THE GOOD: Good game for Akinori Iwamura offensively. In the 3rd, Aki had an RBI single, but more impotantly, with 2 outs, he advanced to second base on Carl Crawford's sac fly. That allowed Aki to score on BJ Upton's single...Jason Bartlett made two amazing plays in the field. The first came in the 5th when he charged and barehanded a slow grounder to get the runner. Later in the 8th in a 1-run game, he ranged deep into the hole to his right, stabbed a grounder, turned and made a strong one-hop throw to Carlos Pena. Make no mistake, that one-hop throw was as intentional play that shortstops often make on artificial turf, the same stuff Bartlett played on in Minnesota...Eric Hinske hit a lonnngggg home run. We pedicted two. One to go......Despite his struggles at the plate, Evan Longoria is still playing solid defense making a couple of good plays including the start of a very important double play. With 1 run in already and the Rays up by 1 in the 6th, the Jays had 1st and 2nd with 1 out. Dirtbag started a 5-4-3 to kill the rally.

THE BAD: We complained about the Toronto broadcast in the Orlando series and things were only worse this time. In the bottom of the third, the Jays scored on a close play at the plate. We are still yet to see a good replay or one that slowed the play down enough to get a good look. In the bottom of the 6th, Akinori Iwamura made a great play up the middle and made a good throw. Once again, we failed to get a good replay or one slow enough to see if the runner was indeed safe...The Rays struggled early on with 5 of the first 6 batters going down on strikes...In the 2nd inning, we saw our first incident in which Aki Iwamura looked lost at second base. With a runner on first, Aki fielded a ground ball only a few steps from the bag. He should have stepped on the bag himself, but instead tried to glove-flip the ball to Jason Bartlett. It worked, but it was awkward and eliminated a chance at turning two...Aki Iwamura also made a terrible baserunning play. On an RBI double in the 5th, he hesitated out of the box and then hesitated at second base and got thrown out at third for the first out, breaking a golden rule in baseball, never make the first out at third base...The Rays rarely sacrifice, but Joe Maddon tried in the 3rd with men on 1st and 2nd with no out. But Jason Bartlett failed to get the bunt down in fair territory...Evan Longoria is 2-19 and looks lost at times...Carlos Pena had the golden sombrero (4 Ks)...In the 9th inning, Carl Crawford swung at a pitch that almost hit his back leg. With 2 strikes that is almost acceptable. But not with 1 strike.

THE TELLING: What we love the most about the 2008 Tampa Bay Rays are wins like last night. The game was close, but there was little or no drama after the 6th inning. That has never happened before. If this game was in 2007, the Rays might have won, but not until after they blew the lead, and fought back, or at the very least, loaded the bases in the 8th and 9th innings...Joe Maddon went with Dan Wheeler for 2 innings again. We have to assume that he will not be available tonight...Troy Percival now has 7 saves, and 4 have come against the Jays...The Rays are now 7-8 on the road and 10-7 at the Trop...

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA...

• Injury updates from Marc Lancaster: Cliff Floyd and Ben Zobrist played in extended spring training games yesterday. Zobrist may join Vero Beach as early as tomorrow and play there the rest of the week. He will have the pins removed from his thumb next Monday and he could join the Rays on Tuesday. Floyd could also return about that time. Al Reyes could also return as early as next week and Gary Glover could be back as early as this weekend. [Rays Report]
• Interesting read from ESPN.com as they take a look at exactly how each member of the Rays' 25-man roster was acquired and who was responsible for the acquisition. The point being that despite all Chuck LaMar's failures, he deserves credit for a number of the players that have helped the Rays turn the corner...He may deserve credit, but he is not getting any from us out of pure stubborness. [ESPN]
  
• Scott Kazmir will work on ironing out his mechanics in his bullpen session today. [Tampa Tribune]
  
• Eric Hinske was booed continually last night and Joe Maddon can't figure out why. [MLB]

"What's going on with the booing," said Maddon, with a huge smile. "One of the nicest guys in the history of the United States and he gets booed in Canada. What's going on?...Don't boo Eric Hinske," he said. "He's a great guy. I thought, what did he do? Maybe skip town with a couple parking tickets? I don't know. And he gets booed. He's a wonderful young man. One of the finest."

