Kuzul

Let me begin by saying that I am a fan of Ben Zobrist. He is a switch-hitter who can play a multitude of positions and he has a great attitude. Overall, Zobrist is a solid baseball player and a great person. However, that does not mean the Rays should have given him a three-year contract extension worth up to $30 million.

Sure, the Rays have team options for the 2014 and 2015 seasons. In other words, the Rays are only liable for $18 million if they decide to part ways in the future. It almost sounds like an NFL contract with the guaranteed dollars. This still is a large amount of money to put forth for a small-market team who is trying to retain upcoming free agents Carl Crawford and Carlos Pena. 

The Rays would have been better off if they had first locked up Crawford to a long-term deal, and then decide on whether they could afford Zobrist as well. In this case, they clearly had their priorities reversed. It is unlikely the Rays would have been able to sign both Pena and Crawford, but the signing of Zobrist may prevent both of them from remaining in Rays uniforms. 

Honestly, I would not lose much sleep if Pena left. Pena is a great clubhouse guy and defensive first baseman, but he is currently hitting .203 and will only depreciate at 32 years of age. He has peaked. Dan Johnson may not be able to replace him in terms of defense, but he will surely be able to replace Pena’s power.

The loss of Crawford will be devastating to this franchise. Yes, Desmond Jennings is a similar player, but he can not duplicate Crawford’s accomplishments. He is a four-time all-star, legitimate MVP candidate, and has been a Ray since the team’s inception. He is a Rays icon.

Crawford is currently having his best year yet as he has the highest slugging percentage of his career along with his usual .300 average, 15 home runs, and nearly 50 stolen bases. 

The signing of Zobrist, who had a career year last season, may lead Crawford to sign with a large market team such as the Yankees or Red Sox. Zobrist’s numbers are average at best. Although he has 23 steals, he is batting a sub-par .247 with a measly 10 home runs. 

Baseball is not all about statistics, but when you add Zobrist’s numbers, defensive flexibility, and leadership together, it still does not add up to $30 million with $18 million guaranteed.

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The Tampa Bay Rays and the New York Yankees play a four-game series this week in the Bronx. This series is pivotal in deciding which team will be the AL East champion and which team will fight the Boston Red Sox for the wild card. Winning the division is important for home field advantage since it is believed that they will meet in the ALCS.

Coming into the series the Yankees have a half-game lead on the Rays. Tampa Bay should be able to hold off the Yankees and win the division.

There are five factors that the Tampa Bay Rays have in their favor over the Yankees in the upcoming series and remainder of the season.

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As soon as the World Series ends, all eyes will turn to Cliff Lee and the free agent class of 2010 to see where some of the games biggest stars will end up at the start of the 2011 baseball season.

In advance, we take a look now at the top 20 free agents for the coming offseason.

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Fact is, the New York Yankees love returning to the Bronx.

Why wouldn’t they love coming home, with a packed stadium full of fans?

The Yanks are tied for the first place, and they also share the best record in baseball and Yankee fans will cheer the team till the end.

The other team leading the pack is the Tampa Bay Rays, a 12-year-old franchise with loads of potential and hands-down has the best young talent in all of MLB.

The Rays reside in the AL East and remain the Yankees’ biggest threats, so where is the love down in St. Petersburg, FL?

No one knows because Rays fans seem to be extinct, which is just unbelievable. Forget that Tropicana Field is a dump, the Rays are head-to-head with the Yankees and this could be their year to win it all.

It’s a shame if the Rays lose motivation and stop even giving a s*it because the only time the Trop filled up was when the Yanks or Red Sox were visiting.

In sports history, no dominating MLB, NFL, NHL, or NBA team in first place, right before the playoffs, has had no one cheering in the stands.

Don’t even try and blame it on the Trop as a venue. Up until this season, the Minnesota Twins played in the Metrodome, which was one of the worst pro sports facilities ever and Twins fans packed in that cave game after game.

The Rays had better attendance in 2009, not by much, but when you are barely filling up half your house it comes down to numbers.

Why, as a Yankees fan, should I want to broach this subject?

It happened watching Baseball Tonight on ESPN, following the Yankees’ demolishing of the Oakland A’s 11-4 when the Rays highlights came on.

The Rays, also at home, beat the tough Toronto Blue Jays 2-1, and this is after taking two of three from the Red Sox over the weekend. It also keeps the Rays neck and neck with the Yankees.

So, when Rays Carl Crawford came on to say, “It was a big letdown. We came out all fired up and you see that, it’s really depressing.” 

The “THAT” is referring to empty seats all around a team who doesn’t get why.

