I have taken a few days to write a post about the trade of Scott Kazmir for multiple reasons.

The trade supposedly fell through at one point
I needed proper time to read about low level minor league talent that I do not have an in depth knowledge of
The inclusion of the player to be named later has taken on a life of its own

A good friend texted me the day of this trade and said that a friend had alerted him of a rumor about at a trade of Scott Kazmir to the Angels.  If you’ve ever read this site, you [...]

The Tampa Bay Rays handed Blue Jays ace Roy Halladay his worst loss in over 2 years last night, a huge win that kept us within 3 games of the WC leading Boston Red Sox.
Jeff Niemann survived an awful start and kept his composure to give the Rays 6.1 innings.  He gave up 5 runs, and certainly was not at his best, but this guy is showing an old school Livan Hernandezesque potential to me.  I don’t think he is ever going to be a 2.90 ERA guy, but he can certainly be a 220 inning 4.10 ERA pitcher, an [...]

The Texas Rangers, after winning two straight vs the Boston Red Sox have taken over sole possession of first place in the Wild Card Standings.  The Rays, after winning two straight vs the Toronto Blue Jays now sit 3 full games behind the Sox, and 3.5 games behind the Rangers.
The Rays worked two efficient games this weekend to makeup the aforementioned ground.
Saturday the bats finally starting getting put on the balls, as the Rays had 12 hits and 8 runs.  Carl Crawford was 2 for 4 with 3 run.  Evan Longoria, Ben Zobrist and Willie Aybar also all had 2 [...]

After winning 4 out of 5 and making a move up the AL East and WC Standings, the Rays have dropped their last 3 games by a combined score of 25 to 9.    Two of the games were quite embarassing losing 11-2 on Sunday to Ryan Rowland Smith and getting shut out last night by Ervin Santana.
Sunday’s loss I had to turn off at one point as I was tired of watching sorry ass Scott Kazmir get shelled by a team with one player hitting over .300.  The only positive thing to come from this game was the continued [...]

The Rays, who much to my chagrin made 0 moves at the MLB trading non-waiver trading deadline two weeks ago, have made two moves to shore up two of our three weakest areas on the team.  They have added Russ Springer and Gregg Zaun to augment the bullpen and catching defenisve respectively. Joe Dillon and Michel Hernandez were designated for assigment to make room for both players.
Zaun adds a nice veteran presence behind the plate, and his .244 AVG seems Ted Williamsesque in comparison to the Dioner “The Black Hole” Navvaros numbers this year.  He comes with a World Series ring [...]

Two days after declaring that the Rays were finished, they completed a 2 game sweep of the Boston Red Sox to close the Wild Card gap to 3 games, and the division lead for the Yanks to 5.5 games.
I loved two things in particular about last nights game.  The first was the change in lineup that we have been pining for on this website for quite some time.
1.  JB
2. CC
3. Longo
4. Zorilla
5. Pat the Bat
6. CP23
7. BJ Upton
8. The Gabes
9. Black Hole Called Catcher
Seemed as though everyone enjoyed their new spots asJB, Pat the Bat, CP23, and CC all hit [...]

I hate to be the pessimist, because generally that is not my disposition when it comes to any of our 3 Tampa Bay teams.  This year with the Rays though, I foresaw a lot of issues that are coming to fruition and have failed to have been addressed.  It’s not that today’s loss, while embarassing, puts us so far out of the playoff race that we can’t make a move up the standings;  we are only 5.5 games out of a Wild Card birth, and 6 out of the division lead.  It’s that the same issues that have plagued this [...]