Going into yesterdays game vs the Reds, Jason Hammel and Jeff Niemann seemed to still be battling for the 5th and final starting spot that will eventually be manned by David Price anyway.  Niemann got shelled in his last outing, and Hammel himself has had some ho-hum games his last few starts.  Yesterday though, Hammel [...]

Well, the decision has finally been made about David Price starting the season with the Rays. Price was sent back to Triple A Durham tonight ending any speculation of him being the 5th starter for the start of the season.
“It’s just, I don’t know, I haven’t really thought about it a whole lot right now,” [...]

With Spring Training two weeks from being complete I wanted to reiterate how excited I am for this 2009 baseball season to begin.  The Rays made an obvious huge step last season in making it to the World Series, and I see no way in which were not in competition for the AL East title [...]

I would not want to be Joe Maddon at this point in Spring Training or would I? The Rays this Spring Training have proven how deep their pitching staff actually goes. There are 4 good pitchers that I believe are the front runners for the 5th pitcher in the starting rotation.
Jeff Neiman, David Price, Wade [...]

Yesterday Troy Percival threw a solid 42 pitch bullpen and seems to be ready to start the year as he did the last one. Although his fastball wasn’t overpowering, it did stay consistent in the lower 90’s and his command was good.
Percy still has yet to face any batters this spring training so lets just [...]

It wasn’t technically a perfect inning, but Rays reliever JP Howell pitched a 10 pitch, 6 strike, 1 walk, 0 H 8th inning vs those stinking Canadian nationals today in the USA’s first game of the World Baseball Classic.  
Kevin Youkilis, Adam Dunn and Brian McCann homered for USA.  Shane Victorino and Derek Jeter also [...]