Tonight, the Rays play their 1,000th game since changing their name from the Devil Rays, MLB.com’s Bill Chastain notes. Their name change was not, obviously, the cause of their change in fortunes, but the name switch came just as they emerged as an AL East powerhouse. They played ten seasons as the Devil Rays, never winning more than 70 games in a season. Their first season as the Rays was 2008, which was also their first winning season, playoff appearance and World Series appearance. Since then, they’ve had five more winning seasons in a row, also going to the playoffs in 2010, 2011 and 2013. Here are more notes from the American League.
- Upon his return to New York, Mariners second baseman Robinson Cano expressed contentment about his choice to leave the Yankees for Seattle, Tyler Kepner of the New York Times writes. “Being in Seattle, I can’t tell you that much about Seattle. We’ve had two homestands there,” Cano says. “I could tell you, through the year, what’s different, but right now, I can tell you one thing: I’m happy there, the way they’ve embraced me — the fans, the organization and my teammates.” Cano is off to a .301/.353/.387 start in the first year of a ten-year deal with his new team.
- Kris Johnson will be the 26th man and start the second game of the Twins’ Thursday doubleheader against the Dodgers, the Twins have announced. The start will mark Johnson’s regular-season debut with the Twins. Johnson was a first-round pick of the Red Sox in 2006, but they released him 2011 after he struggled in Triple-A. The Pirates signed him for the 2012 season, and he emerged as a very good minor-league starter who’s reasonably well suited to spot-starting in the big leagues. The Twins, after struggling through 2013 with a very weak rotation, acquired Johnson in a minor deal for reliever Duke Welker, and now Johnson is in position to help out, if only for a day.
Congratulations to the Tampa Bay Rays!
Hope you guys keep it up.
Hopefully they can figure out their location/stadium issues and emerge as a mlb powerhouse!
Move the team to Orlando, then tourists from the north (the only people at their games) would have something to do while they wait for the game to start.
That wouldn’t be a bad idea. Jacksonville is the largest city in Florida, they don’t have any pro teams. They would probably do better there then in Tampa too.
Rays may want to bring the Devil Rays back. The worst possible scenario has occurred this year. The Rays rely on great pitching, great defense and timely hitting.
The starters this year are just simply not that good. You have Price 3.0 who doesn’t overpower any hitter – you can see the league now sitting on his change because they can foul off a 92 MPH fastball.
Archer – still a kid – still learning. he really has to grow this year for this team just to hand.
Odorizzi – Probably showing as of now that he belongs in Durham. Just doesn’t have the command to stay up here.
Bedard – Just shoot me.
Ramos – Who knows. Last couple of starts have not been bad.
The offense – Freidman made a horrible mistake not upgrading the offense for this year. He could have signed Delmon Young to a 2 year but instead fell for the fluff and signed Molina to a 2 year? This guy is the human out.
Rest of the offense is mediocre and slow. Longoria is looking forward to when his contract runs out. What it would be like to bat in the Yankees lineup.
Bullpen – Lueke, Bell should be released – Gomes should be in AAA and Balfour and McGee should probably be the closers based on the situation. Signing Balfour to a 2 year was stupid.
You are criticizing Friedman for not signing Delmon Young to a 2 year deal?
Duh. We all know Delmon Young would anchor their team (said no one ever)
so Longoria is looking forward to 2023? when he is 37 years old?
I find it funny that Yankees fans call cano a “sell out”, when majority of the players that played for the yankees past and present “sold out” to join the yankees.
I find that funny myself, but what I also find funny is non-Yankee fans calling Yankee fans “classless” for booing Cano. Primarily the “trolls” I see doing it are Red Sox, Mets, and Mariner fans
Red Sox fans booed Manny, Damon and Ellsbury
Met fans booed Jose Reyes
Mariner fans booed A-Rod ever since he signed with Texas which was way before all the steroid talk
But yes in general I agree with what you are saying. I did not boo him and did not yell sell out, and I find it ridiculous to those fans who did. But as I said, it’s also ridiculous to call out Yankee fans for booing him when other fan bases boo former players as well.
Didn’t Mariner fans also boo Ibanez and Ichiro too?
Don’t remember Ibanez being booed really. Ichiro? I’d say about 8 or 9 out of every 10 cheered.
Mariners fans never booed Ichiro or Raul. With Ichiro they gave him a standing ovation his first at bat as a Yankee. They even cheered when he got on base.
With Raul they still always yelled “Raaauuuuuuuuul” when he would come up to bat.
My understanding was that the Arod boos for going to Texas were because he was trash talking the Mariners after leaving. Griffey left around the same time and no one booed him which should be pretty telling.
Yankees fans have just as much a right to booing a homegrown player leaving as any other team. If it’s all in fun then who cares.
I dont find anything wrong with fans booing players that left their organization. I find it disturbing when fans call players “see outs” especially for fans of a team that literally throw ridiculous amounts of money at players. Then when a player from that organization leaves to go team with highest bidder, the fans get instantly butt hurt. Its pretty sad.
I’m a Yankee fan, and I wouldn’t have booed, but lots of fans boo departing players. Cleveland booed Jim Thome, one of baseball’s good guys, when he left for a longer contract and more money. “Sell out?” That’s silly. I could see those types of complaints if a player went to a truly rival team, but the Yankees and Mariners are on opposite sides of the country and the Yankees have purchased many a player in their time. On a cold and rainy night, with a limited number of people in the stands, the ignorance is what you hear.
We boo the heck out of jayson werth. I hate him
I guess it revolves around how someone leaves. If the team basically says goodbye, then I think most fans will be fine. When Matsui came back to Yankee Stadium, he was given a lot of love. When someone leaves for the last buck, or trashes the team on the way out, then he opens himself up. Cano fell in the middle. That much money isn’t the last buck.
Right now they need a change of city
its really funny that the major reason for them changing the name was due to how religious that particular area is. its not as if a Devil Ray is a fictional character, like say the Duke Mascot. they almost changed it to the Bandits, which would have gone really well with the overall bush league aesthetic they have going on down there.