[ELIJAH DUKES] Dukes Up For Award For Being A Mischievous Little Badger

Just when you thought the Elijah Dukes story had run its course and was finally under the radar…Along comes the 2007 Sportshuman of the Year (SHOTY) Tournament. For the second consecutive year, Deadspin is holding a tournament-style bracket featuring 16 of the most entertaining sports personalities of 2007. In an ironic twist, Barbaro was named the 2006 Sportshuman of the Year.

OK, folks … it’s time for the voting to begin. Let’s all give big-up to the genius that is Jim Cooke for his official SHOTY graphic. The 2007 SHOTY voting will run every Tuesday and Thursday until, well, 2008 probably. We love Kige there.

Voting will remain open until the end of the first round … so let’s get started. It’s No. 4 seed Elijah Dukes vs. No. 13 Jeff Reed. A look at the nominees:

Elijah Dukes garners a #4 seed based on such accomplishments as threatening his wife and kids with a picture of a gun, impregnating LOTS of women, including a foster child, and was accused in court of using drugs and steroids.

Jeff Reed, on the other hand, is the #13 seed because he…ummm…he likes to…well…how do we put this gently?…He likes to take “pictures” of himself.

Dukes is heavily favored because nobody wants to see naked pictures of kickers. Quarterbacks? That’s a different story.

In April we envisioned Mr. Dukes making a run at Rookie of the Year. By the end of May we wondered if he would ever play for the Rays again. In November we get a chance to honor the 2007 accomplishments of the Mischievous Little Badger.

So let’s Rock the Vote! And show Elijah how much we love him.

SHOTY First Round: Elijah Dukes Vs. Jeff Reed [Deadspin]
Your 2006 SHOTY Winner: Barbaro [Deadspin]
An Open Letter To Elijah Dukes [Rays Index]
Another Open Letter To Elijah Dukes [Rays Index]

[THE HANGOVER] There Are No Carl Crawford Rumors To Deny

Team USA 4, South Africa 2.
Evan Longoria went 1-4 with a triple and Justin Ruggiano went 0-4 as Team USA moved to 5-1 and clinched a spot in the World Cup quarterfinals. They have one final game in the preliminary round versus Taipei with the quarterfinals set to played on Friday with the opponent yet to be determined. Longoria was the team’s DH while Andy LaRoche played third base.

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…

• Baseball Musings took a look at the “Probabilistic Model of Range” for centerfielders in 2007 and the Devil Rays centerfielders finished next to last, ahead of only the Brewers. The number must be taken with a grain of salt. When we look at Range Factor, BJ Upton was above the league average of 2.71 with a 2.91. On the other hand, Elijah Dukes and Delmon Young, who had the next two most innings played in center field were both well below the league average with a 2.30, which likely brought the Rays overall Range value down. Rocco Baldelli only played 20 games in center, but came in with a 3.61 range factor. [Baseball Musings]
• Four of the 12 players named to the Topps Double-A All-Star team are Devil Rays farmhands. The list includes Evan Longoria, John Jaso, Chris Mason and Dale Thayer. [The Raw Feed]
• More hardware for Carlos Pena. This time it is the fictional 2007 Andre Dawson Award, presented to the best player on a last place team. No word on what exactly the trophy looks like, but we are guessing it is a hawk with bad knees. Pena is the second Devil Ray to win the award. Fred McGriff won the award in 1999. [Home Run Derby]
• The Cubs are trying to put together a package to land Carl Crawford. No word on whether or not discussions have already occurred. [Herald-News]
• According to team officials, there are no deals being worked on that involve Carl Crawford. The denial is interesting and possibly unnecessary as we haven’t actually heard any rumors involving CC. All we have seen and read is that other teams are targeting CC. But who wouldn’t want CC on their team? [Bradenton Herald]
• Al Reyes and Greg Norton both filed for free agency. The Rays still have until tomorrow to pick up options on both players. Reyes’ option will be picked up. Norton is likely to be granted free agency. [TBO]
• The Rays are one of 10 teams interested in signing Troy Percival. While Marc Lancaster sites Percival’s close relationship with Joe Maddon as a reason the Rays may have an edge, it didn’t seem to help last year when he ultimately signed with the Cardinals, so we are not sure why it would help this time around, except to add another team to the bidding process and ultimately raise the price. [TBO]
• In the end, we were a little high with the target dollar amount, but as we predicted, the Yankees went to four years on their contract offer to Jorge Posada and the catcher decided to not even test the free agent waters. The Yankees re-signed Posada for 4 years and $52.4 million. The Yankees will have to pay the devil on the back end of the deal, but that is the advantage they have. They will be able to swallow that cost when Posada is a 40-year old part-time DH. The Rays are in no financial position to assume such a cost. [TBO]
• Redeveloping Tropicana Field and the land on which it rests is key to the Rays moving to the St. Pete Waterfront in 2012. According to Aaron Sharockman this will not be a problem as land developers are already drooling over the prospect of building a residential and office space development on the 70 acre lot that is close to the interstate. [St. Pete Times]

