The added wrinkle is that Heyman threw in is that it could potentially be a three-way with the Phillies flipping their take from the Rays to Houston for Roy Oswalt.

If you want to toss names at that scenario, take a look at Astros blog crawfishboxes.com.  As it relates to the Rays, they would give up Reid Brignac, Wade Davis and Matt Moore and receive Werth, JR Towles and an unnamed Phillies prospect.  Unless that prospect is Dominic Brown, I ain’t doing that one.

In the end, I think this Jayson Werth talk is much like the Jason Bay talk of two years ago and Victor Martinez talk of last year.  It just seems that the Rays involve themselves in these talks if, for no other reason than to drive up the price of these players for other teams, notably the Boston Red Sox. 

And, lo and behold, Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe chimed in today.  The Red Sox should be involved in the Werth trade talks, he says.   

If the Phillies really are shopping Jayson Werth, it would be shocking if Epstein didn’t inquire about what it would take to get him.

He goes on to point out the obvious.  The Rays have the prospects and young pitching to offer for a player like Werth.  So, a trade would come at a price.  But, Cafardo thinks the Red Sox will be in on the discussion.  “Whatever it is the Sox have in mind, they’d better think about pulling the trigger soon.”

So, in the end, I think the Rays will continue to flirt with the Phillies and toss out names.  But, when it comes time to shake the hand of Ruben Amaro, the Rays will walk away, choosing essentially to stay with the roster they have and, more importantly, force the Red Sox to continue to give up quality prospects to acquire the top names on the market.

Is Adrian Beltre the best third baseman in the majors?

Then, his argument became this:  “If you’re making an All-Star team based off of, you know, production, then Beltre has a strong case to be your guy.”

To support his case, in true Red Sox Nation fashion, Underhill compared Beltre’s stats to those of Alex Rodriguez.  In fact, in the entire post, there’s absolutely no mention of Evan Longoria.  Or, Ryan Zimmerman or David Wright for that matter.  Just Beltre and A-Rod.

So, if the standard of being the best is only to compare the Red Sox with the Yankees, this masslive.com dude has the game covered.  If, for some reason, he should decide to crawl out from under his rock and discover there is life outside of those two teams, he just might discover there’s some pretty good baseball being played elsewhere.

Triple-A Durham Bulls (23-19, 1st place ) – game against Toledo postponed due to rain.

Double-A Montgomery Biscuits (22-20, 2nd place ) - Swept by West Tennessee 5-3 and 3-2

• In game 1, Starter Jake McGee saw his record fall to 0-4, as he allowed five runs (only two earned) on four hits in four innings.
• Chris Nowak was 3-3 and JJ Furmaniak was 2-3 with a pair of doubles.
• In Game 2, Darin Downs allowed three runs (two earned) over four innings.  His record falls to 4-1.

Single-A Charlotte Stone Crabs (22-19, 2nd place tie) – beat Brevard County 12-9

• Tim Beckham continues to swing a hot bat, going 4-5 with two RBI.  He’s now 8-15 in his last four games.
• Cuban free agent Leslie Anderson hit his second home run of the season.  He finished 2-4 with three RBI.
• Starter Chris Andujar got the win (4-1), but he was hammered for seven runs (six earned) over 5 1/3 innings.

Single-A Bowling Green Hot Rods (13-27, last place) – beat Dayton 6-2

• Starter Wilking Rodriguez picked up his second win of the season, allowing two runs (one earned) over seven innings.
• Scott Shuman pitched the final two scoreless innings to get his fourth save.
• C Mark Thomas hit his third home run of the season.
• SS Robi Estrada was 3-4 with two RBI.

Seriously?

For all the things baseball blog “Big League Stew” could have written about in regards to Dallas Braden’s perfect game, he chose to write about Evan Longoria’s failed bunt attemt in the top of the fifth inning?

I mean, there’s the Braden vs A-Rod angle.  There’s the fact that the Rays have been on the losing side of a perfect game twice in ten months.  But, he (and others) have decided that Longoria’s bunt should be debated as “kosher” or not. 

For what it’s worth, I believe the “unwritten rule” is that the bunt shouldn’t be used to break up a no-hitter LATE in a game.  First, does no outs in the top of the fifth qualify?  Only 12 of 27 outs had been recorded.  The Rays were down 4-0 and needed to get something going.  Anything.

