More Pictures!

Our friend, Michael G. Baron, has returned with more images from Rays camp. He was at the Marlins/Rays tilt yesterday and added some more great shots that include the image above.  Click here to check out his full gallery of Rays-related images from this spring or click here to view as a slide show.

Tags: photographs, Spring Training

Spring Training Updates

It has been a busy day but most of the news is good. The Rays took both split squad games today: a conventional 4-1 win over the Jays and a softball like 16-15 game against the Pirates that was played in 50 mph wind gusts with sustained 25-30 mph winds. Ignore all pitching stats from that game because they are u-g-l-y. For those counting at home, that gives the Rays a 9 game winning streak in the Grapefruit League putting them atop the Grapefruit League standings. It bears repeating – they did this in 2008 too. Other news:

• Andy Sonnanstine looked great in four innings against the Blue Jays today. That said, the lineup was filled with reserve types including former Ray Joey Gathright hitting leadoff.
• Dioner Navarro left the game with a bruised thumb after getting pegged on a pick-off attempt.  Marc Topkin reports the x-rays were inconclusive and that he will be re-evaluated.
• Matt Joyce has come up with an elbow strain and is also being monitored.  Given the club is likely to carry 12 pitchers and 13 bats, missing playing time would hurt Joyce’s chances of breaking camp with the big league club.
• Desmond Jennings is done in the Grapefruit League. The strained wrist punched his ticket to minor league camp a little earlier than people planned but it is the best thing for him right now
• David Price’s incident with the bat yesterday did not do any major damage and he is scheduled to make his next start.
• Tim Beckham, Jacob McGee, and Nevin Ashley have also been sent down to minor league camp. No surprises there.
• Pat Burrell homered today – his first homer since September 15th of last year and helped end an ugly 1 for 13 start to Spring Training.
• Rafael Soriano will make his Rays debut in a game against the Twins next Wednesday while J.P. Howell will wait until the next day to pitch against the Yankees according to mlb.com’s Bill Chastain.

Tags: Andy Sonnanstine, Desmond Jennings, Dioner Navarro, Matt Joyce, Pat Burrell, Rafael Soriano, Spring Training

Rays Add International Signee

Recent Cuban defector Leslie Anderson has inked a four year deal with the Rays. Visit this site which offers a great breakdown and even some video about the newest member of the organization.

He apparently has the skills to play both centerfield and first base and is a very polished hitter. I’ve said in the past – the moves the Rays tend to make are the ones that come out of nowhere. This one certainly fits that description.

Tags: Leslie Anderson

Radio Appearance – March 11th

I will be making my first appearance in the Orlando radio market to discuss Rays today at 5:05 ET with The Sports Rx on 740 AM. You can tune in live by clicking on the show logo above or by going to the 740 website. Wish me luck!

**Update** – here is the archive of my segment on the show for those who were not able to tune in.

Tags: 740 AM, Orlando, radio appearance

Shut Up and Put Up

The Rays are off to an excellent start in Spring Training. Sean Rodriguez is hitting everything in sight, Jeremy Hellickson is striking out everything in sight, and the club is on a seven game winning streak after defeating the Red Sox (again) today in Fort Myers.  If not for the great start, the focus on the Rays right now would be on the troublesome comment from the incumbent DH Pat Burrell and his possible platoon partner, Hank Blalock. This past Saturday, as the Rays took the field in Clearwater against the Phillies, Burrell gave an interview in which he lamented playing DH and desiring to play more outfield because he felt bored in games both by the lack of action on the field and the lack of action in the stands. He heaped tons of praise onto the Phillies fanbase – the same one that ironically booed him through most of his many abysmal slumps that seemed to be cured only by visiting Shea Stadium to destroy Mets pitching. The session gave the impression of an exit interview one would give a company after they’ve been laid off, not one that would come from a guy who is being paid $9m to step up to the plate 4-5 times a game. Those sour comments were then followed by newly signed Hank Blalock whose first comments when talking to the media as a member of the Rays organization was that he was here, “because I had no other opportunities.”

