MLB Trade Rumors is reporting that recent Cuban defector and 1B José Julio Ruiz may be close to signing with a MLB club soon possibly as early as this week. Ruiz in in the D.R. now working with an agent and the report says he wants to play for a team who will give him the best opportunity to play in the majors soon. I know nothing about Ruiz but the stat line looks promising last year at .305/.408/.467 over 52 games last year . The Rays are reportly one of many clubs interested in Ruiz's services. With Pena in the last year of his contract the Rays make a whole lot of sense to me over many of the clubs listed but the "millions" talked about scares me. My guess is the Yankees and Red Sox interest in Ruiz is to try to keep him from the Rays but again he wants the best opportunity to make the jump to the majors. The dollars are certainly there in 2011 for Ruiz to come to the Rays with so many large contract players on the Rays in the last year of their contracts. If the money is like Aki money was offered back in 2007 I'd bet the RFO might go for it but anything more might be too much a risk. From the looks of Ruiz he presents a nice athletic fit for 1B for many years something the Rays could use. No Ruiz won't replace the power of Pena but less K's from a corner infielder would be nice. Ruiz is only 25 years old and if the price isn't too high the RFO might take a chance on him:

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2010/02/jose...to-signing.html

Would the the Rays take this risk? Maybe go for fours years with options after that. With the payroll trimmed down next year if we believe that Pena and Crawford are gone the Rays could take this chance. Anyway at least it's positive news.   

http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/rays/content/upton-arb-hearing-no-concern-all-long-term-deal

Those of you who love Kiko Calero for the bullpen hope is still alive.

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2010/01/rays-may-not-be-done.html

Peter suggests Rays might be better off closer to Stu's home. Why doesn't he pick on the Pirates or Royals? Now okay a 23k average a game isn't great but remember D-Rays had 13k or 14k averages not too long ago. We are seeing progress but our friend from New England sings the same tune every out of state media guys says. As Steve wrote earlier this week we have challenges here and we all know what they are so I won't rehash them but given the quality front office, talent on the club  and growing fan base in another 5 years I believe this talk will all be muted and we can move on. 


http://mlb.mlb.com/news/comments.jsp?ymd=20100122&content_id=7954722&vkey=perspectives&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

This just in from Topkin and the Heater. Doesn't sound serious but the Rays are showing caution by shutting Aybar down for the winter. I just noticed today that Willy had been missing from the Licey lineup. Licey is currently in the postseason. At least they caught the injury now with nearly 3 months to go before the season starts:

http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/rays/content/wrist-sprain-ends-aybars-winter-ball-season

Sound Tigers completed a lost weekend dropping their third road game in three days with a 4-3 loss to the Worcester Sharks Sunday. In more important news Rick DiPietro made 35 saves on 39 shots. Rick played two of the three games in goal for Bridgeport this weekend. DiPietro's allowed one more AHL start on his rehab before the Isles have to call him up. With the Isles having a lot of days off in the next couple of weeks I'm wondering if Snow might call Rick up now to get him in a game on the road maybe in Dallas but most likley I would think he'll wait till the Isles return home. Bridgeport's next game is Friday, January 8th.    

Travis Hamonic was hit from behind on clearly a dirty hit by a Swiss player in the World Juniors. Swiss player got a 5 minute major but the game was decided at that point. Game had about a minute left and with a 6-1 Canada lead I'm not sure why Hamonic was even out there. Travis has been one of the better d-men for Canada. He was favoring his left shoulder/arm pretty bad. I'll report any update I get from TSN. Canada won 6-1 and moves on to the gold medal game vs winner of tonights Sweden/US matchup at 9PM. 

[Dominik Edit: You can see the hit toward the end of the highlights at TSN here. Pretty bad.]