Honestly, being ready for a well deserved self-patting on the ass comment, to instead hear a bummed out all-star, was depressing.

Odd right, because I am a Yankees fan?

Well, I am also a baseball fan and the Rays are playing superb baseball, winning 17 of 28 games in August. 

It is hard to imagine only have 11,968 tickets were bought for Monday night’s game; God knows how many showed up.

One thing is for sure, coming into New York the Rays will meet a packed Yankees Stadium and can’t imagine how that affects players mentally.

If Crawford’s cry was not enough for the city of Tampa Bay to come out and support the Rays, then they can’t blame players for wanting to leave.

In order to get the Trop replaced, the Rays need to win. Check. It’s normal to presume that would entice fans to buy tickets and come cheer. Not in Tampa Bay, and certainly not now.

Pretty pathetic and sad day for the Rays, and for baseball fans that respect what the Rays are doing.

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I understand the need to appeal to the mass audience. It’s even somewhat expected that an announcing team from a nationally televised broadcast may not know all there is to know about the teams they’re visiting.

But the shame of ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball broadcast of the Tampa Bay Rays-Boston Red Sox game crossed the border of embarrassing and went straight into laughable.

I don’t normally criticize announcers—especially those with the pedigree of Joe Morgan and Jon Miller—but both men were pitiful last night, displaying not only their lack of knowledge of the Rays organization, but the area, and the type of team the Rays have in Tampa Bay.

You would think that an announcing team that has become a staple of summer baseball would be able to provide their audience something other than the unoriginal talking points of the Rays’ attendance, Carl Crawford leaving, and whether Boston is still in the race.

Let me give you a few examples that gave me reason to facepalm.

Attendance: Yes, only 23,438 folks decided to show up at the Trop. We would have loved to seen a packed house for the national TV audience as there was the night before—but honestly, did Jon Miller need to harp on it throughout the contest? “I just don’t understand it,” Miller would say over and over.

Well, let me explain it to you, Jon. First, Tampa Bay has the second highest jobless rate in the state of Florida, which is fourth among states with the highest unemployment rates.

Second, 70 percent of the population in the area live nearly an hour away from the stadium. To expect parents to have their kids out until one in the morning (the time they’d get home thanks to the 8:30 pm first pitch) on a school night is asking a bit much.

Third, how is the Rays not selling out any different from Cincinnati, San Diego, or Texas—who also are first place teams with 62 percent or less in capacity this season? In fact, only 13 of 30 teams in the majors have gone over 2 million fans for the season.

There’s this little thing called the poor economy that has hurt baseball attendance throughout the nation and Tampa Bay is one of the worst hit.

Jays/Rays: Mr. Miller, it’s Rays, not Jays. I can understand a Freudian slip here or there but once you do it over seven times—you’re just not prepared.

The Rays Free Agents: Morgan wondered allowed, “What will the Rays do without these players?” Any amount of research would have provided him the answer. The Rays have one of the best farm systems in the Major Leagues. They reload—it’s what they do.

While losing Crawford will hurt, it will be lessened by the arrival of Desmond Jennings—one of the top prospects in the majors. Losing Soriano would hurt, but Benoit has shown that he has the stuff to close out games. Pena’s departure would be a blow, but the Rays have young players in the minors ready to assume his role.

The Rays fantastic starting rotation will remain intact and maybe even improve with phenom Jeremy Hellickson joining the ranks. Evan Longoria and BJ Upton aren’t going anywhere, either.

Not only that, this team has made a living finding players on the scrapheap. Pena was almost out of baseball when Tampa Bay rescued his career. Joaquin Benoit had rotator cuff surgery and only the Rays wanted him. Jason Bartlett was a thrown in player in the Matt Garza-Delmon Young deal.

Most of the Rays’ bullpen, arguably one of the best in baseball, are players that pretty much washed out with other teams.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T: So the Yankees are better than they were last season and may be one of the best Yankee teams in history, but the Rays, who have matched their record step-for-step have a myriad of flaws and are just a “pretty good ballclub?”

Boston Pitching: Morgan went on and on about how great the Boston starting pitching was, yet said nothing about the Rays starters, who have the second most victories in the major leagues (The Yankees are first with two more wins) and twice as many complete games as the Red Sox?

Jaso: Hey Morgan—it’s pronounced JAY-SO, not JAAH-SO.

Rays Hitting: Morgan went on and on about the Rays hitting and how they lack power, while Carlos Pena belted his 25th of the season to give Tampa Bay an early lead and Carl Crawford launched a two-run shot to tie the game. Only after the Rays took the lead was it mentioned that they are fourth in the Major Leagues in runs scored and even that was viewed with scepticism. “They’re so bad at hitting, yet they score a lot of runs, go figure.”

