[THE HANGOVER] The Word "Commitment" Confuses Marc Topkin

Tampa Bay Rays (23 days until pitchers and catchers report)
We have other things to write about later today, so we won’t waste an entire post on Marc Topkin’s latest piece. Rather we will just bitch about it here. In the piece,”Rays paying it forward“, Topkin suggests that the recent contracts signed by Carlos Pena and Scott Kazmir are an indication that the Rays front office is committed to spending money and retaining the team’s talent. The contracts therefore are indications of the team’s commitment to winning.

By giving more than $24-million over three years to Carlos Pena and going up to nearly $4-million for a one-year, arbitration-avoiding deal with Scott Kazmir, the Rays on Friday put two of their best players under contract for the upcoming season.

And they may have put to rest questions about their commitment to assemble, and retain, a competitive team.

There is only one problem with this thinking. In the two contracts combined, the Tampa Bay Rays gained ONE extra season out of the two stars. The Rays have now “retained” the services of Pena and Kazmir for ONE additional season.

The Rays and Scott Kazmir agreed to a one-year contract, avoiding arbitration. And where would Kazmir be playing in 2008 if he had not signed the contract? THE TAMPA BAY FRIGGIN’ RAYS. Kazmir is arbitration-eligible. NOT a free agent. Unless the Rays decide to trade Kazmir, he will be playing for the Rays for the next three years. He does not have a choice. And avoiding arbitration probably saved the Rays a little money. Topkin does not seem to comprehend this. The Rays avoided arbitration with Kazmir. They have done nothing yet to retain his services beyond what he is already committed.

In the case of Carlos Pena, the Rays reached an agreement on a three-year contract. That deal does keep Pena in a Rays uniform for the first of what would have been his free agency years. Not three free agency years. Not five. Not seven. Pena is now locked into playing for the Rays for one more season than he would have been otherwise.

This is not a knock on the Tampa Bay Rays. They have shown this off-season that they are willing to spend money and that they will retain their young talent, IF THEY CAN DO SO FOR LESS THAN MARKET-VALUE. That is a commitment to the bottom-line. Not to the talent. Not to the team and not to the fans.

If Topkin wants to make this point, he can tell us about the Pena deal. It is not a huge commitment as it is just for one additional year. However, it is something. Topkin can also tell us about the Troy Percival deal and the Cliff Floyd deal. But please…please…don’t use the Kazmir-deal as an example of the team’s commitment to retaining talent and their commitment to winning. The deal has ZERO bearing on the Tampa Bay Rays in 2008, 2009 or 2010. It does however have a bearing on the 2011 Tampa Bay Rays in that as of now, the chances of Kazmir playing for the Rays beyond 2010 are now a little less.

Here is a suggestion. If and when the Rays reach an agreement with James Shields on a long-term contract, that goes into his free agency years…we want Marc Topkin to erase Kazmir’s name everywhere it appears in the article and replace it with the name “Shields”. Then he should resubmit the article to his editors, because only then will the article make any sense.

Rays paying it forward [St. Pete Times]

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…

• Gerry Hunsicker appeared on XM radio’s The Show. Among the topics covered were the recent signing of Carlos Pena to a three year contract and whether 2007 was a surprising performance. “I got to think in Carlos Pena’s case it wasn’t that he never showed the talent because that’s not true, we were the beneficiary’s of Carlos Pena coming to Tampa Bay where there is a little less pressure, the expectations for him might not have been as high and he felt very comfortable. He was given the opportunity to play through the ups and the downs and had a manager that had the confidence in him to put him in the lineup everyday“. Hmmm? A manager that had the confidence to put him in the lineup every day? Let’s see…He only made the roster out of Spring Training because Greg Norton was injured in the last week before the regular season. The Greg Norton. And Pena did not become the everyday first baseman until the second week of May because Joe Maddon was giving starts at first base to Ty Wigginton and Jorge Cantu. Yes folks. Papa Joe had so much confidence in Pena that he benched him in favor of Jorge freakin’ Cantu. [MLB on XM]
• Rays Anatomy offers two points-of-view on what to expect from Carlos Pena in 2008. [Rays Anatomy]

