The Rays made a nice trade during the season when they sent Cantu to the Reds for Sheckelford and Medlock. I think they needed to get what they could for Cantu and they did. I was intrigued by Medlock's numbers and he looked like he could be a decent bullpen guy. Since the Trade he has only gotten better. The guy had a much lower ERA in Durham than he did in Louisville, and it was pretty much the same amount of innings. Also, Calvin has torn up the Arizona Fall league with an ERA of 1.62 and a 9.5 K/BB ratio. The guy looks like he is for real. Anyone think the Rays may have found their closer fo the future?

From Roto:       
Pirates declined shortstop Cesar Izturis' $5.45 million club option for 2008.
It was an easy call. Izturis, who finished up a three-year deal he originally signed as a Dodger, gets a $300,000 buyout. He could serve as a stopgap starter at shortstop in Tampa Bay or St. Louis. It's also possible that he'll become a utilityman on a contender.

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Carlos Pena was awarded the Silver Slugger today. This is the first time in Rays history (even going back to those Devil Rays days haha) that a player has gotten a silver slugger award.

His stats on the year were:

46 HR (4th in the MLB)
121 RBI (6th in MLB)
.411 OBP (9th in MLB)
.627 Slugging (second MLB)
103 BB (7th in MLB)

The silver slugger award is given to the best offensive player at their position. Pena was by far the best first baseman in the AL. Maybe even the MLB

Congrats to Pena

The Rays kept their train going today when they stopped by 620 to discuss the new jerseys and new logo. Rocco Baldelli, Matt Silverman, Joe Maddon were just some of the guests. A couple of things I found interesting were:

The Rays have expressed interest in obtaining one of the following veteran bullpen guys for next season: Eric Gagne, Todd Jones, Frankie Cordero, and Troy Percival.

Cordero would be great for the Rays to get. That would be a big name closer they could bring in to solidify the closer role and move Reyes up to the setup role he dominated as in St. Louis. The others could help the bullpen, but aren't on the upside of their careers. Gagne is interesting because he was having a good year until he went to Boston, but I am not sure what happened to him.

Dustin Pedroia was named the American ROY over Delmon Young.

Pedroia 139 G 8 HR 86 R 50 RBI 7 SB
Young   162 G 13 HR 65 R 93 RBI 10 SB

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The Orioles just fired Leo Mazzone.

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The Rays announced that there will be no more free parking.

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The rumors out of Detroit are that the Tigers do not plan on picking up Ivan Rodriquez's 9 million dollar option for next season. If the Tigers do allow "Pudge" to go, the Rays need to make him one of their top priorities of the off season.

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Evers let go
The Rays announced Tuesday they planned to bring back coaches Tom Foley, Steve Henderson, George Hendrick and Bobby Ramos.

The contract of bench coach Bill Evers - the longtime, popular and successful minor-league manager - was not renewed.

There was no decision yet on the status of pitching coach Jim Hickey, who was arrested on DUI and other charges late Sunday after returning from the season finale in Toronto.
[editor's note, by R.J. Anderson] Thanks to TSF for posting the diary, just throwing a few names out there as possible replacements: Dave Martinez (unlikely), Charlie Montoyo, Xavier Hernandez, and Phil Garner.