http://blogs.tampabay.com/rays/2009/01/pena-had-abdomi.html

Carlos Pena had offseason abdominal surgery to repair a tear in his lower abdominal muscle. The surgery was minor, but Pena will not be able to play in the WBC. There is a rule that if you have had offseason surgery you cannot play in the WBC. That is the same reason why Garza won’t play for Mexico. Carlos WILL be ready for Opening Day and spring training, so no worries there.

ONLY 15 DAYS UNTIL PITCHERS AND CATCHERS REPORT

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=law_keith&id=3840355

This is a pretty good list for the Rays. Here are the Rays in the top 100.

#2: David Price
#11: Tim Beckham
#25 Desmond Jennings
#33: Wade Davis
#47: Jeremy Hellickson
#78: Ried Brignac

This is a good list for the Rays. It is good to see that people are still high on Desmond Jennings after his injury problems. Beckham is the longest out from the big leagues. He most likely will not be in the league until 2012 at the earliest. Davis should be expected within the next year or two and the same from Hellickson. Brignac has already seen the big leagues and was not impressive. He just needs more time to develop. I don’t think we need to go into Price. All of us know what he’s done.

For organizational rankings, the Rays are number two behind the Rangers. The Rays have good depth in their system.

From: http://blogs.tampabay.com/rays/

Navi’s arbitration hearing is set for Feb. 9th. Navi wants $2.5 Milllion and the Rays have offered $2.1 Million. I think, for Navi’s sake, it is not good for him. You go to arbitration and give yourself a bad image by trying to squeeze as much money as you can out of your hometown team.

The Rays have earned their first Sunday Night ESPN game since 2000 against the Indians. Well deserved, as we all should agree. The game is May 10th at Boston. I’m guessing the Rays will get at least one more. The Rays should also be getting at least one FOX game and probably a few primetime ESPN weekday games.

The Rays are expected to sign Brian Anderson to split time with someone else as the color commentator with Dewayne Staats.

From: http://www.rotoworld.com/Content/playernews.aspx?sport=MLB

The Pirates are close to signing Eric Hinske, who was with the Rays last season.

http://tampabay.rays.mlb.com/schedule/promotions.jsp?c_id=tb

The Rays have announced the 2009 Promotional schedule. It looks really good as usual, especially championship week, which is the first week of the season. The Friday player posters are back, the figurines are back, the concert series is back and the children promoss on Sunday are back. There are a few premium promos in which all fans will recieve the gift.

Also, there are time changes for the games. the Monday through Thursday as well as Saturday games have been moved up to 7:08, a two minute change. The Friday games have been moved back 28 minutes to 7:38 and the Sunday games are at 1:38. Should be another great year.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/keithallison/2880726469/

Per Topkin:

http://blogs.tampabay.com/rays/2009/01/bartlett-gets-1.html#comments

The Rays have signed Jason Bartlett to a one year deal to avoid arbitration. The contract is worth $1,981,250. Dioner Navarro and Willy Aybar will both be heading to arbitration to get more money. Bartlett is definately worth that much money for the outstanding job he did last year. I look forward to seeing him at short until Ried Brignac is ready or longer.

http://blogs.tampabay.com/rays/2009/01/classic-rosters.html#comments

I listed yesterday the 8 Rays who were listed on the WBC initial rosters. Here are updates from Mark Topkin of the St. Pete Times. He says that Dioner Navarro, listed for Venezuela, has told Venezuelan officials that he does not want to participate in the WBC this year. Matt Garza, listed for Mexico, is not eligible for team USA due to minor offseason foot surgery. Evan Longoria, team USA, does not expect to play since team USA already has Chipper Jones and David Wright clogging third.

The WBC has gotten two new Rays. Matt Garza will be playing for Mexico and Evan Longoria will play for team USA. This just adds to the list of the Rays that will not be in spring. Here’s the list:

Balfour, Australia

Garza, Mexico

Howell, USA

Aki, Japan

Kazmir, USA

Longoria, USA

Navarro, Venezuela

Pena, Dominican Republic

There you have it. Some may be disappointed in not seeing these players in spring, but as long as they stay prepared, I’m fine with it.

Jonny Gomes is officially no longer a Ray. Gomes has signed a minor league contract with the Reds. Gomes had become a fan favorite in Tampa Bay for his spirited play and fun in the dugout. Gomes is also known to stand up for his teammates in a game.

With the firing of the Bucs’ Jon Gruden on Friday after 7 seasons, Joe Maddon has officially become the longest tenured coach in Tampa Bay. He has been with the team a whopping three seasons. The other coach in the area is Rick Tocchet for the Tampa Bay Lightning. He has coached a total of 28 games since taking over for Barry Melrose earlier in the year. The Bucs do not have a coach. The Bucs are expected to name 32 year old Raheem Morris their head coach on Saturday. Morris has never been a head coach. By far, Joe Maddon is the best and longest tenured of the two. Maddon has coached 486 games with the Rays and has a record of 224-262. With another .500 season this year, Joe could bring his personal record to .500. Joe Maddon has been the most successful coach in Rays history and is the best player’s coach I’ve seen. The deck is stacked so that Joe can have success for years to come. Joe’s contract runs out at the end of the year, so the question is, do the Rays resign him? If the Rays have another successful season  there is no question that the Rays need to resign him. If he does not meet the Front Office’s expectations, do you let go the one coach who has given you success? I’m not saying the Rays will have a bad year, I’m just speculating.

http://blogs.tampabay.com/rays/2009/01/rays-sign-relie.html#comments

The Rays have kept the signings coming. The Rays have signed Lance Cormier to a one year, $675,000 contract. To  make room on the 40-man the Rays have DFA’d newly acquired Dewon Day. Cormier is decent, but the bullpen is awful crowded.

This offseason, the Rays have signed Joe Nelson, Cormier, and Derek Rodriguez to pitch in the bullpen. All have 40-man spots and could be on the big league roster. Add to that Grant Balfour, Chad Bradford, Jason Hammel, JP Howell, Jeff Niemann, Troy Percival  and Dan Wheeler. The Rays have 10 people vying for 6 or 7 spots in the bullpen. Bradford, Wheeler, Niemann, or Hammel could be traded. Hammel is the weakest link, but he is out of options so that might lead to a trade.  Niemann is also out of options. Rodriguez could start in the minors. The fight for bullpen spots could get crowded. The signing of Cormier could mean that Percy may need to start on the DL.