The runs

Usually i wish that the rays could score more then 2 runs per game like they have been. Tonight, i was begging for 2. Shields does not deserve a loss tonight but he gets one for going 7.1 innings (should have been 8 if Evan doesn't make an error in the 8th) giving up only one run, the lead off homer to Ichiro. Great pitching wins games, the Rays got out pitched by one pitch today.

i just thought this was funny

Yadier Molina

Bucs and Rays team up

I have hoped for a long time that the Rays and the Bucs would team up. In a time when teams in football are airing it out and teams in baseball are going for the 3 run homers, the Rays and Bucs are playing it old school by running the ball and stealing bases to win. I hope that the next step that should be taken is to turn Ray J into a baseball compatable stadium and then the name Ray J could help the Rays move into a better place, somewhere other then the trop, which i like. More people would show up i think so long as they play mostly night games, its to hot to watch a game outside in Florida during the summer. And that kid from that high school is a great story, i hope he plays for the Rays.

All star voting

You have to shitting me. It is less then 3 weeks into the season and there is already voting. For a game that is supposed to be about putting the top talent into the game for everyone to see this is disgusting to me. There is no way you could possibly know who the best players are already. I mean you know some names that are usually good and can generally pencil them in to the all star game every year, but other people need time to prove themselves. Do you really think that the hottest team in the league right now, the Marlins, are going to have anybody in? They are playing the best baseball and yet they don't really have much national recognition. This is really pissing me off. I hate that there is voting now. I can't describe how stupid this is... On second thought, i actually can. Voting now is as stupid as making an exhibition game between multiple players from all the teams all over the league worth something. OH WAIT, that's what it currently is. If a bunch of people who aren't going to be playing in the world series get to decide home field advantage then why doesn't the league just legalize steroids. At the same time you might as well give all the money that the entire league earns and just give it to the Yanks. This is so stupid, i am not very happy with how things are being handled right now in baseball. There is no salary cap, the all star game controls something it shouldn't, there is no real instant replay, there is steroid use out the ass (pun intended), and there is a team that is spending more then a half a billion dollars in one off season while there are other teams that can't afford a 50 million dollar pay roll. I love the sport and how it is supposed to be played, that's why when i see the yanks give up 20+ runs i laugh my ass off because they are spending a billion dollars on their players. Certain things need to be fixed and this all star balloting is just one of many. Change the things i have listed above and baseball will again be the number one sport in America. I love football too but it just doesn't have the same history as baseball, the best sport any country has every produced.

Fernado Perez

He is really cool, what a well spoken person for being a baseball player. I love that he is such a big fan of his own team, i just hope that the team starts to turn it around soon, we can't take many more losses.

Final Prediction

This is the last prediction and it is coming from the best division in baseball. AL East.

• Ok so being a Rays fan i would love to just say that this is an easy call and that the Rays are going to win it all and never lose a game. Being a fan of baseball i know that's not even close to happening so why would i be stupid and just blindly go for it. The Rays are off to an even worse start this year then last year. They are 4 games under .500 14 games into the season and at this point last year they were 6-8, not great but a full game better then this year. If you recall the East last year won by less then 2 games so one game does make a big difference. The Sox are improved this year by adding some veteran pitching and keeping Jason Bay. They are going to make a run at winning the division this year just like they always do so you can't count them out. The Yanks are not as good as they were last year at this point, the current pitching staff is not good enough to really do much damage. The minor leaguers that they have are seemingly a lot better then the pro ball players that they have. Chin Ming Wong is hurt still i think and he just isn't going to be able to pitch like he has before. I used to think that he was one of the best pitchers in baseball but then he got hurt and just hasn't been the same since. The Orioles are really good this year and they have a chance at making a run at the East. The outfield that they have is one of the best in all of baseball, they have speed and good arms in all three spots. Their hitting is vastly improved over last year and they can go a long way if the pitching is just OK. They don't have to pitch to well because they are going to score 6-7 runs per game. Lastly the Blue Jays are the best team in the division. Doc Holladay and the rest of the pitching staff is the best in the east if not the entire league. They have good enough hitting to really do some damage and early in the year they are the leading the division. They can drive in runs and play good solid defense to go along with great pitching. This is the most well rounded team and if they can stay healthy then they will be headed to the world sereies. All this being said i don't think that the Blue Jays are going to win the division. That honor belongs to the Red Sox this year, as much as it kills me to type this i think they are going to really get going and become unstoppable about half way through the year and then just coast for a month or so going into the playoffs. The Rays will be in contension battling with the Jays for the wild card spot and the O's are going to fade out late because pitching and defense wins games, not offense. The Rays are going to get the supposed high power offense going, there are sparks right now, just no fire yet. The Yanks are living in the past and trying to outspend everyone to win, they didn't do it right and now have to try and win with their team of overrated players. I hate the Red Sox so this is really depressing me but i think that when push comes to shove they are the best team this decade and are going to win the East again. I really wanted to pick the Rays to win it but they are already 4.5 games back of the lead and can't really afford to fall much further back, but they are going to until the offense shows up. The pitching is ok and will come around. 

