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<channel>
	<title>Tampa Bay Sports Blog &#187; Jeff Niemann</title>
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	<link>http://tampabaysportsblog.com</link>
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		<title>Rays look ready for &#8217;09.</title>
		<link>http://tampabaysportsblog.com/tampa-bay-rays/rays-look-ready-for-09/</link>
		<comments>http://tampabaysportsblog.com/tampa-bay-rays/rays-look-ready-for-09/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 10 Feb 2009 21:00:44 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Scott Brannelly</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[David Price]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Evan Longoria]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tampa Bay Rays]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Boston Red Sox]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Brian Shouse]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Carlos Pena]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Chad Bradford]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Durham Bulls]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Gabe Gross]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Gabe Kapler]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Houston Astros]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jason Hammel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jeff Niemann]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Matt Joyce]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Milwaukee Brewers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[MLB]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Morgan Ensberg]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[New York Yankees]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[San Diego Padres]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://tampabaysportsblog.com/?p=588</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The Rays have had a fairly busy offseason and now look pretty well set for the upcoming 2009 season. They have signed a few minor league free agents over the last few weeks to fill things out, including Morgan Ensberg. Ensberg wil most likely end up playing 3B in Durham but is a very nice low risk acquisition. He looked like an up and coming power hitter 6 years ago and hit 94 homeruns from &#8217;03 to &#8217;06. He fell off after that and has hit 13 homeruns since with Houston, San Diego and the Yankees. He could win a bench job and could  be needed if injuries hit either Evan Longoria or Carlos Pena. I like the move with Ensberg. All in all, it was a pretty good offseason for the Rays. I love the Matt Joyce/Edwin Jackson swap and I really think the Rays stole one there. Joyce will most likely start the season in the minors also as the Gabe platoon (Kapler/Gross) will hold down RF until the Rays feel he&#8217;s ready. When you look at how the Rays handle their organization they have seemingly set themselves up pretty nice. Joyce can stay in Durham and develop until [...]]]></description>
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		<item>
		<title>The Rays are smarter than the Yankees.</title>
		<link>http://tampabaysportsblog.com/tampa-bay-rays/the-rays-are-smarter-than-the-yankees/</link>
		<comments>http://tampabaysportsblog.com/tampa-bay-rays/the-rays-are-smarter-than-the-yankees/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 14 Dec 2008 06:47:57 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Scott Brannelly</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Tampa Bay Rays]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[AJ Burnett]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Akinori Iwamura]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Alex Rodriguez]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Andy Pettitte]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bernie Williams]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[BJ Upton]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bobby Abreu]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Boston Red Sox]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Carl Crawford]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Carl Pavano]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Carlos Pena]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[CC Sabathia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Chien-Min Wang]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Chuck Knoblauch]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Darrell Rasner]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[David Ortiz]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[David Price]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Derek Jeter]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Derek Lowe]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Dustin Pedroia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Edwin Jackson]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Evan Longoria]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Gabe Gross]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[George Steinbrenner]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jason Giambi]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jason Hammel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jeff Niemann]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jeremy Hellickson]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jim Leyritz]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Joba Chamberlain]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Johnathan Papelbon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jonny Gomes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kevin Youkilis]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kyle Farnsworth]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Los Angeles Dodgers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mariano Rivera]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Matt Joyce]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mike Mussina]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mitch Talbot]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[New York Yankees]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Phil Hughes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rocco Baldelli]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Scott Brosius]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Scott Kazmir]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Trever Miller]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Troy Percival]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wade Davis]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wilson Betemit]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://tampabaysportsblog.com/?p=456</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It was a busy week in the AL East and I had to sit down and look at it tonight. I&#8217;ve been listening to the radio and reading about the moves being made and I came up with this. The Rays are much smarter than the Yankees.  