AL Silver Sluggers announced with few surprises

Posted by Rob Boudreau Categories: Athletes, Editorial, Kudos, MLB

The American League Silver Slugger Award winners were announced recently, and six of the nine selections came out of the East, which further goes to show just how powerful – literally – this division is. The New York Yankees had repeat winners in Mark Teixeira at first-base and Derek Jeter at short. The Boston Red Sox’s Jason Bay was honored with his first, the Tampa Bay Rays’ Evan Longoria at third, and the Toronto Blue Jays each had first-timers with Aaron Hill at second and Adam Lind as the designated hitter. The rest of the league squeaked in Joe Mauer, catcher for the Minnesota Twins with his third, and Ichiro Suzuki from the Seattle Mariners and Torii Hunter from the Los Angeles Angels in outfield, with their third and first, respectively.

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The Tampa Bay Rays have proved nothing

Posted by Rob Boudreau Categories: Editorial, MLB

Yesterday, the Tampa Bay Rays dropped their 11th straight game, one of the longest losing streaks for any team in 2009. These are the same Tampa Bay Rays whose bandwagon everybody jumped on after a successful run to the World Series last year. The Rays took those fans for a ride this year, and many thought that the team would be a force to be reckoned with; that their minuscule payroll would be able to match the Boston Red Sox or the New York Yankees. Boy, were those people wrong.

The Rays of ’09 are just another name in the bunch. Sure, the Rays aren’t going to lose 90 games this year like they had every season prior to 2008, but they’re certainly not the same team that they were a year ago. With neighbors like the Red Sox and Yankees in their division, 90 wins will never be good enough, and the Rays certainly aren’t going to win 90 games this year. If they continue at the pace they’ve had for the past month or so, they’ll be lucky to finish with a second .500 season.

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Rays Down ChiSox In 10

Posted by Milo Taibi Categories: Athletes, MLB, Scoreboard

A waivers addition for the Tampa Bay Rays, Gabe Gross, hit a walk-off solo home run in the bottom of the 10th inning on Sunday, to give the Rays a 4-3 victory over the Chicago White Sox.

“I’ve never really thought about hitting a walk-off. But if I had, it wouldn’t have lived up to this,” said Gross. Gabe went 2-4 with three RBI on the day.

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