The Rays Tank: Wilson Ramos Kidnapped, New Padres Uniforms, And Optimism In Florida

MLB Chatter

I know it's not baseball-specific, but the news about Joe Paterno is so huge it's nigh impossible to overlook it. Paterno was removed from his job as the head coach for Penn State last night, as a result of the recent scandal that's hit the PSU campus. It's the right move and I'm glad the Board of Trustees there did it, but at the same time, it's hard to watch such a storied, honored coach go out like this. I wish it could have ended a different way.

In baseball news, Wilson Ramos got kidnapped last night in Venezuela. This isn't an uncommon occurrence in Venezuela, sadly, but this is the first time a major league player has ever been abducted. But as Kevin Goldstein reminds us, this isn't the first time major league players have been affected by the high kidnapping rate in Venezuela.

The San Diego Padres revealed their new uniforms and logos yesterday. Thoughts? I'd consider this more a uniform update than a full change, as they only made some slight changes to their different designs.

The Marlins continue to be active on the rumor mill, meeting with Jose Reyes yesterday. Oh, and their owner said he expects them to have 30-35K people at every home game next year. How's that for some optimism?

If you're into cool graphs and charts, John Weinstock took a look at Prince Fielder's plate discipline at FanGraphs yesterday. Well worth a peek.

Rays Talk

Anyone find something good out there? I'm not finding much Rays-related stuff that's worth passing along. As exciting and vocal as the Marlins are being, the Rays are being the opposite. It's not unexpected -- it's how they always roll -- but it can get frustrating.