Tampa Bay Rays baseball team

ST. PETERSBURG — Chris Richard has been outrighted to Triple-A Durham. The veteran first baseman hit .263 with 24 homers and 75 RBIs in 100 games for Durham in 2009 before joining the Rays in September after Carlos Pena went on the disabled list. Richard, 35, batted .105 in 19 at-bats for the Rays. In [...]

ST. PETESBURG — Tickets for nearly 40 percent of the 2010 Rays games will be at or below 2009 ticket prices. That news came Thursday when the Rays announced their 2010 ticket prices for home games at Tropicana Field. In the coming season, fans will once again be able to count on receiving the kind [...]

ST. PETERSBURG — Gabe Kapler will be back with the Rays in 2010 after signing a one-year deal worth $1.05 million, the Rays announced on Tuesday. "I'm thrilled to be coming back," said Kapler, 34, in a telephone interview. "Obviously, last season didn't finish up the way I wanted it to or the way anybody [...]

Good things happen when you eat with the team's hottest hitter. "He's my favorite player right now," Rays prospect Nevin Ashley said of teammate Grant Desme. "I tell him that every day. I try to eat what he eats, sit next to him to get the good vibes. It's been working so far." The pair [...]

ST. PETERSBURG — Derek Shelton was named the Rays' new Major League hitting coach on Wednesday. After the announcement, Shelton spoke on a conference call with reporters and couldn't hide his enthusiasm about the prospect of working with the likes of Carl Crawford, Jason Bartlett, Carlos Pena, Evan Longoria, B.J. Upton and Ben Zobrist. "It's [...]

I like the Rays bullpen, but they need to add a closer or add two more good arms or both. What do you think? – Paul H., Jacksonville, Fla. I think they would love to add a closer, but the question is: Who is available and at what cost? I, too, like the Rays bullpen [...]

All that's left to do now is sit back and watch. After a history-making 2008 season, the Rays couldn't recapture that magic to vault them back to the postseason in '09. So while the Yankees, Angels, Phillies and Dodgers duke it out in each league's Championship Series to eventually crown a World Series champion, all [...]

The 2009 postseason isn't over yet, but the Rays already know when their first taste of 2010 will be. Spring Training will officially start on Feb. 19 when pitchers and catchers report to Port Charlotte, Fla. The Rays announced their '10 Spring Training schedule and ticket pricing for 15 home games at Charlotte Sports Park [...]

Most of the eyes on the Arizona Fall League's Phoenix Desert Dogs will be fixated on a certain No. 1 overall pick in this June's First-Year Player Draft. But there are other important prospects besides Nationals blue chip Stephen Strasburg, and when the AFL kicked off its 18th season on Tuesday, the Rays' scouting department [...]

I don't know if Steve Henderson was a good hitting coach or not, but he was certainly not the reason that the Rays' offense was so sporadic — lots of runs one game, none the next. The Rays, as usual, were 11th in the league in sacrifices with 25 — three teams had over 50. [...]