Transforming the Tropicana site is “the kind of thing you dream about,” said Craig Sher, the chief executive of the Sembler Co., which developed BayWalk in St. Petersburg and Centro Ybor in Tampa.

“There’s a real potential to build a really neat mixed-use project, residential and office,” Sher said. “There’s just not a lot of land left in St. Pete. Any time you get a critical mass of land, you can get something spectacular. Hopefully, we’d be on somebody’s list of people to call.”

• Now that the Devil Rays have changed their name to “Rays”, has the team automatically eliminated itself as a potential destination for a small segment of players? Would Ray Durham have ever signed with the Tampa Bay Rays? Not likely. [Home Run Derby]

FORMER RAYS Aubrey Huff Just Doesn’t Know When To Shut The Hell Up

In July of 2006, the Devil Rays traded Aubrey Huff to the Houston Astros. Following the season, he signed a 3 year/$20 million contract with the Baltimore Orioles. In doing so, Huff remarked about how it would be refreshing to play for a team with a chance to win. Nevermind the fact that the Orioles haven’t had a winning record since 1997.

Now it seems as though Huff may be regretting his move from the Devil Rays and the Tampa Bay area strip clubs. And now he is alienating fans of his team even before he walks out the door…

In a telephone interview with The Sun yesterday, Huff said he didn’t mean to disrespect the city of Baltimore or its residents when he referred to it as a “horses – -” town during Thursday’s 90-minute segment with Bubba The Love Sponge on Sirius Satellite Radio.Huff’s appraisal came after the discussion turned to nightlife in the Tampa, Fla., area, and how much Huff indulged in it while he was single and playing for the Devil Rays.

That’s right. Aubrey Huff referred to Baltimore as a “Horseshit Town”. And to ask Huff about it, he is not sure what he did wrong…

Not one time did I trash the organization,” Huff said. “I love the ballpark, the organization, the guys on the team…If people think I offended them, I can apologize, but I didn’t feel like I did anything wrong.

So it is OK to refer to the hometown of your team’s fans as “Horseshit” as long as you don’t trash the organization, the stadium and your teammates. Of course, Huff may have looked at his performance in the Trop (.375-4-7-1.256 OPS in 32 at bats) this past season compared to the rest of the ballparks (including Camden Yards) (.274-11-65-.749 OPS in 518 at bats) and realized life may not have been so bad after all in the Devil Rays green and white. That…and the strip clubs. And he still has two years left on his contract. Have fun with that Orioles fans.

Where Aubrey Huff takes a shot at Baltimore strip clubs [Baltimore Sun]

AL ROOKIE OF THE YEAR Dustin Pedrioa Supporter Makes Case For Delmon Young

[Update: Delmon Young has finished second in the voting to Dustin Pedroia. Young received three first place votes out of 28]

Today, the winners of the Rookie of the Year awards for each league will be announced. The general belief is that Dustin Pedroia of the Boston Red Sox will take home the award with Delmon Young of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays finishing second. Two websites challenged each other to come up with 5 reasons why their candidate should win the award.

The Serious Tip presents “5 reasons why Delmon Young should win Rookie of the Year“.

