Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

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.

Your Weekly Rays Update

Overall: 45-31
Last Week: CHI Cubs (3-0), Houston (1-2)
This Week: @ Miami, @ Pitt

Normally the first paragraph is saved for the results of last week but today’s news about the 2 year delay on a new stadium referendum deserves top billing. City and council officials claim that they need more time to study alternative sites for a new stadium but let’s call this what it is, political cowardice. The Al Lang Field site is the best location for a new stadium and would be a boon to local businesses in downtown St Pete. By delaying the vote all city and county officials are doing is raising the eventual cost of the stadium. It all increases the likelihood that Rays management will consider alternative locations of their own, in Orlando or Charlotte.

Boston………….48—32 __ .600
Tampa Bay…45—31 __ .592
New York……..41—36 __ .532
Baltimore…….39—36 __ .520
Toronto……….37—41 __ .474

On the bright side, the Rays swept the Cubbies who have the best record in baseball. That means the Rays have swept both of the teams from Chicago this season. Evan Longoria played exceptionally well last week, and the Rays’ long term deal with the Dirtbag is looking smarter and smarter by the day. Not only can he hit for power and average but he plays some of the better defense on the team.

By the way, does anyone else like the throw back St Pete Pelicans jerseys from the Senior League? Sure the league only existed for two years (1989-1990) but they do look snazzy.

STADIUM UPDATE
In addition to the news about the two year delay mentioned above, the SCB blog uncovered a bit of misinformation by POWW, the group opposed to the new stadium. It appears that the POWW altered the image of the new stadium to make it look larger that it would really be. The POWW has consistently played fast and loose with the truth and it’s a shame for the city they will count the two year delay as a win.

BLOG FEUD
DRays Bay and Rays Index are the twin giants of the Rays blogosphere, which is why it makes for interesting times when the two go at each other, as they do several times during the year. This time around Rays Index took issue with a DRays Bay post claiming Rays bandwagon fans to be dumb.

RUMOR OF THE WEEK
The week before it was Griffey coming to St Pete, now it’s Indians pitcher CC Sabathia being traded to the Rays. While these rumors are fun there is about a 0.5% chance they ever happen. CC Sabathia is the reigning AL Cy Young winner and would cost too much for a player likely to only be here in the short term.

You see what I did there? That’s called a bad pun. It’s kinda like what the St Pete Times did with this headline, “Buc’s Cadillac Williams Sprinting Towards Recovery.” Get it? Cadillac is both metaphorically and actually sprinting towards recovery. Touché Times.

In the article Cadillac reassures fans that he will be back this season, which would be somewhat miraculous considering the severity of Cadillac’s injury. Browns center LeCharles Bentley is still recovering from a torn petellar tendon injury suffered two years ago. This is the injury that ended Alonzo Mourning’s career. To Cadillac’s credit he has more going for him, he’s younger and has had an easier rehab than Bentley. But that being written, even if Cadillac returns this season he would not be anywhere close to 100%. But if I had to wager my bet would be we’re going to see a lot more of Earnest Graham and even Warrick Dunn this season than we will see Cadillac.

Although I would love to be wrong about that.

By the by, the Bucs are in the middle of minicamp right now, which is the first chance to see how the rookies and other young players compete against the veterans. I’m not going to spend much time on the minicamps but for some of the best updates go check out BucStats.com (snark included).

Your Weekly Rays Update

Overall: 40-29
Last Week: @ LA Angels (1-2), Marlins (2-1)
This Week: CHI Cubs, Houston

After a rough road trip where they went 3-6, the Rays returned home to begin interleague play against the other surprise Florida team, the Marlins. It’s troubling that this young team still has a losing record on the road (14-18) but a strong showing against the Cubbies after winning the Marlins series would put the Rays back on track.

Boston………….44—28 __ .611
Tampa Bay…40—29 __ .580
New York……..37—33 __ .529
Baltimore…….34—34 __ .500
Toronto……….35—36 __ .493

No story is more overplayed than Lou Piniella’s return to St Pete, who was never a good fit for the Rays in the first place. As likable as Sweet Lou is, he never had the patience to deal with a young team going through a good deal of growing pains. Although to Lou’s credit he also had to deal with a much more incompetent management group.