Regardless of one pitcher’s feat, the Rays are going to be in a dogfight for the AL East lead and a place in the playoffs right down to the end.  They can’t worry about baseball’s unwritten rules. 

Joe Maddon summed it up best on MLB.com:

“We’re trying to score runs there.  We’re not just trying to permit him to go into the record books. Our intent is to win the game. And actually if he gets it down, who knows what could have happened. That’s one of those other unwritten rules that I’m not a subscriber to.”

Michael and I have just launched the Rise of the Rays forum. We hope it will be a new community for Rays fans to speak their minds about their favorite team. We would like to have discussions about our team and all of the MLB.

Please join us by clicking the link above or the button to the left and join us on the forum. The forum will be just an extension of the blog where you guys can write the posts. The posts will be shorter and just spark the ideas.

Our friends at raysindex.com posted their second annual Tampa Bay Rays Trade Pool and Devon and I both gave our lists of the five Rays that we would expect to see traded through the course of the season if a trade is made.

My list, with the most likely to be traded first, was:

1. Andy Sonnanstine
2. Hank Blalock
3. Carlos Hernandez
4. Dan Johnson 
5. Carl Crawford

As you can tell, and for obvious reasons, I’m leaning toward the Rays being in the playoff hunt all season long.  I threw Carl Crawford into the picture just in case they’re not, because he’s definitely going somewhere if the season goes south.

Andy Sonnanstine, on the other hand, is expendable now, in my opinion.  If a team were to come calling in need of a starting pitcher, Andy could be used to bring back something they need. 

After that, it’ll be minor league players with big league experience that will draw the most interest.  Hank Blalock and Dan Johnson are crushing the ball in Durham and Carlos Hernandez is an experienced lefty who might be able to help someone right away.

Devon’s list is similar, but he put a little more weight on CC being traded.

1. Andy Sonnanstine
2. Carl Crawford
3. Hank Blalock
4. Jake McGee
5. Dale Thayer

We’ll see how it goes.  But, with the Rays off to a 16-5 start, I don’t think they will be very active in trade talks.  Certainly no blockbusters.  A spare part here or there.

Here’s a Rays season preview from a Toronto Blue Jays blog.  The Bluebird Banter provides an example of why bloggers often let other team’s bloggers do the preview for them. 

Obviously, I’m doing a blog.  But, I’m not sure how many people would speculate that Pat Burrell is penciled in as the starting right fielder going into the 2010 season.  He’s not.  Thankfully.  And, that doesn’t make Hank Blalock our everyday DH.  Although, that one has merit. 

Another miss on this preview is the addition of Winston Abreu to the bullpen.  I’m pretty sure Lance Cormier is a lock.  Overall, not a horrible assessment, but it gives pretty good idea that, outside of the local area, others aren’t exactly sure what’s up with the Rays.  Whatever anyone thinks, it’s not looking like “Pat the Bat” will be grabbing a glove.

***

This is a few days old, but I like the preview provided by Zach Sanders on the Baseball Daily Digest.  Particularly, I love the optimism.  Here’s why:

I’ve never been to a Rays home game, but I imagine the stadium will be going crazy when the Rays are playing the Red Sox and Yankees late in the year, battling for a playoff spot. Can they do it? That remains to be seen.

Imagining the Trop going crazy late in the season is optimism.  I love it.  A playoff contending Rays WILL rock the Trop.  Let’s just hope that’s what’s happening in August and September.

***

Finally, I like this from realgmbaseball.com.  Why?  Because they have them as the AL Wild Card team.  I’m not sure I could say it better.

Peter Gammons of MLB.com mentions splitting the Yankees and Red Sox up. His situation puts the Yankees and Mets in one division and the Red Sox and Rays in another. This situation would be great because, IMO, the Rays are better than the Red Sox. I would like to see this because I am tired of the Yankees spending all the money, like most of us are.

My only question is, which division would have the Phillies, Marlins, Blue Jays and Orioles? I still think this would be great for the Rays as we would not have to deal with the Yankees anymore. The question is, would it be good for the Rays ticket sales. The Rays sell a lot of tickets to Yankees fans when they are in town, so it is likely the Rays would lose some ticket sales.

