rays have the best record in baseball (again)

Your Weekly Rays Update

Overall: 50-32
Last Week: Miami (3-0), Pitt (2-1)
This Week: Boston, KC

For the second stretch this year the Rays have built the best record in baseball, an accomplishment which almost defies logic when you think how far the Rays have come in less than a year. After all, this is the same team which hung up the worst record last year. The central pieces for the Rays have not changed; Scott Kazmir, James Shields, Carl Crawford, and BJ Upton were on this team last year. Instead the Rays added pieces on the margins, such as closer Troy Percival, pitcher Matt Garza, and shortstop Jason Bartlett.

Tampa Bay…50—32 __ .610
Boston………….50—35 __ .588
New York……..44—39 __ .530
Baltimore…….41—40 __ .506
Toronto……….41—43 __ .488

Crawford’s numbers have been down this season, which is why it’s great to see the Rays clubhouse leader have a showing like he did against the Marlins last week. En route to beating the downstate team 15-3 Crawford had 2 homeruns and 5 RBIs. Crawford’s batting average has been down this year (.274) from career average (.294).

FREE DONUTS
Since I no longer live in St Pete I was unaware of this promotion until The Sports Frog brought it to my attention but Dunkin Donuts in the Bay area have been giving away free donuts every time the Rays win. Chalk that up to a promotion which sounded good 3 months ago. (And kudos to Oiler for the Homer pic.)

ST PETE, NOT TAMPA
It drives me nuts when people mention the Rays play in Tampa. I caught one of the lead anchors for Sports Center do this last night when they went to their “reporter in Tampa” for the Rays-Sawx game. St Pete already has enough of a Jen Brady/Marsha complex going on with Tampa as it is.

LONGORIA, PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Following up a .433, 3 HR, 10 RBI week Evan Longoria has been named AL Player of the Week. It was mentioned above the Rays have succeeded with largely the same core group of players above, but Longoria is the exception to that notion. Since being called up a few weeks into the season the Dirtbag leads the team in home runs and RBIs.