RUMOR OF THE WEEK
Ken Griffey to the Rays - Griffey’s announcement that he would waive his no trade clause to be traded to Rays sent the internet all a flutter but will likely amount to nothing after Griffey’s agent denied the rumor. The blogs have had a mixed reaction to the news with DRays Bay adamantly opposed to it and Rays Index kinda for it.

YOUTUBE OF THE WEEK
Kaz Brings the Heat - I assume this one has been getting a good deal of local play, but last week was the first time I’ve seen it. I have a good deal of questions for who ever directed this video, but first and foremost: why are the two young ladies grilling 16 hotdogs? Are they preparing for a hot dog eating contest?

STADIUM UPDATE
No big news on the stadium front but the Times ran a special report where three Times staffers walked to Al Lang from parking lot locations downtown. This isn’t exactly breaking news but parking a few blocks from the stadium and walking isn’t going to hurt any Rays fans.

[Is It Football Season Yet?] Phil Steele has released his annual college football guide, which is often confused with the Bible by college football bloggers. Steele surprisingly has the Bulls ranked 8th just ahead of Georgia, with the Gators coming in at #1. USF’s ranking seems a bit ambitious considering they lost the keystones to last year’s defense, cornerbacks Mike Jenkins and Trae Williams.

[Now Find A Head Coach] Congrats to Vinny Lecavalier for winning the King Clavy Memorial Trophy last night, which is awarded for a player’s charity work. Lecavalier has guaranteed a contribution of $3 million to pediatric cancer patients at All Childrens Hospital in St Pete through his foundation, creatively named the Vinny Lecavalier Foundation.

[Sawx Pitcher Inserts Foot Into Mouth] Boston Pitcher Jonathan Papelbon has promised payback for the brawl, which was started by a Boston player. In other news President Nixon has promised revenge for Watergate, and General Custer has sworn vengeance for Little Bighorn.

Custer: Still Annoyed Those Pesky Injuns Fought Back

[Bring On The Fish] In some real baseball news, for the first time in the series history the Miami Marlins (36-30) and Rays (38-28) both meet with winning records. And while we’re talking Rays go check out the 3-D video model showing what the proposed stadium would look like. Call me crazy but I like the look of the stadium along the waterfront.

Tommy’s out of town and away from the intertubes so I will be doing my best to fill in until he returns. As I began writing on this site about the Bucs I figure I will stay in my wheelhouse for this post. And I will try to refrain from making anymore Nazi references (too soon I guess).

Two of the Bucs key players from last season have given their best “Show Me the Money!” pitches and so far GM Bruce Allen has done his best job to ignore them. Jeff Garcia is in a difficult situation since he has at best two or three more years of football left to play and he likely realizes this is his last chance to cash in. But considering he will be paid a base salary of $2 million with a $750,000 bonus I would be surprised if Bruce Allen reworks Garcia’s contract to add a good deal more money.

Earnest Graham’s contract squabbles are even more unlikely to be solved since Graham seems convinced he is better than he really is. The Football Outsiders had an interesting article on Graham where they basically conclude he is a power runner who owes most of his success to a dominant offensive line. Grahams runs well between the tackles and is an above average receiver for a running back but needs to be paired with a smaller, speed back to be successful. In essence Graham is the same runner as Mike Alstott, which is probably why Jon Gruden brought in Warrick Dunn.

On a positive note ESPN.com pays some glory to Derrick Brooks, naming him among the greatest linebackers ever. I will go one step better and name Brooks the greatest Tampa Two linebacker ever. Before Brooks the great linebackers were either bigger run stuffers (i.e. Dick Butkus) or pass rushers (i.e. Lawrence Taylor). Brooks is undersized for his position and fits neither of these categories of all time great ‘backers. Instead he belongs to a newer generation of ‘backers who have developed in response to west coast and other pass-heavy offenses.

The Big Lead gives me a good excuse to bring up the travashamockery that is the Bucs Official Message Board. For those who don’t read The Big Lead daily (and if you follow sports I would recommend doing so) they recently reported that the message board on Buccaneers.com has threatened to ban people who mentioned Jerramy Stevens checkered past. This comes as no surprise to people who have visited the Bucs message board in the past, calling that board’s moderators Nazis is an insult to Hitler.

