The Blow-It.com fraternity gets a little more prestigious this morning with the addition of Hall of Famer Tracy Ringolsby. Ringolsby spent tens of minutes researching and writing this piece for Fox Sports. His two most-entertaining arguments: 1.   “The franchise has drawn 2 million only once — the inaugural season of 1998.” No one showed up  [ Read More ]

December, in the baseball world, is speculation time.  I have tried hard to avoid most of the speculation because it is almost always misdirection or, just downright wrong.  (Can’t wait to see Cliff Lee face Carl Crawford the first time New York is in Anaheim this year.)  Also, it drives me crazy. But, I cannot  [ Read More ]

Last night, at the request of a regular reader (there aren’t that many so I take their suggestions seriously), I was working on a serious post analyzing the remaining picks available if when we lose other free agents. Then, at 10:06 p.m., I received a text from a good friend who works in baseball (but  [ Read More ]

Saturday’s St. Pete Times had this story hidden somewhere inside the paper.  I was pretty surprised that Longo’s statements were not bigger news.  At the very least, the Times could have put this story on the front of the sports page knowing that Rays fans would be suffering through Crawford’s introductory press conference in Boston  [ Read More ]

Jonathan, who best I can tell made his first two comments here at The Ray Area today, wins the first ever “Commenter of the Day” award.  This isn’t super prestigious, because I just made it up, but Jonathan earned it by reading random old posts I wrote during the season and pointing out how Nostradamus-y  [ Read More ]

I have come back to the Crawford news with a cooler head (and a good night’s sleep).   Everyone was very kind to my initial reaction.  (The Platoon Advantage even called it “rationalizing” which was more than generous.  It would have been pretty fair to call it many worse things.) Crawford isn’t as replaceable as I  [ Read More ]

I was traveling for work yesterday and today so I missed the Crawford news when it broke.  In fact, I found out about when my Red Sox-fan friend from college sent me a text asking if he should get a Crawford jersey or a Gonzalez jersey.  (My response: grown men shouldn’t wear another man’s shirt.)  [ Read More ]

A few weeks ago, I was talking to some friends who agreed to credential me as a member of the working media for the Winter Meetings.  It seemed like a good opportunity since the meetings were close enough to drive and the Rays had so many open questions to address.  But, some conflicts arose in  [ Read More ]

John Romano has the latest doomsday [ok, I agree that adjective was too strong so I dropped it.  Ain't the internet grand?] off-season scenario in today’s St. Pete Times.  He writes: Which is precisely how they will proceed going into next week’s winter meetings in Orlando. They will look for the perfect deal. They will  [ Read More ]

A few weeks ago a friend of mine that works in baseball (but not in the Rays’ organization) suggested that the Rays would add a pretty solid first baseman in the off-season: Derrek Lee. At the time I figured, I am not really in the breaking news business (despite my little foray into that arena  [ Read More ]