Blalock was given a softball question by the media that he could have easily replied to with one of the many cliches that we hear from baseball players. “I’m appreciative of the opportunity that the Rays have given me to make the club and giving me the flexibility to request a trade or release should an opportunity with better playing time arise,” would have been a great response to the question. Here is a major league veteran who has been little more than replacement level talent the past few seasons pulling a page straight out of the Milton Bradley Public Relations manual. Blalock’s comments did not sit well with the fanbase from the comments I saw online and they certainly could not have sat well with players in camp such as Rodriguez, Reid Brignac, and Matt Joyce who are busting their asses to claim what appears to be two final roster spots as it is unlikely all three can avoid a AAA assignment. Blalock walks into camp expecting a position, and the only way that will happen is if Willy Aybar’s wrist injury is more serious than the initial reports and he starts the season on the disabled list.

The Rays brought in Blalock with the hopes he could make the club and serve as a backup to Carlos Pena and primarly work in a platoon with Burrell at DH. I do not think they expected for Blalock to platoon in both splits and attitude with Burrell. Both players are major league vets that have had success in their careers but are both coming off sub-par seasons and need to be showing the fanbase and their teammates that they have come to play in 2010 rather than speak with a sense of entitlement or longing for another location. This is not the 2004 Devil Rays that were out of contention before the season began that played in front of crowds only slightly bigger than the one that gathers at the Flea Market off Hillsborough Avenue on the weekends. Please shut up and just put up the numbers you are being paid to produce and show some veteran leadership rather than whining about your current lot in baseball. In a state that has a 13-17% unemployment rate, we are not very tolerant of millionaires whining playing a kids game.

Tags: Hank Blalock, Pat Burrell

Blalock is a Ray

Boras newsbreaker Jon Heyman tells us on Twitter the minor league deal is for $925,000 with another $350,000 in incentives. My guess is that there is a promise date in the clause that if he’s not up by a certain date, the Rays will trade him, much like Adam Kennedy last year. Welcome aboard Hank.

Tags: Hank Blalock

Rays Promotions Honored

Maury Brown runs The Biz of Baseball site – a must read if you are interested in the business side of baseball. Today, he reviewed the different promotions that are planned for major league ballparks in the 2010 season and he decided the Rays have the best series of promotions for the 2010 season. Some of his favorites include:

• Zorilla Gorilla Webkinz night on April 25th
• Flying Carl Crawford action figure, equipped with a parachute on May 2nd
• Growth chart featuring 6′9″ Jeff Niemann on August 1st. Finally a growth chart I can fit on
• Joe Maddon Glasses night – First 10,000 fans for the 2nd game of the season on 4/7 get a pair Maddon spectacles
• Super Cowbell night – the first 10,000 fans at the third game get a larger cowbell to further annoy Yankees and Red Sox fans with when they come to town

His favorite, and mine too, is this beauty that will be given out on May 30th against the White Sox. A Carlos Pena toothbrush holder! I am going to this game to get one for my kids.

Check out the rest of the article to see the other great promotions going on at other parks in 2010 including Star Wars night in LA and Sausage Bobblehead night in Milwaukee and continue to check back into Maury’s terrific blog throughout the season and/or follow him on Twitter at @BizballMaury.

Tags: Carlos Pena, promotions

Nine Innings with Grant Balfour

Jesse Spector sat down with Grant Balfour for Spector’s latest installment of Nine Innings at his informative Touching Base blog.

Tags: Grant Balfour

Rays Close On Blalock?