In summary…

1. Consistency
2. Clutch Hitting
3. Versatility
4. Fielding Prowess
5. Overexposure

We have to take issue with #3 “Versatility” and #4 “Fielding Prowess”. One of the Top 5 arms in baseball? Probably. Gold Glove-caliber? No way. For those that have seen Young play on a regular basis, know that he often looks uncomfortable in right field, plays wayyyyy too deep (a sign that a player has trouble going back on balls) and takes terrible angles on balls all the time. We are not saying he will never be a good defensive outfielder. He just is not one yet. And while he was passable as a center fielder, he spent the entire time playing the position from the restaurant on the other side of the center field wall and complaining about the move to the press.

One More Dying Quail rebuts with “Five Reasons Why Dustin Pedroia Should Be Rookie Of The Year“. We have long thought that Pedroia should and would win the award. However, after reading the argument at OMDQ, we are now thinking that maybe Delmon Young does deserve the award.

To summarize the argument…

1. David Eckstein is also scrappy and never won the award
2. Pedroia made a great defensive play on Sept. 1
3. He sucked for the first month and never strikes out
4. He is as tough as Raul Rodarte of the Mexican League
5. The author is afraid of his wife

That is one hell of an argument. Let’s see if we can come up with some better reasoning one way or the other…

1. Offense (traditional stats): Delmon Young hit .288-13-93 while appearing in 162 games. Dustin Pedroia hit .317-8-50 in 139 games. Delmon loses points for not understanding the rules of baseball and knowing that he does not have to swing at every single god damned pitch. If Delmon Young would have shown any patience this season he could have hit .320. EDGE: Eck’s Clone Pedroia
2. Offense (newage stats): Pedroia had a VORP of 35.9 compared to 5.7 for Young (not a typo). Pedroia had an OPS of .822 compared to .724 for Young. Pedroia had an EqA of .276 while Young’s EqA was only .251. We are pretty sure that Pedroia got a 30 point boost in his VORP for being little and scrappy. EDGE: The Eck-esque Pedroia
3. Clutchiness: In close and late situations, Pedroia hit .299-2-2 in 67 at bats with a .780 OPS. Young was .264-3-13 with an OPS of .723. Of course Young had a huge walk-off home run in the Disney series against the Rangers. Young also seem to play the game with a chip on his shoulder and strong desire to be known, which means his concentration level seems to rise to a new level when it matters most. EDGE: Delmonator
4. Defense: Pedroia gets a slight nod right off the bat because he played second base on a team in a pennant-race, but lets look at the numbers. Pedroia had a Range Factor of 4.88, just below the league average of 4.98. Young had a RF of 2.13, higher than the league average for RF of 2.08. This tells us that Young’s speed helped him overcome his problems with the glove and may not have been as bad as we previously thought. On the other hand, Young was Dishin’ Out Delmon’s all season long to the tune of 16 outfield assists. Pedrioa did not have a single outfield assist! BUT…Pedroia looks like David Eckstein. EDGE: Split
5. Cockiness: We can only base this on 2007 so Delmon Young does not get credit for throwing a bat at an unpire, however, he does get bonus points for 1) bitching about having to play center field; 2) believing every pitch is his pitch; and 3) thinking that Joe Maddon singled him out for not hustling on the penultimate game of the season. Pedroia gets bonus points for being Major League Baseball’s poster-child for the Napolean Complex. EDGE: Delmonator

In the end, it was closer than we thought it would be, but the numbers don’t lie. VORP And EqA give Pedroia a huge edge and he did it all season long playing middle infield for a team in a pennant race under the scrutiny of the unforgiving Boston fans and the unforgiving Boston media.

We love Delmon Young and he will have the better career when all is said and done. But for 2007? The AL Rookie of the Year is Dustin Pedroia.

5 reasons why Delmon Young should win Rookie of the Year [The Serious Tip]
5 reasons why Dustin Pedroia should be Rookie of the Year[One More Dying Quail]

NEW STADIUM The Tampa Bay Rays Distract Fans With Plans For New Stadium

[Ed. Note: We are reposting this from Saturday because we know nobody reads the internet on the weekend]

On Thursday the Tampa Bay Devil Rays unveiled their new uniforms and logos and officially announced that they would be changing their name to the “Tampa Bay Rays”. Knowing that these moves would anger a large percentage of the team’s current fans, the front office decided that Friday would be a good time to distract the fan base with a real big cookie. A cookie big enough to seat 35,000.

