they snuck one out for all the mom's watching.

Quick hits:

• It's cute when an upstart team starts off the year hot -- aww, just look at them playing like contenders! -- but it's less fun when they continue their hot ways against your favorite team. After this past series, the Orioles are looking a lot less fun right now, and here's hoping they realize soon that they're supposed to be an easy team for the Rays to beat. I'm really not looking forward to there being five competitive teams in the AL East...
  
  That said, here's hoping the Orioles keep it going at least one series longer. The Yankees come to town today, and considering the Rays won't have it easy against the Blue Jays, some help from the O's would be great.
• Desmond Jennings is healing slowly from his knee injury, and it sounds as though the Rays are somewhat regretting not putting him on the DL. He's recovering slower than expected, and although he's not getting any worse, he's not exactly improving much either. He's still technically day-to-day, but I wonder how much longer the Rays are willing to do that if Jennings doesn't start improving faster.
• Would the Rays ever throw a starter two days in a row, even if they only threw a handful of pitches one day? The Rangers did that this weekend with C.J. Wilson, and it sounds as though Joe Maddon wouldn't do that even if the opportunity arose. The Rays play things extra safe with their starters, and I can't say I blame them.
• Red Sox fans seemingly crave for scapegoats, and this season Josh Beckett has been saddled with that burden. Since John Lackey is out for the year, Sox fans haven't had an unlikable pitcher to complain about...so they've turned on Beckett. As Dave Cameron points out, though, it seems as though Beckett's struggles are tied to his decreased velocity, and it suggests there's likely something physically wrong with him. Man, can you imagine that rotation if they lose yet another starter?
• Is it just me, or does Johnny Damon seem unusually knowledgeable about his own stats and his place in baseball history? Nah, it's not like the Hall of Fame is weighing on his mind at all. Of course not...
• This is somewhat intuitive research, but pitchers do actually throw harder in warm weather, and they do lose steam as a game goes on. There's plenty of other good stuff in that piece, though, so be sure to check it out. Max Marchi is one of the better analysts around these days.

It's so tempting to write off the Baltimore Orioles' hot start to the season as nothing but that: a hot start. But I'm somewhat skeptical; I'm not ready to call the Orioles a fluke, and I think if they continue to have a large number of their players playing toward the high end of their projections and ability level, then they could certainly make the AL East quiiiite interesting this season. They don't have the pitching to make an extended run at the playoffs, but they're certainly looking like a team that's done being bowled over.

It's too bad Jason Hammel won't be pitching this series; I'd love to see him throw against the Rays for nostalgic reasons, although he's been the O's best pitcher this season so it's probably for the best. That said, this trio isn't necessarily going to be easy to walk over either.

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I try to highlight a number of articles in each Rays Tank, but today, I want to really shine the spotlight on one piece: R.J. Anderson's recent post on David Price. If you read one article today, be sure to make it that one. It's one of the best pieces I've seen on Price's early season success, and it delves into the process behind why he's seeing so much success, especially with his changeup.

R.J. noticed that Price has changed his spot on the rubber this season -- just like Fernando Rodney -- and he's moved from the extreme third base side of the rubber to the first base side. This may not seem like a large change, but as R.J. points out, it does change the angle that Price is attacking hitters from, and that location could potentially make his changeup more effective (by giving him a better angle to attack the outside against righties). And the same can be said for Price's new cutter.

But anyway, there are numerous pictures in the articles that illustrate the point, so I'd be sure to drop by BPro and check it out. It's darn good research.

• Rob Neyer and the New York Times both tackled the Rays and their defensive shifts recently, and I generally agree with Rob's point about Joe Maddon and the Rays changing the game. I think his questions the effectiveness of the shifts are a bit much, though; I can't claim to have the data to back it up, but from the games I've seen, it seems clear to me that the Rays' defense is weaker than last season. They're still solid overall, but Rodriguez has his moments, Pena's range isn't what it used to be, and Longoria was a defensive "mess" (for him) early on.
  
