Such a great movie. Any Bull Durham flair that can be added to the Durham Bulls is always great!

Jeff Sullivan adds his expert touch to dissecting just how terrible that called third strike against Ben Zobrist in last night's 5-4 loss really was. GIFs and Graphs and headshaking ensue.

Courtesy of Marc Topkin. The Rays acquire reliever Steve Geltz who will report to minor league camp. The 25 year old has appeared in two ML games. His fastball can reach the mid 90's with deception, and he has an average slider

Be sure to check out the Top 15 prospects list for the Rays that was put together by Bullpen Banter. They included a ton of videos, so if you haven't seen some of these players in action yet, spend some time flipping through the videos.

I just saw this on the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

I think he makes a lot of good points about attendance and finances for a team in a small market that are applicable to the Rays as well. I particularly liked this part about what would change if attendance increased in response to a winning team: "I think more people will come. But the challenge is 2.2 million instead of 1.6 million doesn't change the way we operate. Even that extra 500,000, 600,000 people, even if that's $10-to-15 more million in revenue a year . . . one win in free agency is $9 million. So you're not going to change the context....But that revenue swing between 1.5 million in attendance and 2.2 million in attendance . . . meaningful dollars but not dollars that will have us plan dramatically different."

The anniversary of Game 162 was last night, and the Tampa Bay Times put together a graphic recapping the glorious action from that night. Even a year later, I'm still blown away that I didn't dream it all.

Marc Topkin writing for BaseballAmerica (in his monthly Rays correspondence piece) picks the best player (Hak-Ju Lee), best pitcher (Chris Archer), and one to keep an eye on (Todd Glaesmann) from the 2012 season. It's insider-only, but: "Lee hit .261/.336/.360 with 37 steals for Double-A Montgomery in his first full season above Class A, but the most impressive numbers were 46—the length (in games) of his streak for reaching base—and 21, the length of his longest hitting streak. With his smooth glove and quick hands and feet, Lee should continue his ascent." I'm hoping this was Topkin picking the top positional prospect heading into 2013 and not the best 2012 season from a top-30-or-so guy, because .261/.336/.360.