On Friday, the Rays leaked to the press, plans to build a 35,000 seat-open-air baseball stadium to be built along the bay at the current site of Al Lang Field (AKA Prospect Energy Park).

The Tampa Bay Rays have developed a bold plan to build a $450-million downtown stadium that would give fans waterfront views and protection from rain…The stadium, to be built on the site of Al Lang Field, would seat about 35,000 and could open as early as 2012. Hitters there would have a chance to send the ball into the bay…Financing is still being worked out, but a primary source would be proceeds of the sale of the Tropicana Field site to a developer who would build a large retail/residential complex there. The Rays also would make a contribution, perhaps as much as $150-million, covering one-third of the cost…The team also would seek legislative approval for $60-million of state money in future sales tax revenue from food, beer and merchandise sales in the new park.

The idea of the Rays playing in an open-air stadium that overlooks the bay makes us giddy as a school girl. The innovative idea of using two sail-like structures to cover the field in the event of rain, is such a simple and obvious idea, it can only be described as brilliant considering nobody had thought of it before. Our only question (besides wondering how plausible the funding scenario is) is how will the new stadium fit in the proposed location.

Based on the description of the stadium, home runs over the right-field fence would have a chance of landing in the bay, and left field would sit above the current parking lot on the north side of Al Lang Field. The problem with this scenario is that even a small minor league park such as Al Lang Field would not fit in the space provided between Bayshore Dr. and 1st St.

We decided to see exactly how a new stadium would fit into the allocated space.

Here is an aerial view of Al Lang Stadium…

As can be seen from the aerial view, Bayshore Dr (to the east) and 1st St. (to the west) draw closer together traveling north past the stadium. Even Al Lang Stadium would not fit between those two streets if it were shifted even slightly to the North.

Based on the description of the proposed stadium (35,000 seats, open air), the closest approximation we could come up with was the new PNC Park in Pittsburgh which seats 38,500. In fact, PNC Park works well, because the right field wall runs parallel to the river in Pittsburgh.

We took an outline of PNC Park, drew it to scale and overlayed it on the above image.

If the new park is rotated and shifted, so that right field is along the water and left field is over the current parking lot, the stadium would need to be pushed out over the water, so as to avoid disrupting 1st street. Doing so, would require the city to shut down Bayshore Dr. In fact, part of the bay would have to be filled in to accommodate the new stadium.

Here is an idea of what a new stadium would look like from an aerial view, using PNC Park as a reference.

Is it possible that the Tampa Bay Rays could be playing in a new open-air stadium as early as 2012? We are not getting our hopes up yet, as team and city officials still have a lot of hoops to jump through. And we are still not absolutely certain a new stadium would fit in the proposed location, but if the goal of the team was to divert the attention of their fans…it worked. We barely remember that Kevin Costner has made a lot of bad movies.

Rays on the bay? [TampaBay.com]
For Better Or Worse, The New Uniforms Are Now Official [Rays Index]

THE HANGOVER Peter Gammons Predicts 30+ Home Runs For Evan Longoria In 2008

Team USA 5, Japan 1.
Evan Longoria had a 2-run double in the 8th that put the game out of reach. He finished 1-4. Justin Ruggiano also went 1-4.

Team USA 12, Spain 2.
Evan Longoria went 2-4 and hit his second home run of the World Cup, a 2-run shot. Justin Ruggiano went 1-3.

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…

• Hidden behind the password-wall of ESPN Insider is the latest Peter Gamons article. In the article he has high praise for Evan Longoria. [ESPN]

Three different baseball people insisted that Tampa Bay rookie third baseman Evan Longoria will hit more than 30 homers next year based on what they saw in the Arizona Fall League.