  Yet despite these weaknesses, the Rays are still putting up great defensive numbers, making me think that maybe the shifts are helping the Rays more than we even imagine. And could it be possible that proper shifting has inflated defensive scores for certain players on the Rays over the past few years? Maybe Zobrist is really more of a +5 fielder, but the shifts make him look more like a +10? I'm just spitballing here.
• Jason Collette posted a quick recap of the Baseball Prospectus event at the Trop this past weekend, and it sounds like the event was quite the success. I'm disappointed I couldn't go, and I wish I'd heard some of the things that Neader and Metzler had to say. Anyone care to share?
• Teams try to exploit loopholes in order to sign amateur talent for cheap? Color me shocked!
• In case you didn't hear, Josh Hamilton is a monster. He slugged four homeruns against the Orioles last night, and he came quite close to hitting a fifth one as well. Ridiculous, simply ridiculous.

Coming from someone that lived in the same house through his entire childhood, here's a realization I just recently made: moving sucks. It's a giant pain in the butt and sucks up way too much time, and then it distracts all the mental faculties from truly important things in life, like baseball. I've had to watch games on my phone, follow along on Twitter, listen on the radio at work...all sorts of things just to keep up with the Rays these past few weeks. It's been such the mess.

Anyway, enough about my life. The reason I bring that up is because I've had little opportunity to watch many Rays games recently, and I feel woefully knowledgeable about the team right now. I don't have my observations to help inspire a post idea or research topic, so instead, I want to spend some time today reviewing a couple pitchers that I've had my eye on. This isn't going to be anything hardcore, especially considering that the season is still so early, but hey, I find this stuff really interesting so you're going to have to deal (or, you know, just stop reading).

Without further ado, here are the two questions I've been keeping close tabs on...

• How has Jeremy Hellickson fared against left-handed hitters? Has his cutter helped at all?
• Has Wade Davis reinvented himself out in the bullpen? Is he back to being the power pitcher of old?

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We're a mere 17% of the way into the season, so it's not necessarily uncommon for the standings to be a bit haywire. And in case you need any proof of how early it still is, just take a peek at the AL East standings right now. The Yankees and Red Sox are in fourth and fifth place, and the Baltimore Orioles are not only in first place -- they have the best record in the entire majors. Umm, what?

We knew coming into the year that the AL East would be even more competitive this year, as the Blue Jays could be a real threat, but I didn't exactly anticipate the Orioles playing so well. They have a lot of youth on their team and certainly have upside if everyone puts it together at once...which seems to be exactly what's happening so far. Will it continue? Who knows, but I'm just excited that it's going on long enough that they managed to sweep the Red Sox this weekend (at Fenway too!).

It's still early, but the Red Sox are five games under .500, and I'm loving every minute. Now if only the Rays can put some distance between themselves and the Yankees this week...

• Speaking of the Orioles, I contributed a piece to Baseball Nation this weekend on Matt Wieters. I'm a little bit rusty after not writing for a bit, and I screwed up one fact by forgetting about Joe Mauer's 2008-2009 season. I also think I came across a bit too strongly about his hot start, but that's probably mostly because I have a thing for Wieters. It doesn't help the Rays any, but I can't help but root for him to become great. \
• If you missed it yesterday, be sure to watch Sean Rodriguez's insane play from the ninth inning. He made a great diving stop in the hole and then fired off a quick throw to first to nab Brandon Inge by about as slim of a margin as possible. Results have been mixed so far, but I think Roddy is looking plenty fine at short so far.
• When it rains, it pours. So Desmond Jennings may miss some time, as he left Sunday's game early with "left knee soreness". There's no official word yet on how much time he's expected to be out (if any at all), but we should hear more today sometime.
• Albert Pujols hit his first home run of the season last night, raising his season line to .196/.237/.295. Progress!
• So Cole Hamels purposefully hit Bryce Harper last night to "welcome him to the big leagues", and then Harper came around and stole home on him. He's one cocky S.O.B., but I suppose he has the talent to get away with it.
• We've linked to Stadium Journey articles a couple times around here, and they do a great job covering both major and minor league stadiums. They've released a magazine, and in it they talk about Tropicana Field and rate it among major league parks (spoiler: it comes in #20). It's certainly worth a peek.

Coming into tonight, Jonny Gomes was still quite the popular guy in Tampa Bay. He was a fan favorite during his time with the Rays, and apparently many of the Rays consider Gomes one of the best teammates they've ever had. His Gomesrage made an appearance in our Game Day Thread, and the famous picture of Gomes beating up Coco Crisp will have a prominent place in Sunday's Times.

