To open, here’s this from the Boston Globe’s Nick Cafardo:

“The feeling is that if the Rays’ financial picture gets any gloomier, (Carl) Crawford will be trade bait by the trading deadline or even earlier. In fact, both he and Carlos Pena could have new addresses at some point in the season.”

This isn’t news.  Cafardo must have needed to fill space.  Although, I’m still not certain trading either one of those guys would indicate financial doom and gloom.  At least in the case of CC, many would agree that he might be the most pursued free agent next off-season. 

For argument sake, let’s just say Desmond Jennings has a similar start at Durham as he had last season.  Wouldn’t it make good baseball sense to entertain replacing CC with DJ and collecting whatever Crawford would bring in a trade? 

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Hal Bodley has a nice piece on Don Zimmer for MLB.com.  When spring training opens, it will mark his 62nd straight year pulling on a baseball jersey.  So, what keeps him going?

“You’ve got to have special people that keep bringing me back. And that’s what I have with the Rays.”

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Rays prospect Andrew Bellati was seriously injured in a two-car accident near San Diego.  The crash, which appears to place Bellati at fault, killed the driver of the other vehichle and seriously injured one passenger in each car.  According to California Highway Patrol, the speedometer on Bellati’s 2007 Mustang was stuck on 80 mph.