There are a few good things about being a small market team and they&#8217;re showing during the winter baseball season. Let&#8217;s break it down. The Yankees signed CC Sabathia to a $161 million deal and brought one of the best pitchers in baseball to New York. But how much did this improve them? I honestly don&#8217;t think it improved them much at all. Think about it like this. They signed a guy that won 17 games last year to replace a guy that won 20. Now I&#8217;ll say that Sabathia is better than Mussina and he would&#8217;ve probably won 22 or 23 games with the Yankees last year with the same run support Mussina got, but that&#8217;s still only a 3 game improvement. Not enough for that kind of money. They also signed AJ Burnett to fill in the rotation but they haven&#8217;t re-signed Andy Pettitte yet. That&#8217;s a 4 game improvement if [...]]]></description>
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Five moves the Rays should make.</title>
		<link>http://tampabaysportsblog.com/tampa-bay-rays/five-moves-the-rays-should-make/</link>
		<comments>http://tampabaysportsblog.com/tampa-bay-rays/five-moves-the-rays-should-make/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 14 Nov 2008 15:57:14 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Scott Brannelly</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Tampa Bay Rays]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Akinori Iwamura]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Andrew Friedman]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Andy Sonnanstine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ben Zobrist]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[BJ Upton]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Boston Red Sox]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Brandon Lyon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Brian Fuentes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Carl Crawford]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Carlos Guillen]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Carlos Pena]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Chad Bradford]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Dan Wheeler]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[David Price]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Dioner Navarro]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Edwin Jackson]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Elijah Dukes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Evan Longoria]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Francisco Rodriguez]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Gabe Gross]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Gary Sheffield]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Grant Balfour]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[J.P. Howell]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[James Shields]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jason Bartlett]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jason Hammel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jeff Niemann]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Joe Beimel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Joe Maddon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jonny Gomes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Los Angeles Dodgers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Magglio Ordonez]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Matt Garza]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Miguel Cabrera]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mitch Talbot]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Pat Burrell]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Philadelphia Phillies]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Reid Brignac]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rocco Baldelli]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Scott Kazmir]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Shawn Riggans]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Trever Miller]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Willy Aybar]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://tampabaysportsblog.com/?p=371</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[    In the spirit of trying to keep up with the goings on of the hot stove league I&#8217;ve decided to look at the possibilities and suggest five moves the Rays should make to improve their team. I will try to be as realistic as I can be while trying to view things from both sides. Let&#8217;s roll with it and see how it goes. Sign Joe Beimel: Starting slow and sounding as simple as possible, I know, but the addition of Beimel as Trever Millers replacement would be a huge upgrade to an already good bullpen. Beimel has done very well in the last few years with the Dodgers and, as a type B free agent, there would be no draft picks lost. Beimel could legitimately be used in more situations than just the lefty on lefty matchups if needed, but would be the ideal guy to slot in with Howell, Balfour and Wheeler in shutting teams down from the seventh inning on. There is a lot of competition out there for Beimel but I think it could be done. Re-sign Rocco Baldelli: One of those sentimental moves I think both sides would go for. The only problem that [...]]]></description>
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		<item>
		<title>Rays season over, sigh.</title>
		<link>http://tampabaysportsblog.com/tampa-bay-rays/rays-season-over-sigh/</link>