Well...truth be told, Gomes is still likely a well loved guy around town, even though he did just hit the game-winning home run that catapulted the Oakland A's over the Tampa Bay Rays in the 12th inning. That's partly because Gomes is just so gosh-darn lovable, but also because the Rays had plenty of chances to win and could never quite get it done.

All in all, it was frustrating watching the Rays tonight. Jeremy Hellickson started off the game by throwing the shortest outing of his career, lasting a mere 3.2 innings while throwing 102 pitches. He was working deep into every count, falling behind batters, and nibbling just a biiit too much. It wasn't necessarily that his control was "off" or that his pitches weren't working; he just couldn't figure out how to finish batters in a timely manner.

Hellickson didn't get any help from the Rays defense. Their defense made a number of lapses that extended innings, including two missed infield/foul pop-ups (Rhymes, Giminez), a missed grounder by Zobrist, and a poor throw by Rhymes. They weren't nearly as efficient as normal, and neither was the offense. The Rays had solo home runs from Elliot Johnson, Ben Zobrist, and Carlos Pena to keep them in the game, but they got runners in scoring position multiple times in the late innings and could never bring someone home.

But so it goes. When you've won six in a row and have the best record in baseball, eventually you're going to have a stinker. It's just too bad it was the same day as the BPro event at the Trop... #jynx

Bullets after the jump.

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It's taken me a week and a half (or so), but I'm finally back in the saddle. Our new apartment finally has internet in it, and I think I'm settling in well enough with the new job to begin flexing the ol' writing muscles again. Huge thanks to Jason, Erik, and the gang for keeping the joint afloat in my absence.

I'm still trying to decide if my absence served as either a good or bad luck charm for the Rays. Sure, they went on a winning streak in there, but then Evan Longoria and Tim Beckham had to go and ruin things on Tuesday. All in all, it's a mixed bag; if I'm any sort of voodoo doll, I'm not an effective one.

But anyway, on to the links. The Rays were a hot story on Wednesday, thanks to their horribly depressing Tuesday, and there were a couple good articles that you should be sure to check out. Eno Sarris took a stab at projecting how much Longoria's injury will hurt the Rays in the standings -- hint: it hurts a lot -- and Craig Calcaterra had some choice words to say after finding out that Beckham's "drug of abuse" was marijuana.

I'm fully behind Craig's point of view on this one; from a competitive standpoint, it seems ridiculous that marijuana is treated the exact same as HGH and anabolic steroids. And the last I checked, no major leaguer has been involved in a car crash this season as a result of being high. I understand that it's still an illegal drug in the U.S., but hey, major league players don't get suspended for testing positive for pot. So how exactly does this all make sense?

And now for an awful segue...

• Speaking of illegal drug use, Amy Nelson published a fantastic story (both print and video!) on Willie Mays Aikens, a Kansas City Royal from the '80s that landed in jail for cocaine use. Aikens is now clean and he's working for the Royals again.
• Worst call of the year? Worst call of the year. And it's not even close.
• Matt Swartz and Jeff Zimmerman are running a joint research series this week, detailing the aging curves for starting and relief pitchers. I've found the whole thing fascinating so far, and I highly recommend checking it out if you like pretty charts.
• Calcaterra was on a roll yesterday -- first the Beckham piece, and then this story on why everyone who said Andy Pettitte changed his testimony had it wrong.

During Jeremy Hellickson's last start, you may have noticed that Brian Anderson seemed particularly upset about Helly's excessive use of his new cutter. I'm pretty sure BA's discussion of Hellickson's cutter would qualify as a "rant", and he stressed over and over again that when a pitcher gets a new pitch, they sometimes get Shiny New Toy Syndrome and use it waaay too often. He even brought up Hellickson's ERA last season, talking about how "batters will tell you" when you need to make a dramatic change to your repertoire.

This doesn't come as a huge surprise -- the advice was sound, if the delivery was a bit over the top and goofy -- but Maddon has seconded everything BA said:

"The problem is when a young pitcher who's had a lot of success tries to introduce a new pitch into the mix, then he's possibly taking away from something else that he does really well," Maddon said.

"You only get so many opportunities to throw a pitch in a game. I don't mind the idea that he's messing with something that might be good for him down the road. But most of the time the hitters are going to tell you when you need to become more creative."