• Carlos Pena took home some more offseason hardware. This time it is the AL Silver Slugger award for being the top hitting first baseman in the AL. [Bottom 9]
• The Devil Rays have contacted free agent catcher Michael Barrett. This just in…The Rays would like to have a veteran catcher on the roster, which means they will be contacting all available veteran free agent catchers. [Fox Sports]
• The Brewers are trying to acquire Carl Crawford looking at the left fielder as the player that can put them over the top. Not surprisingly, the Rays are not interested in anything the Brew Crew is offering so they are trying to get a third team involved. [Mykenk’s Blog]
  
• Rays of Light has started a 9-part series entitled “Offseason Ideas”. They have #1 and #2 up, addressing whether or not to trade Rocco Baldelli, and signing Cesar Izturis to play shortstop in 2008. [Rays of Light]
• Delmon Young should have won a Gold Glove? One blogger thinks so. Young did not deserve a gold glove, even if they got rid of the ridiculous practice in which the outfield gold gloves are given to three outfielders regardless of outfield position, which often leads to three center fielders taking home the award. Young has one of the best arms in baseball, but his defense is below average at best. He plays too deep, takes bad angles and often looks uncomfortable. [Thunder Matt’s Saloon]
• If I ever go into politics, I am hiring David Chalk as my campaign manager. [Bugs & Cranks]
• And remember…if you are not happy about the Rays changing their name and would like to see sites such as RI or Bugs & Cranks continue using the moniker “Devil Rays”, go to THIS POST and leave a comment saying so.[Bugs & Cranks]

NEW UNIFORMS For Better Or Worse, The New Uniforms Are Now Official

[Update: CLICK HERE for what may be the Rays alternate uniform to be used in 2009 that will feature “TAMPA BAY” across the front]

The Tampa Bay Devil Rays found a way to piss off 360 of their 522 fans.

Yesterday, the Tampa Bay Professional Baseball Club officially unveiled their new uniforms. This change was has been in the works since the new ownership group took control of the franchise following the 2005 season, and sketches of the new uniforms were first leaked on the internet on September 20th of this year.

The logos are as first reported, but as we mentioned back in September, we needed to wait until we saw the uniforms “live” before passing judgment, as the coloring is very different when compared to the original sketches, as can be seen in this side-by-side comparison.

The main blue color is clearly much darker (very good). The lighter blue is not nearly as noticeable (good) and the sunburst is almost unnoticeable (thank god). Now that we have seen what the colors look like on the actual uniforms, the comparison to the Seattle Mariners, Texas Rangers and especially the Kansas City Royals, seems much less warranted.

Even the grey on the road uniforms is much different than the original sketches, as the color seems to have much less of a blue hue.

Overall we actually like the new color scheme. Yes we understand the green was unique and the blue is less so, but we truly believe there would be more of an uproar if the team were switching from these colors to the green, blue and white of the last few years.

We don’t mind the new colors (we always hated the green alternate jersey), but we understand a lot of fans hate the new design. While some approve and many disapprove of the new hues, there are two other changes that seem to have angered the few loyal fans the Rays do have…

First and foremost is the change from “Devil Rays” to “Rays”. In doing so, the Rays become the first baseball team since the Houston Colt ’45s to change their nickname without moving. This screams boring and unnecessary. David Chalk, who covers the Rays over at Bugs & Cranks is campaigning his editors to keep using the moniker “Devil Rays” and we couldn’t agree more. The team has not used the full name “Devil Rays” on the uniforms since the original Rainbow Warriors set was last used in 2000. So then why the need to change the name? Because some people take offense to the term “Devil”? Sometimes people listen to marketing strategists a little too much. Good idea or stupid? Your fans say “Stupid”. The Rays removed the offensive term and gained a boring one. David Chalk wants to continue using “Devil Rays” on Bugs & Cranks and we hope he does, because we will continue to use the moniker on this site. In fact, we will probably use “Devil Rays” more often.

The second change that has Devil Rays fans up in arms is the removal of “Tampa Bay” from the road uniforms. Many fans are worried that this is a sign of an impending move from the Bay Area. This is another marketing strategy being employed by the team which just goes to reinforce the popular notion that the front office cares more about making money than they do about winning baseball games. The team has a new logo (Rays with a sunburst) and their goal is to push that logo every chance they get and that includes being used on the road uniforms in away cities.

