Tonight, Let It Be Sonnanstine: 2008 Tampa Bay DEVIL Rays Thread

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v622/dysign/ilx/rays.jpg

http://tampabay.rays.mlb.com/tb/fan_forum/dotg.jsp

"Dr. Stat"

http://www.mlb.com/tb/ticketing/summer_concerts.jsp

MC Hammer • '90s Night • July 19 vs. Blue Jays

NB: anyone jumping off the bandwagon right now is a poncey bitch.

I was wondering if I should so that they'd go back to their winnings ways!

I saw two dudes in nyc with Tampa Bay hats this weekend. Don't think I have ever seen that before. At first I thought they must be on the team.

damn, sorry for reviving the old Rays thread. Anyway, on their "anti-philosophy":

http://www.tampabay.com/sports/baseball/rays/article696277.ece

Ah, the beauty of the Getaway Day lineup:

A. Iwamura 2B
B. Zobrist CF
C. Pena 1B
E. Longoria 3B
D. Navarro C
W. Aybar SS
J. Bartlett DH (is Gardy stealth managing?)
E. Hinske LF
G. Gross RF

cardiac kids

Wedge, boy, he's something: uses Rafael Perez (2.86 ERA) for 2 excellent innings (1 hit, 4 Ks), then puts in Edward Mujica (5.16 ERA) for the 9th. 3 straight hits from the 7-9 hitters later, buh-bye save!

Yes, I realize I'm bagging on Wedge for a pitcher's failure to get through the ass end of a lineup w/out giving up a 3 run lead.

oh cleveland

looked like the mets bullpen out there

or CLE circa '06

but hey GO RAYS you clutchy fucks

lawl

no borowski, no credibility

The Rays just tied a franchise record with 70 wins for a season.

Crawford to DL...

BALDELLI ACTIVATED.

what!?
i thought Baldelli was done for good because of some kind of chronic fatigue?

IT'S THE ROC

where is maura?

he is still battling his neo-mitochondrial condition.

You may notice a different look at Andy Sonnanstine (below) when he takes the mound tonight in Oakland. Specifically, you may notice he has a chin.

The Tampa Bay Rays pitcher shaved his beard Saturday night when he learned Rocco Baldelli was coming off the disabled list and returning to the lineup.

Baldelli began growing his beard at the start of the NHL playoffs in hopes it would bring luck to his Boston Bruins. It didn't. So Baldelli decided it would be a rehab beard, and that he wouldn't shave until he returned to the big leagues.

Sonnanstine, in a show of support, grew a beard, too, vowing not to shave until Baldelli returned.

Once Baldelli learned he would be activated prior to Sunday's game, he went to Sonnanstine's room at the team hotel in Seattle and the two had a welcome back to the big leagues beard shaving party.

"We trimmed it up, and we played with it a little bit," Sonnanstine told the St. Petersburg Times. "We took it down to just the goatee, then just some handlebars to see how it looked. We took some pictures and stuff. It was cool."

Longoria out for 2-3 weeks? (fractured wrist)

Tied for MLB best 76 wins (with the Angels they just routed and the Cubbies).

BP playoff odds predicts that the AL East winner will have 97 wins.
Tampa will have to play 21-17 (.553)
Boston will have to play 25-12 (.676)
NYY rofl will have to lmao play 31-7 (.816)

Barring any 2007/2008 Mets style collapse, things are looking pretty nice for the Rays, esp. when they get Longoria, Percival and Crawford back in ~4 weeks.

bj upton is pretty LOL. gets benched 3 games last 2 weeks for not hustling and then ropes one thinking it's going out and then gets tagged out at a second on what should have been a routine double.

too bad dan shaughnessy wasn't covering the came, he might have had a coronary.

haha yeah that was hilarious, better because he didn't even speed up when he saw that it hit the wall, which is what ultimately led him to being tagged, not the fact that he pimped it out of the box

wau, SS Mets-trolling on non-Mets threads

since when is the stating the fact that the Mets collapse of 2007 was the greatest choke in the history of recorded sports considered to be trolling?

Barring any 2007/2008 Mets style collapse...

Employing Tuomas' rhetorical strategy for your own faux-naive Morb-baiting purposes isn't a good look for you, Steve.

what is a troll?

what?

http://www.hardballtimes.com/images/uploads/432080630016_Red_Sox_v_Rays.JPG

They have won an absurd 73.4% of the games they've played at home.

ROCCO ROCCO ROCCO

so they've got a kid from Columbia and he's named Fernando? hott

http://www.columbiaspectator.com/node/55332

http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20080921/capt.0c294def029640849a371e79aa901c08.twins_rays_baseball_spd108.jpg

Note to NESN Sportsdesk: it's DAVID Price, not DANIEL Price. DAVID. DAY. VID.

The biggest stumbling block for them right now? They can't think of anyone to throw out the first pitch for their first home playoff game. The Washington Post (via Sports By Brooks) interviewed the Rays' shell-shocked president Matt Silverman , who amusingly relayed the team's quandary: "MLB asked us who it'd be. We realized nobody in the history of the franchise had done anything to be worthy of the honor."

http://deadspin.com/5054228/the-tampa-bay-rays-are-still-adjusting-to-success

Wade Boggs wept.

WTF Kazmir?

HR: R Santiago 2 (3); M Hessman (5); D Ryan (2)

WTF baseball?

1st B Zobrist homered to right. 1 0
1st R Santiago homered to left. 1 1
3rd R Santiago homered to left. 1 2
4th M Hessman homered to left. 1 3
5th D Ryan homered to left. 1 4
7th E Longoria homered to left. 2 4

these guys

Too exhausted to think of Grant Balfour/Rays aussie croc hunter joke.

WTG TAMPA BAY RAYS

I wish they played in a cooler stadium with better uniforms for real fans, but the dudes on the team are awesome.

except for the fauxhawks

You misspelled "especially," Morbs.

oh, ironic apprec of jockhead trends?

More like non-ironic love of camraderie, Mr. Wilson.