• The Rays picked up another win last night, guaranteeing the series split with the Tigers. The Rays scored 3 runs, while only collecting 5 hits. Carlos Pena was 1 for 3 with a 2 run homer. Matt Joyce was 1 for 3 with a RBI double, the one that proved to be the game winning run. James Shields had a good start, going 6 2/3 innings, allowing 2 earned on 9 hits while striking out 7. He picked up the win, improving to 9-9 on the season. Rafael Soriano pitched a shakey scoreless ninth to pick up his 27th save. His ERA is now down to 1.86.
• The Rays go for the series win in the third game of this four game set. The Rays will face Eddie Bonine, who is 4-0 with a 2.72 ERA. This will be Bonine’s first start of the season after spending most of the season in the bullpen. He has appeared in 31 games this season.
• The Rays will send Jeff Niemann to the mound. Niemann is 8-3 on the season with a 2.95 ERA. The Rays need a good start out of Niemann to guarantee the series win. this would be huge heading into a very important series with the Yankees.
• Standings Update: The Rays have won 4 straight and with the Yankees loss last night, the Rays are now only 2 games back of the Yankees. The Rays are still 5 games up on the Red Sox.

3 up…

1. Carl Crawford – 7 for 15 with three doubles and six RBI.
2. Dioner Navarro – 6 for 15 with three RBI.
3. Ben Zobrist – 5 for 11 with a home run and three RBI.

3 down…

1. Carlos Pena – 2 for 13 with three RBI.
2. Evan Longoria – 4 for 9 with three RBI.
3. BJ Upton – 4 for 9 with two RBI.

For once, it was difficult coming up with a “3 down”.  The Rays do well against Brian Tallet.  It would seem like if there was a breakout game, it’s this one.  Tallet has a career 6.03 ERA and 1.82 WHIP against the Rays.  But, he’s 2-1.

 

 

3 up…

1. Hank Blalock – 4 for 6 with two home runs and four RBI
2. Evan Longoria – 2 for 5
3. John Jaso – 1 for 2 with two RBI

3 down…

1. Reid Brignac – 0 for 4 with three strikeouts
2. Carlos Pena – 0 for 4 with two strikeouts
3. Carl Crawford – 0 for 4 and caught stealing twice

 

3 up…

1. Ben Zobrist – 2 for 2 with a double and an RBI
2. Carlos Pena – 2 for 4 with an RBI
3. Reid Brignac - 1 for 3 with two RBI

3 down…

1. Carl Crawford – 1 for 6 with 4 K’s
2. Evan Longoria – 0 for 3 with a strikeout
3. John Jaso – 0 for 2

 

3 up…

1. Dioner Navarro – 5 for 13 with two doubles and a stolen base (!).
2. Carl Crawford – 4 for 15 with a home run
3. Willy Aybar – 2 for 8 — both hits were doubles

3 down…

1. Ben Zobrist – 0 for 7 with three strikeouts
2. BJ Upton – 1 for 12 with five strikeouts
3. Evan Longoria – 1 for 9 with three strikeouts

For a team in an offensive funk, this game has the makings of nothing fun.  As a lefty, Danks is actually tougher on the Rays’ right-handed bats.  We wait until later this afternoon to see what kind of magic Joe Maddon comes up with in creating tonight’s lineup.

 

Up…

1. Hank Blalock – 10-32 with three home runs
2. Carl Crawford – 6-16 with one home run and three SB’s.
3. BJ Upton – 1-3 with a stolen base

Down…

1. Carlos Pena – 4-33 with nine strikeouts
2. Jason Bartlett –  0-5
3. Ben Zobrist – 0-3

And then there’s Durham’s Ryan Shealy.  He would look good in the Rays lineup tonight.  He’s 7-10 lifetime against Freddy Garcia including two home runs and six RBI’s.

