[HOT STOVE RUMORS] The Rays Are Not Talking To The A’s About Joe Blanton

This is what we hate about baseball’s new “Hot Stove League”…

By now most of you have heard about the Rays supposed interest in Oakland’s Joe Blanton.

First let’s go back to the original source. Ken Rosenthal of FoxSports had a video report in which he talks about the possibility of the A’s trading Blanton.

From the report:

At least two teams are showing significant interest in Blanton, one of which figures to be the Reds…The Twins, desperate for a veteran starting pitcher, could be one possibility for Blanton. The Rays, deep in prospects, could be another.

It was just a guess. Pure speculation. Never mind that there are about 20 reasons not to make this trade.

Seems like a non-story right? Apparently not. We get 800 words from Rays Anatomy, and we get not one, but two posts from DRays Bay, including 750 words from RJ Anderson.

In Anderson’s defense, he actually takes the stance that the trade would be a bad idea (he is right), but both RA and DRB write their pieces as if the Rays are indeed talking to the A’s about a trade, despite a lack of evidence to suggest this is true.

from Rays Anatomy:

Having made one move for Matt Garza earlier this off-season, general manager Andrew Friedman is once again in the mix for another possible arm to add to the starting staff.

from DRays Bay:

I’m not going to divulge into the price for him, because like everyone outside of the Oakland and Tampa offices I simply have no clue what it is or will be.

Anderson does refer to the talks as “Joe Blanton rumors”, but the only reason it is a “rumor” in the first place is because these sites misrepresented the words of one person. Besides, does a rumor that has zero merit require 750 words? For comparison, most Rays columns in the Tampa Tribune and the St. Pete Times run between 500-600 words, and those are rarely based on the whimsical guessing of a FoxSports.com writer.

This is not meant as a referendum on either of these two sites. If a writer thinks trading for Blanton is a good idea or a bad idea, they should tell us that and why. But there is no need to present this as something that may actually happen when there is zero evidence that it actually could.

This is something that is not restricted to blogs. In fact journalists are also guilty, more so because of their wider audiences. Joel Sherman of the New York Post wrote an article in which he speculated that the Rays would trade Scott Kazmir this off-season. His source? “An executive familiar with Tampa’s thinking”. For all we know, he talked to the VP of a Starbucks. Next thing we knew the rumor was everywhere, that the Rays were seeking to trade Kazmir.

In today’s baseball landscape, everybody loves a good rumor. But many are not careful as to how they handle those rumors, turning something as simple as one person’s “guess” into a full-fledged trade negotiation between two teams.

We understand it is a slow news week, but we owe it to Rays fans to report the happenings in the Raysiverse accurately and fairly. A typical fan that reads these sites should not have to take the time to read the original source. They should be able to read articles like these and know that the “rumor” was never so. Otherwise, we have to deal with a dozen emails asking us what we think about Blanton, which makes us write 600 words on why the rumors are toilet, when we would rather be talking about how hot Ben Zobrists’ wife is.

By the way…the second team that Rosenthal was trying to guess? It was the Dodgers.

Why Trade For Joe Blanton? [Rays Anatomy]
Rays Interested In Blanton? [DRays Bay]
A Game of Large, Grotesque Shadows [DRays Bay]
Scott-Stove League [New York Post]
Blanton May Be Traded [MLB Trade Rumors]

[THE HANGOVER] Rays Claim To Be Losing Money Despite Revenue Sharing That Exceeds Payroll

Tampa Bay Rays (19 days until pitchers and catchers report)
Just links today on Bob Eucker’s birthday, the 10th anniversary of “I did not have sexual relations with that woman“, Australia Day, and National Peanut Brittle Day. We will celebrate by cooking some peanut brittle with our grandmother, and then hooking up with an overweight girl at an Outback Steakhouse while sitting in the front row.

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…

• Matthew Silverman claims the Rays are losing money. This is despite a report in Forbes that claims the opposite. We always take a team’s assertion with a very large grain of salt. Just about every owner in every sport claims they are losing money and yet people that are very smart when it comes to money keep buying them. Many times, making money or losing money is often a matter of perspective. For example, teams that own their own stadium, often list “rent” as an expense since the stadium is usually listed as a separate business. So even though the money is just going out of one pocket and into the other, the team still lists the rent as an expense for the team. This doesn’t work in the case of the Rays, but we have to wonder if they are considering the $30+ million in revenue sharing that the team received last year. We do not know what the Rays exact take was in revenue sharing for 2007, but the team was given more that $30 million in 2006. With a 2007 opening day payroll of approximately $28 million, it is fair to say the Rays took in more Revenue Sharing then they spent on payroll. We are not accountants, but it seems to us that it would require some pretty fuzzy math to show how the Devil Rays lost money in 2007. [365 Days of Dough, Rays and Me]
  