[THE HANGOVER] Justin Ruggiano Powers Team USA To Top Seed

Team USA 10, Chinese Taipei 7.
Justin Ruggiano and Evan Longoria helped Team USA clinch the top seed in the quarterfinals by leading the team to a win over Taipei in the final game of group play. Ruggiano went 3-5, hitting 2 home runs and driving in 5. He had an RBI single in the 4th that gave Team USA a 3-1 lead. In the 7th, Ruggiano broke a 6-6 tie with an opposite-field 3-run home run and added one more with a solo shot in the 9th inning. Longoria finished 3-5, with a double an RBI and 2 runs scored. Team USA will face Korea on Friday in the quarterfinals.

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…

• Florida Governor Charlie Crist is supporting the Rays plans to build a new ballpark on the current site of Al Lang Field on the St. Pete waterfront. While he supports the idea, he has yet to back the idea of a tax break on the construction of the new stadium, which may be key to getting the deal done. [tampabay.com]

“I think the opportunity to create an ambiance right on the waterfront in St. Petersburg is brilliant, I really do,” Crist told reporters in the state Capitol…”It provides jobs, jobs, jobs for a lot of people,” said Crist, whose rental condo in downtown St. Petersburg would be blocks from the new park.

• In a move that surprised nobody, the Rays picked up the $2.3 million option on Al Reyes and declined the $1 million option on Greg Norton. Reyes’ option was originally for $1 million but was upped once he hit certain incentive marks in 2007. [Yahoo! Sports]
• Sports Grumblings has analyzed the Rays farm system and has listed the top 10 prospects. Not much to argue with as the top tier of talent in the system seems pretty clear cut. We would probably still place Mitch Talbot in the top 10 despite a disappointing 2007 and we are not as sold on Jeremy Hellickson and Chris Mason as much as others are. Hellickson is a small right hander and those rarely succeed in the majors. Mason wins but he is a big right hander that does not throw hard, so there are still questions as to whether or not that will translate to the same level of success above AA. [Sports Grumblings]

[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]

The Hangover: The Rays Claim Two Bad Knees Off Of Waivers

Devil Rays (66-96)
Since when do the Rays need another outfielder with a history of leg problems and since when do the Rays need fewer experienced arms in the bullpen? The Rays claimed Chris Snelling off of waivers from the A’s. Jay Witasick was released to make room on the roster. It appears as though Snelling was released because he is the only person in professional baseball with legs worse than Rocco Baldelli. In 8 professional seasons he has been on the DL seven times, including…

• torn ACL (2002)
• knee surgery (2003)
• right knee tendinitus (2003)
• torn meniscus in the left knee (2005)
• surgery (2006)
• yet another knee surgery (2007).

Next June, when both Snelling and Rocco are on the DL, maybe they can take a trip to Aruba together and sit in the hot tub and compare scars.

Marc Topkin provides good background on the Rays new Aussie. [ tampabay.com]

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…

• A friend of mine that is Phillies fan, called me up after he heard the Phillies had named Chuck LaMar their Director of Professional Scouting, and asked me if he should be worried. I started laughing. It is a curious move by the Phillies. For all of LaMar’s faults, he did seem to be a competent evaluator of amateur talent. For the most part, he had a strong draft history with the Rays. On the other hand, this was the GM that was considered the worst GM in baseball to work with when it came to making trades, and the Phillies have him in charge of professional scouting, and he will provide input on trades for GM Pat Gillick. Strange move. [MLB]
• Dustin Pedroia was named Top Rookie by the players association and won the same award by the Sporting News as voted on by players and managers. [tampabay.com]
• Greg Norton has been a professional baseball player for 15 years. He wants to prove that he can repeat his 2006 performance when he hit .296 with 17 home runs in only 96 games. In those 15 seasons, he has only played in more than 120 games 5 times. It appears that 2007 was the norm and 2006 was the exception to the rule. [Devil Rays]

The Hangover: Will Jim Hickey’s Arrest Open Door For Xavier Hernandez?