Marc Topkin tells us the Rays are close to inking Hank Blalock to a minor league deal and I have already heard some rumblings that the ink is drying. Either way, I love the fact that it is a minor league deal so the risk is very low for the Rays. You might recall the Rays brought in Adam Kennedy in this manner last off-season only to move him to Oakland two days before Akinori Iwamura was injured and Kennedy went on to have a rather successful 2009 season. While the club already has Dan Johnson around as Carlos Pena insurance, Blalock gives them another option and one with more major league experience.  Given that Blalock is a Scott Boras client, we will wait for Jon Heyman to give us the official news on Twitter. If this was a major league deal, I might be more critical of it because Blalock certainly has his faults (third base defense, hitting LHP, injuries) but those risks are mitigated with a minor league deal.

Tags: Hank Blalock

Around the Dock – March 6th

Yesterday, the Rays drum the Yankees and today, a walk-off home run from Justin Ruggiano knocks off the Red Sox. Combine those two events with the great time I had with my son on a train ride today and it has been a terrific weekend so far. With games starting this week, there has been a lot of news and happenings with the Rays:

• Sean Rodriguez is off to an early start for Grapefruit League MVP. Until Ben Zobrist homered earlier today against Boston, Rodriguez was the only Rays player to have a homer this spring. He has hit three and just missed hitting a fourth homer in his attempt for the cycle against the Yankees. Maddon inexplicably pulled Rodriguez before his fourth at bat so. Given the fact Rodriguez is in a dogfight for a final roster spot, he is certainly starting things off on the right foot. That said, Ido not think Rodriguez’s power display has been the most impressive thing this spring so far.
• Jeremy Hellickson debuts. If you missed yesterday’s game on MLB Network or MLB.TV, Hellickson came in after Price had burned up his pitch allotment in 1.2 innings. Hellickson did not even get the final out of the inning as baseball player turned actor Nick Swisher looked like an actor on the basepaths and Navarro was able to pick him off first base. In the second inning, Hellickson gave up what should have been a double to Francisco Cervelli that Sean Rodriguez played into a triple with a statue of liberty type play when he threw a ghost ball into the infield before realizing he did not have the ball. That gave the Yankees a runner on third with nobody out with Derek Jeter, Curtis Granderson, and Mark Teixeira coming to the plate.  Hellickson starts off against his boyhood idol in Jeter and makes him look silly on a third strike curveball and then gets Granderson to bounce back to the the pitcher. He goes 3-0 on Teixeira and then comes back to throw three straight strikes and gets Teixeira to strike out swinging. Over the past three seasons, Teixeira has hit .370/.799/.739 when up 3-0 on a pitcher and hit .328/.483/.628 hitting with a runner in scoring position with two outs and Hellickson sent him back to the dugout empty handed. That is how you announce your presence with authority Nuke Laloosh!
• Justin Ruggiano hits a walk-off homer. The only reason this means anything to Rays fans, well besides the fact it beat the Red Sox today, is that Ruggiano became a Jaime Cevallos disciple last season. If that name does not ring a bell for you, he is the swing coach that helped transform Ben Zobrist into what he has become which makes Ruggiano a curiosity in 2010 for me because he already had decent raw power.
• Pat Burrell wants to play more in the outfield (Topkin – St. Pete Times) Pat the Bat playing the outfield would not be the worst thing for the Rays – that honor would be reserved for Andy Sonnanstine throwing a pitch for the Rays this year. Sonnanstine had a rough start to his spring training today failing to get out of the first inning. Sonnanstine simply lacks the stuff and upside of the other arms in this organization and 2008 is looking like a very distant memory for him.
• Rays offer Cuban first baseman (DRaysBay) The club has also offered Hank Blalock a minor league contract but adding Jose Julio Ruiz would give the Rays a future first baseman should 2010 be Carlos Pena’s last year in Tampa Bay.
• Team President Matt Silverman is competitive year-round (@jonahkeri on Twitter). Silverman attended the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference as a speaker and took down the Red Sox jersey that was behind him on the platform when he went up to speak. Bravo, good sir, bravo!

Tags: Jeremy Hellickson, Justin Ruggiano, Matt Silverman, Pat Burrell, Sean Rodriguez