His piece also contains this quote:

From a National League scout: “I know Wade Davis and David Price have tremendous talent, but learning to pitch in the American League East is different from any other division. Let’s see what those Baltimore and Toronto young pitchers do. We’ll see Joba Chamberlain and Phil Hughes make a jump soon. Clay Buchholz may be the best of them all.”

I have to disagree. The Rays have the best young talent in the rotation of all the teams in the AL East except maybe the O’s. I think it has already showed that Davis and Price can make the adjustment just like Shields, Garza, and Niemann did. I would have to take Davis or Price any day over Buchholz and we will see what this scout has to say at the end of the season.

“Grey” at razzball.com critiques the ESPN mock fantasy baseball draft results in a post from yesterday.  In his words, “here’s some head scratchers from ESPN’s 2010 fantasy baseball mock draft:”

Carl Crawford – 7th overall. Ha!  Seriously, I don’t even know what to say about this.  Michael Bourn is that different at around pick 100?

Did I just read that right?  Did CC just get compared to Michael Bourn?  If we only look at stolen bases, they’re close.  But, for those of you who actually play fantasy baseball, leagues usually include other stat categories.  Bourn’s career high RBI total is 35.  Thirty-five.  He’s a career .262 hitter with a best of .285.  Again, I ask, did he just compare the two? 

***

Over at advancedfantasybaseball.com, blogger Jon Williams posted the players he will not own in 2010.  BJ Upton made his list. 

I should begin by admitting that I have owned this Upton on various teams since he was drafted. I believe in his tools. He could be a great player. But I no longer believe he will be. It is not just that I’ve been let down by him in the past…but not only have signs of growth been few and far between but the Rays are now willing to trade him. They offered him to Toronto for Roy Halladay. The Rays also have Desmond Jennings who has all the tools of Upton plus strike zone judgment. Upton would not be the first tool-laden superstud athlete to fail to become a productive regular player in MLB. I think B.J. Upton is much closer to that fate than to becoming a superstar.

Seems harsh.  Many who read my posts know I’m hard on BJ.  But, this post has a rather outsider/uninformed smell to it.  I’m not sure that Desmond Jennings is being groomed as BJ’s replacement.  Right now, I think most of us see him as Carl Crawford’s replacement as it looks more and more like Carl will disappear via free agency or a trade prior to the end of the 2010 season. 

And to note that the Rays were willing to trade him for Roy Halladay is a stretch to consider that a negative.  I don’t think the Rays were ever seriously considering trading for Halladay.  But, to get arguably the best starting pitcher in baseball takes giving up talent.  The fact that BJ was included in the rumors makes him a pretty decent talent.

I say, if he’s there and the pick makes sense, take him.  BJ’s going to have a good year this year.

***

Finally, the rotoprofessor has some pretty good things to say about Desmond Jennings.  But, then again, if you’re following the fantasy gurus, who doesn’t?  This post has him in the Rays outfield (right field) by the all-star break.

With the type of upside he has, he could be a fantasy gem by 2011.  For 2010, he may not be the best propsect in the game, but with his speed, he’s clearly a Top Five at worst.

• The LoHud.com Yankees Blog gave a 2010 Rays preview. They, of course, predict the Rays to finish third in the AL East. This post says the Yankees are better than the Rays in rotation. I think that the Rays rotation has the potential to be a great rotation if they are all on. The Yankees rotation has the right now factor, as all of them are pretty good right now, but the back end of their rotation is iffy at best. This post also says that the Rays have better speed and a better outfield.
• Minor League Ball lists their top 20 Rays prospects. Desmond Jennings, Jeremy Hellickson, and Wade Davis top the list. No surprise there.
• Buster Olney gives a rundown of the Rays offseason additions and says the Rays may be one of the four or five best teams in the Major League.
• Finally, CBSSports.com gave their fantasy outlook on the Rays. They think the Rays breakout will be BJ Upton and a sleeper will be Sean Rodriguez. They also call Ben Zobrist a bust for the next season. He did have a great year last year, but I do not see a dropoff in his production this year. They also include the Rays 2010 outlook.