The Buccaneers.com moderators use the excuse that they are a family-oriented site and can’t allow words like “sexual assault” and “date-rape drug” offend their readers delicate sensibilities. The board’s mods have frequently used this excuse to ban people, I was banned some two years ago for mentioning the reason Michael Vick was called Ron Mexico. Citizens in China have more freedom of expression than fans on the Buccaneers.com message board.

In response to fans discussing the Seattle Times article about Jerramy Stevens, Convicted of assault and accused of rape, star player received raft of second chances, TBB Mod V wants you to Please read re: The Stevens article

The article is not allowed to be discussed on these boards.

The only reasons for this are:

1. If linked to, it will contains words which are censored here, and will thus be consided by-passing the censors.

2. The article brings up, to paraphrase, forcing someone into sexual activities. That topic is not allowed here.

Anyone posting the article, or linking to it, will be suspended. This does not mean you are not allowed to disuss Stevens, however, let’s keep 1 and 2 out of it, shall we?

This is a warning as much as a favor.
__________________
TBB Mod V,
TBB BBS Staff

Let’s call this shameful behavior for what it is, a power trip by a couple of message board moderators with the combined common sense of Hulk Hogan’s son. If the Bucs are going to re-sign Stevens, then they should be prepared to deal with the backlash of that decision, not find ways to silence their critics.

If you are looking for a Bucs message board I suggest stopping by the Pewter Report Forum, which features ten times the intelligence with none of the censorship.

Censorship reflects society’s lack of confidence in itself. It is a hallmark of an authoritarian regime.

- Justice Potter Stewart

(By the by, if you are unfamiliar with the allegations leveled against Stevens, you may want to read that Seattle Times article from early this year.)

The Weekly Rays Update

Overall: 37-26
Last Week: @ Boston (0-3), @ Texas (2-1)
This Week: @ LA Angels, Miami Marlins

It was a roller coaster week for the Rays, with some embarrassing lows and promising highs. For convenience’s sake we will list the big events in the Rays Universe from the past week.

• St Pete City Council votes “yes” on first of three votes needed to put the Stadium referendum on the November ballot.
• Rays select Tim Beckham first overall in the draft.
• Rays and Sawx engage in a bench clearing brawl.
• Matt Garza and Dioner Navarro get in a scuffle in the dugout.

I thought the brawl in Boston would be good for a young Rays team since it would help cement the “us versus the world” mentality often exhibited by champion teams, most recently by another team popular in Boston, i.e. the Patriots. But it appears the Rays passion backfired on Sunday when Garza and Navarro exchanged heated words.

The Rays blogs disagree on who is to blame, some say Navarro, some say Garza, but I will throw Joe Maddon’s name in the mix. As the manager Maddon sets the tone for the team when he yells at Coco Crisp from the dugout. To Maddon’s credit he walks a fine line between keeping his team motivated and being labeled an instigator, a line which if often blurred.

Boston………….40—26 __ .606
Tampa Bay…37—26 __ .587
New York……..32—31 __ .508
Toronto……….33—32 __ .508
Baltimore…….31—31 __ .500

After being swept by the Red Sox the Rays are now 0-6 in Boston for the season. The Rays recovered well by taking the Texas road series but the Rays would solidify their resume as a potential playoff team by winning the series against the Angels, who have the best record in the AL.

STADIUM UPDATE
As mentioned above the Rays stadium plan cleared the first of three hurdles when the St Pete city council voted “yes” to put the stadium referendum on the ballot. Two more city council votes remain with a “no” majority vote all that is needed to derail the stadium. Additionally, Bud Selig promised St Pete an All-Star game if a new stadium is built.

DRAFT RECAP
I’m not going to even pretend to know what I’m talking about with the baseball draft; more than any other major draft it is fraught with high-ranked players who never pan out, and lowly ranked players who become all stars. But it appeared that the Rays went with the more highly skilled shortstop over the more certain catching prospect. Rays Index and DRays Bay have much more thorough recaps of the first day of the draft.

RAYS PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Willy Aybar: 2 RBIs, .385 for the week
Tough week to pick a Rays MVP when there are only 2 wins. Scott Kazmir would also be a good choice but this week’s honor goes to Aybar who scored the go ahead runs in the second win against the Rangers.