Last month the Rays let go the lady that played the part of the mascot, Raymond. Do you think you can fill his enormous shoes? Here is your chance. The Rays have released an official announcement seeking a new "Raymond". Some of the key requirements...

• Play a pivotal role in pumping up the crowd, while helping create a positive and energetic experience for all fans.
• Must be able to take on the brand and personality of Raymond, including but not limited to the signature “belly-wiggle”
• Must be able to cause little children to have nightmares*
• Be able to kick Wall E. Monster's ass**

*Or is that just us?
**We might have made that up

DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA...

• Ken Rosenthal is reporting that the Yankees are also interested in Rocco Baldelli, joining the Rays, Red Sox and Phillies. The Phillies still seem like a long shot considering Rocco would receive more playing time with a team that uses a DH. [Fox Sports]
• Peter Gammons says the Rays are in a "great position" with the current market. There is a glut of RF/DH types and nobody is spending any money. And the money that will be spent will primarily go to pitching. That could lead to a player that would normally not fit in the Rays' budget to suddenly be on their radar. We still think a Ken Griffey Jr at $3-4 million makes more sense than a Bobby Abreu or Jason Giambi at $8-10 million even if it is considered a "bargain". Of course the other advantage not being spoken yet is that some of these players may be willing to sign a one-year deal and hope the market rebounds next season. This is why teams chose not to offer arbitration to a number of players even though those teams will not receive the draft pick compensation that normally comes from losing a good free agent. [ESPN]
  
• A Pinellas County official met with a community advisory group about sites that could potentially be a future home of the Rays. The community group hopes to have a recommendation for the city and county by late 2009 or early 2010. Aaron Sharockman of the St. Pete Times reports that a new stadium likely would not open until 2014 and maybe not until 2016. [St. Pete Times]
  
• Troy Percival's surgery "went well." [The Heater]
• Trever Miller finally inked a deal with the Cardinals, however it was only for one year, rather than the originally stated two year deal. [MLB Trade Rumors]
• The Examiner looks at 6 potential replacements for Trever Miller in the Rays' bullpen. The top choice is Arthur Rhodes, although Brian Shouse offers similar numbers against lefties and might come a little cheaper. [The Examiner]
  
• Rise of the Rays argues for trading Carl Crawford and his 2009 salary of $8.25 million. [Rise of the Rays]
• David Chalk of Bugs and Cranks continues his countdown of the 25 greatest Devil Rays. [Bugs and Cranks]

Stuart Sternberg was at the Trop last night and this video suddenly appears on the interwebs today...Coincidence? If you watch the video under the assumption that Sternberg is in the banana costume, the comedy factor increases exponentially...And we would love to make fun of Raymond, but ever since his renaissance, he just might be the coolest mascot since the San Diego Chicken.

The Montgomery Biscuits are regularly recognized as having one the coolest mascots in minor league baseball...or the worst.

Well, apparently having "Biscuits" as a mascot doesn't translate well to an on-field, furry, live-action mascot. Compared to the Biscuits mascot Big Mo, Raymond is Salma Hayek. We aren't even sure what Big Mo is. Is he a biscuit? Is he an orange elephant? Is he Snuffleupagus? We'll let you decide...



Clearly if Big Mo is ever promoted to the Big Leagues, he will shoot straight to the top of Maxim's list of "5 MLB Mascots That Deserve a Groin-Punching".

Tampa Bay Rays (8 days until pitchers and catchers report)

Happy Birthday Babe Ruth! He would be 113 today if only he had not taken so many performance enhancing beers, hot dogs and whores...Which gets us to thinking. If The Bambino were playing today and had just completed his 6th season and was set to become a free agent how much would he be worth on the open market.

Under today's CBA, Ruth would have become a free agent after the 1920 season. In 1920 Ruth hit .376-54-137, posted an OBP of .533(!) and an OPS+ of 256. And while he only made one start as a pitcher in 1920, his resume already included seasons of 18-8, 2.44...23-12, 1.75...24-13, 2.01...and 13-7, 2.22. And those are just the stats. Keep in mind that he was a left-handed pitcher, the most famous person in the country and was only entering his age 26 season.