		<comments>http://tampabaysportsblog.com/tampa-bay-rays/rays-season-over-sigh/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 07 Nov 2008 18:36:15 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Scott Brannelly</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Tampa Bay Rays]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Akinori Iwamura]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Al Reyes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Andy Sonnanstine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ben Zobrist]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[BJ Upton]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Carl Crawford]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Carlos Pena]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Chad Bradford]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Cliff Floyd]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Dan Wheeler]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[David Price]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Eric Hinske]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Evan Longoria]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Fernando Perez]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Gabe Gross]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Gary Glover]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Grant Balfour]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[J.P. Howell]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[James Shields]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jason Bartlett]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jason Hammel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jeff Niemann]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jonny Gomes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Juan Salas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kurt Birkins]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Matt Garza]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mitch Talbot]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Nathan Haynes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rocco Baldelli]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Scott Dohman]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Scott Kazmir]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Shawn Riggans]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Trevor Miller]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Troy Percival]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Willy Aybar]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://tampabaysportsblog.com/?p=336</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[   Time to wrap up the Rays season. What a season we had here, never saw this coming. I thought, the same as everyone else, the Rays would improve but not to this extent. Let&#8217;s wrap it up&#8230; The defense: The most dramatically improved thing on this team was the defense. The arrival of Jason Bartlett and Evan Longoria made this into the best left side defense in baseball. I was skeptical of Bartlett in the beginning (no need to bring my stupidity there again) as he had some unexplained throwing errors early but recovered to have a great season (should&#8217;ve got the gold glove over Young in my opinion). Longo was great defensively from day one and that&#8217;s that. Aki transitioned nicely over to second and Pena (won gold glove) was phenomenal. Having Pena at the corner saved Barty and Longo at least 5 errors a piece. Navarro&#8217;s improvement behind the plate was far and away the most amazing difference I saw. He was such a different player all around this year that I want to compare images from last season to see if this is the same guy. Unreal! Crawford and Upton were very good and have the [...]]]></description>
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Bay to Bay!</title>
		<link>http://tampabaysportsblog.com/tampa-bay-rays/bay-to-bay/</link>
		<comments>http://tampabaysportsblog.com/tampa-bay-rays/bay-to-bay/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 31 Jul 2008 19:38:47 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Scott Brannelly</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Tampa Bay Rays]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Andrew Friedman]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Carlos Pena]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Evan Longoria]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jason Bay]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jeff Niemann]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jonny Gomes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Reid Brignac]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Scott Kazmir]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://tampabaysportsblog.com/?p=267</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[   Pat yourself on the back Andrew Friedman, you stole a good hitter today. Friedman didn&#8217;t blink and nabbed the best right handed hitter available for two over rated prospects. I love this deal. I&#8217;m not sure how good an outfielder Bay is but his bat is what we wanted. This should mean two things for the Rays. They now have someone to throw out there every day who opposing pitchers have to respect. And it should mean the end of the line for Jonny Gomes! Two birds with one stone cliche inserted here. I would assume Bay takes over batting 3rd or 4th in some sort of Bay/Pena/Longoria sandwich. I don&#8217;t think I&#8217;ve been as excited about a trade since the raping of the Mets for Scott Kazmir. Awesome job Andy! Scott Source: MLB Trade Rumors Related Posts:Rays have best record in MLB!Rays are gonna take it to the wire.This has to be Gomes&#8217; LAST chance!Nevermind, damn!Rays rumors and options.Gomes for Heilman? Please,please, please!Fantasy football time!Rays close to signing Pat Burrell.The Rays keep winning in Orlando.Rays trade Jackson for Joyce? Technorati Tags: Andrew Friedman, Carlos Pena, Evan Longoria, Jason Bay, Jeff Niemann, Jonny Gomes, Reid Brignac, Scott Kazmir, Tampa [...]]]></description>
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		<item>
		<title>Rays are gonna take it to the wire.</title>
		<link>http://tampabaysportsblog.com/tampa-bay-rays/rays-are-gonna-take-it-to-the-wire/</link>