Devil Rays (66-96)

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…

• The Rays 68-94 record was only 2 wins less than their expected final record. [Baseball Musings]
• Jim Hickey. We guess being the coach of one of the worst pitching staffs ever would be reason to drink, but it is not reason to drive and it is not reason to take your frustration out on the batboy. By the looks of the mugshot, Hickey lost the argument. [Lion in Oil]
• Jim Hickey’s arrest comes only days before the team is to decide whether he and the rest of the coaching staff will be retained in 2008. Hitting coach Steve Henderson is the most likely coach to come back. Before Sunday, we would have assumed that Hickey was a lock to be given at least one more season to work with the staff. However, after his DUI, the Rays may turn to their pitching coach-in-waiting, Xavier Hernandez, who is highly regarded for the work he has done the last two seasons at Montgomery and Durham and with whom many of the Rays younger pitchers are already familiar and comfortable with. [tampabay.com]
• Its difficult to make an assessment of Akinori Iwamura’s ability to play second base, based on one game and especially one play, but when the opportunity arrived to turn his first double play from the middle infield, Mu-Rah was flawless. [TBO]
• Scott Kazmir finished as the Major League leader in strikeouts. Of course that goes a long ways to explaining whe he led the majors with 6,432,867 pitches thrown. [Bradenton Herald]
• Carlos Pena was named the AL Player of the Week for the final week. [tampabay.com]
• Carlos Pena finished with 46 home runs in less than 500 at bats, which makes him the most underrated first baseman in baseball. “If Pena was a Red Sox or Yankee’s player he would finish second in MVP voting. Instead he was underrated.” Actually, if Pena was playing for almost any other team, he probably finishes second in the MVP voting. That is the mark of being underrated. [I’m smarter than you]
• ArmchairGM makes a case for considering Carlos Pena for MVP. [ArmchairGM]
• Carlos Pena is a finalist for the “Pepsi Clutch” award that goes to the clutchiest player. We agree that he is a worthy nominee, but we disagree with the notion that “few people knew of Pena before the year”. Anybody that follows baseball even remotely, knew of Pena as one of the top prospects in baseball a few years ago. [MLB]
• We have a feeling that Delmon Young will finish second in the Rookie of the Year balloting, but it will not be because of his outburst following Saturday’s game in which Joe Maddon pulled Young from the game for not running out a ground ball. Ballots for the award were due on either Sunday or Monday, which means most writers are likely to have already made their selections prior to Saturday. [Yahoo! Sports]
• It was a disastrous season for Korean baseball players. Of course, Jae Seo, Jae Kuk Ryu and Hee Seop Choi were all member of the Devil Rays at one point, so it is kind of like the Chicken and the Egg argument. [Korean Times]
• Greg Norton will have surgery on his elbow. A case can be made that Norton should share team MVP honors with Carlos Pena. If Norton had not gotten hurt the final week of Spring Training and was hitting well to start the season, it might have taken the team a while to call up Pena. [Devil Rays]
• Some of the players believe that the team is very close to competing. [tampabay.com]

“We don’t need much,” All-Star Carl Crawford said. “Maybe another starter and probably a little more bullpen help. Just three players and we’re right there. We’re right at the tip.”

• Marc Lancaster takes a look back at the 2007 season and hands out a bunch of awards, we like to call the Marckie Marcs. Our favorite category is “Veteran of the Year” for a team that has exactly 3 players over the age of 12. And then there is the “Most Frustrating Season”. He should just rename that one the “The Rocco”. He also looks ahead to what we can expect for 2008. [TBO]
• Marc Lancaster can’t wait for next year. We would take it a step further. We would like to replay this season with the group the Rays ended with. Playoff contender? probably not, but definitely not the worst team in the league and maybe a run at .500 would be in order. [TBO]
• Bill Chastain takes a look back at the 2007 season and calls the second half lineup “one of the best lineups in team history”. He also takes a look forward to 2008. [Devil Rays]
• Hey! It’s the off-season. It is time to start reading a million and one articles about how [Insert Team Name] should acquire Carl Craw
  ford and that the Rays would probably give him up for 20 rusty nickels. The Akron Beacon Journal wasted no time. [Ohio.com]

The Hangover: Are The Devil Rays Ready To Shake Up The Rotation?

