A couple of days ago we wrote the Tampa Bay Rays 2008 Preview for Deadspin, which DRG affectionately chides us as "Rays Index on amphetamines". That piece was about 1,300 words.

Today we retort DRG's stance by presenting Armchair GM's Tampa Bay Rays preview written by Manny Stiles. We love Stiles. We really do. But his preview makes Homer's "The Odyssey" feel like a short-story. Part 1 comes in at 4,000 words. By comparison, the average St. Pete Times and Tampa Tribune piece on the Rays is 500-700 words. Did we mention it is "Part 1"? There are actually three parts in total. Doesn't Manny know that internet readers have ADD?

If you are really bored at work then we highly recommend going over to Armchair GM and giving it a whirl.

Part 1: Includes a recap of the 2007 season and touches on every single off-season move.

Part 2: Looks at every position and every single player invited to Spring Training, with some interesting and little-known facts about each player.

We assume Part 3 is in the works, but you never know with Lil' Manny. He might just be dangling a carrot to see how long we are willing to wait.

2008 Tampa Bay Rays UltraMega Preview by ManRays (Part 1 of 3) [Armchair GM]
2008 Tampa Bay Rays UltraMega Preview by ManRays (Part 2 of 3) [Armchair GM]

Will Leitch was kind enough and trusting enough to invite us to write the Tampa Bay Rays Preview for Deadspin.com.

The style is a little different than what you may be used to here. Whenever we do one of these projects, DRG calls it "Rays Index on amphetamines". It is a little longer, kinda silly and a bit more risque. Although we are pretty sure we only dropped the F-bomb once, which according to the Motion Picture Association of America means the post is still worthy of a PG-13 rating.

We don't see the need to ever do a Rays Preview here at RI as we assume that most of you already know the basics about the 2008 Tampa Bay Rays, but if you are interested in reading our version, head on over to Deadspin.

Baseball Season Preview: Tampa Bay Devil Rays [Deadspin]

The fine group over at The Hardball Times have just released their 2007 Season Preview. The book features previews for all 30 teams, as well as three-year projections for all Major League players and select minor leaguers. For some reason, unbeknownst to us, they asked us to write the Rays preview. While we do a fair bit of writing in our day jobs, we have never fancied ourselves as professional writers. We are just Rays fans with something to say and a computer. As for the book...we can only hope we have not embarrassed ourselves.

[Disclaimer: No actual Rays were injured during the production of this book]

If you are curious about ordering a copy, head on over to Lulu.