Baseball Historians

If you’re a glass half full kind of guy, you can look at the fact that the Devil Rays fought back and actually took the lead in their 9-5 loss to the Yankees today.  Of course they held that lead for all of an inning and a half before Scott Kazmir finally broke down.  The [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

This column talks about what a great bargain Carl Crawford is.  All that production and the Rays are getting him for just over $5 million per for six years once you factor in the options that the team has him.
PECOTA is basically expecting a repeat of 2006 for Crawford.  His weighted mean average has him [...]

Here’s another story on Delmon Young, this time by Tim Brown at Yahoo.  Pretty good with a lot of emphasis on the bat throwing incident, which Young will probably never shake.

Stuart Steinberg stopped by to check out how the Rays were doing yesterday.  He got called out on why the Rays didn’t make any grabs for free agents, but with the prospects coming up, it’s hard to argue with him when it comes to saving money. This is on the heels of the Rays first [...]

Baseball America recently interviewed Devil Rays pitching prospect Jacob McGee.  The left hander tore up Low A last year and struck out 171 batters in 134 innings.  Keep an eye on McGee as he progresses to High A in 2007.  Kevin Goldstein had some nice things to say about him in his Top Ten Devil [...]

I thought this was an interesting profile on Devil Rays prospect Elijah Dukes.  There’s no doubt Dukes has had his share of issues and while it looks like the Devil Rays outfield is set, Dukes would make a nice option as a fourth outfielder.  He had a very good season in Durham where he hit [...]

Rather then rehashing all of the details, I’ll defer to Cubs blogger Aaron Maxwell, who detailed the Devil Rays/Cubs trade that went down today.  Ryu has a live arm and he’s a guy who very well could be in the Devil Rays pen in 2007.

Righthander Seth McClung didn’t have a great season in 2006 but a move to the pen late in the season may have found him a role with the team in 2007.  Devil Rays manager Joe Maddon indicated that he’d like McClung to be the team’s closer.  The job is still going to be up for [...]

It’s about time.  It might not be this year, but with the young talent the Tampa Devil Rays have waiting in the wings and currently on the team, we could be seeing the Rays push themselves out of the cellar and at least put together a string of winning seasons, it not contending for the [...]

I like the Carlos Pena signing.  At one time, Carlos Pena was a higher end prospect but he never caught on in Detroit.  Since then, he’s bounced around the minors and now he’s landed in Tampa.  He’s still only 28, he’s left handed, and he’ll take a walk but he’s only a .243 career hitter [...]

There’s no doubt that Scott Kazmir broke out in 2006.  His strikeout rate was phenomonal and his walk rate improved considerably.  Of course the problem was, he logged only 144 innings because of a bad shoulder.  Scott Kazmir provides the Devil Rays with an “ace” quality pitcher for the first time in the franchise’s history.
That’s [...]

Toby Hall was one of my favorite Devil Rays for a while.  The catcher never did catch fire like a lot of people thought he would but when he was traded along with Mark Hendrickson for a young catch named Dioner Navarro, I thought the Devil Rays had gotten the short end of the stick in [...]

Keith Law may have highlighted the Yankee’s farm system in his latest column at ESPN.com, but what he has to say at the end, when he lists his top farm systems, says it all.  He concludes, that with studs like Delmon Young and Elijah Dukes, the Devil Rays have by far the best farm system [...]

In the latest Inside Dish at Sporting News, Mike Beranido talks about how the Devil Rays have been at least willing to talk about trading both B.J. Upton and Delmon Young.  And while Delmon Young is the guy with the more publicized personal problems, the story goes on to say that it’s actually Upton who [...]

The Devil Rays avoided arbitration with infielder Ty Wiggington and right handed pitcher Seth McClung by inking them to one year deals.  Wigginton had a career year in his first season with the Devil Rays in 2006.  He belted 24 homeruns and drove in 79, both of which were career highs. 
Seth McClung had a pretty [...]

In ESPN.com’s Hot Stove Heater series, Alan Shwarz talks about Delmon Young being one of the hottest rookies in 2007.  No surprise here because Young has been at the top of most rookie prospects lists for over a year.  In my opinion, the only other guy who is close is Royal’s Alex Gordon (yeah, the [...]

The Devil Rays recently acquired outfield prospect Erold Andrus in this years Rule 5 draft and Andrus is showing his stuff in the Venezuelan Winter League. Andrus went through a tough stretch late in the winter league season but since the playoff started, he’s turned it on.
Andrus had a very rough year last year [...]