The Tampa Bay Rays, based in St. Petersburg, Fla., participate in Major League Baseball (MLB) and are a member of the American League East Division. The Rays were founded as the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in 1998.
ST. PETERSBURG — Sports Illustrated's Oct. 7, 1968, cover showed St. Louis Cardinals players wearing street clothes and sitting next to their lockers with a caption that read: "The Highest Paid Team in Baseball History." The price tag for the nine players shown and their manager, Red Schoendienst, was $607,000. Inside, the article had the [...]
ST. PETERSBURG — Carlos Pena will not be participating in the World Baseball Classic. According to the Rays, Pena underwent minor surgery in Philadelphia on Jan. 8 to repair a tear to a lower abdominal muscle. He will be ready to go for Spring Training, but as a precaution, he will not play for the [...]
ST. PETERSBURG — James Shields is maturing nicely. He's always had the talent, but every year he seems to better harness what he has — even off the field. Take this offseason. The Rays right-hander served as the best man at his friend's wedding in Mexico and had to make a speech. Having experience at [...]
ST. PETERSBURG — Scouting and development is the mantra of Rays baseball. In the minds of the Rays' brass, keeping the two in harmony to produce young prospects is the only way to compete with the likes of their division rivals, the Yankees and Red Sox. Recently the Rays were ranked second behind the Rangers [...]
TAMPA, Fla. — B.J. Upton's surgically repaired left shoulder won't allow him to swing a golf club just yet, but that didn't stop him from holding a charity golf tournament Tuesday. "Nobody's going to see my [golf] game today," Upton said, wearing a smile upon his arrival. "[My] game's garbage anyway. But they'll be able [...]
ST. PETERSBURG — Jason Hammel experienced a bittersweet 2008 season. On the one hand, his role in the Rays' bullpen often seemed reminiscent of the famed Maytag repairman with little to do as the team's long relief man. Conversely, the 26-year-old right-hander did spend his first full season in the Major Leagues with a team [...]
ST. PETERSBURG — A couple of weeks have passed since the Rays locked up free agent Pat Burrell for two years at a cost of $16 million. Now that the dust has settled, his new teammates are looking forward to adding a player who could be the best designated hitter the team has had. "I [...]
Batting Around is a new series that will provide an inside look look at Minor League prospects' personalities, quirks and hidden talents as well as their baseball lives via question-and-answer format. Choose another player Lorenzo Cain – BrewersTyler Flowers – White SoxWill Inman – PadresChris Nelson – Rockies Nothing says "hot stove season" quite as [...]
Joe Maddon heard it every step of the way as his Tampa Bay Rays were stunning the baseball world with a seemingly out-of-nowhere 97-win season, the American League East title and a World Series appearance in 2008. "Are you guys for real?" The manager repeatedly attempted to convince his team of this during Spring Training, [...]
ST. PETERSBURG — Dan Wheeler played in the inaugural World Baseball Classic, which makes the veteran right-hander a sounding board for what players participating in the 2009 Classic can expect. With the Rays possibly having eight players participating in the Classic with six different teams, Wheeler can expect plenty of visits from his teammates asking [...]