In addition, the team is hoping that the Rays will become a more regionalized entity. There is nothing wrong with that desire, but removing “Tampa Bay” from the away uniforms will have ZERO effect on whether or not people in Orlando will buy Rays merchandise. There are teams littered throughout the four major sports leagues that do well selling merchandise outside of their home area. They do this in spite of having their city name labeled on their away jerseys. The key to marketing outside of your home area is simple. WIN. Win more games. Challenge for the playoffs on a consistent basis. GO TO THE PLAYOFFS every once and a while and all of the sudden fans in Walla Walla will start buying and wearing Rays merchandise, and they won’t give two shits whether or not it says “Tampa Bay” on the front. People in/from Tampa and St. Pete and the surrounding areas are damn proud to be from those places. They want to root for a team that is proud to be from that area also.

Now that we have seen the final product, we must say we do like the color scheme, but we understand why a lot of fans will not. However, we are irate about the name change and the failure to show any pride whatsoever in where the team is from. In the end, the Rays may have alienated more fans than they gained from these changes.

[Update: From a purely aesthetic point-of-view, Mrs. Professor says she prefers the new set, but it was a close call and trust me she has more style sense than any of us]

New Rays Dawning? [TampaBay.com]
The New Tampa Bay Rays Uniforms [Rays Index]
Fighting For The Devil & The Soul Of Bugs & Cranks [Bugs & Cranks]

THE HANGOVER Evan Longoria Goes Deep For Team USA

Team USA 7, Panama 0.
Evan Longoria capped the scoring for Team USA with a 2-run home run in the 7th inning. It was the first home run of the tournament for Team USA. Longoria finished 2-3 with those 2 ribbies.

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…

• Most of the free agent shortstops are already off the board, so it looks like the Rays will attempt to address the void in the middle infield through a trade. [TBO]
• Why do the Rays need a shortstop? According to “The Probabilistic Model of Range” for shortstops in 2007, the Rays had the third worst shortstop defense in baseball. Individually, Brendan Harris and Josh Wilson ranked as the 3rd and 4th worst defensive shortstops in 2007 (out of 39). [Baseball Musings]
• Any shortstop the Rays acquire may only be a one-year stopgap as Reid Brignac will most likely begin the season at AAA Durham. Despite what appeared to be poor offensive numbers on the surface (compared to 2006), The Hardball Times recognizes Brignac as one of the most improved hitters in the minor leagues in 2007. [The Hardball Times]

Brignac experienced a breakout season at the hitter-friendly California League last year, and his plate approach continued to improve as he posted career-best walk rates and strikeout rates in the Southern League this year. His traditional statistics were underwhelming in 2007 as he only hit .260 in a full season with the Montgomery Biscuits. The components of that performance are highly encouraging, however.

• The Twins may not be interested in Rocco Baldelli. According to the Star-Tribune they have targeted BJ Upton and Delmon Young and are willing to part with Matt Garza. If the Twins stand firm, don’t look for a deal to be made. [Star-Tribune]
• The Cubs have targeted Carl Crawford. [Daily-Herald]
• Project Prospect ranks the top 5 players in the Rays farm system. [Project Prospect]

The Devil Rays farm system has become the envy of baseball. They had four players who ranked in the Top 15 of our Top 25 prospect list last week. They have a top Rookie of the Year candidate in the big leagues right now, in Delmon Young. And they are currently in line to be awarded the No. 1 overall Draft pick for the second year in a row. Tampa Bay really only has one path that it can take in order to compete with the big spenders in its division. And it’s taking it.

• Sean McAdam of ESPN.com takes a look at the Rays off-season, and the holes they look to fill. [ESPN]

DEVIL RAYS COLUMNISTS SUCK For A Writer, Bill Chastain Makes A Crappy GM

Bill Chastain clearly has no idea what team he is covering. He thinks the Tampa Bay Rays should sign free agent catcher Jorge Posada, and worse, he thinks the Rays actually have a shot if they open up their wallet.