Marlins 8, Devil Rays 4.
In baseball, momentum is only as good as tomorrow’s starting pitcher. The adage was never more evident than last night. The Rays came into the Marlins series riding high on a 4-game winning streak, their longest of the season and by the end of the third inning, Edwin Jackson had already exited stage-left after allowing 7 runs. The Rays have had their share of heart-breaking head-shaking losses. This was not one of them. In fact this one wasn’t painful at all. Rather by the middle of the third inning, it was actually laughable at how bad Jackson was. 7 hits and 3 walks. 62 pitches, only 34 strikes. An 0-6 record and a 7.78 ERA.

We are not basing this on anything but a gut feeling, but it would not surprise us if Jackson is removed from the rotation and relegated to the bullpen. Tim Corcoran would then be sent back to Durham with one of the Durham starters called up to take Jackson’s place. The next obvious question is “which one?” We understand there is a groundswell of support to promote Andy Sonnanstine, but that is not likely to happen, despite his 2.05 ERA and 57 to 9 strikeout to walk ratio. Keep in mind that Sonnanstine is not on the 40-man roster. While there are candidates to be removed from the 40-man to make room (cough, cough Gary Glover, cough cough), the team won’t until they have to, and there are other options at Durham that are already on the 40-man.

The most likely candidate is Jeff Niemann. Before last night, Niemann was pitching on the same pitching schedule as Jackson. However, Niemann’s start last night was rained out and his start was pushed back to tonight. Still, with an off-day on Monday, the Rays could still have Niemann slotted into Jackson’s spot and be on full rest for the series finale against the Mariners on Thursday.

Actually, the more we think about it, the more this makes sense. his first start would be at home against a team with a mediocre offense. It is a mid-week afternoon game that would normally have an anemic attendance figure and the debut of Niemann would give ticket sales a boost. Niemann would also not be forced to pitch in Chicago against the White Sox as his next start would come at home against the Tigers.

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…

• The Hardball Times points out that the Rays infield defense has been horrible and not just because BJ Upton thinks Manute Bol is playing first base.

if there is one thing young pitchers need for their confidence, it’s good fielding behind them. And the Devil Rays’ infield defense is horrid. Compared to the average team, their infield has allowed 29 groundballs to go through for base hits, a staggering amount. If they had an average infield, they’d probably have two more wins on the ledger, and they’d be giving their pitchers a much-needed confidence boost.

• These stats always make us chuckle. On Thursday, Delmon Young became only the third player in major league history to hit 2 home runs in 1 game including a walk-off home run before his 22nd birthday. On a side not, he is the first player in majoe league history to do it in the month of May while wearing a green jersey while the moon was lined up with Aries.
• In Thursday’s victory, Scott Kazmir felt his fastball and slider were finally coming around. Unfortunately, and stop us if you have herd this before, He had to be removed from the game after 4 innings because he had already thrown…Thought you might have.
• Greg Norton had two walks and a single in his first action of the season.

The Hangover: Delmon Young Is Heating Up

Devil Rays 8, Rangers 6.
Forgve us for getting all “scouty” on you, but we just want to take a moment to point out how smart a hitter Delmon Young is becoming. Here is the pitch sequence before his walk-off home run in the 10th inning.

