Hey all,

Sorry to invade your board but I thought some of you may be interested in some videos I was able to take on the 4th of July of your golden arm in the minors, Rick Porcello.

As a huge Rays fan and regular on DRaysBay, I wanted to share.  A little break down is also available to go along with the videos.  The site that its on is a new site that yes I am pimping but hopefully you’ll find some good stuff there as its all free.  We are a new fantasy site that is giving away a ton of new info for football and in regards to baseball we work hard to keep you up-to-date on guys in the minor leagues.

Rick Porcello Analysis and Video

As a new site we would love any feedback both positive and negative should you have any.

Thanks in advance,

Poe

From CBS Sportsline,

"SP prospect David Price, selected first overall in the 2007 amateur draft, is scheduled to start for the Rays' extended spring training team Saturday against the Yankees' extended team, which will included the rehabbing Alex Rodriguez (quad). The left-hander, who strained his pitching elbow in a minor league spring training game March 20, will be making his fourth extended spring start.
(Updated 05/15/2008)."

Does anyone have the specifics on this game? 

Location?

Time?

Sorry i didn't post this earlier but i got jammed up at work.  Last night i was searching my guide for baseball shows and came across the Mexican and Dominican Playoffs.  Last night I was lucky enough to watch a great game 6 between the Licey Tigers and Aguilas Cibaenas.  When i got the channel the batters due up the next inning were Rafael Fucal, Miguel Tijada and Edwin Encarnaction.  The game is on channel 907 on brighthouse which is ESPN Deportes and part of the Spanish package.  I called the 800# that shows up on the screen and had all of the Spanish channels in about 5 minutes for $2.99 a month.  I don't speak Spanish but if you follow MLB you will recognize a few of the players.

Jose Guillen, Louis Palonia, Bartolo Colon, Randy Choate (Nole), Julian Tavares, Juan Salas, Raul Casanova, Tony Batista, our boy Dukes, Ervin Santana, Jorge Sosa (who blew the save last night) and jose offerman are all on the rosters of the 2 teams playing tonight.

so no on to the the Ray.... Willy Aybar is hitting 4th for Licey and looked good last night with the exception of booting a hard grounder.

Hope others jump on as the crowds are great and besides the fact that i dont speak more than a few words of spanish its great having baseball on TV.

Adios Muchachos,

Poe

I can't remember exactly when it all came together but tonight is going to be a significant night in the future of the Rays.  Tonight is going to be the first of what should be years and years of the best OF in baseball.  Sure, its raw, and its not the best yet, but for a team going nowhere this year, its all about playing together and getting better.  

CC, BJ and Delmon in the same OF....... What a sight its going to be.

Speed, power, defense and yet more speed as all 3 continue to get bigger, faster and stronger.

This is the future and as of tonight this is the present.

POE

A few of the Young Guns will be in town this week and I just wanted to give you all a heads up.  I am jammed up at work today and have meant to post this for a while but hopefully Patrick or someone else will add any additional info.

This is the only time the Vero Beach Rays (High A) will be here in Clearwater all year.  

It looks like we are going to miss Jake McGee as he is scheduled to pitch tonight.

The projected starters look like,

Wednesday....Wade Davis
Thursday.....Wlodarczyk
Friday ..... Not sure as Matt Walker pitched in a double header on the 7th
Sat....Either Walker or Paul Moviel.

PS.. the Wednesday game is a day game.

Now the games are all at brighthouse field which is located at US 19 and Drew Street.  It is an incredible field and great place to catch a game.  

I highly recommend the shortie burgers, a philly cheese steak from laspadas and the beer around the world both.  Tickets are cheap and you should easily be able to buy the $3 or so ticket and sit anywhere you want.

Thursday is Thirsty thursday with 1/2 price beers and the Wade Davis day game has $10 club level seats which include some type of lunch.

For more info on the park check out,

http://www.threshersbaseball.com/

Hope some of the info helps as im rushing to get out of work and forgot to post this a few days ago.

I will be sneaking out for a long lunch on Wednesday to catch a peak at the no hit kid and will be getting loaded in the Frenchys Tiki Pavilion in LF for the 3 night games.

Poe

I am not sure what we could offer for his services but I think he would look nice in Devil Ray Green or Blue or what ever color we are in the future.  

He is 26 and was once a huge prospect in the Braves system.  He was has not done much the last few years with the brewers and was just recently sent down.  

With no DH and weeks/fielder on the right side of the infield, i don't think the brewers would have much interest in Cantu.  But what about swapping arms with us sending them McClung?  Fresh starts for both guys might help.

Anyway, I have always thought Capellan has had nasty stuff and we certainly need all the help we can get in our pen.

Poe

Hey all,

We are going on our 4th year and have a great group of guys.  It is a 12 man league and one of the owners is unable to make the draft and is getting married next month so is stepping down.  We are looking for someone local who is looking for a long term fantasy league.

The league info is as follows,

Roto 5x5
NL only
Run through Sportsline
$87 which covers league fees and prizes.  
All monies paid out at the end of the year.
Pretty standard ROTO rules

The team you would taking over has a good mix of cheap young talent and veterans.

