Tampa Bay Rays

There were possibilities elsewhere, but Derek Shelton said he couldn't pass on the chance to coach a Tampa Bay Rays lineup that led the majors in stolen bases and set club records for home runs, walks and runs this season.

While most of the effort to keep the Tampa Bay Rays has focused on a new ballpark, the A Baseball Community Coalition focused on the remainder of the mission it set in June 2008: reaching out to build community, corporate and fan support.

The Chicago Cubs are pushing the Tampa Bay Rays to take bad-boy outfielder Milton Bradley off their hands for Pat Burrell, according to the Chicago Sun Times. The talk of a deal isn't new, but it appears the Cubs want to move quickly, possibly as one of the first official acts of new owner Tom R...

The Tampa Bay Rays and Chicago Cubs are supposedly talking trade about unhappy outfielder Milton Bradley,...

The playoff-bound New York Yankees finished the regular season with a 10-2 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays.

Leftfielder Carl Crawford wants to stay with the Tampa Bay Rays but he wants a long-term extension from the team...

Related articles from seattlepi.com.

James Shields carried a shutout into the eighth inning, Ben Zobrist hit a three-run homer and the Tampa Bay Rays extended the Baltimore Orioles' losing streak to 13 games with a 5-3 victory on Wednesday night.

Baseball fans and teammates in the dugout cheer as Texas Rangers' Marlon Byrd(notes) (22) Ian Kinsler(notes) (5) and Craig Gentry(notes) (68) walk to the dugout following Kinsler's three run home run off of Tampa Bay Rays' Grant Balfour(notes) that scored Gentry and Byrd in the eighth...

The Tampa Bay Rays currently have a lineup that would make $70 million collectively next season, thanks to the...

The Tampa Bay Rays will open their 2010 season at home April 6 against the Orioles, then host the Yankees the first weekend of the season, based on the schedule to be released by Major League Baseball today. It will be the first time since 2005 the Rays will begin a campaign at Tropicana Field.

The Red Sox rotation is rolling just in time. After a stretch of injury and inconsistency, Boston's starters have given up three runs or less in the last seven games. In the last three over a 24-hour span, they allowed a total of two runs in a three-game sweep of the slumping Tampa Bay Rays. Now Bo...

The Tampa Bay Rays continue their inevitable move OUT of St. Petersburg and to a mid-Pinellas location after being denied a waterfront ballpark and realizing, "Hey, we could be closer to tens of thousands of new fans if we weren't stuck in The Burg's downtown." The latest evidence? The Rays...

Still, sometimes Washington's predictability reaches absurd levels. Friday night's 4-3 loss against the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field reset the boundary for inconceivable losses, because it involved the team's best fielder, its best reliever and an unthreatening pinch-hitter....

But if recent history is an indication, Minnesota's hitters could break that trend Friday night against Tampa Bay Rays starter James Shields. Away from home for the first time since that outburst, the Twins will try to improve on the majors' worst road ...

Cleveland, OH (AHN) - Victor Martinez drove in both Cleveland's runs, five pitchers combined in allowing one run and the Indians swept the Tampa Bay Rays with a 2-1 win Thursday afternoon at Progressive Field. Martinez, the third-best hitter in the AL, ...

Related articles from ESPN, Bradenton Herald, TV Sports Daily, google.com, Reiten Television KXMB Bismarck.

By Scott Lauber(noreply@blogger.com) According to well-sourced Ken Rosenthal over at FoxSports.com, Pat Burrell is on the verge of signing a two-year, $16 million contract to be the Tampa Bay Rays' designated hitter. That would represent a steep pay cut for Burrell, who made $14 million in 2008, is only 32 years old, and has ave...

Most sportswriters would have loved to have the tidbit that Boswell used to lead his column on the surprising first-place Tampa Bay Rays back in Septmber: The club, after clinching its first playoff berth in franchise history, didn’t have any luminaries from the past to throw out the fir...

By Derrick Goold TOWER GROVE — According to the formula Major League Baseball and its member clubs use to determine a club’s overall payroll, the St. Louis Cardinals had the 11th-highest payroll in baseball last season and the American League champion Tampa Bay Rays had the third lowest.

By Kevin Markum With the recent obsession over the Rafael Furcal-Atlanta Braves-Los Angeles Dodgers situation, the question has to be pondered, "Has baseball become a business?"  The answer to that question is an obvious, YES!  What is the answer to this situation?  Major League Baseball needs a sal...

