Bill, over at Sweet Spot member The Platoon Advantage, has been running a great “3 Questions” series breaking down each team in the bigs.  (Incidentally, if you haven’t spent some time hanging out on TPA, go do it.   Bill and The Common Man are smart dudes and good writers — even if he did take  [ Read More ]

If any of you bothered to read the About section, you know that I worked in the Devil Rays’ public relations office for 9 summers.  It was awesome even though the most exciting thing we did on some nights was guess how long Steve Kent would go between appearances.  (Players like Kent were one of  [ Read More ]

The owner can’t afford to keep the ballpark up.  So, the owner asks the government to invest tax money in the park and the surrounding neighborhood.  Both the city and state are facing dire economic circumstances that make it seem unlikely that they will be able to help. All the while, the fanbase of a  [ Read More ]

When I was in law school I had a good friend that was a high school math teacher.  Somehow, we got to talking about his school’s recent Teacher of the Year voting and he told me that he always abstained from participating in such award voting.  His theory was, he never sees his colleagues teach  [ Read More ]

Many corners of the baseball world seem to be doing a lot unnecessary hand-wringing over the number of free agents departing from the 2010 Rays bullpen.  Obviously, Rafael Soriano seems headed for more expensive waters (Jerry Crasnick tweeted the Angels may give him $33MM — or $17MM less than the Rays anticipated 2011 payroll).  It  [ Read More ]

Unless you have been living under a baseball-shaped rock, you have heard multiple reports that the Major League Baseball Players Association likes Bud Selig’s recent proposal to add a second wild card team in each league. Everywhere I look, it seems that members of the media presume this additional wild card berth will benefit the  [ Read More ]

Yesterday, the Mrs. and I spent a fall afternoon in the new-Big Sombrero.  We had plenty of room to stretch out.  With all the television blackouts, I really had no idea how close the Bucs came to selling out their first 5 home games(including both pre-season games).  On Sunday, they weren’t close at all. Based  [ Read More ]

While almost every media outlet is speculating how much money the Angels will pay Carl Crawford and attempting to guess just how hard Boston or Detroit will try to get into the conversation, The Sweet Spot’s Joey Matschulat over at Baseball Time in Arlington raises a depressing possibility. Crawford to the Rangers. That stings.  Not  [ Read More ]

John Romano  column in this morning’s St. Pete Times argues that the Rays should re-sign Carlos Pena.  He makes a good point that I agree with: But, the truth is, Peña is exactly the type of player typically on Tampa Bay’s radar. If he had just finished up this wreck of a season in, let’s  [ Read More ]

Peter Golenbock is an important author.  Just ask him and he will tell you just how important he is. (I once shared a pre-game meal with Mr. Golenbock in media dining.  The next day, when I said hello to him, he said “oh, you probably recognize me from ESPN Classic.”  Seriously.  I just ate with  [ Read More ]