Rays Blog

There’s no doubt that Delmon Young is a player that Devil Rays fans can get excited about.  He joins a talent laden outfield that includes star Carl Crawford.  What’s even better news is, this shouldn’t be the end of it.  As this Baseball America story points out, Evan Longoria and Reid Brignac should anchor the left side of the infield in the very near future, and this gives us two more guys to take a look at.

What’s cool is, an affiliated site to the Devil Rays Blog will start following the Devil Rays minor league system at Devil Rays Minors.  It hasn’t launched yet, but I’ll give you a heads up when it does.

The Devil Rays won another one, and this time in a 1-0 pitchers duel.  Casey Fossum threw five shutout innings in which he gave up five hits and a walk with three strikeouts while four relievers combined for four shutout innings.

The lone run of the game came in the seventh inning.  Delmon Young singled and then he later scored on an error while Elijah Dukes had the only extra base hit of the game, a double in the third.

Scott Kazmir gets his final tune up start tomorrow in a day game against the Phillies.  He’ll then get the ball in the Devil Rays home season opener on Monday against the Yankees.

It looks like the fight for the fifth spot in the Devil Rays rotation has come down to a two man race.  It looks like it’s now between J.P. Howell and Edwin Jackson.  Both are only 23, which is promising and at some point, both of these guys will be in the rotation, but for now, one won’t be getting the job.  It also doesn’t make it any easier that both guys are having solid springs.  Howell might get the short end of the stick though because Jackson is out of options so my guess is Howell finds himself at Triple A to start the season.  He’s not a bad guy to have in the bag though in case someone gets hurt.

Jae Seo looked very sharp in seven solid innings yesterday for the Devil Rays.  He gave up only two runs on five hits and two walks with five strikeouts in those seven innings before yielding to the pen.  Then Seth McClung was touched for two runs in the eighth before Brian Stokes threw a perfect ninth to close the game out.

Jonny Gomes homered, drove in two runs and scored three times in the 12-4 win.  Delmon Young also hit the ball well and he finished with three hits and two RBIs.  Seo even helped out his own cause with a two run single while B.J. Upton scored twice and stole two bases.

The Devil Rays play the Indians today as the spring season enters it’s final week.  James Shield will get the start.  With a strong final week, the Rays might be able to pull themselves out of the cellar in the grapefruit league.  They’re now 8-16 and they’re just a half game back of the Mets.

Derek Jacques previewed the Devil Rays today at Baseball Prospectus.  He starts with a talk about how the White Sox came out of nowhere to win it all in 2005 and then the Cardinals snuck into the playoffs and 2006 yet got it done in the playoffs.  He also focuses on the Devil Rays poor defense and that with some improvement, they could see a few more wins. 

Cork Gaines recently previewed the Devil Rays at the Hardball Times in their standard five questions format.  He talks about everything from Carl Crawford to their outfield depth and concludes with that point that while the Devil Rays might not put together a winning season, they have some bright young talent and that it’s going to be fashionable to become a Rays fan in the near future. 

The Devil Rays completely shut down the Indians today in a one hit shutout.  Gary Glover threw three no hit innings before yielding to the pen.  The only Devil Ray to even give up a hit was Scott Dohmann, who was solid anyway and he led the team with two strikeouts.

At the plate, Rocco Baldelli went three for three , Carl Crawford drove in two runs with a triple and Delmon Young had two hits and two runs in the game.

James Shields gets the start tomorrow in a night game for the Devil Rays.  They’ll be on the road against the Astros.

Yesterday it was Jayson Stark and ESPN.com.  Today it’s Baseball America, who says Upton is going to catch on as a utility man.

Although it’s somewhat warranted, I kind of wish we could stop talking about B.J. Upton the fielder instead of B.J. Upton the player.  I know he hasn’t quite worked out at a specific spot yet and he struggled in the minors last year but you wonder how much good we’re doing him.  I know the team needs to look out for itself first, but you wonder whether it might be time to cut bait on Upton (assuming we can).

Today, we get more as Jayson Stark takes a look at where Upton is at.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good read so be sure to check it out but it sure would be nice to have some closure to the Upton saga.

I apologize for the brief abscence.  The flu and a couple of other things have kept me away.  In the meantime, the Devil Rays are now at the bottom of the spring standings with a 1-9 record.  Thankfully, none of this counts and you have to hope that at least the players are getting in their time.

Yesterday, the Phillies were the latest to take down the Rays.  Jae Seo had a decent start in which he gave up a run on three hits in three innings of work but three different relievers gave up runs in the final three frames as the Phillies came back to beat us.  Scott Dohmann was particularly hit hard and he gave up three runs on four hits in an inning.

Ty Wigginton and Jorge Cantu each had pretty good games at the plate.  They each had two hits, a run and an RBI.  We’ll see if the Rays can finally get their second win today against the Astros.  James Shields gets the start.