Game, set, match. Also, later on in that article, Topkin quotes BrooksBaseball.net; that about blew me out of the water. What's next, quoting FIP from FanGraphs?

• In AL East news, the Orioles are again in the midst of a troubling controversy. Apparently Dontrelle Willis thinks he should be allowed to sign with another team (and he's claiming that the O's gave him permission), but the O's are claiming they did so such thing and he's still under their control. Somehow, this isn't surprising.
• Where have Brandon Morrow's strikeouts gone? He's looking like a wholely different pitcher so far this year.
• Baseball Prospectus has an article on the best batting stances of all-time. You have any favorites that aren't on the list already?
• This is a fact that always amazes me: as a whole, free agents that switch teams perform worse than free agents that re-sign with their club. Or in other words, it looks like evidence that teams carry better information on the players in their organization (no surprises there) and that the information helps them make more informed decisions.

As you likely have heard by now, the Tampa Bay Rays signed Hideki Matsui to a minor-league deal quite recently, and he's expected to serve as depth for the Rays in case Brandon Allen doesn't work out or someone gets injured.

As we've covered a few times here, the Rays' bench is woefully weak offensively, and in desperate need of an upgrade. Although Matsui may have only had a .309 wOBA last season -- in simpler terms, he had a .251/.321/.375 slash -- that sort of production would still be a step up over basically anyone on the Rays' bench at the moment. Matsui doesn't have to return to his "Godzilla" form in order to provide value to the Rays; he merely needs to prove that his bat is still serviceable.

So after hearing about Matsui's signing, my interest was piqued. How much does Matsui still have left in the tank? Were there any signs in his performance last year that suggested he might be finished? (And if not, why did so many teams pass over him this off-season?) Or is there a good shot that he could be productive enough to help the Rays? Let's take a quick look.

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There were a number of good articles in the local papers this weekend. I particularly enjoyed this piece by Roger Mooney on Fernando Rodney, as I hadn't read much on Rodney yet this year. He certainly seems like an eccentric character, and go figure, he's a goofball. Joe Maddon is already planning on having a "Rodney Day" at the Trop where they give away hats with askew logos. Oh, and his official team nickname is apparently "Kimbo Slice", which seems fitting after his crazy Kung-Fu look from spring training.

On the roster-action front, Marc Topkin hinted in one of his pieces this weekend that the Rays are "browsing" around for a catcher, and -- if I'm reading between the lines right -- that there is some increasing skepticism that Jose Lobaton will be back soon, or will be able to return at full strength. Also, there's a bit in there on Jose Molina's work behind the plate that I found enlightening and...umm, worrisome?

Plus, the Rays have had issues early with Molina. Most obvious, the pitchers have to adjust to how he catches, strategically (notice his number of mound visits) and physically, as he sets up on the edge of the plate and at a slight angle. Manager Joe Maddon acknowledged last week "it might" have something to do with the early pitching woes.

Hopefully it's just be a matter of getting used to Molina's unique style, as it seems from his past track record that his catching style gets good results. But if some of the Rays' pitchers continue to have problems adjusting, I imagine that'll ramp up the search for a catcher even more. I doubt it'll ever get to that point, but it's certainly something to keep an eye on. Is Molina helping, or is his style actually resulting in the Rays walking more batters?

In other news, Brandon Allen sounds like he's extremely coachable and has plus makeup. Who knows if that'll help him learn to hit off-speed stuff, but we'll see.

• The big news this weekend was that Philip Humber threw the 21st perfect game in MLB history on Saturday against the Mariners. I'm still somewhat in shock over this; it's not like Humber is a bad pitcher, but he's just not the first (or, you know, 50th) player I would have picked to throw the next perfecto. I suppose this sort of thing goes to show how much luck goes into perfect games and no-hitters.
• The Red Sox are having some early season struggles -- blowing a 9-0 lead to the Yankees this weekend certainly didn't help -- but no worries, they have a solution: Marlon Byrd! The Sox traded for him on Sunday, and he'll help fill in their outfield since both Carl Crawford and Jacoby Ellsbury are currently injured.
• The Sox aren't the only ones that had a less-than-stellar weekend; on Saturday, the Yankees decided to shut down Michael Pineda until further notice, as he's still experiencing shoulder weakness. I don't know about you, but I'm have flashbacks to J.P. Howell's "shoulder weakness" issues.
• Oh, and since the Blue Jays were feeling left out, Sergio Santos went on the DL this weekend, putting the Blue Jays without a closer. They'll likely now turn to Francisco Cordero, for all of you out there scrounging for saves in your fantasy league.

