Should be their best year yet. Excitement a bit tempered by an opening day lineup that features Eric Hinske and Akbar Aybar, but things should pick up when Kaz and Longoria re-join the show.

Anyways,

I'm fired up! Leaving to the office to hit the "home office" around 2:30...

I grew up a Yankee fan (lived in Manhattan in mid-to-late 70's)...have been pulling for the Rays half-heartedly since it's inception...but this is the year I have finally severed all ties with the Evil Empire and find myself 100% behind the local boys. I realized it during the preseason brawls.

Spring Training was fantastic. Pitching staff is definitely improved. Hoping for Kaz to be healthy and Upton to blossom into a superstar.

My goal this season for the team is simple...to be in the playoff hunt in the 2nd half of the season.
Next year, I expect to really compete for division.

85-77 this year and a 3rd place finish. You heard it here 1st

They're going with the old-fashioned lefty/righty platoon in RF with Hinske and Gomes. Gomer mashes lefties and Hinske should be ok against righties - it's certainly not sexy, but they should add up to a decent player by the end of the year.

This keeps Floyd out of the field which is a good thing. I'd still like to see the Rays add Matt Murton but rumor has it the Cubs want a top pitching prospect for a guy they demoted in order to keep Mike Fontenot. No wonder they haven't won a World Series in 100 years.

Been meaning to ask you - what are your thoughts on Fernando Perez? I thought he was just an ok prospect, but the fanboys seem to be hyping him up.

Perez would be a solid 4th OF for the Rays - could start elsewhere. Here's how I wrote him up this year for RJ's Fix and RaysBB.com:

Now that some of the Rays' outfield depth has been traded away, Perez's future is a little brighter. Perez gets on base at a hight rate despite a climbing strikeout rate thanks to a lot of groundballs and his top-shelf speed. Perez has not been very successful on the basepaths the last two seasons but the speed is there if he can read pitchers better. His walk rate has climbed each of the last three seasons which has helped his OBP climb each of the last three despite the strikeouts. If he can curb the strikeouts, Perez could hit at the top of the order. Otherwise, he is likely going to be a bottom of the lineup batter when he is in the lineup. Perez has a chance to be a reserve outfielder for the Rays in 2008.

15 minutes

What's the latest word on the stadium? Someone at the team told me that there has been significant interest from developers in the Trop site...

ahem...1st place in the East...ahem

I know the O's are awful, buit it was nice to see the Rays take the lead and then just choke them.

1-0 championship

You're about a month or two late.

CC's option picked up for '09 at $8.25M.
Baldelli's declined.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20...sp&c_id=mlb

garza in his debut today against the lowly O's.
sounds like a 2-game winning streak and a firm hold on the AL east to me (when the jays shell mussina).

also, i like signing wheeler for 3 more years (9 mill total). he was a hot up and comer that went through a rough stretch last year. this is a steal if he keeps pitching well in middle relief, with the possiblity of closing in a pinch (maybe bridge the gap b/w percival and a young closer coming up).
it's nice to see the rays are serious about competing and going about it the right way (as opposed to doing things like, say, signing jose guillen for 13 mill.)

If Percival fails who would Maddon go with to close out games, Reyes or Wheeler?

It's anyone's guess what the short term solution would be, but given Wheeler's extension I believe that Reyes will be dealt at the deadline to a team in need of bullpen help. At that time Wheeler is clearly second in line.

I really don't think we can call, Wheeler, a 30 year old with 9 major league seasons an up and comer. However I do like the signing because it shows that ownership is taking steps to address the weakest part of last year's team. Sometimes you have to pay above market values to players to improve such huge deficiencies.

Fn Reyes. With his second-half last year and this latest blowup...not sure how they rely on him.

Other thing - knightro - does Garza have a rep for being tired easily? Seems like he really fades after 80 pitches or so. The spring game I went to last Friday, he looked like he was about to have a heart attack out there.

Is Garza roster worthy? The kid has great stuff but 5R against the O's?

potentially legit

Garza has good stuff - if he uses his change up more, he'd be even better.

He threw a ton of 2 seamers in the Baltimore start and his line would have looked better had he not hung that slider to Huff. Then again, whoever called for him to throw a slider to follow a change up needs to have their head examined. Not to mention, you never go down and in to a lefty as they all love that spot

what a manly performance last night.
nothing like making the yanks wave the white flag (by benching a-rod in the 8th with a man on 2nd)

we got production out of everybody and i was really impressed with young sonnanstine.
he waited one inning too long to go to the offspeed stuff (and i suspect got complacent with a 6-run lead), but after that, he hunkered down and dazzled the yanks with his change and breaking pitches. there was nothing flashy about the performance, but he out-adjusted a very talented veteran lineup. i like that kid alot.

it was even more fulfilling as the yankee announcers were scoffing at the notion that the rays could push 80 wins this year. the rays made the yankees look like exactly what they are: old with very questionable pitching.

down with empire!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bit early, but I'm officially excited.

just another day at yankee stadium for those tampa bay rays.
send a young pitcher to the mound to mow down the pinstripers while jeter checks out his own ###.
get some big hits from a variety of players on that terrible yankees pitching staff.
pray the middle relief doesn't get pounded.
then, if the yankees can find a way to keep it close enough, let percival come in and close it on out.

