The Tampa Bay Rays bounced back with a 5-2 win over the Atlanta Braves Saturday Afternoon. In front of a 27,000+ crowd, Alex Cobb made his 2012 debut throwing 7innings, giving up 2 runs and striking out 6. He got into some trouble in the early goings, but settled down nicely to earn his first win of the year. Cobb got much better as the game went along and retired the final 13 batters he faced. Joel Peralta followed by throwing a perfect 8th inning, leading up to Fernando "Bolt" Rodney's league leading 13th save; 100th of his career. Rodney is now 13-13 in save situations this year and has been a rock in the back end of the Rays bullpen.
    In the 3rd inning, Matt Joyce took a 2-0 fastball to dead center field for his 3rd career grand slam to lead the Rays offensively. BJ Upton added a couple hits and a stolen base, along with, Sean Rodriguez's 4th home run of the year to help the Rays extend their lead. Sean Rod has raised his average to .248 now after hitting safely in his last 14 starts. It's really nice to see the Rays piece together wins, especially with the lack of experience in their starting lineup. If Cobb continues to throw well, it may give General Manager Andrew Friedman the ability to go land an impact hitter before the trade deadline.
    The Rays will face the Braves in the rubber match game tomorrow with David Price going head to head against savvy veteran Tim Hudson. First pitch is set for 1:40 pm under the friendly confines of Tropicana Field.

I've heard a lot of talk recently about the relavence of Interleague play in baseball. Personally, I really don't care one way or the other on which NL teams the Rays play against. Sure you don't get to see the Bravos come to town everyday, but is it really that big of a deal? Do we need to keep separate stats for Interleague play? No. It's ridiculous to me that people make such a big deal out of this; it's just another game. Whether the AL wins more games, really has no barring on who is a better league. I think the AL is a better league regardless of what their record is over this stretch against the NL. Plus am I the only one who wants the World Series to played against two teams, who haven't played each other?

My advice other than cutting it entirely is to leave 6 games open (two series) during the season and let the fans decide on which teams they want to play. This way you get the fans more involved and more interested. Obviously this isn't a perfect system, but they could find a way to make this work. Think Dodgers at Rays. The Rays color analyst, Brian Anderson, brought up another interesting idea to spice it up as well. When the National League team is playing in an American League park, don't use a DH. Then when the role is reversed, use the DH in the National League park. This makes complete sense from a fans prospective, because when the Braves play at the Trop there is nothing different when you watch the game. But if they cut the DH at the Trop, it would make it a much more interesting game. Getting to watch the Rays play without a DH at the Trop would be a nice change of pace over a 162 game season.

The Tampa Bay Rays will send Alex Cobb out to start on Saturday against the Braves. Cobb was solid in his first big league action last year, even working his way into the rotation. If you remember, Joe Maddon actually used Cobb in a six man rotation to lighten the load on the rest of the staff. Cobb finished 3-2 last year with a 3.42 ERA, striking out 37 batters over 9 starts. He is a tenacious competitor with very good stuff. His fastball will sit in the low 90's and he can move it around nicely. When you watch Cobb pitch, he will remind you of fellow starter, James Shields. Both are bulldogs who grind out innings and keep your ball club in the game.

It came down to Cobb or Chris Archer to take Jeff Niemann's spot in the rotation. Joe Maddon obviously valued Cobb's experience a little more than Archer's talent. The Rays would have been fine with either, but going with Cobb was the right move. You know what you will get out of him and with all of the injuries the Rays have sustained, stability is essential. Cobb will face off against Randall Delgado, who is looking for his first victor since the 17th of April. First pitch is at 4:10 pm at Tropicana Field.

The Tampa Bay Rays held off the Boston Red Sox for a 2-1 win Wednesday night at Tropicana Field. Backed by a tremendous pitching performance by Jeremy Hellickson and the bullpen, the Rays held the Red Sox to one run, on seven hits. Hellboy moved to 4-0 on the year, while Fernando "Bolt" Rodney picked up his 12th save of the year. I must admit, I get really excited when Hellickson pitches. His demeanor is unbelievable, especially when you consider he's only 25! He epitomizes a "pitcher", instead of just being a thrower. Hellboy moves his pitches in and out, with great command, and as I mentioned you cannot say enough about his attitude out on the mound. The sky is the limit with Hellboy and I'm looking forward seeing him continue to grow.

    The offense really couldn't get things going tonight, but thanks to a couple Red Sox balks, they did just enough. Sean Rodriguez continued to stay hot, while Carlos Pena added two hits of his own. A very scary moment happened after Will Rhymes was hit by a pitch in the forearm, and after walking down to first base he passed out. It was a pretty nasty shot to his forearm, but nobody is sure what caused him to pass out. I have played/watched as much baseball as anyone, but I have never seen that happen before. Hopefully Rhymes is OK, preliminary reports look . The Rays will look for their 4th straight win as they take on the Sox tomorrow night at 7 pm.