So there you have it, every division picked and the only thing left to do is call the world sereies. That'll be left for a later post, can't give it all away now.

No need to worry

WTF.  Why in the hell wouldn't you be worrying? The same sorta thing happened to Carl last year where he just had a small little injury at the beginning of the year and then it turned into his worst year as a starter. This is terrible for the struggling rays, they need offense and this doesn't help. I'm starting to worry and think about next year already, its still early but they don't look like they want it.

Big freaking deal

The fact that the defense is the only thing that is currently playing good baseball is something that is very alarming to me. The pitching isn't there and the offense is there. But thank god we have some webgems. Seriously, who cares how many great plays we make if we can't win. I agree with playtwo. 2008 is over, get over it, need to start winning now.

KOBE!

I used to use this in middle school. Got me hit a bunch of the time. Kobe is a funny guy even though he didn't plan this. For those of you who don't know the joke is that you tell your friend to put their hand up to their face and then you hit them through the hand. Laughter ensues.

just sad

this was a terrible game

Some predictions

This isn't for the entire league but just some divisions.

First up is the NL east:

• The Mets are going to win it this year, the Marlins are hot now and i think that they are a hot pick now but they don't have a stable offense to go all the way. The pitching for the Marlins is amazing, probably the best staff in the entire league right now except for maybe the Blue Jays and the Rays. The Mets have a much more stable batting order and the much improved bullpen is going to help them win a lot more games this year then they did last year. Johan Santana is going to try and win the Cy Young this year, he is ready to dominate like he did before being close to healthy. The front 4 for the mets is amazing; Reyes Wright, Delgado, Beltran. They can make a serious run this year to win the east, i don't think they are going to win much late in the year though because well, they just don't.
• The next division is going to be the NL Central. This isn't an easy division to call at all. It is a decently strong division with the Cubs and the Cards being number one and two this year so far. The Cards have Albert Pujols, he is a god among men when it comes to baseball. If they can stay healthy (which with Carpenters current injury doesn't look promising) then they have a great chance at winning the division. The Cubs come back stronger this year then they were last year when they won the most games in the entire league. The same thing goes for them as does with the Cards, health. Rich Harden is a great pitcher but hasn't been able to stay healthy for much in his carrer and this is going to be a year where he can really prove himself against some tough hitters like Pujols and Prince fielder. Overall this race is going to come down until the last week of the year so long as the teams stay healthy. If Carpenter goes down then the Cards don't have much of a chance, they need him. If Harden goes down for a short period of time then the Cubs can survive while he is gone. If he goes down for the whole year then niether one of these teams has a shot at the world series. The Cubs are just a little bit stronger i think this year and have the better chance to win it all. The wild card isn't coming from this division because either the Mets or Marlins are going to take it, whoever doesn't win that division takes it. The Cubs are not going to win as many games this year as they did last year but will still win over 90. Cubs take this division by a game that they win late.
• Last division for today and one of my least favorite the AL central. This division is a cluster fuck of bad teams that are all in a transitional phase where they are all decent in the division but aren't going to win much outside the division. No team from this division is going to win the world series, i doubt the team that makes the playoffs is going to win the first series that they are in. The rest of the AL is to strong for them and they are just going to get out powered. The Royals have started off hot but they aren't that good yet, next year they will be better. Every other team in the divsion is just average. This is another tough one to pick but i have to so here we go. This is the hardest one, i lied earier this is one is rough, but for totally different reasons. The NL central has good teams that can compete, this division sucks, almost as bad as the NL west but not quite. I'm going to go with the Chicago White Sox. The only reason is because i flipped a coin and they beat the Royals. This is going to be a fun division to watch because no one has great pitching and everyone has a decent offense. Runs a plenty sprout from the seed of the AL central, but not a good team. Good luck figuring this one out, they are all average and this is going to be a division with a winner that isn't really going to win anything.