		<comments>http://tampabaysportsblog.com/tampa-bay-rays/rays-are-gonna-take-it-to-the-wire/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 31 Jul 2008 00:04:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Scott Brannelly</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Tampa Bay Rays]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Brian Fuentes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Carlos Pena]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[David Price]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Edwin Jackson]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jason Bay]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jeff Niemann]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jeremy Hellickson]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jonny Gomes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Justin Ruggiano]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Reid Brignac]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Troy Percival]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wade Davis]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Will Ohman]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://tampabaysportsblog.com/?p=263</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[   The Rays won today if you hadn&#8217;t heard. EJax pitched decent, Pena homered and all that good stuff. The game wasn&#8217;t televised so I couldn&#8217;t watch, but it appeared that Percival wasn&#8217;t a complete nightmare today either. A good day all around. Onto the trade deadline stuff. The Rays are currently linked to Jason Bay and are said to have the best offer on the table. What worries me about this story is that the Rays appear set in their offer and not willing to budge. I understand this with Wade Davis, David Price and Jeremy Hellickson, but I don&#8217;t understand the unwillingness to move Reid Brignac. I know he&#8217;s a &#8220;top prospect&#8221; and I understand that there is basically no depth with middle infielders in the minors. What I don&#8217;t get is the unwillingness to mortgage a little bit of the future to go for it now. Bay isn&#8217;t the ideal guy to put in RF, but he&#8217;s the exact type of bat that we need there. It&#8217;s all conflicting reports but the boys at Rays Index are saying that he&#8217;s basically untouchable and I trust what they say. On to the Brian Fuentes stuff, I don&#8217;t see it [...]]]></description>
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Rays rumors and options.</title>
		<link>http://tampabaysportsblog.com/tampa-bay-rays/rays-rumors-and-options/</link>
		<comments>http://tampabaysportsblog.com/tampa-bay-rays/rays-rumors-and-options/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 27 Jul 2008 18:22:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Scott Brannelly</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Tampa Bay Rays]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Andy Sonnanstine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Brian Fuentes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Clint Barmes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[David Price]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Demaso Marte]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Edwin Jackson]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jason Bay]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jason Hammel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jeff Niemann]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jonny Gomes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Justin Ruggiano]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mark Texiera]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Matt Holliday]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Matt Murton]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[New York Yankees]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Pittsburg Pirates]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rocco Baldelli]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ron Mahay]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Trevor Miller]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Xavier Nady]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://tampabaysportsblog.com/?p=257</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[   There are a ton of rumors swirling around the Rays as the deadline approaches this Thursday and they&#8217;ve got everyone guessing as to what they&#8217;re gonna do. I know my stomach dropped Friday when I saw the Yankees had obtained Xavier Nady and Demaso Marte from the Pirates. I really wanted Nady and thought the Rays could&#8217;ve gotten him using some sort of package involvingguys like Edwiin Jackson, Jason Hammel, Jeff Niemann or Andy Sonnanstine. The Pirates need pitching and the Rays have some to spare, so what happened? It&#8217;s anybone&#8217;s guess. This is hard for me to swallow for two reasons. It really helps the Yanks, who are coming fast, and it blocked the Rays from the deal. They killed us twice so to speak. This all leaves me wondering what the Rays plan to do. They&#8217;re being linked to guys like Brian Fuentes, Ron Mahay, Clint Barmes (god no), Jason Bay (no way that&#8217;s going to happen), Matt Murton, Mark Texiera and Matt Holliday (just for fun on the last two). I&#8217;m getting more frustrated with this because they don&#8217;t seem to be actively trying to move a Jackson, Hammel or Sonnanstine the way they should be. When David Price [...]]]></description>
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		<item>
		<title>Some Rays rambling.</title>
		<link>http://tampabaysportsblog.com/tampa-bay-rays/some-rays-rambling/</link>
		<comments>http://tampabaysportsblog.com/tampa-bay-rays/some-rays-rambling/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 23 Jul 2008 15:54:42 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Scott Brannelly</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Tampa Bay Rays]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Andrew Friedman]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ben Zobrist]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[BJ Upton]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Carl Crawford]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Carlos Pena]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[David Price]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Dioner Navarro]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jason Bartlett]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jeff Niemann]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Joe Maddon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jonny Gomes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Matt Holliday]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rays Index]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The Fat Catcher]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Xavier Nady]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://tampabaysportsblog.com/?p=254</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[   Listening to Ron and Ian today they did