That's where the Rays shine through the strongest. I cannot think of any other team in baseball that handles their roster as intelligently, as efficiently, as the Rays do, and they've been doing it since day one of the new front office. It doesn't always show up on the field right away, but that's the best part, every move they make is seemingly part of a larger overall plan that guides them far more strongly than the short-term goals in front of them. Always put your stock in with the smart people, they'll triumph more often than not in the end.

Pitchers Brian Henderson, Mike Prochaska and Kevin Lynn have been demoted from Triple-A Durham to the Biscuits and are scheduled to join the team Thursday.

Bill Simmons: I really like the Rays and particularly love the Percival signing - he's been lights-out for them (and my 2 roto teams). There's definitely a different "vibe" from them. The old vibe was more like, "We might be the first team to have a bench-clearing brawl that only involves 1 team."

"Hi, I'm Troy Percival. Can you teach me your changeup?"

"This was one of those change-of-scenery deals," said one scout, "because both clubs had about had it with the makeup issues of both guys. Right now, Garza looks like he's going to be a big rotation piece for that team as they go forward. But I'm not so sure about Delmon anymore. He swings at everything. And he's not a very good breaking-ball hitter. You spin it, and he can't lay off it. And if he hits it, he doesn't do much with it."

Nate McLouth has seen the most pitches in MLB, roughly 630 of em with Mark Ellis is second with 612. On the other end of players with at least 140 PAs sits Carl Crawford with only 452 pitches seen, and only 37.6% strikes.

Giving up base on balls was something that nagged at Andy Sonnanstine, anyway, and in spring training, the Rays' right-hander began having conversations about the mentality of hitters with a couple of teammates -- veteran Eric Hinske and first-base coach George Hendrick, who accumulated 1,980 hits and 267 homers during his career.

What those lengthy conversations reinforced to Sonnanstine was the peril of pitching into ball-strike counts that greatly favor the hitter, of two balls and no strikes or 3-1. "I was telling [Hinske] of how much better I felt if I threw a first-pitch strike," said Sonnanstine, from Fenway Park, "and he was letting me know how amped he's getting when there's a 2-0 count, or 3-1. He gets excited because he knows that statistically, the chances are he's going to get a base knock."

With those conversations echoing in his head, Sonnanstine has aggressively attacked the strike zone this year, and according to Steve Hirdt of the Elias Sports Bureau, only two other pitchers -- Johnny Cueto of the Cincinnati Reds and Carlos Silva of the Mariners -- have done better than Sonnanstine to avoid the counts of 2-0 or 3-1.

"Before the season, Maddon gave the players blue T-shirts with "9=8" in yellow on the back. Although Maddon would not reveal the message’s meaning, Longoria offered hints. Longoria said there were various components to the message, but, in part, the nine refers to playing hard for nine innings and the eight to the number of playoff berths."

The Tampa Bay Rays have the No. 1 pick in the draft for the second year in a row and while they’ve been tight-lipped publicly about the selection, there are growing indications that the Rays have targeted Florida State catcher Buster Posey.

Mike (Clearwater, FL): Hi Joe - Are the Rays for real? Can they really manage to stay near the top of the standings?

Joe Morgan: To say they can do it for the whole year is a bit hard to tell right now. So far they are doing eveyrthing right. But I feel like that ballpark will hurt them in the end, becasue it is so hard to be consistent there, where teams think they can score runs. You need a big home field advantage, and I do not think they have it. A lot of the fans, when they play the Yankees, for example, are New York fans. I think the mixture of fans there does not give them much of a home field advantage, which they need. But they do have talent and are playing very well together right now.