Readers: I don't want to consider this post an all-out rant, but it may end up being one. I don't really know, but I know that there's things that are starting to get to me(in a harsher, almost violent/volatile tone) a little more than they really should. -Jake
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First off, I'm known to be a reader of other blogs(other teams', other Rays blogs, etc.) and I'm also known to post comments when there's things said that I don't agree with, factually wrong or just completely dumb.
Well, there's two that've been getting noticed by me more often(which shall remain nameless) and on another I've begun to question whether one of the writers(who shall remain nameless) there is truely qualified to be a writer at all.I like both blogs and their potential, but my criticisms aren't meant to blast them. Rather, they're meant to fix faults that are pretty glaring.
One of the things that I make clear in my posts and I expect out of my fellow co-writers, is that our posts are done with the best intentions in mind and all stat-based or fact-based posts have credible and "recent" resources to back them up. For a non-Rays fan to read our posts, it should make them want to read it more often and not bash our posts because we've become so biased that we've got no proof to back up our claims/stats.
Now, the earlier unmentioned blog is moreso of a "Breaking Rays News" blog has had my ire for awhile and I'm not going to speak any more on it.
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Delmon Young is up, made a spectacular debut and showed us that he's got a nice future ahead of him.
However, I'm going be the first one to say that we're not going to have game-by-game updates on him. Any such thing will be deleted immediately, due it possibly getting our hopes up way too high and way too quick. Let's keep our Delmon opinions to ourselves for now and let him prove himself whether or not he's as good as we think he is, if he's a horrible/nice person and whether or not he truely deserved the right to play in the majors.
I've seen places that went from calling Jonny Gomes a power-hitting god to calling him a total scrub who needs to go to AAA. I'd rather not see the same thing happen again.
[editor's note, by Jacob Larsen] Scratch the non-daily Delmon thing, due to an abundance of comments and emails...we will have an official "Delmon Diary".
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I know this is going to really hurt someone's feelings, but us leaving Al Lang Field is truely a good "business-minded" idea to increase the Rays' future fan-base throughout the state of Florida. While Charlotte County hasn't had a great past, it's still far enough away from Tropicana that it'll get more Floridians who aren't from the St. Pete/Tampa Bay area going to games to notice Rays and Rays prospects. Business can be a cold-hearted female dog, sometimes. I like the Rays having a farm team in my area and in the far-away Cali League, yet I hear from hometown Rays fans that the Rays need to get a team in the FSL or the GCL because it'd be great to have a glut of our teams in the Southeastern part of the county. Well, being from Illinois, I rarely get to see Rays prospects first-hand and them leaving the Midwest League is like having my Al Lang Field being bull-dozed...However, I'll live and not gripe about it.
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"We love him, we love him not."
When I think of Rocco Baldelli, that's what comes to mind for me.
Yet, I don't understand at all when people say that Elijah Dukes and BJ Upton are easily better options for our Future CF spot.
First, you should easily notice that things that happen in DBAP(AAA) don't easily mean anything for Major League Numbers. If that were the case, Hammel and Howell would have had better starts than they've had.
Dukes needs to figure out his "happy place" before he can even consider himself a MLB-calibur player and BJ needs to stick around in the IF before we move him to the OF. While they have the athleticism to match Rocco's defensive play, they probably don't have the experience or smarts to hit well in the majors.