10 Thoughts: Rays
Thought #1: Who is the Rays closer? Dan Wheeler? Good luck.
Thought #2: Evan Longoria is so good it’s unbelievable.
Thought #3: The Rays window is closing. They will probally lose Carlos Pena and Carl Crwford after the season. But who knows, maybe Beckham and Jennings could step in.
Thought #4: I am very exited to see Wade Davis pitch a full season. Should be interesting to see how he handles the AL East.
Thought #5: Tropicana field is in a terrible location. It really is.
Thought #6: In the infamous Dan Johnson game at Fenway Park in September of 2008, guess who sat next to me? Dick Vitale. He’s like this huge Rays fan. I just about exploded when Jason bay hit that homer off Wheeler, and then Dan (who?) Johnson homered off Papelbon in the ninth. I still hate thinking about it.
Thought #7: Rays will finish in a tight race for third with Baltimore this year. Mark it down.
Thought #8: Dan Johnson. Ugghh.
Thought #9: Those cowbells give me a headache. What are the point in those? To intimadate other fans? Annoying.
Thought #10: I cant’ hear you, I ahve cowbells ringing in my ears.
Total Bases 
For One , Our closer is NOT Wheeler , Its Soriano *Dont you follow baseball other than the Sox?*
Second, I HIGHLY doubt it will be a TIGHT race with Baltimore. We are talking about BALTIMORE , enough said.
Third, As an honest Rays fan, *and not being bias* I feel Boston *YES , I SAID BOSTON* Will win 1st place and Rays WILL take the Wild card.
Fourth …… Thank god for Dan Johson 😀
Soriano? I forgot about him, thanks. Yes, I watch nearly every Rays game. Guess I’m not in midseason form yet, eh? 😉
Do you follow any baseball other than the Rays? I love Baltimore’s lineup. Their pitching staff has decent potential as well. No Yankees in the playoffs, huh? I’d be fine with this.
Dan Johnson.. Bleh, lol
i’m am a diehard long time sox fan BUT put me in touch with your dealer if you think the yankees ain’t makin the playoffs. i’d love to eat those words but ain’t thinkin it’s going to be an issue. very good pitching and too much offense. i’ve said all along the sox and rays will battle for the wild card and as of now i’d give a slight edge to the rays due to their offense. can you say contract year for crawford and pena? boston’s pitching is superior to both but too many question marks in the 5-9 slots in the order. if papi bounces back i’d probably reverse that pick. baltimore’s pitching, while improved, is not good enough. i do think with a healthy jones their off is as good as tampa’s and ever so slightly better than boston’s. as i have said before i do think baltimore’s improvement could impact the wild card though. the 2nd place finisher in the west has a big advantage due to an easier schedule in the west IMO.
dude you been addressing too many celtic and patriot issues lately. depth of pitching no question. offensvely though unless beltre and cameron perform much better than their career numbers i don’t see it. that’s why papi is so huge this year. cameron and beltre both K twice as much as they walk. it’s like having 2 slightly better varitek’s at the bottom of the lineup in terms of men LOB. and we really don’t know what scutaro is gonna provide offesnsively. not that he’s expected to be great but given who hits in front of him he needs to be pretty close to last year.
got a lot of respect for tek and what he’s meant to the org but honestly any year he sees fewer at bats is an improvement these days. saw something the other day don’t remember where that for “every day” players statiscally he’s the least productive hitter in baseball the last 2 years. sad but true.
Where you been, wssoxfan? I give the wild card to the Sox, division to the empire. Again, I love the Sox depth compared to Tampa.
I love my other Boston’s teams too. I agree Ortiz needs a big year. I think he will, in a contract year. I like Cameron at the bottom of the lineup. If he where batting fifth I’d have concern. But seventh or eighth, no big deal for me. I expect a better year from Tek off the bench.
I expect a bigger year from Tek in a lesser role. He’s hit good in the first half of the last two years, and sucked late beacuse of fatigue. With less at-bats, you should see more production.