Thats all for today, more will be coming soon.

Umpires

They have it really rough. This is just a bad move by the player. They just have to stand back there and do their thing, its really tough though.

The king is here

Evan makes his return tonight. The potential MVP candidate is back! All hail Evan almighty!

Black People

Baseball is not a black person sport, it doesn't have anywhere near the same amount of black people that the other major sports do, but the rays are trying to change that.

This is such bullshit

I can't believe this happened again. Its like the third time in a week that the blues messed one up.

Bad Bullpen

The bullpen last year was one of the biggest reasons that we went to the world series and furthermore lost the world series. The bullpen had the number three era in the entire league and this year so far... doesn't. Percy has pitched in 2 games and came very close to blowing the first one by giving up a homer and a hit or two, in his second appearance he lost the game in the ninth. JP, who didn't lose a game last year until September if i remember that correctly, has already lost a game this year and just hasn't been able to put people away like he did last year. Grant Balfour who was one of the most improved pitchers last year, is one of the worst in the pen so far this year. He was asked to come in and pitch in an 11-0 game in the ninth and just throw strikes and get outs. He then walked 3 and gave up 2 hits allowing 3 runs. Maybe its just early in the year but i don't think that with the current people playing ball out there in the pen, we wont make the playoffs. That's three guys and i haven't even mentioned Dan Wheeler, he is a joke. The Rays had a pitcher a few years ago named Shawn Camp and he had one decent year has sucked since going to the blue jays. Dan Wheeler is just like Shawn the only difference is that he is still with the Rays. The O's are much improved this year and so are the Blue Jays. The Yanks are always going to be a challenge and the Sox are the Sox. The AL East got a lot better over the off season and the Rays only got a little better with Pat the Bat, who hasn't done much this year so far either. The Rays could become a lot better if they bring up those multiple first round draft picks that are pitchers, David Price and Wade Davis, who are just waiting to prove themselves against big league hitters. David already has proven himself in the playoffs last year by dominating the Sox and helping to get us to the world series. Wade Davis has never even had a chance to pitch against big leaguers yet so why not now when you have a handful of pitchers out there who are 38 or older. Dan isn't that old but i put him in that category anyway because he just sucks. JP is going to get it on track, not worried about him. Balfour has good stuff so he will have some time to get his stuff together. Percy is old, Shouse is older, Chad Brad is old, Jason Izzy is old, even Joe Nelson is getting up there in age. This isn't going to be the same deep pen that we had last year, unless some changes are made. The current staff can't do it, they aren't that good.

Bad night

To many strike outs and bad pitching late just don't help us, the Rays played bad all game.Dan Wheeler, not my favorite pitcher in the world does it again, he is consistently terrible. The bullpen the was once dominating is now in trouble. Most of the pitchers that have pitched this year have not done well. I don't know if we can save a game late this year, its starting to worry me. The offense was just shut down today but that's not something to worry about, AJ was amazing and our bullpen blew the game late. 