No secrets, I’m a fantasy baseball nut.  I’ve got ten teams as of this writing on Yahoo! and I’ll probably get to twelve before the season starts.  But, one of the leagues I’m most looking forward to is a league that is dedicated to owning a favorite team.

That’s right, I own the Tampa Bay Rays.  I am fortunate enough to possess the Rays roster in a Yahoo! points league going up against followers of 19 other teams.  Frankly, I like my chances.

I didn’t have to draft this team.  I just have to sit back and see what 25 guys Andrew Friedman leaves me with.  Heck, I’m waiting for baseball’s best GM to leave me a fantasy roster.  I’m ok with that.

Like I said, it’s a points league.  20 teams.  A few are unclaimed.  Including the Baltimore Orioles.  I guess no one entering the league was jumping on that bandwagon.  But, aside from Baltimore, the rest of the AL East is represented.  I’m most interested in seeing how my Rays measure up against the Yankees and Red Sox. 

I’ll keep you posted as to how I’m doing.  But, if the Rays are winning, it’s a pretty good bet that I’ll be winning too.  I don’t enter fantasy leagues to lose.  So, the Rays better not let me down.

I was recently reading the latest copy of ESPN Magazine. I saw an interesting tidbit about the Rays and Albert Pujols. Apparently, the Rays were the first team to find Pujols, while he was playing in junior college. They gave him a tryout, and whoever the scout was for the Rays, walked away unimpressed. You know the rest of the story, the Cardinals find him and he becomes one of the best players in the history of baseball.

Now, that makes me wonder, if the Rays would have drafted him, would he have been the same player? Would he have helped us win more under Pinella and Mcrae? It would have been interesting to see. The Rays most likely would not have been able to keep him as long as the Cardinals have, especially since he would’ve most likely needed a contract under Namoli or in the first couple years of Sternberg, when we weren’t giving out big contracts. Let’s just say he would still be with the team had the Rays drafted him. Can you picture the lineup the Rays would have? It would look something like this:

1. Bartlett
2. Crawford
3. Pujols
4. Longoria
5. Zobrist
6. Burrell
7. Upton
8. Rodriguez/Brignac
9. Navarro/Shoppach

That is a pretty good lineup I’d say. Where is the time machine so we can go back and draft Albert Pujols?

 

Saturday night was the draft for the first annual Rise of the Rays Fantasy Baseball league.  As luck would have it, I ended up with Albert Pujols.  Somewhere, someone figured that if there had been a league last year, I would have finished in last, so I was given the first pick.

As far as Rays players, I ended up with three.  I took BJ Upton at the end of the fourth round.  That complimented my earlier pick of brother Justin Upton.  How can I go wrong after reuniting the Upton brothers? 

Then, I took Jason Bartlett at the end of round 10 as my starting shortstop and Rafael Soriano as my second closer at the beginning of round 15.  To be honest, I’d say both stayed on the board a little longer than I would have thought.

Predictably, Evan Longoria went 7th in the first round.  Carl Crawford went 4th in the second.  This, in a ten-team league.  Really no surprises there.

In the end, I figure my fantasy success in this league hinges on the brothers Upton.  Albert Pujols with the first overall pick is a no-brainer.  Justin Upton with pick #20 and BJ at #40 could either make me brilliant or in line for next year’s top pick.  I’ve been a big BJ critic, but I really think he’s in line for a huge season.  BJ, you can’t let down the Toytown Trop.

This year will mark the first annual Rise of the Rays Fantasy baseball league. Here is your invitation to join our baseball league. We will be hosting our league with Yahoo! Fantasy and you must have a Yahoo! account to join. It will be a 12 team head to head league, but that number can go up as needed.

We hope this league will be both fun and competitive, and the only way for either of those to happen is if you are active in the league, so we ask that you please check your team if you do join.

If you are interested, please email me at devonrogers@tampabay.rr.com or leave a comment with your email address and I will email you with the information you will need to sign up for our league. Thanks, and we hope to have a great year in the first annual Rise of the Rays fantasy baseball league.