After watching Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton put on one of the greatest displays of hitting I have ever seen, it made me queasy thinking about Hamilton doing that in a Rays uniform. Now I do NOT blame the Rays at all for letting Hamilton go, in fact it was probably the best thing for both parties. That said, all it could make me think about is what could have been and all of the other greats that have made their way down to the bay area... So here is my Tampa Bay Rays 25 man dream roster...

   Lineup                              Starting Rotation                   Bullpen
1. BJ Upton        CF               1. James Shields                  Grant Balfour
2. Carl Crawford  LF              2. Scott Kazmir                   Danny Baez
3. Even Longoria  3B              3. David Price                     Rafael Soriano (SU)
4. Josh Hamilton   RF             4. Matt Garza                      Roberto Hernandez (C)
5. Aubrey Huff     1B              5. Jeff Niemann                  JP Howell
6. Bobby Abreu    DH                                                      Wade Davis
7. Ben Zobrist      2B
8. Toby Hall         C
9. Julio Lugo        SS

Bench
Fred McGriff
Rocco Baldelli
Jason Bartlett
Wade Boggs
Carlos Pena

The Tampa Bay rays got back to their winning ways with a 7-1 win over the Toronto Blue Jays. Unfortunately it came with a price, losing starting pitcher Jeff Niemann to a broken fibula. He was hit by a come backer in the bottom of the first inning and was unable to get through his warm up pitches in the 2nd. The Rays continue to be plagued with injuries this year, but luckily for them starting pitching is where they have the most depth. Niemann's spot in the rotation will more than likely be filled by Wade Davis or Alex Cobb. I would imagine Cobb will get the call up after a very impressive 2011 campaign. He is a feisty competitor with pretty electric stuff, and has the experience to throw in long relief or take over the number 5 spot in the rotation.
    It will be interesting to see how the Rays respond to Niemann's injury, especially with how well he has thrown lately. They have some wiggle room with starting pitchers, and I still believe they can deal Davis for a hitter and become a more complete ball club. Rays Manager Joe Maddon will be faced with a difficult task, but I would imagine he has a few tricks up his sleeve.

Mark Trumbo could be one of the best players you have never heard of in Major League Baseball. He is a 6' 4", 220 pound man child at first base. A big reason why you probably never heard of him, could be another first baseman named Albert Pujoles. It was well documented that Albert Pujoles left St. Louis for a monstrosity of a contract in LA (but it wasn't about the money). What most people didn't realize is that it left the Angels with a log jam at first base, i.e Mark Trumbo. He is one of Major League Baseball's top prospects, but the only problem is he can only play first base. They tried moving him to third and it was a disaster and have now stuck him in right field just to keep him in the lineup. Take that and add Pujoles 10 year contract, Vernon Wells, Torii Hunter, Peter Bourjos, AND top prospect Mike Trout and it equals some unhappy players. You simply cannot play all of those guys at the same time and they will become upset with their playing time. So what's the answer? Trade Trumbo. Sure it won't be easy to see a 26 year old talent like that walk away, but they have to do something. The Angels are vastly underachieving and it doesn't seem like they have found their groove. And the next logical question would be, who would the Angels want? Their top three starting pitchers are studs, but Erving Santana and Jerome Williams are not good. So why not trade Trumbo for Wade Davis and some top prospects? It's a win-win for both teams, and most trades can't say that. The Rays can start Trumbo at first, right field, or DH. While the Angels get a beast of a number 4 starter and a couple prospects to sweeten the deal. Just imagine Trumbo in the middle of the Rays lineup, especially when Longoria gets back. They become a more balanced lineup and not so left handed heavy. General Manager Andrew Friedman has to do something. He wiffed on Yonder Alonso and Anthony Rizzo; instead picking up Carlos Pena (all $7.25 million of him). O and let me make sure to mention that Trumbo is owed a team friendly $500,000 this year.

Tampa Bay Rays starting pitcher, Jeff Niemann, leaves the game after being hit in the foot by a ground ball. Niemann was able to finish the inning, but was taken out of the game after he labored through his warm up pitches. Not sure what the extent of the injury will be, my guess is not very serious. He will be listed as day-to-day.
    In other injury news, the Rays went ahead and placed starting left fielder, Desmond Jennings, on the 15 day disabled list. Jennings becomes the 3rd Rays starting position player to reach the DL; not including Sam Fuld.

I just wanted to take a minute and thank all of you for taking time out of your day to be involved with the Tampa Bay Sports Forum. It has always been my dream to do this, and means the world to me that people are taking notice. In just over 2 weeks, we have eclipsed 900 visits! This may not seem like a big number, but it is actually a tremendous start. I would have never thought we could be on our way to a thousand visits in only 3 weeks. So thank you again and I look forward to passing 1,000 visits!

Against RHP                                Against LHP
1. Zobrist      2B                         1. Zobrist     2B
2.Upton        CF                         2. Upton      CF
3. Joyce        LF                         3. Joyce       LF
4. Scott         DH                        4. Keppinger 3B
5. Pena         1B                         5. Scott        DH
6. Keppinger  3B                         6. Gimenez    C
7. Matsui       RF                         7. Pena          1B
8. Molina       C                           8. Matsui       RF
9. Sean Rod   SS                         9. Sean Rod   SS