Boston’s still in this thing: Yeah, technically they are. But wishing and hoping for something to happen doesn’t mean it will. By that logic, Oakland still has a shot in the AL West. The Dodgers, who just got rid of Manny Ramirez, are still in the NL wildcard chase.

Who knows? Maybe they are still alive…but even Red Sox fans understand their hopes are on life support.

It would take one heck of a stumble by Tampa Bay for the Rays to lose out on a playoffs spot. In fact, CoolStandings.com rates Tampa Bay a lock for the postseason, 97.5 percent chance of making it.

Yet, none of that stopped Morgan and Miller from repeatedly reminding their viewers that the Red Sox aren’t finished, despite dropping two of three in series their manager Terry Francona felt they “had to have.” Francona juggled his pitching staff to give the Red Sox their best chance to win and yet still came out two-time losers.

CoolStandings.com doesn’t agree with the optimistic ESPN announcers, giving the Red Sox a 6.2 percent chance of making the playoffs.

Rays Highlights are buried on SportsCenter: Perhaps the network just wanted to try to hide the fact that their No. 1 announcing baseball team embarrassed themselves—or maybe the Rays taking two out of three and most of the hopes of Boston getting back into the race isn’t as newsworthy as soccer highlights, preseason NFL football and the WNBA playoffs.

It’s funny that the Red Sox win over the Rays in the first game of the series was one of the top stories on Sportscenter Friday night.

I’m embarrassed for Jon Miller, Joe Morgan, and the network. A little research can go a long way and not present the picture that ESPN only cares about Boston and New York.

Do better, ESPN.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Tampa Bay Rays star Carl Crawford talks about his All-Star experience with Torii Hunter in his ear about playing in Anaheim.

He speaks about his pending free agency and if the Angels would be a team he would consider signing with.

Crawford is one home run away from becoming just the eighth player since 1900 with 100 home runs, 100 triples, and 400 stolen bases. Crawford is the exact type of dynamic offensive player the Angels could use.

Click here to listen to Carl Crawford discuss his future.

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These are the five fastest players in Major League Baseball, based on Bill James’ speed score, which takes into account four components: SB%, 3B%, frequency of SB attempts, and runs scored %. 

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Baseball is an absurd game. And I think that’s why we love it.

I was reminded of this when I happened across The Sandlot as I was skimming through channels the other day. In an odd sort of bummer, I tuned in at the very end, just after the gang has finally defeated Hercules and Smalls and Benny have their meet and greet with James Earl Jones. Alas, I had missed out on all the fun stuff.

The good news is that I was in time for the money shot.

Now, a proper way to conclude the film would have involved Smalls being mercifully beaten by Dennis Leary for stealing his Babe Ruth ball – a warning to all kids who would dare to recreate Smalls’ tomfoolery. But no. Instead, we get a classically cathartic Hollywood ending. It turns out that Benny and Smalls have both found careers in baseball: Benny as a prolific pinch runner for the Dodgers, and Smalls as his ever-faithful broadcaster. The movie ends when Benny (“The Jet”) takes off from third and steals home just ahead of the tag, thus ending the game. The Dodgers win, and The Jet’s teammates carry him off the field amidst the commotion of a standing ovation. And then we see the grown-up Smalls grinning contentedly beneath the bill of his outrageous hat as he shares a thumbs up with his old friend.

Back in the day, I had to fight back the tears. But I’m older now, and all the nostalgia that was welling up inside my chest was not enough to keep me from scratching my beard. I got a real curious feeling. I understood why the filmmaker’s chose to have a straight steal of home serve as the climax for their film. It is, after all, the most exciting play in sports.

But a straight steal of home to win the game? Has that ever even happened before?

Click “Start Slideshow” to find out about that, and many other stealing home tidbits.

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THE NUMBERS GAME
 
Start ‘Em :

Jorge Cantu (89 percent) : Start him, or if you can, pick him up and then start him. He is only owned in 89 percent of leagues and most recently trending downward. He’s going ot be streaking up soon. He will be entering one of the hitter-friendliest parks in the bigs as well as one of the most hitter-friendly lineups in the bigs. This week Texas faces Seattle and Oakland. Cantu’s career numbers against both teams: In over 150 at bats Jorge is hitting .297 with four home runs. He doesn’t have great career power numbers against these teams, yet he has hit for an average almost 25 points above his total career numbers and with the devastating lineup around him his RBI chances will skyrocket.