Friday, 7:10pm: Liam Hendriks vs. Matt Moore

Sandy Kazmir beat me to the punch (seriously, read his FanPost), but Hendriks is essentially a typical Twins starter: he doesn't have overpowering stuff, but he succeeds by being "crafty" and limiting his walks. He has four pitches -- fastball, curve, change, and slider -- and his fastball typically sits around 90 MPH (can pump it up a bit more on occasion). His changeup is probably his best secondary pitch, but none of his breaking balls is especially noteworthy; according to scouting reports, he has mediocre stuff but gets the most out of it possible. From an old scouting report at BPro:

"It's not crazy stuff, but he really knows what he's doing," the scout explained. "He sits in the upper 80s with his fastball, tops out at 91 mph, and throws a curve, slider, and change. He's a potential No. 5 starter-he really pounds the strike zone, and the best word to describe him might be 'crafty.'"

Hendriks doesn't have an extensive MLB history yet; this will be six start in the majors, and he's still just 23 years old. If he sounds like a somewhat boring pitcher, consider this: he's from Australia, so that automatically adds in some cool factor.

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Around the Majors

The big news from yesterday is that after getting no calls over the off season -- or at least, none with a tempting enough offer -- Ivan Rodriguez has decided to hang up the spikes. He will officially retire Monday, but it sounds as though his mind is already made up on the matter. He was one of the best defensive catchers ever, and unless people attach his name to PEDs, I imagine he makes the Hall of Fame easily.

In other news, the Angels extended Erick Aybar four four years at $35 million. If they believe he's going to continue to be a +4 win player like he was last year, this is a good deal for the Angels; there aren't many other comparable contracts for shortstops out there, but still, he's a valuable player even if +4 wins is his peak.

Also, does Aybar's profile sound like anyone else we know? Late-20s, good defender, +4 win peak, plays a premium defensive position. I doubt that B.J. Upton goes for as little as Aybar received, considering he's slightly younger and has been more consistent, but still, maybe this is a sign of hope? (Sorry, I can't help it.)

• Cliff Lee was superb last night, lasting a full 10 innings while only allowing seven baserunners and striking out seven. And yet, the Phillies lost 1-0 in the 11th inning. He's the first pitcher since 2007 to work a full 10 innings in a start, and the first pitcher since 1995 to throw 10 innings in a losing effort.
• In other oddities, Bartolo Colon threw 38 consecutive strikes at one point last night. How's that work with game theory? If it gets to the point where hitters know you're going to be in the strike zone, you'd think that pitcher would start getting hit. But no, Colon only allowed four baserunners over eight innings of work.
• The Red Sox have demoted Mark Melacon to the minors, as he's allowed five home runs in only two innings of work. I'd love to laugh at their bullpen struggles, but their 6.63 bullpen ERA is still better than the Rays' 9.31 ERA. Sigh...
• The Yankees placed Brett Gardner on the disabled list with an elbow injury. There's no word on how long he'll be out, but in the meantime, it looks like there will be plenty of Raul Ibanez playing the outfield. And that's always a good thing for a laugh.

Rays Talk

Evan Longoria may have been charged with three errors the other night, but that may get reduced to only two. J.P. Arencibia is appealing the call on the second error, as his batting average has yet to crack .100 and he can use all the help he can get.

B.J. Upton is still expected to be back with the Rays on Friday, so that's encouraging, exciting news. The only notable player that the Rays will then be missing will be Farnsworth, and surprisingly, Fernando Rodney is filling in just fine at the moment.

Joe Maddon's favorite TV shows? Arli$$, Boardwalk Empire, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Entourage, and The Sopranos. I don't know that first one, but otherwise, most awesome. I always knew Maddon had good taste.

Instead of our typical series previews, I'm reviving one of my favorite features from last season: The Process Versus. Some of you may remember an indie website last year that had lots of cache among the cool crowd of sabermetric bloggers -- The Process Report -- so I'm considering this series a homage and hat tip to that glorious, cult classic site. Live on, TPR. Live on.

