Hickey said as of now all of the starters -- Wade Davis, Jeff Niemann, Alex Cobb, Matt Moore -- will be treated as true starters during the start of the spring.

"It'll work itself out," Hickey said, alluding to a possible trade. Failing that Hickey said he would not be surprised if Davis ends up in the bullpen."

The increasingly desperate search for offense has caused some teams to focus on flexibility -- on developing and finding cheaper players who can man multiple positions and help create favorable matchups on a given day. The Tampa Bay Rays are regarded as the masters of this, and Ben Zobrist could be the poster child of this mastery."

@TBrownYahoo Tim Brown
Tampa Bay Rays are in pretty deep on Carlos Pena. Would be a great fit, of course.

The Rays keep Nevin Ashley

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2012/01/outrighted-to-triple-a-nevin-ashley.html

Friedman confident of adding two bats

From "The Heater"
http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/rays/content/friedman-confident-adding-2-bats-damon-waiting

With all of the rumors surrounding the Rays 1B options seeming either implausible, rehashed, or terrible sounding, and many analysts talking about how Fielder's signing will set the rest of the market, I have an interesting idea to propose

Fielder signs with the Nationals--latest trend, from what I hear
and the Rays trade for Adam LaRoche--either a SP like Davis for the bottom of their rotation, or Upton, since they need a CF quite badly.

The link below discusses the Nationals signing Fielder, and LaRoche, his contract, trade value, etc. I found the discussion by National's fans at the bottom most helpful.

Rangers get rights to Darvish for 51.7 million.

Shields comes in 3rd in Cy Young voting. Verlander 1st, Weaver 2nd

Results were: AL Cy Young Results - 1. Verlander (DET), 2. Weaver (LAA), 3. Shields (TBR), 4. Sabathia (NYY), 5. Valverde (DET)

More rosterbation fodder: Minor League free agents

http://www.baseballamerica.com/blog/prospects/2011/11/minor-league-free-agents-2011/

Sternberg's e-mail to season ticket holders:

Did you see this? Seems to echo some points made on a couple of threads here.

http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/rays/content/sternberg-letter-not-complaints-just-reality