Josh Willingham (89 percent) : Just like Jorge, start ‘em if ya got ‘em. Josh has phenomenal numbers at Chase Field (.333 AVG, .360 OBP, .964 OPS through 48ABs) one of the league’s better hitter’s parks. The start of August ushers in Josh’s historically best month for home run hitting (1 HR/20 AB vs. a career 1 HR/ 24 AB w/o Aug.) and second-best month for batting average (.280 avg. vs. a career avg. .261 w/o Aug, nearly 20 points higher).

Rajai Davis (69 percent):   His speed is great but when you account for his great career hitting numbers against KC and at home, he makes more of a complete fantasy impact.  Career numbers against KC: .366 AVG. with an OBP of .451. If he can keep raking at this pace his potential for swipes could jump this upcoming week. After KC he plays at home where he plays against Texas, hitting a .314 clip against them this year, nearly 40 points above this year’s numbers. You also have to take into account that Rajai has a career post all-star average 50 points higher than before the Midsummer Classic, as well as an OPS that’s over 140 points higher. His hot pace continues with 11 hits in his last 33 at bats and five stolen bases as well over the course of the last 15 games.

Sit ‘Em:

David Wright: Against both the Braves and Phillies this year, David Wright is hitting a pathetic .163 through 49 at bats with only two home runs.  His average at Citizens Bank is 46 points below his career average. His average against the three Braves starting pitchers is .247 through 73 at bats. His news facing the Phillies isn’t much better. He’ll be facing the murderer’s row of pitching: Oswalt, Hamels, and Halladay. His career against these pitchers is a little better, .269, but has only one home run in 52 at bats. His recent cold streak should help increase the uneasiness too. Through his last 15 games he’s hitting .216 with a .585 OPS, ouch!

Matt Kemp:   One out of every three hits against the Padres for Matt Kemp is a home run. The bad thing is, that’s through 26 at bats.  The Padres are holding Matt Kemp to a weak .192 average this season.  The 4 starters that he will face are holding him down to an even worse .184 avg.

Carl Crawford:   Against the Blue Jays this year he’s hitting .226 in 31 at bats. He’s also hitting .250 for his career against the starting pitchers that he’ll face up against. Crawford has also been a victim of poor hitting lately. He has a .217 average and .577 OPS through his last 15 games played. (Insert America’s Funniest Home Video ball-to-crotch punch line here.)
 

Two-Start Pitchers:

Travis Wood (15.1 percent) :   Start this rookie sensation. His first start is at the cavernous PNC park, the fourth-worst park for home runs. Pitching against that Pirate lineup should raise a brow or two as well. Pittsburgh is hitting a weak .248 against lefty pitching. Start No. 2 for Travis Wood takes place in Chicago against the under achieving Cubs. There’s obviously not much history with this rookie against the Cubs, however he did have a great outing earlier on, giving up two runs off of two hits in seven innings.

Mat Latos:   Here’s another good two-start young phenom for this upcoming week. First he starts at Dodger Stadium against a team that he worked over pretty well earlier on in the season. As well, Latos holds lefties in check to a .188 BAA, neutralizing the better hitters of LA’s lineup (Xavier Paul, Andre Ethier, James Loney). Latos likes to minimize the home run threat with his great GB/FB ratio of .93.  His second start comes against the D-backs in the desert. Arizona’s average against righties is bad enough for 22nd at .252.  Adding to the potential for fantastic fantasy numbers for Latos is Arizona’s horrible strikeout rate. They lead baseball with 708 strikeouts against righties. Next closest…Florida with 632.  Expect a lot of whiffs for Latos.

 
Other Lesser-Known Two-Start SPs To Consider:

Clayton Richard (30.5 percent) – Same opponents as Latos above and always potential for a big game.

Randy Wells (9 percent) – This guy is on fire through his last three starts.  He has only allowed only three earned runs in 19.2 innings in the last three starts.

Written by James Bryce exclusively for TheFantasyFix.com .

Agree or Disagree with James? Leave a comment or reply to us on Twitter @TheFantasyFix

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The Padres and Mets are now the only Major League Baseball teams that have never had a pitcher throw a no-hitter.

Matt Garza threw the first no-hitter in Tampa Bay Rays history as they beat the Detroit Tigers 5-0. Garza completed the fifth no-hitter in Major League Baseball this year.

You knew eventually the tide would turn for the Rays, who had been on the wrong side of phenomenal pitching outings this season.

Garza only allowed a second-inning walk out of the 27 batters he faced.

Ben Zobrist sealed the game, catching a routine fly ball to right field.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com