Any chance of Gomes becoming an every day player be it DH or OF?

No chance. His defense is wretched and he can't hit righties well enough

I had a conversation with a longtime lawyer in Pinellas County over the weekend...not sure how much he knows...but he mentioned the following regarding the stadium:

- There was a $100M offer from a developer for the Trop land, over what is needed. But the financing may be questionable
- Politics would be a bigger hurdle than $$. Whether it's Pinellas tax payers, downtown St Pete residents, or the press...alot of people are lining up against it.

He basically thought it was bad timing...and may have a better chance in a few years.

Thoughts?

What can any of you Rays fans tell me about Jason Ragan and Will Kline.. both pitchers at Single A

Kline is out for the year, and a middling prospect at best I think. Ragan is somebody Knightro will have to fill you in on.

I don't think there's any chance people vote that thing in. I'd like to be surprised though.

Looking forward to watching the Rays. Hope they and the Jays can beat up on the Spanks and Sux a little.

Just read about someone having "extreme fatigue". What's that about?

Crap, what happened to him? I know he had tommy john surgery in high school..

Kline tore something in his shoulder.

Ragan is organizational fodder as he's 25 years old and hasn't made it out of A ball yet

Anybody else going to the opener tonight? Pretty excited.

Pitching looks good so far. Hitting got shut down the last two days...does concern me. Going Gomes/Floyd then Hinske, Aybar, catcher and Bartlett in the 5-9 spots is pretty ugly. Haven't been impressed with Aybar at all to this point, he's just keeping the spot warm.

Of course, Longoria is off to a tepid start in Durham too.

Knightro/MJ - What do you think of Brignac next year? Any chance Bartlett is a one-year answer? Seems that they like him quite a bit, but Reid's time has to be soon.

Yeah 5-9 is looking shaking...I think the plan was for Bartlett to keep the space warm, but Reid hasn't been tearing it up lately either.

Yea, Reid was pretty average last year. Had a good spring though from what I saw and ripped a homer the other night, so maybe it was a blip. Bartlett isn't an All-Star or anything, but he seems to be a little too good (especially defensively) to be just another utility guy.

I have the sneaky suspicion that they will trade Brignac sometime this year.

Also, thought Hammel looked strong and composed for the most part last night. No way he's really a part of the future rotation, but he'll take over for Dohmann once Kazmir comes back and hopefully can be seen as an asset for some other team. With Davis, McGee, Price, Mason, Niemmann and others coming up I just don't see room.

Bartlett isn't a one year answer. His defense is too good. Brignac will be up at some point in 08, but Bartlett's defense is one of the best in the AL at shortstop (5x better than Jeter - there, I said it).

I'll be watching from home tonight. With gas at $3.35 in Orlando, the trip to the Trop costs me $30 just to get there.

Didnt I say this in the beginning of the year (that their lineup did not improve one bit) and you told me how much better Gomes/Floyd would be than Young, etc?

Its insight like this that I love. I honestly had no clue Bartlett was considered one of the top defensive SS in baseball.

The problem with the bottom of the lineup is that they've all been slow out of the gate. We weren't expecting miracles from them, but Floyd and Aybar have a better track record of hitting. Navarro was having a great spring until he hurt his finger in the netting of the Yankee dugout. Getting shut down by Wang and Moose with that extra friendly strikezone last night (anyone who watched that game knows what I am talking about) isn't a terrible thing.

It was apparent last night that these guys just want to get home to warm weather. I have never seen so many guys swinging at pitches out of the strike zone all night long.

talks about 2007 defensive ratings

John McDonald is easily the best fielding shortstop in the American League. Too bad he can't hit to save his life because he is an absolute joy to watch in the field.

Shady -- what's Delmon's line so far? Last I saw, he had yet to take a walk.

There's no doubt he may be a future stud, but there's a really good chance Gomes/Hinske outperforms him this year. Make no mistake, I would be complaining about Delmon too if he was in this lineup today.

I dunno. Some guy in another thread was saying he got off to a hot start. I havent been following him.

Agree on McDonald. I also love watching Yuniesky.

Please, the guy needs all the help he can get. Sorry for hijacking.

31 at bats, 0 HR, 2 RBI, 0 BB, 5 K's

An empty .290 batting average

Yea I'll take my chances with Garza, Bartlett and the RF du jour over Delmon right now. No-brainer really.

J - pretty much agree with you on Bartlett I guess. He'll keep that OBP in the .330 range which is more than fine with his D.

Curious what happens to Reid. Not sure he has enough power to be moved to RF.

He has to be trade bait.