Topkin and his St. Pete Times' Sunday column:

In a WFAN radio interview, principal owner Stuart Sternberg said the payroll will go up "the next 2-3 years as well,"

This is not a risky statement whatsoever. Per my projections the Rays are due to have payrolls of roughly 38 million and 41 million over the next two years (with the re-signings) with a number of cases up in the air. While we were playing the "trade" game Derek Lowe's name came up, if we wanted him, and I don't know if the Rays do, they could surely afford him.

ESPN.com's Rob Neyer says B.J. Upton is "probably not as good as his little brother" (Justin) but he's "guessing" the Rays have a long-term deal done by the All-Star break. … Kazmir said "I will be" a salesman to try to get Upton signed

Rob Neyer is almost certainly right, Justin Upton is the devourer of worlds, B.J. can only hope to become Justin. In the meantime B.J. can try and improve his awful baserunning, he only has five caught stealings, but I'm guessing at least five baserunning miscues so far.

As for Kaz selling, I could make many, many jokes here, but I'll bite my tongue.

There were an awful lot of scouts watching Edwin Jackson's last start

No teams are mentioned, and I'd rather not make this into an Edwin Jackson pissing match, but if the Rays feel his peripherals are a house of cards like I do, it would be in their best interest to cash in during his highest value if they can get a good deal. The truth is I'm not sure if there's a position we could use help at.

Also we didn't touch on the John Romano column that speculated this:

Does that mean Sternberg would have an army of lawyers seeking ways to break the lease for a possible move to Charlotte or Portland? The closer we get to the stadium's debt service being paid off in 2017, the more plausible that prospect will seem. Does it mean Sternberg will talk to investment bankers about selling the team? That's harder to imagine but, like Lightning owner Bill Davidson, he is an out-of-town businessman with no loyalties here.

Let's place what we seemingly know about Sternberg on the table, shall we:

1. He's pretty damn smart.

2. He knows how to make money.

3. He likes baseball.

4. He's a good guy.

If Sternberg were to attempt to move or sell the team that means I just lied about Sternberg being a smart person. There is no other market for baseball that has the potential to be as fruitful as this one, even if the team doesn't get a new stadium, it's only the first attempt. Major League Baseball doesn't like to move teams, in case you hadn't noticed. Number two would also be wrong if Sternberg were to sell, why sell when the team still has value to gain? That's not sell high/buy low, that's buy low, sell a little higher.