The Rays are continuing to have a solid but quiet spring. There haven’t really been a lot of news to write about, but it’s been good for the team. I was looking forward to watching just the second televised game of the spring tonight, but unfortunately it was cancelled. This isn’t going to be a [...]

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A little more than a week into spring training the Rays have won 7 games in a row and the battle for roster spots are well underway. It’s still early but a few players have been standing out, some positively and some negatively. At the middle infield position we have an interesting battle heating up [...]

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We’ve reached the final article in this series leading up to the 2010 Tampa Bay Rays season. But the last unit is arguably the most important for the team’s success. Any fan who has watched the team for the past three years have seen how important the bullpen is. There was no denying the impact [...]

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Spring Training has officially started!  Pitchers and catchers have reported and the first game is a little over a week away. The Rays will meet the Oriols on March 3rd. So far the biggest news have been lots of stadium talk, but just the same old talk, the reveal of a new powder blue home [...]

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Bad news to anybody hoping to keep Crawford around after this season. Stuart Sternberg has said publicly that the team’s payroll will be reduced quite a bit next year. It’s at $72 million in 2010 but according to Sternberg it will drop to below $60 million in 2011. He said they out-spent themselves last year [...]

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Less than a week to go until pitchers and catchers report. Before I start getting into the Rays outfielders a couple of things worth mentioning has happened over the weekend. First, the arbitration hearings between the Rays and Upton were held on Friday and the verdict came Saturday. The committee ended up ruling in favor [...]

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One of the names that even people who don’t follow the Rays or even baseball at all will probably recognize anyway is Evan Longoria. An all around good guy who was a highly ranked prospect who has lived up to everything we were promised from the moment he and his bat hit the majors. Third [...]

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Jason Bartlett was one of the key components to the Rays success in 2008. He helped shore up one of the most important positions defensively and has been a solid contributor ever since. It is going to be an interesting position to watch in spring training. Both to see if Bartlett can keep up his [...]

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With Akinori Iwamura being traded in the fall, this is one position where the Rays will have a new starter this year. That player seems to be Ben “Zorilla” Zobrist who had his breakout season in 2009 at RF and at 2B when Akinori was out with an injury. It earned him a trip to [...]

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Leading up to February 19th where the Rays pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training I will be posting articles about the Rays projected starters and primary backups, position by position. To kick off the series this first article is focusing on first base.

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