an interview with Joe Maddon which was pretty good. The only thing Maddon said that I don&#8217;t agree with is that BJ Upton hustles &#8220;all the time&#8221; and that he never has mental lapses. Are you kidding me? Does he think we all listen to the games on the radio and never watch them? I&#8217;m glad he thinks we are so stupid. I don&#8217;t expect him to bash BJ or anything but don&#8217;t tell me that what I SEE isn&#8217;t true. Anyway, they reported on the radio that Maddon and Friedman had a 45 minute closed door session after the game. God I hope it&#8217;s discussing trad possibilities! I can&#8217;t watch Gomes anymore, I change the channel or look away at the games now when he hits. It is the ugliest spectacle I&#8217;ve ever seen. And Carlos Pena&#8217;s and Carl Crawford&#8217;s at-bats are almost as unbearable now too. It seems that everyone on the team is capable of at least one hideous at-bat every game and something needs to be done. I would love to see Nady here but I continue to hear that the asking price is too high. There [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>The Rays need a real hitter!</title>
		<link>http://tampabaysportsblog.com/tampa-bay-rays/the-rays-need-a-real-hitter/</link>
		<comments>http://tampabaysportsblog.com/tampa-bay-rays/the-rays-need-a-real-hitter/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 05 Jun 2008 03:11:54 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Scott Brannelly</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Tampa Bay Rays]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Akinori Iwamura]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Barry Bonds]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[BJ Upton]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Carlos Pena]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Chris Mason]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Cliff Floyd]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[David Price]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Desmond Jennings]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Evan Longoria]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Fernando Perez]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Heath Rollins]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jake McGee]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[James Shields]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jason Bartlett]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jeff Niemann]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jeremy Hellickson]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Matt Garza]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mitch Talbot]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ryan Royster]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Scott Kazmir]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tampa bay rays need hitter]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tampa bay raysneed hitters]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[TFC]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wade Davis]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://tampabaysportsblog.com/?p=231</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[   The series in Boston is pretty much going the way I thought it would. I&#8217;m not silly enough to think the Rays can go to Boston and sneak out with another series win. I figured they would drop the first two and grab the third behind James Shields. This isn&#8217;t being brought up because of the two losses, I&#8217;ve been meaning to bring this up for a while now. The Rays bats are not very good right now. Aki has picked it up over the last month, TFC and Bartlett are doing better. The problem is the middle of the order. Upton is still taking too many strikes and isn&#8217;t hitting for any power. Watching him at this point he looks to be a better leadoff hitter than number three hitter. Pena has struggled and is now hurt. Longoria hasn&#8217;t burst on the scene like we all anticipated. Looking at the lineup from top to bottom there is absolutely no one that would scare any pitcher out there. The Rays need to make a move to get a legit middle of the order hitter. To take it a step further in my little fantasy here, I want an elite [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>What will the Rays do with the pitching staff?</title>
		<link>http://tampabaysportsblog.com/tampa-bay-rays/what-will-the-rays-do-with-the-pitching-staff/</link>
		<comments>http://tampabaysportsblog.com/tampa-bay-rays/what-will-the-rays-do-with-the-pitching-staff/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 22 Apr 2008 15:37:49 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Scott Brannelly</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Tampa Bay Rays]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Andy Sonnanstine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Edwin Jackson]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jason Hammel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jeff Niemann]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Matt Garza]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Scott Kazmir]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://tampabaysportsblog.com/2008/04/22/what-will-the-rays-do-with-the-pitching-staff/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[   There is a conundrum for the Rays they have never had to deal with before. They might have too much pitching. I&#8217;ll say it again, they just might have too much pitching. Crazy right? With Matt Garza due to come off the disable list and make a start on Friday and Scott Kazmir due back in early May the Rays have to make some tough decisions. The easiest choice I&#8217;m guessing would be to option Andy Sonnanstine to AAA Durham and stick with the rotation of Shields, Kazmir, Jackson, Garza and Hammel. What if Sonnanstine puts up another performance like he did Saturday? This is a good problem to have and we can only hope it works out for the Rays. Personally I think Jason Hammel is noticeably improved and from what I&#8217;ve seen from him mechanically and situational pitching he is for real and should be a good 4 or 5 starter in this league. The jury is still out on Matt Garza on whether the Twins pulled a fast one on us or not. I like his stuff but the rest leaves a lot to be desired. His mechanics are a little off and I&#8217;m not sure what to make [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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