Tuesday, 1:05pm: Rick Porcello vs. Matt Moore

Porcello is a classic sinkerball pitcher who lives and dies with his grounder rate. He throws his sinker (AKA two-seam fastball) over 50% of the time, and he typically get hitters to put the ball on the ground at a 52% clip. I'm very curious to see what effect Miggy and Fielder will have on Porcello's success this year.

He also throws a change-up, four-seamer, and a slider. His best out-pitch is his slider (30% whiff rate), but he only uses it 15% of the time.

Wednesday, 1:05pm: Justin Verlander vs. James Shields

How much can really be said about Verlander? He's freakin' dominant. His four-seam fastball averages 95.5 MPH, allowing him to throw it over 60% of the time and still generate an 18% whiff rate with it. He also throws a curveball and change-up, both of which have extreme velocity separation from his fastball and generate swings and misses at a high rate.

Thursday, 1:05pm: Drew Smyly vs. Jeff Niemann

A second-round draft pick in 2010, the left-handed Smyly is one of the top pitching prospects in the Tigers' system. He was drafted out of college and is already 23 years old, but even then, the Tigers have moved him through the minors at a breakneck pace. He dominated Double-A in his brief 45 IP time there last season, and he broke camp as the Tigers' #5 starter. He throws four pitches and mixes them well, although he doesn't throw terribly hard (87-92 MPH range).

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Around the Majors

Yu Darvish made his major league debut yesterday (video), and although he got the win, it wasn't the scintillating performance that we were all expecting. Darvish labored through 5.2 innings, striking out five and walking four, and giving up five runs in the process. Or to put it another way, the Rangers just got Dice-K'd.

The other big stories from last night's games: Chris Sale made his first major league start (video), and Barry Zito threw a complete game shutout in Coor's Field (video). Oh, and both the Yankees and Red Sox got their first wins of the season, beating the Orioles and Blue Jays.

The season has started, but the contract extensions keep on coming in. Last night, it came out that the Rangers have signed Ian Kinsler to a 5 year, $70 million extension -- seems reasonable for a +7 win player last season -- and the Indians have signed Carlos Santana to an extension as well (terms still unknown). I'm still holding out hope that the Rays will announce another extension sometime soon (Matt Joyce, please?), but the odds of that are likely decreasing.

And in other news, R.J. Anderson wrote an article for Baseball Prospectus about 12 role players around the game that you more than likely don't know about. Although I suppose you already know about Vogt...

Rays Talk

Matt Moore starts for the Rays today, and there's a fun profile of him in the Tampa Bay Times this morning. As they note, Moore is normally a slow starter and typically doesn't perform as well in April, but he might get some extra help from the city of Detroit:

Weather forecast for #Rays today, per Detroit Ch. 4: High of 47, feels like in 30s, possible rain + snow showers.

— Marc Topkin (@TBTimes_Rays) April 10, 2012

Cold weather typically suppresses offense, and I've got to imagine hitting one of Moore's mid-90s fastballs will sting like crazy. Happy Matt Moore-ial Day, Tigers!

Also, the Rays now play seven day games in a row? What's up with that?

Around the Majors

My gosh, does it feel good to have baseball back. I was glued to my phone this weekend while out doing errands and hanging with the family, checking on the scores and updates from around the league. While the Rays opened the season in dramatic fashion -- sweep, baby! -- it was made all the sweeter by the Tigers sweeping the Red Sox, blowing them out in game two and coming from behind to win game three (video). So even though it's incredibly early, the Rays have a three game lead over both the Yanks and Sox. I know that doesn't mean much this early in, but hey, I'll certainly take this over last season's start to the year.

In other baseball action, two players took no-hitters into the late innings yesterday. Jason Hammel lost his no-hitter in the eighth against the Twins (video), and Jonathan Niese lost his in the seventh (video). I was somewhat baffled by the Guthrie-Hammel trade this off-season, but this is a good early sign for the O's. If their pitching comes around, they could actually have a decent team.

The other big news this weekend is that the three players transitioning to third base this season -- Hanley Ramirez, Miguel Cabrera, and Mark Trumbo -- have all looked rather foolish early on. Trumbo has flubbed a number of plays already, and Cabrera is apparently scared of the ball. Ramirez has probably looked the best of the three so far, but even he has had some misplays already. Which experiment will get cancelled first? My money is on Trumbo.