McCann, Helton, Rollins, Ensberg,  Francour, Carlos Quentin, Carpenter and chris young.

The draft date is 3/24 at 10:00 or 11:00 at Tucson's on Ulmerton Road.  We will have one of the conference rooms.  The draft will take 4-5 hours.  If you have played online for a few years and are interested in getting involved in a local league please email your information to commish  Doug at rotodaddy@hotmail.com

Any other questions you can email me directly at poe@examforce.com or Doug.

I understand that we have a whole bunch of options going into next year at first but what about Kotchman?  With the signing of Hillenbrand, I would assume that he is available.  Out of all of the options we have, I would not mind going into next year with him at 1st.  Not sure who we could move to get him but just an idea.

Poe

Hey All,

I was able to get down to the Naimoli Complex Saturday the 25th and wanted to share what I heard and saw.  I got there about an hour early and watched as they came out to one of 4 fields at the complex.  Some guys seemed a bit hung over from a late Friday night while others it was obvious that they were excited to be out in the sun.  It could not have been a nicer day,  sunny but with a slight breeze allowing some guys to wear a pull over jacket.  Most in the crowd of a few hundred had shorts and tee shirts on.  I spent most of the day simply bouncing from field to field trying to get a glance at our young talent.

Below I have a link to a slide show of some of the pictures I took   I also wanted to pass along some info from what I took from the day.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bpoe13/show/

or

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bpoe13/

then click
View bpoe13's latest photos as a slideshow

As soon as the group got together at about 9:30 they moved out to left field away from where we could hear them.  I imagine Joe Maddon started the day off with some words about what would happen during the day.  After a few minutes they started with typical calisthenics and stretching.  After this they warmed up with some light jogging.  After this they broke up into groups and spread out amongst the 4 fields.  I stayed at the main field which had the typical starting 8 plus a few other veterans.  The first drill they did was run from home to first, straight through the bag.  Just like tee-ball all the way through high school they started with the most fundamental of fundamentals, running hard through first.  What caught my attention was hearing Joe yelling at the guys to, "run hard through the bag, don't get into a habit of slowing down."  I thought this was awesome....teaching and applying the basics.

During this time I spoke briefly with a security guard about the vibe so far at these practices.  He said he had been there a few years and Joe was keeping the guys out much later then in years past.  He also remarked about Jimy Williams talking a whole bunch throughout the day.

A while later I was on the next field over when a horn rang and guys moved fields.  As I stayed there, some of the vets came over for infield work.  I was a bit surprised at how this "1st group" set up.  At 3rd was Burroughs, Wigginton and Huff.  At SS was Lugo and Rivas with Cantu at 2nd.  Lee was the only guy at first.  About half way through Rivas went to 2nd and wigginton moved over to 1st.  Questions here......

Huff at 3rd=Delmon in right out of spring?
Where is Nick Green, or Branyon?

On the next field over was the 2nd group taking infield.  This was,

1st Base.....  Kevin Witt, Wes Bankston and Russell Branyon
2nd Base...... Fernando Cortez and the some Russell branyon
3rd base.....     Greg Norton
SS............    Nick Green, Upton and Luis Ordonez

After a bit more of fielding the started live pitching against the hitters.   I didn't get too much from this as pitchers aren't doing much and hitters are not at 100%.  The only guy that truly stood out was Elijah Dukes.  He looks like a stud and hits the ball real hard.  Hopefully he can stay out of trouble.

The last thing I noticed that caught my eye was every time I saw BJ, I saw Branyon.  They seemed to always be talking and showing each other things.  

Well, hope you all enjoyed and if for any reason you want a full size picture of any in the slide show shoot me an email at rpoe@tampabay.rr.com

POE

I was at the trop today and walked around looking for some sign of new life.  The main entrance seems to be much brighter and has some new banners.  After going through this area i went up to the second level and looked out onto the field from right center.  I was standing on the side of the batters eye restaurant where the kids area is.  

From here i noticed a good amount of the previously cement walls are painted green and the only other obvious changes are in the second set of seats above the rays dugout.  About the distance from home plate to first base is closed down with tape and wood.  It looks like they are turning this area into another VIP type section.  I for one agree with this type of thinking as bringing in more corporate sponsors can only help the bottom line.  Not sure what else i expected but i figured id pass along the info.  

Looking forward to a new year.

POE

Am i the only one who hates that we have to play the Yankees and Red sox so much?  I ran across an interesting post at,

http://www.baseballmusings.com

and was curios of fellow devil rays thoughts.

http://www.baseballmusings.com/archives/009125.php

Continue reading this post »

From a purely fantasy baseball perspective, who is going to get first shot at the closer role this year if/when Baez gets dealt?

Then who do you think will be our closer who is currently in the organization going into the 2006 year?

What about a guy for real long term?

We have Colome, Lee Gardner, Orvella, Harper, Fossum, Carter, McClung??

Who gets the first shot?

Who is our closer for 06?

Long Term?

Poe

From:

http://www.sportsline.com/mlb/story/8194419

"We already know the front office is adept at fleecing teams for talents like Scott Kazmir."

The Front office is adept?  One great deal does not make up for years of B.S.

Who writes this crap?

This has to be one of the funniest things i have surfed across in a while,

POE