Morlan, 22, is a native of Cuba and was a third round pick of the Minnesota Twins in 2004 out of a Florida high school. He was traded to the Rays along with Matt Garza and Jason Bartlett in exchange for Delmon Young, Brendan Harris and Jason Pridie.

12, 2008 after guiding the Tampa Bay Rays from baseball's basement to the World Series. Piniella is the National League winner. (AP Photo/File) NEW YORK Joe ... Rays' Maddon set to win MOY Idaho State Journal Maddon, Piniella named top skippers MLB.com Tampabay.com - Orlando Sentinel

By Matt Sussman 9:37 — Joe Maddon will now hope David Price pitches so well that a run comes off the scoreboard. 3 4 9:17 — If Joe Maddon jumped off a bridge, so would Charlie Manuel. 8:59 — Case Study #319 why Dioner Navarro makes a piss poor leadoff hitter. Strike three, one out.

If Florida Times-Union columnist Gene Frenette had his way, Florida Gators coach Urban Meyer would be fired, at least temporarily, so that his replacement could allow Florida players to comment on Georgia’s celebration of its opening touchdown in last year’s game ahead of this Saturd...

No luck. Hamels breezed through the first three innings, needing just 33 pitches to Kazmir's 57. Tampa Bay had just two runners, with Dioner Navarro reaching on a two-out walk in the second and Akinori Iwamura hitting a two-out single in the third.

By Andrew After calling special and specific attention to the struggles of Carlos Pena and Evan Longoria. After writing an entire article that is essentially a postmortem on the Rays World Series hopes despite a game remaining. Ken Rosenthal has the insulting audacity to say, "smart alecks who sne...

PHILADELPHIA — Even their pitcher socked a ball into the seats. If Ryan Howard, the Philadelphia Phillies and their frustrated fans needed any more evidence this really might be their year, Joe Blanton gave it to them. Blanton became the first pitcher in 34 years to homer in the World Series...

By Scott Lauber(noreply@blogger.com) Trailing 4-3 in the eighth inning, Upton legged out an infield single to charging shortstop Jimmy Rollins. And with sluggers Carlos Pena and Longoria struggling (0-for-22, 10 strikeouts combined), Upton stole second base, swiped third and scored when Ruiz's throw hit the bag and skipp...

By Hamilton Nolan Allow me to construct a sports metaphor (UPDATE: Which I see the NYT also used in its lead sentence, DAMMIT. Oh well, forge ahead) that would sound stale to serious sports fans, but which I believe will sound fresh and insightful here, where we have only seven (7) total sports fan readers: Fo...

The man who helped the Tampa Bay Rays complete their meteoric rise from perennial loser to AL champ has climbed quickly himself. David Price, who a month ago had no major-league experience, snuffed out a Boston Red Sox rally to clinch Game 7 of the ALCS and ensure that the World Series opens a...

Will the sun set on Fox’s World Series ratings with the little-known Tampa Bay Rays in the American League’s corner? Let’s take a closer look at baseball’s annual fall classic and a few other starting players from Wednesday’s TV lineup.

By DAULERIO Um, what Tampa Bay Rays fans? Until the last month or so of this season, the Red Sox (and I expect most other teams) considered a set at Tampa to be "home crowd" games. The little front-runners have also adopted COWBELLS, the world's most annoying and, by now, least original, form of athletic...

Between 1999 and 2007, the Tampa Bay Rays drafted Carl Crawford, Evan Longoria, B.J. Upton, David Price, Andy Sonnanstine, James Shields, Delmon Young and Rocco Baldelli. It's important not to oversimplify this story. The Rays won for a long list of reasons, including general manager Andr...

They had a devil of a time putting away the Boston Red Sox, but the Tampa Bay Rays are American League champions for the first time. Now only the Philadelphia Phillies stand between the Rays and their first World Series title. Game One is Wednesday night at Tropicana Field. Landov

Their team improbably, implausibly ? and impressively ? one-upped the Red Sox and Yankees to earn their first American League East title and playoff berth. How do Rays fans respond? With the fifth-worst home attendance in the majors (only the Kansas City Royals, Oakland Athletics, Pitt...

By e chigliak I was reading a Baseball Prospectus' article* by Kevin Goldstein entitled, "Future Shock: "Who are the Next Rays? NL Version", and was disappointed to find that Mr. Goldstein does not think the Nationals are the next Tampa Bay Rays, (sorry Nationals' fans), and then it gets even worse a...

