In less than one month the team formerly known as the Devil Rays has literally remade it’s self. They have changed their name they are known, for at least a few years anyways, as the Tampa Bay Rays. They’ve overhauled their color scheme, now blue and yellow. Along with the change came the obligatory new uniform and logo. The home whites actually look quite good but with much controversy the road uniforms, unlike the majority of MLB teams left off the words Tampa Bay. They unveiled a new stadium proposal that envisioned the team playing in a new open air facility along the St. Petersburg waterfront, in which they would so “generously” contribute $150 million towards the $450 million dollar price tag. Whew , quite a busy week for a team who rarely makes news, on a national level. Then came the decision to part ways with the talented, but troubled slugger. They traded Delmon Young , along with Brandon Harris and minor-league outfielder Jason Priddie to the Minnesota Twins for righthanded starter Matt Garza, shortstop Jason Bartlett and minor-league reliever Eduardo Morland. The deal can be looked at in two ways, the organization finally decided it needed a starter to pair with Scott Kazmir and James Shields, and that’s the going rate ( ie. What ever the bounty Johan Santana nets the Twins when he’s finally dealt ) Or the organization made a statement that those seen as questionable characters will not be tolerated. The deal immediately gives the Rays another young arm and suddenly makes the starting rotation look legitimate. They also added their everyday shortstop who has great range, don’t let the high number of errors fool you, and is a legitimate number two hitter. Andrew Friedman and company believe the first step in improving the team was to address their biggest weakness, pitching. The cost for that was an outfielder who had the potential to be an all star, but also the potential to be a clubhouse headache.
-JUSTIN LEWIS
ARE THEY READY FOR THE LONG HAUL? The positive energy oozing from Tropicana Field these days can only be described as unprecedented. The Rays’ are a franchise record five games over the .500 mark. They are alone in second place in the AL East (1.5 games behind Boston) , not to mention they have the third best record in all of the AL...
Rays Add New Pieces Tuesday might have felt a little surreal to Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Gabe Gross. Shortly after scoring the winning run in the bottom of the 12th inning in Tuesdays Brewers victory over the St. Louis Cardinals he learned he had been traded...
Rays Add Another Name To The List Scott Kazmir, Matt Garza, Dioner Navarro, Cliff Floyd and now Al Reyes. All were supposed to be key cogs for the Ray’s ascent from perennial cellar-dwellers to playoff contender. Now the team would just like them to get healthy...
Rays Making More Moves The team formerly known as the Devil Rays, who made waves by moving outfielder Delmon Young to the Twins in exchange for starting pitcher Matt Garza and new starting shortstop Jason Bartlett, dip into the free agency pool by signing reliever Troy...
Mission 2012 In less than one month the team formerly known as the Devil Rays has literally remade it’s self. They have changed their name they are known, for at least a few years anyways, as the Tampa Bay Rays. They’ve overhauled their color scheme, now blue and yellow...
