Barry Bonds had his black leather recliner. Troy Percival has a water cooler.

The venerable apparatus sits alongside Percival's locker in the Naimoli Complex clubhouse with a sign taped to the tank that reads "Percival use only!" It was a gift from the Rays' clubhouse attendants, presented after the veteran reliever complained that he couldn't find a bottle of water anywhere following one of his early workouts at the complex.

When Percival was perusing his options this offseason, he saw similar qualities in a group managed by a man he trusts and believes in, Joe Maddon, and decided to take a leap of faith rather than take more money to be a setup man for the perennially contending Yankees.
"You look at the Yankees - they're obviously a much more experienced team, a very talented team," he said. "But this team ought to go talent-for-talent with anybody if we can get them to believe it. That's something that I relish, getting the opportunity to come in here with you guys and say, 'Look, we can go position-for-position with them.' We can do that. There's not many teams out there that we can't go position-for-position with."