1. Fastball up and in…Ball 1
2. Fastball up and in…Swing and miss
3. Slider low and away….foul tip (count: 1-2)
4. Hanging slider…fouled back (count: 1-2)
5. Fastball up…Ball 2 (count: 2-2)

We have a situation here where a young pitcher is pitching to Delmon by the book. Delmon doesn’t walk and loves to swing the bat. He is a first-ball fastball hitter in the classic sense. The young pitcher also knows that Delmon could end the game with one swing and already has one home run on the night. So, all Eyre is throwing Delmon are fastballs up and out of the strike zone and “safe” sliders low-and-away. He gets Delmon to chase one of the fastballs. After the 4th pitch, Delmon is locked in. He now knows that he won’t get a fastball in the strikezone so he adjusts his swing. He knows that the pitcher is either going to try to get him to chase a fastball out of the strike zone or he is going to try and paint the outside corner, where the worst scenario is a single to right and best case scenario is a swing-and-miss or a ground ball to the left side of the infield for a double-play (a batter that tries to pull an outside pitch will hit a weak groundball to the left 90% of the time). Delmon is not going to chase another fastball up. So now he is locked in on the slider away. Sure enough, he gets another slider away on pitch 6. It wasn’t a great slider, but it wasn’t a “hanger” either. Delmon went with the pitch and he is strong enough to get it over the fence down the right field line.

The Rays are now 18-22 and only 2 games behind The Charlie Hough Line. They have reached this point with very little contribution from Rocco Baldelli and Delmon Young, two players that were being counted on to carry this team at the beginning of the season. Rocco is on the DL now, but Young is 6-12 in the past three games. If Delmon can start cookin’, this team will start scoring in bunches.

Speaking of being on fire. Brendan Harris is now hitting 17-41 (.415) over the past 10 games and was 9-14 in the Rangers series. He has his average up to .358 with a .402 OBP. This is a guy that many thought wouldn’t even make the team out of spring training. When the Rays decided to keep Harris and send Jorge Cantu to Durham many thought that Rays management were over-thinking the situation. We don’t hear anybody complaining now.

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…

• Jayson Stark is reporting that the Rays are entertaining the idea of promoting Evan Longoria and Reid Brignac before the trading deadline. This increases the likelihood of a position player being traded during the season.
• Rocco Baldelli is back on the DL and Greg Norton has been activated. After an MRI, the injury did not appear to be as severe as first thought. Still, no word on when Rocco may be able to return.
• the Rays current 4-game winning streak was the first of Joe Maddon’s career as manager. The Rays won 4-straight once in 2006, but Maddon was not present for two of those games.
• We agree. Rocco’s home address should 123 Disabled List.
• The third game for the series in Orlando drew the biggest crowd at 9,635 and the set averaged 8,806. Pretty safe to say the Rays will be back in 2008.
• Tonight is “Legends of Wrestling” night at the Trop. At first we hung our head in shame, but then we saw THIS picture. Ohhh Raymond.
• Let’s start the Mock Drafting!

The Hangover: The Rays May Never Come Home

Devil Rays 11, Rangers 8.
Last night’s win marked the first time since August 23 of last season that the Rays have won 3 straight. That 3 game streak also came at the hands of Rangers at the Trop when Tampa Bay won the the first 3 of a 4-game set. It was also a season-high in runs scored and only the second time this year the Rays have hit double-digits on the scoreboard. The bright news was that only 1 run came via the home run, when Elijah Dukes connected on the first pitch of the first inning. The Rays are second in the AL in home runs (45) but only rank 9th in batting average (.257) and 10th in OBP (.322). As a result they have fallen to 8th in runs scored (176). Home runs will only carry an offense so far especially when most of those home runs are of the solo variety. The offense has been good, but they need to be more consistent at getting on base and getting timely basehits. Last night they were able to that.

Tonight Scott Kazmir goes to the mound and will try to give the Rays a 4-game winning streak for the first time since May 21 of last season when the Rays completed a 3-game sweep of the Marlins after taking the final game versus the White Sox. Manager Joe Maddon missed two of those while attending his girlfriend’s graduation. He has never been apart of a 4-game winning streak as manager of the Rays.

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…

• USA Today takes a look at the Rays three young studs, BJ Upton, Elijah Dukes and Delmon Young. This time it is actually a positive look.

Meanwhile, another story is brewing in Tampa Bay, where the perennially future-looking Devil Rays are still looking ahead, but also making strides in the present, thanks in large part to a talented trio.