• We participated with several other Rays’ bloggers in a “round table” discussion at Rays Anatomy in which we tackled the question “Who is the one player that is MOST important to the Rays future success?” [Rays Anatomy]
• The Heater got their hands on Baseball America’s complete list of the Rays top 30 prospects. We were treated to the Top 10 about two weeks ago, so this list just adds 20 players of which one or two will ever wear a Tampa Bay Rays uniform. [TampaBay.com]
• Kevin Gengler continues his rundown of his own list of the Rays Top 30 prospects. He is up to #18 and #17, Justin Ruggiano and Josh Butler. If you looked up AAAA-player in the dictionary of baseball you will see a picture of Justin Ruggiano holding his hands out saying “but I am above-average at a lot of things”. And that will keep him from selling cars for a few more years. He could be serviceable as a fourth outfielder on a lot of teams, but he does not have the skill-set to be an everyday major leaguer. Butler on the other hand we feel is flying a bit under the radar. He was the second-round pick the year the Rays selected Evan Longoria. He was solid last season, if not spectacular, in his first full season split between Columbus and Vero Beach. We will get a better idea of what he is this year once he makes his AA debut. [DRays Bay]
• Jim Callis took the top ranked prospect from each organization and ranked those 30 players. Evan Longoria comes in at #4. [Baseball America]
  
• Bill Chastain tries to rankle our feathers by devoting an entire column to the Rays’ attempt to keep the young talent in place. Luckily for Chastain, he waited until after the Rays signed James Shields and he includes speculation that the Rays will attempt similar deals with Scott Kazmir and BJ Upton. Nice try Bill. I’m not biting on this one. In fact if somebody was going to write an article on this topic, this is the way it needed to be done. [DevilRays.com]
• Derek Feldkamp tries to rebound from a poor 2007. Interestingly, Feldkamp feels more comfortable in the bullpen even though the team continues to utilize him as a starter. Used primarily as a relief pitcher at the University of Michigan, Feldkamp saved 15 games in his pro debut at Hudson Valley in 2005. Since then, the Rays have used him primarily as a starter. [The Daily-Telegram]
  

[DEVIL RAYS BLOGS] New Rays Blogger Looks At The Raysiverse Through Pinstripe-Tinted Glasses

That new Rays blogger over at MVN and Rays Anatomy that we mentioned last week? He is a Yankees fan.

Sweet Fancy Moses!

Eric SanInocencio was actually born in the Bronx. Having lived in the Bronx ourselves for a time, we can tell you…this is going to be fun…Well, it will be fun if you are the sort of person that thinks pissing in your own bed is “fun”.

And the bed-pissing has already begun. He hasn’t been on duty for a month yet, and he has already written a post about payroll. If you have been with us for a while we NEV-ER bitch about payroll, but the last thing in the world we need is for a Yankees fan to preach to us about the Rays payroll.

While most major league team’s salaries range from 50-100 million, there are some that are resemble a fine wine (Yanks 189 million) and others that look like a case of Milwaukee’s Best (Rays 24 million).

Of course that fine wine must be a little sour as it has earned the Yankees fewer championships in the last seven years than two expansion franchises (1 each from the D-Backs and the Marlins) and the same number as the Devil Rays. Then again we do like Milwaukee’s Best better than a few fine wines that we have tasted in our day…especially when cost is factored in.

Tampa on the other hand has to compete with not only the “Evil Empire” but “Red Sox Nation” which checks in at number two in the payroll scale with a total salary collection of 143 million. Talk about unfair. You’ll never hear the players or ownership say it, but this is definitely a Mount Everest type of climb to respectability.

Really? There is payroll disparity in the AL East? We had no idea. Thank goodness there was a Yankees fan there to keep us informed.

The Rays may not be able to climb Mt Everest as often as the Yankees can climb Mt. Ant Hill…but when the Rays reach the top, the Ray will achieve respectability the Yankees can only dream of.

In fairness, Mr. SanInocencio appears to be a good writer, albeit a long-winded one, and on the surface he appears to know his stuff and the model for his blog is unique and refreshing. Still we are withholding our final judgment until we can know for certain whether Rays Anatomy can separate their pinstripes from their writing. It is a whole new ballgame with the Rays. A typical Yankees fan sees a hole in their lineup and thinks the rest of baseball is their own personal minor league system, and asks “which future hall-of-famer, perennial all-star, is now obligated to come fill our hole?”

We hope that Mr. SanInocencio realizes that things don’t work that way in the Raysiverse. Andrew Friedman and Co. are trying to build a winning baseball team, not a Tiffany’s display case.

Jonny Gomes Never Saw A Pitch He Didn’t Like [Rays Index]
Hey Fellas, Can You Spare A Dollar? Maybe 170 Million? (Payroll Fun) [Rays Anatomy]