Rays Talk

The one piece of bad news out of this weekend's series was that Luke Scott has a minor hamstring injury, which could keep him out 3-4 games. It doesn't sound like anything to be concerned about, but here's hoping it doesn't linger.

If you were listening to Saturday's game, you may have heard the radio guys going on at one point about how Price made a foolish choice by throwing a 3-2 change-up instead of using his best pitch -- his fastball. He "got beat" with his change-up, as the hitter slashed a hit and drove in a run, and Andy and Dave thought that was a poor decision. It turns out MGL was also listening, and he broke down why that logic doesn't work.

BurGi is back with his Minor League Breakdown series at Rays Prospects, where he analyzes how each of the Rays top prospects are doing based on their stats. It's certainly worth keeping an eye on those posts.

I don't know about you, but I love the way that the Rays have commemorated Game 162 at the Trop. The franchise doesn't have much history, so they might as well play up the awesome moments they do have.

Congrats to the Lightning for wrapping up their season in style this Saturday, winning 4-3 over the Jets. Steven Stamkos also scored his 60th goal of the season in the game, making him the only player besides Alex Ovechkin to score that many goals in a season since the NHL lockout.

Over the past month, we've been slowly publishing our Season Preview pieces for the 2012 Rays. It's been a long process, but I believe we've had some really cool pieces in there, and hopefully each of the articles helped give you a bit of perspective about that player entering the season.

With the Rays kicking off the season yesterday, we managed to sneak in our final few player profiles juuuust in the nick of time. You can find the full season preview archive here, or you can access it anytime by clicking the "Season Preview 2012" tag in the "Sections" area of the left-hand sidebar.

Below the jump, I'll include links to our season preview pieces for every player currently on the Rays' 25-man roster. In case you missed any of the pieces or want to relive them, enjoy!

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This post was written by site writer and radio host extraordinaire, Toby David.

The MLB season is a marathon, not a sprint. And if that marathon has showed us anything, it's that even after 162 games, every game matters. This is especially true for the Rays considering every marginal win counts. If every game is meaningful. how can Major League Baseball continues to operate with such an unjust system? A common refrain from Rays fans is complaining about the difficulty of competing in the AL East. While this is an obvious point, with the advent of the Wild Card system, it is just as unfair that the Rays are competing for the same Wild Card spot with teams in other divisions that battle a completely different schedule. While the NFL has a similar system, the have a salary cap that reigns in the big markets and doesn't have the disparities you find in MLB.

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I've giving up trying to decide which of these days is technically Opening Day -- it's probably today, but the Rays don't start, so it doesn't feel quite right. But hey, whatever you want to call it, baseball's back! We've been waiting for this point all off season long, and it's finally arrived. These games count!

The Miami Marlins opened up their new stadium last night with a showcase game against the St. Louis Cardinals, and although I couldn't watch (darn the blackout rules!), it sounds like it was a mix of awe and awkwardness. The stadium looks fantastic from all the pictures and videos I've seen, but Hanley Ramirez showed the world that he still needs time to adjust to third. And from all reports, the Muhammad Ali first pitch was really awkward.

Also, the home run sculpture lives!

But enough with the Marlins: let's move on to the real important thing here, getting pumped up for the Rays season. While the Rays don't play tonight, it's also Opening Day for the minor leagues, so we'll have a live chat tonight (right guys?) as we all follow the entire Rays minor league system simultaneously. Awesome? Exciting? Insane? You betcha.

• From Rays Prospects, here are the official starting rotations for all the Rays minor league teams. Looks like there will be a number of fun pitchers to follow tonight.
• Also from Rays Prospects, here are season previews for the Montgomery Biscuits (Double-A) and the Durham Bulls (Triple-A). Rays Digest also has previews up for the Biscuits, the Bulls, and the Bowling Green Hot Rods (Low-A).
• FanGraphs added yet another feature to their leaderboards now: age filters. So basically, if you use their leaderboards to their fullest extent, odds are you'll never have to pay for the B-Ref Play Index again. I'm constantly amazed by how much research I can do merely using their leaderboards. It's a blessing for all of us that are database-challenged.
• Bill Petti took a look yesterday at projected hits allowed above/below average for 2012. Surprise surprise, the Rays are right up toward the top.