• Sammy Sosa hit his 597th home run and extended his own record of number of different ballparks in which he has homered, with the Wide World of Sports stadium becoming #45.
• Rocco Baldelli is headed back to the DL. This will likely give Jorge Cantu two more weeks to show that he is indeed a major league hitter…delaying the inevitable.
• Carlos Pena is 14-28 in the past 9 games. Think he hears Greg Norton’s footsteps?
• Greg Norton will workout at the Naimoli Complex rather than continue with his rehab assignment. Akinori Iwamura is projected to play in an extended spring training game next Tuesday or Wednesday.

The Hangover: Hey Rays. You Just Won One in A Row. Where Are You Going?

Yesterday our performance was about as effective as Seth McClung in pretty much any role above AAA. We speculated that the Rays would have to soon decide between keeping Carlos Pena or Greg Norton on the major league roster. We did not consider that Greg Norton cannot be sent down to Durham without clearing waivers. We also completely forgot about Jonny Gomes (considering the amount of playing time he receives, can you blame us?). Now it seems fairly obvious that when Iwamura returns, Gomes will be the one headed to Durham. We don’t call this “The Hangover” for no reason.

This does not mean that Norton is completely off the hook in this situation. So far during Norton’s rehab assignment at AA Montgomery, the Biscuits have played 10 games. During that period Norton has missed 3 games and was the DH in 5 others. He has only been able to play first base 2 times as he is still experiencing soreness in his knee. Despite being eligible to come off the DL, it will be at least a few more days until he rejoins the team. Of course, with the emergence of Pena, there is no need to rush Norton and if his knee is not 100%, it would not surprise us if Norton is placed back remains on the DL for two more weeks, and has his rehab assignment cut short.

Tonight the Devil Rays open a series against the Rangers in Orlando at the Disney World complex. We are not really sure what to think about it. We understand the reasoning behind it, as the organization hopes to expose the Rays to new fans in central Florida. A Rays home game outside will be a nice change but we are sorry if the idea does not excite us. We have been to a few spring training games in Orlando and it is a nice park, but we have a feeling that tonight’s game is going to look and feel like a spring training game.

Now there is talk about making this an annual event. However, the players and coaches would prefer that it not happen at all.

It’s a couple more nights in a hotel for most of the team, with the exception of area residents like first baseman Carlos Pena and pitching coach Jim Hickey; and getting used to a new infield, outfield and pitcher’s mound. It’s a remarkable amount of work for the support staff, from Chris Westmoreland and his clubhouse crew attempting to create a major-league environment in a spring training stadium to head trainer Ron Porterfield arranging for all the various medical services to be in place, including having ambulances on hand and a hospital designated just in case anyone needs to be rushed to emergency surgery.

Given a choice, just about everyone involved on the logistical side probably would rather play at Tropicana Field…

But hey…Goofy couldn’t be any worse than half of the team’s bullpen.

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…

• Despite his recent struggles, Rocco Baldelli will continue to lead off for the Rays.
• The use of Disney’s Wide World of Sports baseball field (capacity 9,500) will be the smallest ballpark to host a regular season game since the A’s were forced to start the 1996 season with six games in Las Vegas (capacity 9,000) due to renovations at their home park.

Down On The Farm: Andy Sonnanstine Doing What He Does Best

Durham 3, Norfolk 2. All AndySonnanstine does is win. Sonnanstine worked into the 8th inning and gave up only 2 runs on 5 hits and no walks. He struck out 5. In the first 7 innings, he gave up only 3 hits including a solo home run. Shawn Riggans was 2-4 with a 2-run home run.

Tennessee 9, Montgomery 0. Chris Mason had his second straight bad start after a strong beginning to the season. He gave up 7 runs (5 earned) in 4.1 innings.

Clearwater 3, Vero Beach 1. Wade Davis gave up 1 run in 5.2 innings but struggled with his control as he walked 4 and gave up 4 hits.

Columbus 4, Augusta 0. Ryan Royster continues to tear up the SALy with his 5th home run to go along with his .352 batting average. Woods Fines pitched 6 scoreless innings.

NOTES FROM DOWN ON THE FARM…

• Greg Norton was back in the lineup after missing two of the previous three games with a sore knee.