• Carlos Pena is the inaugural member of the "LBS Golden Sombrero Club". That's not a good thing. [Larry Brown Sports]
• Evan Longoria is third after 5 weeks in the Baseball Happenings AL Rookie of the Year poll. [Baseball Happenings]
  
• We are a little lost on this one, as we have no idea who Paul DiMeo is, but we do see the similarity. [Hugging Harold Reynolds]
• Marc Topkin tosses a few names around if Andrew Friedman decides to keep playing musical chairs in the outfield...Jacque Jones does nothing for us, but then again, we still aren't sure why Nathan Haynes is a Ray. [The Heater]
• Andrew Friedman says that the Rays have narrowed their choice for the top pick in the draft to five players and signability may be a factor as Friedman says that they may try to sign a player prior to the draft. [MLB]
  

Devil Rays (66-96)
Since when do the Rays need another outfielder with a history of leg problems and since when do the Rays need fewer experienced arms in the bullpen? The Rays claimed Chris Snelling off of waivers from the A's. Jay Witasick was released to make room on the roster. It appears as though Snelling was released because he is the only person in professional baseball with legs worse than Rocco Baldelli. In 8 professional seasons he has been on the DL seven times, including...

• torn ACL (2002)
• knee surgery (2003)
• right knee tendinitus (2003)
• torn meniscus in the left knee (2005)
• surgery (2006)
  
• yet another knee surgery (2007).

Next June, when both Snelling and Rocco are on the DL, maybe they can take a trip to Aruba together and sit in the hot tub and compare scars.

Marc Topkin provides good background on the Rays new Aussie. [ tampabay.com]

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA...

• A friend of mine that is Phillies fan, called me up after he heard the Phillies had named Chuck LaMar their Director of Professional Scouting, and asked me if he should be worried. I started laughing. It is a curious move by the Phillies. For all of LaMar's faults, he did seem to be a competent evaluator of amateur talent. For the most part, he had a strong draft history with the Rays. On the other hand, this was the GM that was considered the worst GM in baseball to work with when it came to making trades, and the Phillies have him in charge of professional scouting, and he will provide input on trades for GM Pat Gillick. Strange move. [MLB]
• Dustin Pedroia was named Top Rookie by the players association and won the same award by the Sporting News as voted on by players and managers. [tampabay.com]
• Greg Norton has been a professional baseball player for 15 years. He wants to prove that he can repeat his 2006 performance when he hit .296 with 17 home runs in only 96 games. In those 15 seasons, he has only played in more than 120 games 5 times. It appears that 2007 was the norm and 2006 was the exception to the rule. [Devil Rays]
  

Despite the losses on Friday and Saturday nights, there was plenty to be happy about this weekend if you a Devil Rays fan. First, is the re-emergence of Jonny Gomes, who has three home runs since being recalled from Durham last week. And despite losing four of their last six and receiving some of the worst starting pitching in the last 50 years from the Axis of Evil the Rays are still on pace for the most wins in franchise history and have actually opened up a 2 game lead on the last place Baltimore Orioles.

But all of this paled in comparison to what happened 8,000 miles away in Japan.

A Japanese aquarium is celebrating a special new arrival this week -- a giant manta ray keepers say is the world's first ever born in captivity...Video footage shows the 6-foot baby being squeezed out of her mother's body rolled up like a carpet, before unfurling her fins and flitting gracefully across the tank at the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium in Japan's southernmost prefecture.

Now we realize this is not quite as newsworthy as the birth of Matt Leinart's and Tom Brady's kids, but this has to be a good sign for the Devil Rays franchise and Devil Rays fans everywhere. Could this be a sign from above below of good things to come? Could this be the weekend that the Devil Rays franchise is reborn? Stay tuned.

Now all the baby Devil Ray needs is a name. At first we tried to figure out how to say "Dawg" in Japanese, but we were unable to confirm whether or not Elijah Dukes is the father. Now we are leaning towards Adam Sisk. Feel free to offer any other suggestions in the comments.

Let's just hope that the folks at the Aquarium don't let Vince Naimoli or Chuck LaMar anywhere near the baby Devil Ray.

Rare manta ray born in captivity [CNN.com]
Manta ray [Wikipedia]

• The Rays fell to Cleveland 4-3. You can tell that Joe Maddon wants his pitchers working deeper in games this year. For the second time this week a starting pitcher worked 7 innings, a rare sight in spring training. This time it was James Shields, who gave up 4 runs on 8 hits and a walk. He struck out 7. Jorge Cantu had his first home run of the spring and Elijah Dukes doubled home the other run.
  
