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The Hardball Times (Free subscription) | 11/04/2009
I have to say, I'm pretty impressed by Tampa Bay's ability to turn Akinori Iwamura into a young, cost-controllable fireballing reliever. It was essentially a done deal that Iwamura would become a free agent so Tampa could move to Ben Zobrist as a full-time second baseman (with Sean Rodriguez knocking on the door for playing time). As time was going on, I was beginning to wonder if other teams would...
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DRaysBay (Free subscription) | 10/01/2009
More photos » by Chris O'Meara - AP Browse more photos » The season's over in a few days and there's nothing to really write about -- minus asking where Matt Joyce and Sean Rodriguez are -- so in turn I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for making this site what it is. When I started here three years ago I just hoped to receive a comment on most of my posts, now I hope...
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DRaysBay (Free subscription) | 09/24/2009
More photos » by Chris O'Meara - AP Picture unrelated. Browse more photos » Presumably many of us watched the Durham Bulls championship victory on Tuesday night. For those who didn't, let me offer up my delayed thoughts on the four main players. Jeremy Hellickson - Let me get this out of the way early: it's one game. There's only so much you can take from one game with a great degree of...
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DRaysBay (Free subscription) | 09/18/2009
Last night, the Durham Bulls completed in a 3 game sweep of the Governors' Cup Finals of the International League in a 12 inning victory over the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees . Game One featured Jeremy "Narwhal" Hellickson on the mound in a 4-1 victory. Hellickson did not disappoint, allowing 1 run on a solo shot, one of 5 hits surrendered over 6.2 IP. He struck out 6 and walked 1. Hellickson...
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Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees,
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Rays Index (Free subscription) | 09/16/2009
Durham 4, Montgomery 1 (Durham leads 1-0). Durham took game 1 of the Governor’s Cup Championship Series behind Jeremy Hellickson who did not allow a run until the 7th. He finished with 6.2 innings and 1 run on 5 hits and a walk. He struck out 6…Sean Rodriguez got the scoring started with an RBI [...]
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DRaysBay (Free subscription) | 09/14/2009
More photos » by Chris O'Meara - AP Michel Hernandez and the Durham Bulls advance to the 2009 Governors' Cup finals Browse more photos » With a starting pitcher who began the year as a reliever in A+ ball taking the hill in a deciding game 5, Durham Bulls fans could not help but feel a little uneasy about their team's chances. However, "Precious" Paul Phillips would not be deterred...
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The Rays Party (Free subscription) | 09/14/2009
Everything looking bad within the organization as the big league club now has lost 11(!!!!) in a row? Wrong! Two minor league affiliates take on their respective Yankee - rivals in the league finals. Durham Bulls: Anybody would assume that a AAA team which just had lost Wade Davis, Chris Richard, Reid Brignac, Jeff Bennett, Andy Sonnanstine, Dale Thayer, Shawn Riggans and Fernando Perez to the big...
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Rays Index (Free subscription) | 09/10/2009
Durham 8, Louisville 4 (Bulls lead 1-0). Jeremy Hellickson struck out 12 in 5.2 innings, but gave up 2 home runs and 3 runs total. He walked 3…Joe Dillon, Matt Joyce and Sean Rodriguez each had an RBI in the 3-run 5th and each had an RBI in the 5-run 6th. Rodriguez stole a base [...]
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Rays Index (Free subscription) | 09/08/2009
Norfolk 4, Durham 3. Jason Cromer pitched 4 scoreless innings, giving up 4 hits and no walks…Desmond Jennings went 1-5…Sean Rodriguez and Matt Joyce each went 0-4…John Jaso was 3-4 with a pair of doubles. The Bulls finished the regular season 83-61, 2 games behind Gwinnett in the IL South division as the Wild Card [...]
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DRaysBay (Free subscription) | 09/07/2009
by Paul Battaglia - AP View full size photo uploaded September 6, 2009 This is an unfamiliar feeling. Labor day is tomorrow and for the first time in franchise history you can use the holiday as an opportunity to downgrade playoff hopes from "long shot" to "miracle". With such, college football and the N.F.L. will take over the local sports spotlight. For all purposes, ‘competitive'...
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The Rays Party (Free subscription) | 09/04/2009
Since my last prospect rankings at the 16th of July lots of things happened and thus I thought it would be time to provide you with an updated list. From now on you can also find the actual prospect rankings under Organizational Depth Analysis at the top of this page. Once again I've divided the prospect rankings into full season ball prospects (top 35 prospects) as well as short season ball prospects...
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DRaysBay (Free subscription) | 09/03/2009
On Halos Heaven Brandon Wood was always nicknamed Jesus by his rabid followers and when Sean Rodriguez was brought up earlier in the season ahead of Wood, he became Sean the Baptist. The Rays got a tremendous player in Sean and I hope his career blossoms as I am sure it will in the Florida swamp.
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DRaysBay (Free subscription) | 09/03/2009
Per Marc Lancaster. Elliot Johnson played shortstop last night for the Bulls, and with Sean Rodriguez , Henry Mateo , and Ray Olmedo around, I suppose the Rays feel Brignac's ability to fill in for Jason Bartlett is a better usage of his time than playing for Durham.
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The Rays Party (Free subscription) | 09/03/2009
In my series in which I analyze the organizational depth of the Rays getting forward, I'm going to look at the infield depth with this post. First of all I have to say that the Rays have the majors best starting infield and infield depth. If they keep all their players for the 2010 season they would have eight or even nine (counting Elliott Johnson) major league ready infielders. The Rays just have...
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