By Rick Sawyer If watching the Tampa Bay Rays score 29 runs to the Red Sox' 5 over the course of two games and six and half innings weren't discouraging enough to watch on television this postseason, imagine the fans at Fenway Park. Boo the team and leave the ballpark.

Especially when it’s the Boston Red Sox who are playing in an elimination game. Even when they’re losing, 7-0, in the bottom of the seventh with only seven outs to go. But then the Red Sox began to rally, the biggest playoff comeback since 1929, to extend their American League Championship Se...

Forgive Tampa Bay Rays columnists if they indulge in a little Evan Longoria love after the rookie third baseman hit two home runs and a single in his franchise’s first-ever playoff game, a 6-4 victory over the Chicago White Sox. Getty Images

Game 1: Thursday, Oct. 2 at 2:30 p.m. in Tampa Bay, James Shields vs Javier Vazquez Game 2: Friday, Oct. 3 at 6 p.m. in Tampa Bay, Scott Kazmir vs Mark Buehrle Game 4*: Monday, Oct. 6 at TBA in Chicago, TBA vs Gavin Floyd Game 5*: Wednesday, Oct. 8 at TBA in Tampa Bay, TBA vs TBA

By Will Leitch Game 1: Thursday, October 2, 2:30 p.m. Chicago (Vazquez) at Tampa Bay (Shields). Game 2: Friday, October 3, 6 p.m. Chicago (Buerhle) at Tampa Bay (Kazmir). Game 4 (if necessary): Monday, October 6, TBA. Tampa Bay at Chicago Game 5 (if necessary): Wednesday, October 8, TBA. Chicago at Tampa Bay.

By King Kaufman A few thoughts about Wednesday's game of the century, the Tampa Bay Rays' 4-2, 14-inning win over the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. The win was the second in a row for the Rays, giving them the series and restoring their lead in the American League East to two and a half games.

The Tampa Bay Rays are hosting a Baseball Prospectus Ballpark Feed at Tropicana Field prior to the Rays vs. Baltimore Orioles game Friday, Aug. 29 at 7:10 p.m. (gates open at 5:10 p.m.). Rays Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman will be available for Q&A. Will Carr...

By Leitch For the third consecutive season, we are proud to introduce the Deadspin Baseball Season Previews. Yes, baseball is awfully close now; it's spring training, after all. Today: The Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Your author is Cork Gaines. Will sets Rays preview in corner*

By Screech's Best Friend The Washington Nationals today acquired 23 year-old outfielder Elijah Dukes from the Tampa Bay Rays in exchange for minor-league left-handed pitcher Glenn Gibson. Vice President and General Manager Jim Bowden made the announcement.

By Brent Nycz New York Yankees (91-67) vs. Tampa Bay Devil Rays (65-93)Phil Hughes (4-3, 4.80) vs. Scott Kazmir (13-9, 3.54)September 27, 2007 @ 7:10 p.m. @ Tropicana Field 123456789RHE“Improbable” Playoff Team000Team They Clinched Against000 Preview:

By Brent Nycz John Sterling just started to quote “The Best of Times”, but who cares because the Yankees are in the playoffs! New York Yankees (90-67) vs. Tampa Bay Devil Rays (65-92) Chien-Ming Wang (18-7, 3.72) vs. J.P. Howell (1-5, 6.80) September 26, 2007 @ 7:10 p.m. @ Tropicana Field 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E New York Y...

The night was already a success for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Brendan Harris gamewinning hit made the teams debut at Disney World that much sweeter.

By Jordan This unknowing, however, is part of the excitement: watching a player grow to greatness is one of the things baseball is all about. Among the Tampa Bay Devil Rays who have to chance to do just that are third baseman Akinori Iwamura, infielder B.J. Upton, outfielder Delmon Young, and shortsto...

D-Rays hammer Bucs  PA - Another rough start by left-hander Tom Gorzelanny was too much for the Pirates to overcome Sunday, as the Tampa Bay Devil Rays rolled to an 12-4 victory. ... MLB Game Summary - Tampa Bay At Pittsburgh WFtv.com Recap: Pittsburgh vs. Tampa Bay Kansas.com

By Leitch Andrew Friedman and Gerry Hunsicker teamed up as the 'general manager,' though the team doesn't officially have a position called that, and revamped the entire organization. Mainstays like Aubrey Huff and Toby Hall were traded, among others, and what began the year as a mid-ranked farm...