• Dioner Navarro was scratched from yesterday's game which is not good news. Navarro has had hamstring problems in the past. The Rays may be better served to put him on the shelf for two weeks and make sure he is 100%. Carl Crawford was also a late scratch from Monda's lineup although his injury appears to be less threatening at this point.
• Speaking of injuries, Wade Townsend pitched in a minor league game for the Rays yesterday. You remember Townsend, right? He was the Rays top pick in 2005 and then after 12 unimpressive outings, he threw out his elbow and needed Tommy John surgery. He missed all of 2005. He is 24 now and scheduled to pitch all season at single-A Columbus.
  
• B. J. Upton is playing more relaxed this season and it is probably going to translate into a position on the opening day roster. Now the question is will he be relaxed enough to duplicate something similar to his 2005 numbers at Durham?
• In 2006 Delmon Young drew one walk in 126 plate appearances with the Rays. That would normally be a red flag for a prospect. Young isn't worried, and believes the walks will come when pitchers learn to fear what he can do with strikes. We are big believers in plate discipline for young hitters, but with Young, it won't be a problem. For the record, Young has 2 walks in 62 plate appearances this spring.
  
• Al Reyes has no regrets and is just happy to be back, even if he is old enough to have fathered half his teammates.
  
• The Curse of LaMar-Naimoli.
  

Normally we begin the day with The Hangover, but something has come to our attention that just couldn't wait. Buried at the bottom of a longer article on the growth of the Rays as a franchise is a tidbit that made our jaw hit the keyboard.

In what might be (Matt) Silverman's boldest and most compassionate task, he's exploring the possible public resurrection of Vince Naimoli - the guy who helped bring the Rays franchise here, then so successfully alienated this region's entire fan base.

A public relations expert is working with Naimoli, who has an office at the Trop. Can Vince be redeemed? Are we heading to the World Series? In baseball, anything's possible.

That sound you just heard was thousands of Rays fans gasping in unison.

Let us reiterate what you just read. Matt Silverman has hired a public relations expert to work with the Rays former managing general partner Vince Naimoli in a possible move to reestablish him in the public eye. And how is that going to be good for the team or the fans? More importantly, how is the new front office supposed to lift The Curse of LaMar-Naimoli if Vince Naimoli still has an office at the Trop? This is not the way we wanted to start our Monday.

Raising the Rays right [St. Pete Times]

Anybody else think that Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito throws harder than Casey Fossum. Alito put on a Rays uniform and threw out the first pitch before the Rays-Phils games yesterday. [Insert cheesy "right"-handed joke here]

• The Rays suffered two more ugly losses during split-squad action, falling to the Twins and the Phillies (Damn we hate losing to Philadelphia in anything). The most promising news was that Brian Stokes, Jason Hammel and Edwin Jackson all looked solid in their quest for the fifth spot in the rotation. They combined to throw seven shutout innings, allowing only four hits and one walk. Actually, the pitching has been solid overall, ranking fourth in most major pitching categories in AL.
• Akinori Iwamura picked up his first hit and RBI on an excuse-me single. Just remember, it only takes one of those a week to make the difference between hitting .250 and .300 over the course of a season.
  
• Can it be a coincidence that the Nationals are considered the worst team in baseball that could lose 110 games AND they have Chuck LaMar on the payroll? We think not. The Curse of LaMar-Naimoli lives! Chris Needham thinks this is a good thing for the Nationals. huh? Chris, my pal. RUN! Run fast. LaMar is an evil, evil man. If you think things are bad now, you have no idea. Get out while you're still young. You'll thank us. [p.s. The Nationals already have three players on the DL that will miss the beginning of the regular season. Let's hope the Curse has been transferred and not just a reincarnation]
  
• Whoever wrote THIS sub-headline must have Gotten A Delmon.
  

• The Rays lost again. This time to the Pirates 5-2. There were two big story lines. What may be three-fifths of the rotation after the all-star break, Scott Kazmir, Mitch Talbot and Jeff Niemann all struggled and surrendered runs. The other big story was Dioner Navarro who strained a hamstring running the base paths. It doesn't sound serious but let's hope that the Curse of Lamar-Naimoli is not rearing its ugly head.
• 22.50...The amount Matt Silverman paid us to blog about the Rays this year? No. Actually it is the ERA for Jeff Ridgway so far.
  
• Scott Kazmir may be a bit rusty on the mound, but he feels good at the plate. That's important in the AL.
  
