Editors Note – This piece was put together entirely by my great friend and ex season ticket partner (ex to the Rays, still have season tix with him to the Bucs) Daniel Edwards.
As I pondered which Rays would be in St. Louis on July 14, I decided to make my own projections according to the actual selection rules. I must admit, this proved to be more difficult than I originally anticipated. I now have a much greater appreciation for each Manger’s responsibility to fill the roster. Having only 7 selections to fulfill an obligation to ensure each team is represented [...]

What do you think of those moves?
A good friend of mine, David Diaz, a retired bass guitarist, emails me from time to time asking certain questions about the Rays and Bucs. I will start responding to them here on Rayhawk as mini-posts.
These questions were in repsonse to the demotion of Andy Sonnanstine as opposed to David Price, and the demotion of Winston Abreu.
Q:
Seems like Price, even though he already has better stuff than Sonny, could have benefited from a little more seasoning at AAA; learn that 3rd pitch and control his workload
Sonny, even though he [...]

I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with the writer over at Marlin Maniac, Michael Jong.  Jong’s musings about the Marlins and baseball in general are top tier and should be checked out on the regular.  We shot the sh$$, so to say, about the Rays and Marlins series and both teams in general.
Without further ado….
MJ: What do you think of Shields so far this season? He seems like the best starter again for your club?
DS: If I were to go with the best starter, I would have to say Matt Garza. On the other hand, the consistency of [...]

The Rays exacted a small piece of revenge today against the World Champion Phillies @ Tropicana Field.
Both starting pitchers, Joe Blanton and Matt Garza were stellar.

Pitchers
IP
H
R
ER
BB
SO
HR
PC-ST
ERA

M Garza
(W, 5-5)
8.0
3
1
1
3
7
1
117-69
3.61

Joe Blanton pitched 7 strong innings, allowing 2 runs, before his bullpen came in and let the game blow wide open in the bottom of the 8th. JC Romero and Chan Ho Park worked 1 inning for a combined 5 ER.
We have now won 9 out of our last 12 and are starting to look like the team that went to the World Series a year ago.  If we could start to get [...]

I have made a few references over the last couple weeks about what I think the appropriate role is for the Rays young star David Price on the 09 Rays.  He has had a variety of control issues that have led to some very short outings.
Yesterday, in his 5th start of the season, he was much better as far as efficiency is concerned.

DATE
OPP
RESULT
IP
H
R
ER
HR
BB
SO
GB
FB
TBF
#Pit
Dec.
Rel.
ERA

06/17
@COL
L 3-5
7.0
10
5
5
2
0
5
5
19
30
99
L(1-1)
–
3.46

Although he gave up 5 runs and 10 hits, the underlying piece of good news was his pitch count and his walk count.  He threw 99 pitches, and walked 0 guys in 7 full innings.  If it [...]

DATE

GAME

W

L

ERA

G

GS

CG

SHO

SV

SVO

IP

H

R

ER

HR

BB

SO

NP-S

GO-AO

MAY 25
@CLE
0
0
5.40
1
1
0
0
0
0
3.1
4
2
2
1
5
6
100-57
2-2

MAY 30
MIN
1
0
3.00
1
1
0
0
0
0
5.2
5
1
1
0
2
11
108-76
2-4

May Total:

1
0
3.00
2
2
0
0
0
0
9.0
9
3
3
1
7
17
208-133
4-6

DATE

GAME

W

L

ERA

G

GS

CG

SHO

SV

SVO

IP

H

R

ER

HR

BB

SO

NP-S

GO-AO

JUN 06
@NYY
0
0
2.45
1
1
0
0
0
0
5.2
2
3
1
1
5
3
106-53
8-6

JUN 11
LAA
0
0
2.37
1
1
0
0
0
0
4.1
2
1
1
0
6
6
105-61
3-3

June Total:

0
0
1.80
2
2
0
0
0
0
10.0
4
4
2
1
11
9
211-114
11-9

From – MLB.com
Before I started talking about this, I wanted everyone to have a peek at the 4 games that Price has pitched thus far.  He had the one truly dominant game vs the Twins on the 30th of May where he showed off the dominance that made him the number one pick in the draft.  The other 3 games though, he has totaled 13.1 IP, 16BB, and 15K’s.  You would generally look at a statline like that and assume a guy is getting shelled, but he has improved his ERA in every games [...]

While the Rays are 2 games under .500, they have the third best run differential in the league at +46.  That trails only the Sox and the Dodgers, the teams with the two best records in baseball.  Run differential is a great playoff indicator.
How does Texas continue to suceed with no pitching.  If they do with the division they are first round fodder for whoever they play.
The parity in the league this year is great, there is only one truly atrocious team and that is the Washington Nationals, and yesterday they got the most hyped prospect in MLB history.
The Detroit [...]

I have been out of town for literally almost a whole month.  I have not been able to watch a Rays game in its entirety in that time frame, so sitting on my couch yesterday with a couple friends, watching the game was a nice relaxing experience for me.  It was even better that I was going to get to watch my man David Price in his 3rd start this season.  
The Rays scored 4 in the ninth off of declining HOF’er Mariano Rivera for the W.  
 

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

R

H

E

  TB (29-28)

0

0

0

0

2

3

0

0

4

9

9

4

  NYY (32-23)

0

1

0

1

1

0

0

2

2

7

7

2

W: Howell (1-2, 2.22); L: Rivera (0-2, 3.47); SV: Choate (3) 
HR: TB: Zobrist (11), Aybar, W (4). NYY: Teixeira (17), Rodriguez, A (8).

5.2 IP, 2 H, 3 R, 1 [...]