Consider a bidding war between the Yankees and Red Sox...In today's day and age you can bet your ass that both teams would envision Ruth as RF/DH/RP, with his pitching role most likely mimicking a left-handed Joba Chamberlain.

How much would a player like Ruth be worth? $30 million per year for 10 years ($300 million)? Actually we would guess that it would be closer to $35 million per year for 12 years ($420 million), with the final years of the deal north of $40 million.

Would the Yankees or the Red Sox go to $400 million for one player, if that one player was a 26 year old Babe Ruth? Consider how the Yankees just gave $275 million to Alex Rodriguez, who will be 32 on opening day, is not a pitcher and only posted 2007 OBP of .422 and an OPS+ of 177. Seem to us that $400 million for a player that could potentially win the Triple Crown and the Cy Young in the same season, would be a bargain.

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA...

• Matt Bishoff interviews BJ Upton. [DRays Bay]
• One blogger believes that more than half of the teams in baseball have zero chance of winning the World Series, even before spring training begins. For the most part agree, but most would have included the Rockies on the list of teams with "Zero chance" in 2007, and most would include the Rays on the same list in 2008. Yet, a look at our own recent poll of normally disgruntled and apocalyptic fans shows that more than half of Rays fans think the Rays have a shot at the playoffs this year if things break right. [MVN Outsider]
  
• Rays of Light profiles the Rays 11th round pick from this past year, DJ Jones. We have said it repeatedly, a prospect has to be pretty darn special (ie. David Price) to get our attention before they have done anything at the AA-level. RoL is pretty high on Jones. They may be right. But we will reserve judgment on the high schooler until at least 2010. [Rays of Light]
  
• The Zips projections for the 2008 Tampa Bay Rays have been released. Zips is one of three or four highly respected statistical projections. [Baseball Think Factory]
• The Stat Pack talks to a pitching mechanics expert about recent concerns that have been brought up about James Shields mechanics. The verdict is that his changing mechanics is just a reflection of coaches trying to get Shields to learn a dominant breaking ball. [The Stat Pack]
• The Sporting Newslooks at six players that could be potential comeback candidates and considers Rocco Baldelli one that won't. [The Sporting News]
  
• Stacy Long got a hold of The Baseball America Prospect Handbook and their projections for where each of the Rays' top 30 prospects will start the season. [Riverwalk Talk]
  
• Yankees Chick has here 2008 Tampa Bay Rays projections up. [Yankees Chick]
  
• For those that care about fantasy values, MLB.com has the values for all the Rays. [MLB]
• Raymond is brining the sexy back and he is excited about the upcoming season. [The Big Blue Blog]
• The Tampa Tribune profiles Chris Lahey, the person responsible for promoting the sales of Rays tickets. [TBO]
  

2007 marked Raymond the Sea Dog's 10th season as a major league mascot for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. In the twilight of his career, his skills were clearly in decline. With the image found above, it now appears that Raymond has discovered the fountain of youth, much like other greats such as Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, who were able to resurrect their Hall-of-Fame careers.

Take a look at these "before" and "after" photo

Besides the obvious (new jersey and new coat of hair coloring) notice the new facial hair that looks a lot less Wilfred Brimley. In addition, Raymond also apparently had some special form of laser-eye surgery as he looks a lot more Mickey Mouse and a lot less like he is on Crystal Meth.

But the biggest change is Raymond's new sexy figure. It is hard to tell, but it appears to us that Raymond has a lost some weight. We now fully expect to see Raymond out at Clearwater Beach in a Speedo, which of course would be weird, since he doesn't normally wear pants.

Is it possible that a mascot's figure and appearance can change this drastically in one off-season? Will Raymond claim that these changes occurred naturally? Will Raymond's name appear in the yet-to-be unveiled "San Diego Chicken Report", on the use of "Mascot Performance Enhancing Drugs" such as "Sea Dog Growth Hormone".

We don't necessarily have a problem with plastic surgery and gastric-bypass surgeries. If there is something that can be done to make children happier, we are all for it. But there should at least be full-disclosure. Remember when Star Jones lost 750 pounds and claimed she did it naturally? No matter how much work you do, your kids are still going to be ugly and any future spouses deserve to know.

We can only hope that Raymond gets his own episode on The Swan.