Joe Torre is no longer the Yankees’ manager and Posada lives in Tampa. Such a commitment might take the entire free-agent budget, but given the point in the team’s progression, such a commitment might be the best money spent in franchise history.

This is absolutely idiotic and we will speak very slowly for Mr. Chastain, in case he is still taking his stupidity pills.

6 Reasons why the Rays will not sign (and should not sign) Jorge Posada…

1. The Rays “free agent budget” is going to be taken up by the arbitration-eligible Scott Kazmir and Carlos Pena. The Rays will not give a 36-year old catcher at least $60 million for 4 years.
2. He has two years left as a full-time catcher, which means the Rays would be paying at least $15 million per year in 2010 and 2011 for a DH.
3. The Mets and the Yankees are about to get into a bidding war for Posada, and both teams will go to a fourth year on the contract to get the deal done. The Mets only other option is to re-sign Paul LoDuca. Who would you rather have?
4. We will forgive Mr. Chastain if he does not know about Posada’s son. Jorge Jr. was born with Craniosynostosis. The Jorge Posada Foundation was started by Jorge and his wife to help find a cure. If given a choice, Posada will sign with one of the New York teams where he enjoys more publicity for himself which leads to more publicity for his foundation.
5. Dioner Navarro is very young and started to show signs of becoming an above-average major league catcher in the second half of 2007. The upgrade from Navarro (age 23) to Posada (36) in 2008 is not enough to justify the extra cost over the next four years (~$50 million) especially when Navarro could be an equal catcher in 2009 and the better catcher in 2010-2011.
6. With both New York teams going to 4 years on a contract, that means the Rays would have to up the contract to $17-18 million per year or add a 5th year on to the end to get him out of New York. In the end…It would probably cost the Rays $85 million for 5 years, with Posada being 41 in the final year of the contract.

Would that be the “best money spent in franchise history”? We admit, the Rays have spent some dumb money in the past, but if the Rays signed Posada, by the 4th year, the contract would make the Greg Vaughn signing look like the Deal of the Century.

Rays’ focus on internal improvements [devilrays.com]

THE HANGOVER Rocco Baldelli May Be On The Way Out

Team USA 3, Mexico 0.
Well, Team USA won their World Cup opener against Mexico. We know that Justin Ruggiano was hit by a pitch to start a rally (bastards) but we are having trouble tracking down a box score, so we have no idea how Evan Longoria did. But since we cannot find a boxscore, we will assume he went 4-4 and hit a 3-run home run and that Jorge Campos was catching for the Mexican team. How awesome would that be (Campos, not Longoria)?

[Update: We found a boxscore HERE. No Campos]

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…

• The Rays are in the market for a shortstop that can field and relievers that can pitch. It appears the Rays may be talking to the Twins about acquiring one or both in exchange for Rocco Baldelli. [Twins Territory]
• It looks as if Rocco Baldelli is the player the Rays are interested in moving as they are also in talks with the Nationals about the oft-injured centerfielder. [MLB]
• Andrew Friedman wouldn’t rule out the possibility when asked if Elijah Dukes would have a shot at a roster spot in the Spring. [TBO]

“It’s too early to answer that,” he said. “There’s a lot more that we want to go through, but I will say there have been a lot of positive strides in the last couple of months. But we’ve still got a ways to go.”

• There are several Japanese pitchers that will be available as free agents (no posting fee required) and the Rays are expected to actively pursue one or more of the relief pitchers including Kazuo Fukumori and Masahide Kobayashi. Here is hoping the Rays sign Kobayashi so we can have an entire season with Keyser Soze references. [TBO]

“We were active scouting the Japanese leagues this year, and there certainly are some guys that are on our radar,” Rays executive vice president Andrew Friedman said. “I expect the market to be more active than it has been in the past…We’ll see how that market unfolds,” Friedman said. “It’ll be very interesting to see in light of some of the recent success, what that means for the market.”

• Jordi at The Serious Tip tried to crash the GM meetings in Orlando only to be rejected by one of the Golden Girls. Next time offer her a membership to the “Silver Rays” fan club. Certainly Matt Silverman would have that comped. [The Serious Tip]