Stupid people

This has nothing to do with baseball. This is simply about how much I hate stupid people, they annoy the shit out of me. Example: I am playing this game called humans versus zombies and i was charging in on a group of zombies with someone backing me up. There is a rule that says once you get tagged by a zombie you can't use your gun anymore and you now have one hour till you are a zombie. The person who i was storming in with failed to mention that he had been tagged about 20 minutes before. So instead of it being 2 on 5, which is very easy to win when you have guns and they don't, it ended up being 1 on 5. No one is that good. So basically because of this idiot i got tagged and now have to be a zombie which is fine. Its not that i am a zombie that is pissing me off, its how it happened, if i went down in a blaze of glory that's cool. I got screwed, that's freaking lame. If the idiot had read the rules and not been a stupid moron then i may still be a human in the game. The exact rule isn't stated on the website, but the moderator of the game said it before the game started. Another thing is when a person asks you questions all the time when you are doing stuff, like watching TV. I hate having to answer questions about the things i like while i am doing it because i just want to enjoy what i like. Seriously people are really stupid sometimes.

Longo

What a beast! 

A strange story

This is just pure domination, when you can have 9 K's and still get 16 hits to go along with 4 homers then it is a good day, the offence must have been celebrating the soon coming return of a certain BJ Upton. James Shields made up for his piss poor first outing and totally dominated the O's who had been on a hitting war path the first week of the season. If the Rays can get more strong outing from the big three up front and in the near future bring up David Price and get rid of Sonny and Jeff Nieman. Find a fifth starter and we'll be good, the big three can win 50 games easy this year, maybe 60. Looking forward to the big Yanks series coming up. Scotty should shut them down pretty good, and Garza is our best pitcher so he'll be able to shut them down too.

Nice win, almost

Everything was going great until the 9th when Balfour decided to mess everything up. Evan is on pace to become the Rays first MVP candidate in team history. If the offence can play like they did today, not saying they need 11 runs, but hitting guys in instead of hitting homers all the time then the chance to win it all is very real.

Finally

Offense early in the game not from a homer, good job at the plate so far. rays up 4-0 after 2.5

David Price

He will be up here very soon, and I like what one person said saying that sonny isn't very good and Nieman isn't either. Those two are not going to be our best players going along, sonny is a number 5 and him pitching very poorly yesterday proved that. David Price is like Scott Kazmir but taller and comes with better stuff, he is a little wild be can get 6 innings and strike out 10. I can't wait for him to become part of the rotation.

Rays can get better in the next week

BJ Upton isn't even playing for the rays yet but that is going to change soon. He is a big part of the team, and when he gets back the offence is really going to take off. The offencive explosion that is going to happen when he gets back is going to be great. The team is doing fine right now but i really think that he is the difference when it come to winning the world sereies. If we can stay healthy then we are the best team in baseball.

Chris Carpenter

Glad to see him back, one of my favorite guys in baseball

The Commish

So its 80 and sunny down in Tampa, and its going to rain tonight in Baltimore. The Rays who won the American league title have to play 6 games on the road to start the season, personally i just think this is dumb seeing how one game was already postponed and another probably will be tonight. Having a dome isn't always a bad thing, just saying, play some games in the south to start off then play games up north, its just a smart idea. Baseball is a warm weather sport, not a rainy, cold, dry sport.

Tonights game

Doesn't look to good that the game is going to happen.That doesn't mean that it isn't going to happen though. I like the move to put Kapler in the 6 hole, i hope that Aki doesn't mind hitting 9. The only thing that i am not a fan of is still having Sonny as the starter, i think that we should have traded him in the off season and picked up someone else, i just don't like someone who is going to through 5-7 innings and give up 3-5 runs almost every game, he is a decent number 5 starter but we should have moved David Price to 4 and put sonny at 5. Having said this i know that i am probably wrong because Joe Maddon is a freaking genius and knows what he is doing out there so i'll leave the managing up to him for now. Being able to face Mark Hendrickson is a very good thing for the Rays today because he is a former Ray that is not a good pitcher, there are no two ways around it, he sucks. One good start in the 2-3 years he pitched for us and they didn't even win the game. It was something along the lines of a 9 inning shut out that the former Devil Rays couldn't win. So i like our chances tonight against this guy because he is a bad pitcher.

The first of many

Today is day one of the first of many blogs to come about the best team in baseball. I am of course talking about the Tampa Bay Rays who have started 2-1 with a big series win over the Sox. This blog is not going to be just some random fan saying that they are the best team in the league for no reason, information will be given and backed up, this is just one, like one heart beat that keeps the team alive ready to play every day. GO RAYS!