• Shawn Riggans is beating himself up pretty good in his effort to supplant Josh Paul as the team's backup catcher. We still say it is a long shot, at best.
• Cubs pitchers issued 10 walks in one game. Afterwards, Rays pitchers sent sympathy cards.
• So if Matt Silverman bought each fan for $535, how much would it cost to fill the Trop? $24,075,000...Or about the same amount as the Rays opening day 40-man payroll.
• Its a good thing Jason Hammel is a professional baseball player. If not, he would be unemployed.
• Now that the Rays are in bed with Bugs Bunny and Co., does this mean that if they ever make a movie about Elijah Dukes life, he will played by the Tasmanian Devil? And who would play Papa Joe Maddon? Elmer Fudd of course.
  

Apparently this is turning into a regular feature on this site. Carl Crawford hyperextended his shoulder on Tuesday night diving for a ball. Even though he stayed in the game, he was a late scratch from last night's game in Boston. He is listed as day-to-day. Crawford is the sixth regular to miss time this season due to injury, joining Julio Lugo, Rocco Baldelli, Jorge Cantu, Aubrey Huff and Mark Hendrickson. Then again, none of those of those injuries are "significant" according to the guys over at ESPN.com. Check out the image below from the preview for tonight's game, in particular, the section at the bottom labeled "Injury Report"...hmmm?


You would think the D-Rays were the healthiest team in baseball right now

Red Sox wrap up 10-game homestand against Devil Rays [ESPN.com]

Apparently this is going to become a regular feature on Rays Index. At first we joked about the curse when Julio Lugo and Luis Ordaz went down on opening day. Then we began to wonder when Jorge Cantu was injured. Then we started to get scared when Mark Hendrickson went down after what may have been his best performance in a Devil Ray uniform. Now we have this...Aubrey Huff hurt his knee last night in a collision with Nick Green and has been placed on the 15-day DL. Now we wonder if there is something to this idea of a curse. Did Chuck LaMar and Vince Naimoli curse this team with their idiocy and their lunacy? We can only plead to the new team management...for the love all things good and decent, DO NOT...we repeat...DO NOT...under any circumstances call up Delmon Young or B.J. Upton, until this curse is lifted. We can only assume, that given Lamar's and Naimoli's track record, that the curse won't last too long, since they never seem to do anything right...No word yet on who will replace Huff on the roster.

One injury after another. The Curse lives!

Huff leaves game with knee injury [sports.yahoo.com]

And the hits just keep on coming...Mark Hendrickson is headed to the DL with a stiff shoulder, and D-Rays fans everywhere head to the DL with a stiff drink and an eerily familiar sickness to the stomach. The Rays called up Jason Hammel, a 6'6" righty, from Durham, who will make his major league debut tonight against Baltimore. This may come as a surprise to many as Edwin Jackson, who almost made the rotation out of spring training, was considered the top pitcher in AAA. However, these decisions are often made based on whose turn in the rotation is due on the AAA team. Hammel will be on four days rest when he takes the mound tonight. In addition, Hammel, one of the top pitching prospects for the Rays, was stellar in his first outing for the Bulls. He went 5 innings, giving up only 3 hits, no walks and no runs earning the victory against the Norfolk Tides. A quick scouting report from one of our readers (Tyler), "He's got a good fastball that sits at 92-93 and touches 96. He also throws a hard sharp breaking curve, similar to Zito (not on the same level obviously) but still a real good pitch."

Hendrickson headed to the DL [Tampa Tribune]

Opening day is supposed to bring a sense of optimism. The return of spring...the return of baseball...hot dogs...fresh cut grass...and everybody is tied for first place. Four Oriole long balls and 9 runs later, the air is slipping from the balloon a little bit. This is the one team in the division that we have a chance of leap-frogging out of the cellar this season. We can live with one ugly loss. Heck we are Devil Rays fans...we can live with a LOT of ugly losses. However, we don't need the team to be struck with the injury bug this season. The talent is there, but the team is not deep, especially in the pitching department. That being said...for all the bad that happened on opening day, that which should concern us the most is loss of two players to injuries right off the bat. SS Julio Lugo went down with a strained oblique and backup SS Luis Ordaz aggravated a knee injury suffered during spring training. Lugo's is not considered serious and is listed as Day-to-day. Ordaz, on the other hand has already been placed on the 15-day DL and is scheduled to have an MRI today.

Rays lose 2 SSs and opener [Herald-Tribune.com]